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| Entrance to Chantilly |
<<<Explanation/Table of Contents>>>
So remember that thing I said at the beginning of this
process about trying to post an entry “at least every three days” or something?
I’m going to have to renege on that promise. I last wrote to you on Friday,
September 28. Here’s an outline of what’s happened since then:
·
Saturday 9/29 was essentially the calm before
the storm when I completed errands and got organized.· I attended a Baptist church and went on an informal Fulbright outing to the castle at Chantilly on Sunday 9/30.
· Monday 10/1-Tuesday 10/2 were my formal Fulbright orientation days with the whole gang of grantees.
· My school district offered an orientation / teacher training session on Wednesday 10/3 to English teaching assistants from the U.S. and otherwise.
· Thursday 10/4-Friday 10/5 were my first real days in the classroom answering students’ questions and observing the classes that I’ll be assistant teaching.
· Saturday 10/6 was mainly a day of R&R when I got my hair done and explored my own arrondissement a little more.
· On Sunday 10/7 (today), I have actually attended 3 different church services, 2 with a friend I made at the school district orientation on Wednesday.
I intended to add a post on various occasions throughout
these past 9 days, but I would start writing and get too tired after very full
days. Plus my Internet connection in my room is usually not good enough to
handle posting photos, so I would’ve had to move downstairs to the common room,
which was not at the top of my priority list if I was already nestled under my
covers. It’s hard for me to believe how quickly those days have flown by,
though, once I had things to do other than just exploring the city at my
leisure. Now that I know how time can get away from me like that, I’ll have to
enjoy each moment as much as I can before I’m writing “The 8 Months That Flew
By” at the top of the page.
From here on out, I promise to write to you as often as I
can, though I can’t guarantee that it will be “every three days” or even every
week. But the good thing from your perspective is that the posts are archived,
so they aren’t going anywhere. Feel free to check in on me whenever you can, skip
around throughout the entries, and read as much or as little as you’d like. Peace
and Love – ML
Saturday, September 29
I woke up several times before actually getting out of bed
around 10, simply because I wanted to enjoy my “last” free day for a while. Got
right on the computer, as usual, in order to see what my expectations were for
the upcoming week of orientation/teaching activities so that I would have an
idea of what not to wear (smile) today. After creating a consolidated schedule
of Fulbright (my scholarship group), Créteil (my school district), and Lycée
Jean Zay (my high school) responsibilities and slightly wishing that I had a
printer, I set aside certain outfits for the upcoming events associated with
each of these groups and put on something that I did not plan on wearing for
them.
Took my newly acquired kitchen items out of their bags to be
washed and used for breakfast at long last. One other girl was in the kitchen,
so I shared with her the good news that I finally had a French phone number to
add to the list on the whiteboard. She agreed that I could survive without a
Smartphone for the time being before heading out and wishing me a « Bonne
journée »
(Have a good day!), as we kitchenmates are wont to do. I still had the radio,
though, to keep me company with 80’s hits from America. One other hallmate came
in while I was eating to ask if I had seen her keys, but she said that her room
was so messy that they were probably just underneath something. That actually
made me feel better to know that my room was not the messi-est, but it reminded
me, nevertheless, that I needed to get to work on unpacking the rest of my
stuff!
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| People-watching spot in Montmartre |
At around 12:52, I realized that I should’ve gone to the
post office to mail something that a Fulbright staff member had requested from
me in hard copy form a few days before. I knew that I would see her at
orientation, but I thought it would be better to tell her that I had put the
item in the mail rather than just completely having blown the request off and
bringing it to her in person. The problem was that the post office near me (and
all the other ones I found through my initial online search) closed at 1.
Finally found an open branch at Abbesses in Montmartre (18th
arrondissement), which is pretty close by. Even though the mail pick-up was at
noon, I could at least get an envelope and postage and send my mail on its way.
Had to ask the attendant exactly how things worked since I hadn’t mailed any
letters yet. Turned out that they had pre-stamped envelopes that were available
singly if you asked for them, not just in bulk as on the shelves. Decided to
walk around the part of Montmartre that didn’t involve taking the funicular up to
the scenic vista (even though I’d already gotten my exercise for the weekend by
taking the million and one stairs up from the Abbesses métro instead of the elevator!).
Ended up finding a bakery that offered turkey sandwiches instead of ham only,
at long last, so I stopped there and enjoyed that with a pan au raisin (raisin
bread dessert) and a Coke while people-watching.
Figured out that I had unknowingly started working my way
back from the 18th to the 9th, where I live, so I
continued walking home. Stopped at a hair salon near my place that had photos
of Black women in the window displays and appeared to have a Black woman
sitting at the reception desk each time I passed by. By the grace of God, there
were, in fact, Black women in there, and one was getting her hair flat ironed,
which is what I do. I didn’t have all of the hair vocab nailed down, but I was
able to explain myself well enough that the stylist knew what I was talking
about. She had also done some of her training in Atlanta, amazingly! So I made
an appointment with her for next Saturday. I pray that she’ll treat my hair
right! Also made some photocopies and went grocery shopping (including getting
dinner items in earnest for the first time) before coming back to my room. [Oh,
and shout-out to Hillary: if we hadn’t gone to that grocery store in Berlin
that time to grab some apples for a snack, I wouldn’t have known that I needed
to weigh and print out a label for my produce prior to going to the register.]
Spent most of the rest of the evening unpacking the rest of my stuff while
listening to the soundtrack of the wedding rehearsal dinner tribute DVD that
Mallory and I made for Michael and Kristina. I didn’t pledge in college, so
don’t think I’m for or against any Black Greek-letter organizations, but I’ve
gotta say that if my hallmates could hear my music, they were probably jamming
to “Diva” (associated with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.) and wondering what
on earth “Atomic Dog” (associated with Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.) was
supposed to be ;) No more suitcases in the middle of my floor!
Sunday, September 30
Although my Fulbright contract did not officially begin
until October 1, the Franco-American Commission planned an outing to Chantilly
for the afternoon of Sunday the 30th as a fun excursion prior to our
more cut-and-dry orientation activities. We had to meet the bus in the 16th
arrondissement, right across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower at 12:50 pm
for a 1:00 pm (Sharp!) departure. (You can probably see where this is going, but
don’t get too worried.) After last Sunday’s failed morning church mission due
to lack of adequate sleep and advance planning, I really wanted to make it to
somebody’s service and still be on time for the trip, which I had signed up for
in advance. So I had done a little bit of research into Baptist churches on
Friday and found one that belonged to the French Federation of Baptist Churches
or something, which (only) has a membership in the 100’s, and listed its
service time as 10:30-12. I had also traced out my path from that church to the
bus pick-up location using the métro, and thought that everything
should work out well.
Like a good Black American Baptist from the South, I ended
up being about 5-10 minutes late to this particular Eglise Evangélique
Baptiste (there are many establishments called “Evangelical Baptist Church”) in
the 7th arrondissement for no good reason, but they had barely
started, according to the program. It was much smaller than I had imagined with
maybe 30 people in the congregation, so that kind of ruined my plan of sneaking
out if the service started lasting too long. We did a lot of singing from the
hymnal either a cappella or accompanied by a pre-recorded track on the
keyboard, and there was also a time during the service when people could lift
up individual prayers to God aloud for whatever was on their hearts. These
prayers were sometimes followed by songs, some of which I recognized as French translations
of songs that we “break out into” as a church in Roswell or Athens without
needing the words because the tune was the same.
The Pastor reminded me of the one at my late grandmother’s
church in Durham, North Carolina because he spoke very slowly and deliberately
in his very deep voice in the style of some radio DJ’s without much of the
“fire and brimstone” shouting and carrying on of some Baptist preachers. The
text was Genesis 12:1-3, and the subject was « Les porteurs d’espérance :
Abraham, une source de bénédiction pour les autres », which I might translate as
“Bearers of Hope: Abraham, A Source of Blessing for Others.” He said that he is
beginning a series profiling different characters in the Bible who can be seen
as symbols of hope as we prepare to focus on the story of the coming of Jesus
for the Christmas season. There wasn’t much “meat” in the sermon especially in
terms of practical application until the end when he asked us if our lives were
blessings or curses to those around us and pointed out the fact that Abraham’s
life was a blessing not only to his community but to « tout le peuple de
la terre » (all the people of the earth), including those of us in 2012 who
study his life and benefit from it! I also found it interesting that he made
comparisons between life in France and life in Africa during his sermon as he
talked about how difficult it must have been for Abraham to have been
childless. The Pastor’s last name, which was listed on the program, let me know
that he was African before he said so in the sermon, and it appears that many
of the members of the small congregation had similar origins based on the
assumption that he made in discussing how things “usually” are in large African
families as if he were speaking to insiders. At the end of the message, though,
he made sure to say something about our need to be a blessing to Africa,
Europe, Asia, and the Americas, which I guess covered the few non-Black faces
that I saw in the crowd.
During the announcements at the end of church, visitors were
asked to introduce themselves, so I and another woman did so. They said “Amen”
to everything: that I was Baptist back home in America, that I was teaching
English in France, that I found their church on a website, that I enjoyed their
service. We dismissed a couple of minutes after 12, so I was happy. But then
every single member of the church wanted to say “Hello. How are you? You are
welcome.” – like, literally, those words, in English – to me, and some wanted
to ask me to teach them English. I only exchanged email addresses with one
young girl because her dad was so enthusiastic about the opportunity and said
that God must have sent me to teach his daughter English, so I couldn’t leave
them hanging. They kept offering me refreshments at the back of the room, but I
told them I had other plans that day so I would have to take them up on that
next time and finally escaped at around 12:15.
I was booking it getting back to the métro
stop (Rue du Bac) and then trying to change lines as efficiently as possible to
get to Passy on line 6. I got off of the train close to the time that I was
supposed to be meeting the group, so I only had one chance to get it right in
terms of orienting myself upon leaving the station. Thankfully, it was pretty
easy since Avenue de New York (where we were meeting) runs along the river, and
I had seen it from the train, which is not always underground. Of course, I
still had to walk briskly to get to the right cross-street, but I had the bus
in my sights by 12:52, and it wasn’t going anywhere. In fact, there was no one
on board because they were still standing at the intersection socializing. As I
approached the group, a woman said “I recognize you!” It was a Franco-American
Commission administrator with whom I had communicated by email for a long time.
It turned out that she had been studying all of our faces and pretty much knew
the 60 of us by heart. (I added that number because knowing my face amongst this group would not be
impressive, if you know what I mean.)
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| Chantilly - Interior |
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| Chantilly - Exterior |
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| Chantilly in the sunlight |
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| Chantilly - Gardens |
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| Orchestra set-up in Stables at Chantilly |
Overall, the trip to Chantilly was nice, although it made
for a very long day without much food. (I ate some snacks between church and
the trip and they gave us a bakery item upon our arrival plus a “snack buffet”
of hors d’oeuvres in the evening for our dinner.) I mainly hung out with a girl
in the “advanced student” category (someone with at least a bachelor’s degree
who is here to study a subject in depth without working towards a Ph.D. or
teaching courses) for Urban Planning and a fellow ETA (English Teaching
Assistant) from Virginia Commonwealth University. The weather was gorgeous, so
we spent about as much time outside in the gardens surrounding the castle as we
did inside the magnificently decorated rooms. After our light meal, the Picardy
Orchestra performed a concert in the Stables, actually, and we had VIP seats.
It was a little longer than the administrators anticipated, though, so we didn’t
get back to Paris until 10 pm instead of 9 pm, as they had previously stated.
We did get to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle, as it does every hour on the hour
after sunset, from an up-close-and-personal vantage point as we got off of the
bus. I think everyone’s first priority, however, was grabbing a quick bite to
eat as we all headed home or back to hotel rooms for those who are based
outside of the Paris area.
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| Sparkling Eiffel Tower! |
Monday, October 1 –
Tuesday, October 2
Wow. Monday, October 1. I’d been looking forward to that
date for quite some time because I had been repeating to many people that my
contract lasted from October 1 through April 30. A long time ago, I had
imagined that I would actually be in a classroom on this day, having already
gone through orientation, but that was not the case. Over the course of Monday
and Tuesday, all of the 60 or so Fulbright (and Chateaubriand) grantees
attended various sessions and other events geared at welcoming us to the program,
introducing us to one another, and getting us ready to hit the ground running
with our various projects in France.
Of the group of 60, the 6 of us who are English Teaching
Assistants kind of ended up feeling like we were at the bottom of the Fulbright
food chain when orientation was all said and done. I mean, for one thing, there
are definitely folks in the program who could be my parents, and who are here
either to teach/do research in French universities as professors or to teach
English in high schools in a legit way (not as teaching assistants). Then there
are doctoral candidates and advanced students who are all here to study a topic
in depth in association with a university or a think tank etc. either towards
the attainment or their Ph.D. or not. Finally, there are the Chateaubriand
scholars who have a separate grant in the humanities and social sciences but
are still grouped with Fulbrighters; they kind of go with the doctoral
candidates or at least the advanced students in my head. Basically, all these
folks were bomb (I don’t feel the need to use an article like “da”
thanks to Ludacris in his intro to the remix of “Break Your Heart” by Taio
Cruz: “And I may break your heart / But I don’t really think there’s anybody as
bomb as me.”), as in experts in their fields, and we were all just like, “I’m
gonna do something that I’ve never done before (as in teaching – no,
assistant-teaching – English, our native language) for only 12…hours…a week.”
Everyone was really nice to us though :)
Anyway, orientation was kind of in Fr-anglais (a mixture of
French and English) because the members of the various programs have different
levels of French knowledge, and the presenters had differing language abilities
as well. Probably the most practical thing I retained from Monday’s program,
which was held at the high-security Ministry of Foreign Affairs Conference
Center in the 15th arrondissement, was the info about the structure
of higher education in France, especially as it pertains to the BTS
(vocational/technical education) program since I will be working with some of
these students at my school. More on that later. Monday evening was interesting
because we all got dressed up and attended an invitation-only reception on the
Quai d’Orsay right by the Assemblée Nationale in the 7th
arrondissement in the presence of both M. Laurent Fabius, the French Minister
of Foreign Affairs, and The Honorable Charles H. Rivkin, Ambassador of the
United States of America in France. I got to shake both of their hands and
introduce myself briefly to them. Ambassador Rivkin spoke English to us
one-one-one (he said that the town I’m working in recently won an award for its
music scene) but delivered his speech in French. The French Minister didn’t mix
and mingle prior to giving his speech like the Ambassador did. In fact, I heard
that he normally doesn’t attend this event. He was whisked in by his security
detail just before taking the podium. We all gathered around for an official
photo afterward and he did greet some of us in French, though without much
conversation in most cases – he told me to be careful where I’m teaching, which
is what most people say, especially older people.
Speaking of older people, one of the other ETA’s (English
Teaching Assistants) and I befriended an older woman (Fulbright alumna) who was
standing near us at this reception, and she wants to get us connected to
different opportunities that may be of interest to us, such as theatre
performances and academic conferences. So that was neat! We also met several
former FLTA’s, meaning French Language Teaching Assistants, or French people
who went to America to do what I’m doing but at the college level since we
don’t have TA’s in high school. Since the food was rather light again at this
reception, this group invited us out to eat with them afterwards so that they
could reminisce about the USA (most had just completed the program last year)
and give us some pointers about being language teaching assistants. It ended up
being a huge group of around 20 people, but we went around the table and
introduced ourselves, probably much to the chagrin of the other restaurant
patrons. I ended up spending a lot of money on that dinner plus the lunch that
we ate near the conference center earlier (when I met a Fulbright Advanced
Student from Milton High School! Shout-out to JoyEllen!) plus lunch and dinner
on Tuesday, but that’s why they gave us a per diem.
We met on Tuesday (my half-birthday) at the Ecole des Hautes
Etudes en Sciences Sociales (School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences),
which is part of the university system. The main presentations were about
European vs. American views on world issues, given by the director of the
German Marshall Fund; how to be safe in Paris, given by members of American
Consulate Citizen Services; and the humorous aspects of what it means to be
French, given by a senior CNN correspondent. We all knew each other pretty well
by now, so it was nice to be able to laugh and joke with just about anyone in
the room about random things, like why French people don’t have water fountains
in their buildings and don’t even understand when you try to describe what one
is. After a quick lunch, we were split up into various groups for more specific
activities. We six ETA’s met at the Franco-American Commission (right by where
the bus picked us up for Chantilly on Sunday) to talk about our expectations in
depth for the first time, which really got my wheels turning about this “extra
project” that I am supposed to do. Honestly, I’m not sure what I wrote about in
my essays that they thought I would be doing here in addition to teaching, but
the administrator mentioned something about “putting on a play, for example”
and pointed at me. Did I say I would do that? We also got to ask questions of a
former Fulbright ETA who has stuck around in Paris to teach English again
through the broader program and is now working on a Master’s in Sociology. It
was good to pick someone’s brain about what the experience would actually be
like.
One added bonus for this year was that during this ETA
session we received books and large photographs from the Department of State
about teaching English and depicting the US, respectively, for use in our
classrooms. The only bad part was that now I wanted to take this stuff home
before the final event of orientation, which was a gypsy jazz concert and
French food tasting. I was pretty exhausted after all of these orientation
events and was tempted not to go back out once I unloaded my stuff, but I
realized that I might not see some of these folks for a while since our next
group meeting isn’t until February and not everyone is based in the Paris area.
So I took a quick breather before heading back out to the restaurant in the 5th
arrondissement. Shared a meat plate with some current Fulbrighters while
enjoying the music and met a few alumni. Made sure to leave at a decent time,
though, because I had to get oriented « de nouveau » (again) with a
new group the next day.
Wednesday, October 3
Just as with my IKEA trip, I was very glad to learn that
going to orientation/training for the Académie de Créteil
required me to go all the way to the geographic limit of my « passe Navigo »
for the public transit system, but not any further. Noisy-Champs is the last
stop in Zone 4 on the RER-A line, and I paid for access to Zones 1-4 for the
month of October since Paris is in Zone 1 and Aulnay-sous-Bois (where my school
is located) is in Zone 4. By the way, would you like to guess how much such a
pass cost me? Try €99,60. So I’d better reap the benefits of living in Paris,
as my mentor teacher advised me to do, if I’m going to pay that much to commute
back and forth! I learned throughout the course of orientation, though, that
I’ll be reimbursed for about half of the cost each month by the school
district, and that they even would’ve helped if I’d had to travel outside of my
zones of coverage for orientation/training. It’s all just a matter of filling
out the right paperwork.
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| Copernic Amphitheater at the University |
So I took the RER train to Noisy-Champs and knew the basic route
that I needed to take in order to arrive at the amphitheater where we were
meeting on the campus of the Université de Marne la Vallée, though I had the
directions written down in my pocket just in case. However, I didn’t really
need to think at all because there was a herd of college-looking passengers
leaving the area of the train/bus station and heading in the direction of
campus, so I just tagged along with that group and ended up standing in front
of the amphitheater in no time. (Hey, I know a college student when I see one.)
I was a little early since I’d planned to wait for a train for a while but had
caught one immediately, so, after I checked in, I got to meet some of the other
folks who’d arrived at 8:30 for a 9:00 session. Strangely, there were no other
Americans amongst the group from what I could tell. I met folks of Australian,
Northern Irish, and British origins, though. We compared notes on living,
school, and commuting situations as well as our academic backgrounds. It turns
out that many Europeans participate in this program as part of their ERASMUS
requirements, so they do one year abroad during their university career if they
are studying languages.
Once the program started (late), we learned a little bit about the
composition of our school district (geographically, socioeconomically), which
includes three different « départements » (administrative units). My
school is in the Seine-Saint-Denis area (aka the “93” since all the zip codes
there start with these two digits) where 28% of the residents are under 20 and
11.3% of the residents are unemployed. We also reviewed some of the general
principles of the French school system and the structure of K-12 (essentially)
education. Probably the biggest difference between our system and theirs is
that students have to select an academic track by the time they are in « Première »
(literally 1st, but the equivalent of 11th grade ; you count down instead of up starting at 6th
grade, which is the same, until they reach 12th grade, which is
called « Terminale »). The tracks
include S – scientifique, ES – économique et sociale, L – littéraire, and
various technological tracks. There’s kind of a hierarchy of prestige that
exists such that the tracks are ranked from “most highly regarded” to “least
highly regarded” in the order that I’ve listed them. Therefore, historically
speaking, the smartest kids have selected the “sciences” track because it’s the
most challenging and (allegedly) leads to the best job opportunities, but then
you end up with kids who are actually interested in the social sciences and/or
literature but feel the need to take advanced science classes just for the sake
of…oh, wait, I’m talking about my
high school experience. So maybe the tracking thing isn’t that different from
what happens in the U.S.?
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| Free lunch! |
Anyway, this orientation session was not really the forum
for philosophical ponderings on the purpose and structure of K-12 education.
What mainly happened was that everyone asked about the administrative
nitty-gritty, such as how/when we were going to get our first paychecks and
what we needed to do to enroll in the rent assistance program that I mentioned
in an earlier entry. As much as the administrator tried to keep the forum
focused on preparing us to be good teaching assistants by bringing in someone
who had previously participated in the program etc., the 100+ folks in the room
were mainly trying to keep from going broke living in and around Paris. I will
say, though, that the school district fed us very well for lunch at no cost,
which was nice. We walked from the University to one of the local high schools
and ate in the cafeteria since school often dismisses early on Wednesdays. They
offered us a hearty meal of meat loaf (or something…you know cafeteria food),
fries, cucumber salad, goat cheese, and grapes. I was like, I could get used to
this! I also met some Americans from Colorado and Baltimore around this time,
and we were all relieved to learn that we were not alone in the group.
For the afternoon session, we split up into groups by age
level and/or geographic « department » in order to participate in the
first of four required teacher training modules. So now, instead of being in a
lecture hall with the whole group of 119 English teaching assistants assigned
to the school district of Créteil, I was in a classroom with the 20
or so folks assigned to high schools in Seine-Saint-Denis only. We went over a
few tips for getting started in our schools with two English teachers, but we
didn’t go too far in depth since we have another session on Monday. They mainly
emphasized knowing who’s who in your school in terms of office staff and being
polite to everyone; keeping track of when students enter and leave the room
(which will be new for me coming from a private school environment); and
focusing on helping the students make sense in English from a practical
standpoint more than emphasizing strict grammar lessons. They also taught us a
little bit about the changes that are being implemented with the « bac »
or « baccalauréat » (the major high school graduation test for those
who hope to attend university in France) this year, which may impact how the
teachers ask us to work with their students in « terminale » (12th
grade).
Overall, I took a lot of notes and prayed that something
would come in handy as I prepared to enter my assigned classrooms for the first
time the next day. Mainly, though, as I boarded the RER train to head back to
Paris, I was thankful for the contacts that I had made with other folks who are
beginning the same exciting-yet-challenging journey that I am, especially my
potential church buddy.
Thursday, October 4 – Friday, October 5
My handwritten journal entry from Thursday night begins with
a simple yet groundbreaking announcement: “Today I became a teacher.” After all
of the buildup and hype from orientation, it was over the course of these two
days that I actually interacted with my (future) students and the English
teachers with whom I’ll be working for the first time. Essentially, I attended
5 classes on Thursday, one of which lasts for 2 hours, and 2 instead of the
regularly scheduled 3 on Friday because the kids were having a test in the last
class. (Of course, normally my schedule calls for me to teach for 3 hours on
Wednesdays too in order to complete my 12-hour work week, but school district
orientation superseded that responsibility.) I had students at the « Seconde »
(10th grade), « Première » (11th grade), « Terminale » (12th
grade), and « BTS » (2-year vocational/technical college) levels,
which means that they ranged in age from about 15 to 20 years of age. (Of
course, most of them tried to tell me that they “had” x years of age instead of
using the verb “to be” because that’s a major difference between French and
English, respectively.) Subject-wise,
the BTS class that meets on Thursdays is focused on international commerce, so
I’ll have to refer back to the knowledge I gained in the Business French class
I took in Spring 2012 and hope that I can help them learn some of that stuff in
English. The 2-hour class is actually a History/Geography course that is taught
in English as part of a special European initiative that includes field trips
and debates with classes in other countries, which sounded really neat as the
students explained it to me. I…just…need…to brush up on my history and
geography. (Hey, they told me I was teaching English!)
In general, I hung out in the teachers’ lounge a little bit
on these two mornings then went to my classrooms a little early in order to
meet the teachers and make sure we had a plan before the students came in. More
often than not, I introduced myself to the class and observed a typical day in
their lives without saying too much, unless the teacher asked me for validation
on a point or kind of used me as a threat, like “Make sure you use good
pronunciation or else Morgann will correct you!” (They told us at the Fulbright
orientation that assistants usually go by first names, though we have to
enforce a code of respect all the same.) So I thought I would share with you
some of the questions I received upon introducing myself from the various
groups of students. Of course, their English was not always perfect on the
first go-round, but the teacher and I tried to help them out until they made
sense:
1.
What do you like the best about France?2. What is the biggest difference between France and the USA?
3. What do you think about the elections in the USA?
4. Was it hard for you to learn French?
5. What is the hardest thing in the French language for you?
6. Do you think it’s harder for someone who speaks English to learn French or for someone who speaks French to learn English?
7. What is your favorite kind of music?
8. How old are you?
9. Do you have a boyfriend?
10. Do you live in France? / Where do you live in France?
11. When did you arrive?
12. Why did you come to France?
13. How many days will you be here?
14. Will you miss your family while you are here?
15. What sports do you like?
16. What do you like to do for fun?
17. What are your origins?
18. Do you speak French? A little or a lot?
19. Do you have any brothers or sisters?
20. What is your favorite state in the USA?
21. Do you love your job?
22. Do you want to be an English teacher in France?
23. In what state do you want to be a teacher in the USA?
24. How can we get a green card to work in the USA?
25. Were you disappointed when you met us because we weren’t like the stereotypes on TV/in the movies etc.?
As you can see, these students were all over the place in
terms of their ability to formulate questions in English as well as their level
of engagement with the opportunity to talk to someone from the United States in
a frank and open forum. #25 in the above list was actually my favorite question
because it gave me the chance to flip the script and say that I hoped they
weren’t “disappointed” by me because I certainly won’t fit a lot of media
portrayals of Americans. But given the fact that many students were begging to
be placed in my breakout section for next week, I think I did alright with
presenting myself as someone with whom they would like to spend more time. (Did
you see how I avoided saying “who they’d like to spend more time with” in that sentence? I’m becoming an
English teacher already!)
I’ll definitely have to make sure I speak slowly and clearly
and remain aware of who’s keeping up with the conversation and who isn’t,
though, because I had “advanced” discussions with some students in a 10th
grade class about the split election tendencies of Atlanta vs. Georgia at large
and then about why I didn’t know anything about my origins (introduced the term
brainwashing in conjunction with slavery), and several students were able to
summarize what I said in French to their teacher. I was impressed. Others,
though, had no idea what we had discussed, and felt intimidated. Their teacher
told me that she would try to break them up into groups based on ability when
she sends them into a separate room to work with me. So, lesson planning, here
I come!
The only other item of interest from Friday was that I met
with one of the teachers regarding the BTS (vocational/technical college) curriculum
because she wanted to make sure that I was clear about what was going on there.
It was kind of funny because we were sitting at one end of a very long table in
the teachers’ lounge and speaking in English for about 95% of our hour-long
conversation. Other teachers came and went, but they always looked over at our
little corner with a somewhat-puzzled expression. By the end, though, I was
finishing the teacher’s sentences and laughing/sighing with her as she told me
about the frustrations she had experienced in trying to get this group of young
adults to focus on their studies. She encouraged me to come up with hands-on,
non-abstract activities that have a direct, practical link to the business
world. A lot of the students told me that they have had internships abroad,
especially in Miami, for some reason, so their English should be pretty good, I
guess. (Although most of them said that they “made” an internship instead of “did”
because they were translating the French verb “faire,” which can mean “to do”
or “to make.” So maybe not. Perhaps they spoke Spanglish there.)
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| Modern part of Gare du Nord (always busy!) |
All in all, these days were long – especially Thursday, when
I only have a 25-minute break between 10:35 am and 5 pm to scarf down a
sandwich, but at least I’ve gotten used to the hour-long commute. Now I know
which buses I can take from my residence hall to Gare du Nord instead of
walking to save a few minutes, although I learned the hard way that they don’t
wait for you if you’re running to catch them as they do at UGA. So much for the
“Southern hospitality” that I tried to describe to one of the classes when they
asked me about differences between the US and France. I can already sense that
one of my biggest problems will be avoiding the temptation of stopping and
getting something to eat before I get home to prepare food in the evenings,
although the fact that I have yet to get paid by either the school district or
the Fulbright folks is a pretty good deterrence for the moment.
 |
| Traditional part of Gare du Nord (equally busy) |
Saturday, October 6
Instead of grabbing a piece of fruit and chips (my only
other “grabbable” option) for breakfast before running out the door as I had
been doing for the past few days, I actually spent time in the kitchen making scrambled
eggs and toast with jelly to go along with my cereal and OJ. By the time I
finished assembling this masterpiece, one of my French hallmates who was seated
at the table said that she was “trying to understand” what I was eating. I didn’t
know whether to laugh or be offended, but this is all about cultural exchange,
right? I was like, “Ok, which part is confusing?” She proceeded to name all of
the elements of my meal, but then re-focused on the fact that the bread was
toasted, which I guess would be confusing to someone accustomed to eating
baguettes and croissants. However, given the fact that there is a toaster and a
toaster oven in the kitchen, it would seem to me that she would have seen such
a wonder as toasted bread before. I tried to explain that “toast” was a pretty
standard breakfast item in America because we don’t usually eat soft bread
right from the loaf, unless it’s in the form of the sandwich. I suggested that
it might have to do with heating the bread before eating it? I didn’t really
know what else to say. I was at a loss for words in terms of explaining
something that was so basic to my existence. But don’t worry – we ended up
having a teacher convo because that’s what she does for a living, so I was able
to find more words to talk about what I had observed in my school over the past
couple of days.
 |
| How my hair turned out |
Afterwards, I went a few doors down to my 11:30 am hair
appointment and found 4 other women there in the beginning stages of getting
their hair done. Oh, and there’s only one stylist at the shop. I was glad that
I had gone back to get a book from my room as an afterthought, because I
definitely sat there for like an hour before she got to me. (Shout-out to
Mallory: ring any bells from a recent experience we had?) I felt like I was in
a salon in NYC or something, except that everyone was speaking French instead
of English. All of the women were talking very quickly, loudly, and with a lot
of attitude about pop culture, politics, and raising children, among various
other topics. A lot of it was about America (election, which stars are
pregnant) as well as life in the Caribbean and West Africa. Someone even
mentioned a relative in Abomey at one point, which is the city I lived in in Bénin
for a month in 2010, but the conversation moved on too quickly for me to be
able to chime in. So I just thumbed through various magazines as the stylist
moved me through various parts of the process: wash, leave-in conditioner,
roller-set, blow-dry to straighten roots, flat iron. (Oh, and shout-out to Mary
and Jessica: I felt smart when I knew what “Downton Abbey” was in one of the
magazines I was reading. It was mentioned in an article about fashion trends
from the 20th century.) I was pretty pleased with how my hair turned
out, though it didn’t have much pizazz to it. I paid my €45 (slightly inflated from the
$40-$45 I would pay in the suburbs in the US, but less than what I might pay in
Atlanta) and left between 3:30 and 4 pm, I believe.
 |
| Random concert in the park |
I was super-hungry, as you can imagine, and I didn’t think
anything in my pantry was going to cut it, so I decided to make sure my hair
was well-protected from the light rain (ask a Black woman if you don’t know)
and look for something inexpensive to eat in a section of the 9th
arrondissement (where I live) that I had not explored very much since my
arrival. (I have my map with me at all times, so I can’t really get very lost.)
I ended up stopping by a free little concert at Square d’Anvers (a park) that
had attracted quite a crowd in spite of the rain. Eventually found some Middle
Eastern grub at a place with a lot of people and a TV that was showing a soap
opera or something. Consulted my map to make sure I knew exactly where I was
and how to get back and returned home for a relaxing evening.
Sunday, October 7
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| Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (1/2 metro stops near me) on Sun am between trains |
CHURCH #1: After eating breakfast and packing a lunch, I
went back to the same Baptist church from last week since I’d had to leave so
abruptly in order to participate in the Chantilly outing. (I had other plans
today too, but as long as church got out around noon as it had last Sunday, I
would be alright.) There were a few different faces in the crowd this week,
including those of a Haitian woman who led the service and her husband. She
talked a lot about thinking she wouldn’t get married or have children but being
thankful for the fact that they were expecting a child. She definitely gave
more anecdotes and spiritual tidbits all throughout the morning than the woman
who presided over the service last week. Her scriptural basis for her theme of perseverance
came from Lamentations 3:21-41; 55-59 and Hebrews 10: 23, 36-39. (Those are
rough approximations of the verses since I was following along in English as
she read in French.) Another lady stood up and gave her testimony about moving
her college-age daughter into an apartment in Brussels, Belgium last weekend after
the school year had already started without their knowing where she would be
housed. She mentioned that she was “afraid” during the process and that she
wanted the church to pray for her daughter since she was “all alone,” but other
members of the church were quick to point out that, as Christians, we should
never fear when we have problems in our lives and that she was not alone
because the Lord is with her.
When the preacher got up to talk (not the Pastor that I
heard last week), he was like, “I guess we’ve already had the sermon for today,
so I’ll give more of a Bible study class.” He talked about the importance of
communion as one of the four pillars of Christianity outlined in Acts 2:41-42
and examined other passages of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation when the
people of God are invited to commune with their Creator. This led very nicely
into the partaking of communion, which we stood up to do in a semi-circle at
the front of the very basic room that serves as the church. I liked the
up-close-and-personal sense of community that was created as we looked each
other in the eye and partook of this very special meal in a group of about 15
or 20 people (maybe 2/3 of the church). The only bad part was that service
lasted until 12:40 or so, which meant that the extra time I had allotted for
fellowship was now gone. And I think they had food at the back – like green
beans and stuff! – but I had to go so that I could meet my church buddy at 1:15
for Round 2.
CHURCH #2: Upon meeting one of the other English teaching
assistants from Europe at the orientation session on Wednesday, I had mentioned
the fact that I was church shopping, to which she responded that she too was a
Christian. That type of exchange doesn’t happen very often, especially not
among people our age, so we decided to do something about it. That “something”
meant attending the contemporary service together at The American Church in
Paris at 1:30 pm. Unfortunately, I had to change our original plans of meeting
at an RER (commuter train) station at 1:15 because I realized that it would
take me longer to get there than to get to the actual church with all of the
line-changing, but we met up successfully (thanks to my possession of a cell
phone unlike on Sunday 9/23), and I only ended up being a couple of minutes
late after changing my plans. They hadn’t even really started the service.
There were a lot of people there – maybe 150? Maybe 200? I don’t know. Estimation
has never really been my thing. But it was a nice-sized, very formal-looking
sanctuary in the 7th arrondissement along the Quai d’Orsay. We stood
and sang four songs right from the get-go in a rock-band format, but I think
the percussion was on a recorded track or something because it didn’t sound
live. My colleague and I agreed that it was a bit odd to do all of the worship
at the beginning and then move on with the service.
There was kind a dramatic reading from Job and then the
actual passage for the sermon was from Mark 10:2-16, which covers divorce and
the need for adults to become like children in order to enter the kingdom of
God. The minister talked about the…oh, and this was all in English! Hopefully
that was clear when I said that this was “The American Church in Paris.” That
was the major difference between Church #1 vs. #2+#3. Anyway, he talked about how Jesus’ teaching on
divorce was revolutionary in that He prioritized the family unit (women,
children) in society rather than endorsing the Jewish practice of the time,
which stated that a man could divorce his wife if she spoiled a dish. He then
focused more on what distinguishes children and why Jesus would have said that
we should use them as models for our faith: humility, complete trust in
everyone, straight-forwardness, seeing the best in everyone else, not bearing
grudges.... Also, it was World Communion Sunday, apparently, so after I partook
of the Lord’s Supper for the second time today, we prayed together for churches
all over the world. After service, my colleague and I went to the coffee table
in the next room and picked up info about the church and its ministries and
then made plans to meet up for an evening service that she had been planning to
attend.
CHURCH #3: After writing some more of this blog and eating
an early dinner, I headed back out to Saint Michael’s English Church in the 8th
arrondissement near Madeleine Church and lots of fancy stores on Rue du Faubourg
Saint Honoré
(Prada, Chanel, etc.). The music was similar to that at the American Church,
expect that they had British accents and there was an African drum along with
the guitars. There were probably 40 or 50 people there for the 7 pm service? The
sermon, based in Isaiah 61:1-3; 10-11 and Matthew 28:16-20, encouraged us to
think of evangelism not as a burden to be a salesman (which they made fun of
through a video clip of classic people-in-ties-at-your-doorstep) but as a
natural proclivity to share your passion for Christ with others in a meaningful
way. And we made friends with a young French woman afterwards who spoke very
good English, so that was fun. Def got my spiritual fill :)
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