A Day On + A Day Off

As promised yesterday, I’m trying to post more frequently. I know I’ve taken a bit of liberty with the idea of bullet points here, but at least using them kept me from writing as much.

Birthday shout-out to Mrs. Curtis!!! Hope you’re having a great day.

Look for more posts to keep rolling out pretty regularly as I continue to enjoy my two weeks of paid vacation time :)

Peace – ML 

Friday, October 12 – Money in the bank + “Hello, pretty girl!” + “Most important murders” + Hot dogs

·         AM devotion on “Brokenness” from Jesus Lives led me to pray earnestly about my (mild) state of financial insecurity b/c I was still relying on my American savings since I hadn’t gotten paid from Fulbright or school district yet as of Wednesday afternoon…but then the Spirit led me to log-on to my French bank account, where I saw that my living allowance for October as well as partial reimbursement for my flight from ATL to Paris (which I personally paid for, BTW) had posted, care of the Franco-American Commission (Fulbright ppl). Ain’t God alright?

·         Emailed the fam re: Good news x 3 = passing CSET scores [see 10/9-10/10 for explanation], obedient kids students [from 10/11], and “money in the bank.” (Should’ve asked T-Pain to “Buy Me a Drank.” But that’s about all of the song that I would want him to sing to me.)

·         2 or 3 kitchenmates blew through to drink a swig of juice from the carton or grab something on their way out and asked me if I had to work because I was calmly sitting at the table enjoying my meal with a book during the 9:00 hour. Told them I only work in the afternoons on Fridays.

·          Celebratory grocery store visit to restock fridge using new funds & thus discouraging so much eating out, like yesterday when I bought breakfast/lunch/dinner outside of my kitchen. Packed lunch & ate it during commute out to the suburbs (at bus stops, for example).

·         Class 1 @ 13:55 – «Première» = 11th grade, STMG track = « sciences et technologies du management et de la gestion » = one of the technological tracks as opposed to the three “general” tracks (literature, economics/social sciences, sciences) from which students choose beginning in 11^th grade; this group of students has chosen management science/technology as their concentration (as opposed to health sciences/technology, dance/music technique, or hospitality, for example), but I’m assisting with their English language course specifically; 13 students in my charge

o   I was standing at the front of the room with the regular teacher as the students entered. One young man greeted me by saying, “Hello…pretty girl!” very excitedly, to which the teacher, an older woman, responded very quickly and with embarrassment: “Oh! Beautiful woman, perhaps.” I just laughed it off to let her know that I was not overly bothered by the occurrence. I thought it was a cute effort to speak English, at least!

o   Slight disaster when I took this class all the way from Building A to my assigned room in Building C (apparently this is a very popular teaching period when the rooms close by were all full) only to find out that they have a different system for unlocking the doors on that particular floor of Building C, which I hadn’t visited before. The students all started encouraging me to talk to the teacher in the room next door, who still had his door open and seemed to be taking roll rather than actively teaching. I felt really bad about interrupting him, but I didn’t really know what else to do since I had this group of 13 anxious teenagers with me who were already starting to cause a disruption in the hallway. He grudgingly helped as I tried to “keep an eye” on his class. I still tried to speak French sparingly and in a low voice so my students wouldn’t hear too much. They vouched for me as an American teaching assistant. I’ve seen this teacher many more times in the lounge and thanked him for his help.

o   Asking them to tell me about their lives in Aulnay (see 10/11 for detailed description of my lesson outline) led them to ask how life in Atlanta compared to TV depictions. Someone wanted to trade lives with me based on what they knew of America.

My classroom for Class 3, as seen from the front of the room

·         Class 2 @ 14:55 – « Seconde » = 10^th grade, no track selection yet at this age; 12 students in my charge

o   Same general activities related to telling me about their town and looking at America photos as described on 10/11; group was chattier in general today than yesterday…the Friday effect?

o   Extra time to talk about election at end, but voter registration form/absentee ballot form meant nothing as compared to in « Terminale »  (12^th grade) group yesterday, so I just walked around with the copy of my actual ballot that I had just printed before classes with “Obama” and “Romney” listed. I guess I could’ve prepared more printed materials had I known for sure that I would’ve had printer capabilities that day.

·         Class 3 @ 16:05 (following 10-minute afternoon break…Fruit Break from Westminster, anyone?) – « Terminale » = 12^th grade, Sciences track = generally the most advanced group of students, whether or not they are genuinely interested in entering science-related careers; 10 students in my charge

o   Soooo…this teacher had originally told me on Thursday that she was going to put a handout on gun control in my cubby in the teacher’s lounge for me to use to lead our discussion because that was their current topic. Too bad she told me during the break  right before this class that she had forgotten to make me a copy, but that she still wanted me to talk about gun control with them.

o   I actually started the class by introducing myself briefly because this group of students had had a test last week so I hadn’t even met them yet. I let them ask a few questions, but they were very quiet.

o   Asked for their general ideas about guns based on what they’d learned so far, and gathered that they were under the impression that gun use was out of control in the U.S. and that possession of arms frequently led to acts of violence. This is understandable coming from a place like France, where people hardly own guns and gun ownership is not thought of as a right that belongs in the Constitution.

o   I then structured a very loose debate between a group that was in favor of increased gun rights and a group that was opposed to increased gun rights. After I made sure that they understood their positions, I gave them time to talk amongst themselves and prepare arguments using the resources they already had from their regular class (thankfully). I helped with their English as needed. Then I sat and listened as each side took two turns presenting their arguments in front of the class with time in between to prepare responses to what the other side had said. At the very end, I commented on pronunciation/grammatical errors. For example, they said that the U.S. had the “most important murders” related to gun use, meaning the highest number. That was an example of an idea that got lost in translation. Overall, they did a great job with the activity, especially considering the fact that I made it up on the spot!

My classroom for Class 3 as seen from the students' perspective

·         For dinner, I had to try something that I’d seen in the grocery store that made me laugh: ready-to-eat hot dogs (meat, bun, toppings) in a microwavable box. The Frenchies probably buy that when they want to eat “American” cuisine, sadly. Afterwards, I worked on my grad school apps for a while and called it a night.

Saturday, October 13 – Missing pan + Tightening my belt + First postcard + Above and below

·         Couldn’t find a communal frying pan at breakfast for the first time. Regretted consenting to the disposal of a particularly raggedy pan during a prior clean-out sesh with some kitchenmates. Used a pan that wasn’t on anyone’s particular shelf in the pantry but wasn’t in our usual “communal” storage places under the sink or stove either. German teaching assistant agreed with my logic. We both practiced our French while comparing notes on our first real week on the job, but she’s in an elementary school where the main teacher stays in the classroom with you. Another kitchenmate entered before I had time to put the questionable pan back in its place, and I feared a confrontation, but there was none to be had.

·         Listened to gospel music on YouTube while drafting a budget for myself for the next month (31 days) based only on money that I had at the moment (as in, the Fulbright funds I had just received) rather than looking ahead to the check I was supposed to receive from the school district for October. Figured that this check was a) of an unknown amount since we had only been given estimates & also might only get 70% for the first month; b) would come at an unknown time during the month; and c) might take an unknown amount of time to deposit into my account since I never know what to expect with my French bank account. Saw that I needed to tighten my belt a little as far as eating out at full-service restaurants is concerned, but I could afford the retreat to Normandy with the American Church in Paris that I’d been considering and my general life expenses with very few “miscellaneous” costs on this limited budget.

·         Sometimes, though, you just have a craving for a particular food that isn’t in your refrigerator. It was a hamburger for me in this case, so I had to think of where to get one for cheap, besides McDonald’s. Went to Best Burger (literally, that’s what it’s called, in English) where I sat down to eat a very basic burger with fries and a 33 cl drink for €5.40. I could’ve paid 3 times that (including gratuity) in a “real” restaurant with a waitress and fancier facilities.

·         Bought my first postcard that I filled out and mailed at Abbesses post office in Montmartre (which is actually open after lunch on Saturday afternoons) to my brothers and sisters at Ebenezer Baptist Church East in Athens, GA, where I spent many a Sunday morning  during my UGA career. It’s become a tradition to send them postcards updating them on my travel since the Foundation Fellowship often took me out of town.

·         Back in my neck of the woods, I got my first eyebrow wax in France (which I totally accounted for in my budget BTW) at a spa chain that I’d read reviews about the night before. I thought it was funny that the technician asked if I wanted her to wax above and below my eyebrow. I was like, yes please? It’s funny how just little things like this are teaching me new words and phrases because I didn’t even know how to search for this service on Google at first.

·         Before heading in, I stocked up on bottled water since grocery stores tend to be closed on Sunday afternoons & bought a pan of my own at a « bazar » = general store, I guess? They’re these hole-in-the-wall places on every block overflowing with everything from household items to Paris souvenirs. And umbrellas. Always umbrellas because it’s always raining. Kind of reminds of the Wal-mart concept. Registered for the ACP retreat using the good Internet signal in the common room before warming up a refrigerated (not frozen) salmon meal for dinner & getting back to work on grad school apps.