Monday, October 15, 2012

On the Path to Becoming a Teacher


*Note – I know that this post doesn’t bring you all the way up to date to the present, as I typically try to do, but since it’s taking me a while to get this week’s report together, I thought I’d go ahead and provide a partial entry from last week so that my Monday morning folks (East Coast time) have something new to look at while I work on the rest. The report from Thursday 10/11 onward is forthcoming, and you don’t want to miss it since that’s when my real teaching responsibilities began. Thanks for reading! - ML
 
Monday, October 8 – Navigating to teacher training session; Learning to simplify and help students
In case you’re thinking that I, as a French and African-American Studies major, am being thrown to the wolves with absolutely no training on being a teacher, then fear not! My school district (referred to as an « académie » or a « réctorat ») requires me, as an English teaching assistant, to attend four (four!) three-hour sessions led by teacher trainers throughout the first school term so that I can learn tips and tricks about my new trade and share insights among my colleagues – the other 20 or so folks who are assigned to high schools in the Seine-Saint-Denis « département » of the school district of Créteil. The first of these was held after our general orientation session (and hearty lunch) last Wednesday 10/3, and the second occurred today.
Looking down the hall from my room towards stairs/elevator
The session didn’t begin until 2:00 pm (or 14h, as they normally say here), but I had to leave my « foyer » (residence hall) by around 12:45 pm in order to have any hope of arriving on time.  So I pretty much just had time to eat breakfast, pack a lunch, get dressed, and make sure I knew exactly where I was going using the public transit websites since we were meeting at a new place.
Oh, but I did snap a couple of shots in the hallway to try to give you an idea of the quality of the place I live in before leaving. I will try to continue this effort around the building as I remember to do so. I actually made you a video clip of the kitchen too, but it wouldn't upload. Might have to go elsewhere for a better Internet connection.
Showing you proximity of my room (foreground) to kitchen (to the right, next to light switch)

In order to get to Lycée Boulloche in Livry-Gargan (« lycée » means high school), I first took a bus from the street where I live in the 9th arrondissement to the Haussman-Saint Lazare RER station (the « RER, » with the r’s pronounced in a French accent, is the commuter train between the city and the suburbs as opposed to the « métro, » which is the in-town subway). Then I took the RER E train towards Chelles-Gournay and got off at Bondy, where I changed to the Tram line T4 and continued to Gargan. Alternately, I could’ve gone to my normal stomping grounds of Aulnay-sous-Bois and taken the tram to Bondy from there, but I wanted to do something different. Plus, this way was faster. I’m really enjoying figuring out all of these routes and connections! Might have to move to a big city when I return to the States, Lord willing…
On the tram, I actually saw 2 other people in my group – 1 of the other Fulbright grantees and the guy from Colorado that I met last week when I was relieved to find an American among the group of Europeans/Australians. Of course, the Fulbright is a bit like the Foundation Fellowship that I had at UGA; we don’t announce ourselves as recipients of this extra money/non-financial support in public for reasons of sensitivity. So I didn’t want to be too “buddy-buddy” with the other Fulbrighter since we, in theory, had only met the other day at the general school district orientation, not at our other three-day event. Plus he was far away on the train. The Colorado guy actually recognized me, though, and started asking me in English about how things were going at my school, which immediately attracted the attention of the Frenchies on the tram. I tried to keep my voice low so they wouldn’t hate us.
Once we got to our stop, we caught up with our colleague, and the three of us made our way down the road to the high school, thanks in part to the directions I’d written down and in part to the confirmation of a friendly passer-by who pointed out the way because one of the road signs was confusing. Along the way, the two of them started discussing a country that I’ve never visited (shocking, I know) in great detail, so I decided to eat part of the lunch I’d packed since it had been a little while since breakfast. Finished my sandwich just as we approached a tall building with clusters of young people socializing out front. The guys were going to keep walking, but I was like, “Um, this is a high school.” We joined up with a few others in our group, and I switched to French to tell the receptionist that we were there for « une formation » = a training session. She told us to go to room 313, which is what we had been told in advance, so we headed upstairs to what would be considered the 4th floor in America (the ground floor is like floor 0) and logically followed the sequence of room numbers.
Too bad this building wasn’t logical. We wandered from one end of the small third floor to the other and became convinced that 313 didn’t exist because the numbers didn’t go high enough. Finally I asked a teacher who was alone in a classroom (why did I do everything?) for help. He said we had to go downstairs and cross over to the other connected building, which he indicated out the window behind us, and then go upstairs from there. We were like, Maybe the receptionist should’ve hinted at this particular configuration before sending us upstairs… By the way, we weren’t too worried about being a few minutes late, because someone in the group had called our teacher trainer when we were entering the building since it was a couple of minutes after 2:00 at that point anyway. Buuuuut apparently there was some teacher using the classroom that we had reserved for months and refusing to leave, so we had to wait until class ended at 2:20 or something anyway in order to have space in which to work. So we just all just gathered in the stairwell and got informal advice from our teacher trainer there.
In the actual session, we had to talk about how our first week of observation had gone and whether we had encountered any major obstacles. I talked about the English-language History/Geography class (part of the « section européenne ») in which the instructor asked me to talk about “The New South” on the spot after I introduced myself as being from Atlanta, Georgia last Thursday. Everyone laughed in shock at the thought of having to talk about an actual topic without advance preparation. I told them that I mentioned concepts related to Reconstruction, but then I had to keep working backwards to see what the students already knew about the preceding era. For example, I asked when the Civil War had occurred, and someone said “the 60’s.” I was like, “Which 60’s? The 1960’s? Actually it was about 100 years earlier.” He was probably thinking of the Civil Rights Era. So that was the most interesting reflection I shared with the group.
The main take-away from this session was that we have to keep everything very, very simple while working with our students. We can’t say too many words at once, and we have to write the key words on the board for the folks who may not understand our accents. If we use “documents,” which is a broad term that they use for any sort of audio-visual intervention, including videos, sound clips, and images, then they must not be very complicated, or at least should fit the level of our pupils so that they will not become discouraged. We also discussed the idea of creating suspense by cutting out part of images and having the students imagine what is missing, for example. Another important piece of advice was to give definitions (synonyms) of new words that approximate their French equivalents, meaning that they are based on Latin roots. Also, we should allow students to help each other with corrections if someone makes a mistake while speaking to an extent, but after 2 or 3 attempts, we should just go ahead and correct them so they don’t get overwhelmed or frustrated.
Platform of tram station on rainy day in Gargan
Approaching tram on opposite platform
Afterwards, most of us took the same tram + RER train back into Paris, so we were definitely the group of English speakers standing together. I guess the training session had been in a mixture of French and English, but due to the various levels of French in the group, it’s hard to imagine us speaking French exclusively when it’s not required. Most of the people in my group are actually British women, so I asked them more about the ERASMUS program through which many of them are teaching abroad for a year during their university careers. We also discussed the types of food that are available in England, France, and the U.S. Perhaps it was this conversation that led me to get something to eat while I was still out and even grab a crêpe for dessert because I was still a little hungry. The grocery store near me was out of the 6-pack cartons of eggs that I normally buy for my small fridge, so I had to go to another one around the corner. Oh, and it was raining or misting pretty much all day, as it does every day here, so this made it particularly sad to have to walk a little further away. But I guess it’s good to add a little variety to my routine every once in a while instead of going to the same store all the time. Plus, I found a slightly cheaper variety of eggs here, which was worth the extra effort!

Tuesday, October 9 –Timely devotional on God’s sovereignty; Hangin’ out at the Laundromat; Rent
Upon waking up this morning, I was particularly preoccupied by the fact that it was finally October 9th, the date on which my scores from the September 8th administration of the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET) would be released. Of course, due to the fact that they weren’t going to be emailed until 5:00 pm Pacific Time, I would not see these scores on my “October 9th” but this was still the date that had been in my head for a while. Many of you probably don’t know that I flew to California the weekend before Michael and Kristina’s wedding in order to take French Subtests I, II, and III of the CSET, which assessed my knowledge of French linguistics & literature as well as French and Francophone culture in great detail through multiple choice questions, essays, listening comprehension, and even a spoken component. (Anyone who looks at the free study guides should know that this is the sort of material covered by the exam, so I’m not giving away confidential info.) This is typically a test that you take in order to become licensed/credentialed as a French teacher in the state of California, but Stanford University requires that applicants to their Secondary Teacher Education Program (STEP) pass at least 2 of the 3 subtests in order to be considered for admission in the first place. I guess this makes things easier for them down the line so that they can rest assured that the folks in their program will, in fact, become licensed teachers. So, yes, I’m applying to Stanford as well as Northwestern, UVA, and Wash U. And so far they’ve all asked me on their applications which other schools I’m applying to, so I don’t mind if they stumble across this blog and find this info. It’s not a secret or anything.
But anyway, I was so overwhelmed by the thought that I might have gone all the way out there to California and not passed 2/3 tests. I ended up reading the next devotional in sequence from Sarah Young’s Jesus Lives: Seeing His Love in Your Life with the goal of putting my mind at ease before beginning my day. Well, let me tell you, this was not a selection that was chosen at random; these words were pre-ordained for me to encounter on this day with this issue on my heart. The topic was “Depending on Him,” which was obviously an important reminder that this entire process was and is out of my hands, so I just needed to “let go and let God,” as the old church adage states. However, the part of the devotional that really stuck out to me and that led me to write in my journal – my preferred method of communicating with the Lord – was the end: (the author takes the perspective of God) “You need to remember that I am Sovereign. I will not help you go along a path that is not My choice for you. So it’s vital to commit your way to Me, asking Me to lead you each step of the way.” The accompanying Scripture on which this reflection was based was Psalm 37:5: “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (New King James Version). It was at that moment that my focus shifted from worrying about my scores to realizing that I had not really consulted the Lord very specifically regarding my next step following the Fulbright. So I ended up asking Him to show me very clearly both through my teaching experiences beginning this week and through my performance on this exam whether or not I was being obedient to His will in my efforts to apply for Master’s degree programs that will provide me with the credentials I need to become a K-12 French teacher in the States. It was a wonderful period of Spirit-filled introspection and reflection, and I got up feeling like no matter what happened with my scores, I was going to keep trusting and believing that the Lord has a plan for my life, and that my best move is to stay in line with it at all times.
It’s really gonna go downhill from here content-wise, folks. Let’s see. I remember having an interesting conversation while washing my breakfast dishes with the French kitchenmate who studied abroad in Nebraska about college life in America. I think she asked me if I was homesick, and I told her that it wasn’t so bad because I hadn’t lived exactly at home for the past four years during my time at university, which was about two hours from my house. She thought it was odd that people in America lived on campus, or, at least, in the same towns as their universities so often, even when their parents’ homes weren’t that far away. I reminded her that we didn’t have trains to shuttle us back and forth efficiently, so I would’ve had to drive. She asked about buses, but I said that even that system isn’t very popular for the sort of daily, long-haul travel she was describing. She then asked if I was in a sorority, and I quoted her some statistic that I heard one time about only 27% of UGA being Greek. She said she felt like it was the opposite at the University of Nebraska – 27% are not Greek – but I think she was including the honors/service frats and stuff.
Ah, laundry.
Looking out one window of the laundromat...
...and the other
I ended up having to leave the building to do laundry because our machine was temporarily out of service. Some other girls found that out the hard way a few days ago when they put a euro or two in and didn’t get to wash clothes. They suspected that the coin depository was full – like, overflowing – because they couldn’t hear the coins falling down as usual. (I’m always in the know regarding the laundry room for the building because it’s right next to my room.) So until that got straightened out, I needed to find a Plan B since it had been about 12 days since I last washed clothes, and I was about to enter a three-day stretch of teaching. I loaded up my hiking backpack with my laundry plus detergent, dryer sheets and reading material because I planned to wait for my clothes instead of leaving them there. Realized that I might get kind of hungry during that long period of time (40 minutes wash + ??? drying), so I grabbed a sandwich before heading into one of the biggest laundromats that I’d seen in my neighborhood with a large waiting area that is very visible from the busy intersection just outside the floor-to-ceiling windows. I paid 4 to wash 8 kg of clothes (just about everything I’d brought in my backpack) instead of the 3 that I would’ve paid in my residence hall for an unknown weight of laundry. This time the dryer time was available in 8-minute cycles at 1/cycle. I just did the math on my laptop’s calculator to be sure, but this is only 1/2 a centime (cent) more per minute than the other place I’d used to dry clothes, which charged 0.60 for 5 minutes, but didn’t have a very large waiting area. I paid for 3 cycles and was out of there.
At least the sandwich I bought to eat while waiting had freshly-made bread!
 In terms of more expensive items on my ledger, I had to pay October rent sometime between Monday and Thursday of this week during the office hours of my residence hall staff. It turned out that they accepted checks and debit cards, but I kind of wanted to use a check since I had just ordered a checkbook for my new French account with the idea of paying rent in mind. After I brought my laundry back to my room, it looked like I had just enough time to walk to the main branch of my bank where I could pick up my checkbook before they closed and still pay rent before the office hours ended for that day. Too bad when I got there they didn’t accept my U.S. driver’s license and/or the copy of my passport ID page as proper ID to pick up a checkbook. I honestly didn’t know that I needed ID to get a checkbook since they’re normally mailed in the US. And I don’t just carry my passport around like that. The folks from the American Consulate who gave our security briefing at the Fulbright orientation actually confirmed that carrying a driver’s license and passport copy should do the trick. Apparently, that’s a general guideline rather than a hard and fast rule. So I decided to pay my rent by debit card this time just so I wouldn’t forget to do so once my work “half-week” started. It was certainly a faith step, though, because I had yet to get paid by either the Fulbright folks or my school district, so I was still drawing from my American resources (graduation gifts, summer job income, mutual fund earnings, generosity of my parents). But I’m thankful to have a roof over my head in one of the hardest cities in which to find housing, especially affordable housing! Getting a room here has certainly been a blessing thus far.

Wednesday, October 10 – Timing commute to Aulnay; From observer to true teaching assistant
Well, today started out much more victoriously than it ended. (Started “off” or “out”? Now I’m constantly questioning my English!) I woke up at 5:00 am because my first class out in the suburbs started at 8:25 am, and it was the first time I had to try getting there so early since orientation had replaced my regularly scheduled events last Wednesday. Since I had already successfully logged on to the Internet from my room to check the weather, I decided to look at my CSET scores really quickly (see yesterday’s entry for explanation). I saw Subtest I – Pass and felt a rush of relief because I knew that I had not failed all three subtests, as I had secretly feared, which would have signaled that I may have been headed in the wrong direction professionally speaking. When I saw the same result listed for tests II and III, it was as if I could hear the Holy Spirit asking me, “Was that clear enough?”
Finished getting ready, ate breakfast with a book rather than human company given the early hour, and decided to add my name to the list on the whiteboard of kitchenmates going to see Sister Act next Wednesday. (By the way, I use the term “kitchenmates” rather than “hallmates” because our hallway has 2 kitchens, so there are people who live on my hall who don’t share my kitchen, and I don’t know them very well. So out of the 87-odd women in the residence hall, the 12 other people who share my kitchen are the ones with whom I interact on the most regular basis.) Going to see the play that night may not be the best idea schedule-wise (or money-wise) from my point of view, but I felt very convicted about my need to integrate myself into a community before it’s too late and to do so not just for the “big” events, such as the ski trip that someone proposed for winter break (Feb/March), but also for the smaller ones that pop up here and there.
Took out the trash and recycling that was illegally left overnight from Tuesday (ahem, Tuesday trash people) since I’m assigned to Wednesdays and exited the front door of our courtyard at 6:52 am, which was exactly 1 hour after I’d left my room from getting dressed to head to the kitchen. (I usually allow 45 minutes for breakfast (making food, eating it, cleaning up) plus 15 minutes to make a lunch if I haven’t done so the night before and then return to my room to gather my belongings for the day and leave.) Walked to the bus stop (5 minutes away; the one right in front of my place is going the wrong direction since it’s a one-way street) and waited in the mist for a few minutes with the other early-risers until one of the buses that went to Gare du Nord came at 7:03. I actually got off 1 stop too early because I had never taken this particular bus route to the train station, so I just got off when I could see the imposing structure looming right in front of me, not knowing that it was going to stop again 2 seconds later. So, given that I was inside the station by 7:09 am, this leg of my trip took about 17 minutes (from leaving my front door to arriving at Gare du Nord), which means that I really could’ve walked and gotten there in the same amount of time or even a little faster, but obviously the bus ride is more comfortable and possibly safer at that time of morning. Plus it could be quicker if I don’t have to wait at all for a bus.
I did get right on an RER train with no wait at 7:13 am. Very few of us were headed from the city out to the suburbs; as we slowly passed trains headed in the other direction; I noticed that they were overcrowded whereas there were plenty of seats around me. I actually worked on some lesson plan ideas very calmly during my pleasant ride out to Aulnay, where I arrived at the station at 7:32 am. There appeared to be several high school students at the bus station as well as a teacher that I recognized from the « salle des professeurs » (teacher’s lounge). We all boarded a bus at 7:42 am and arrived at the school ten minutes later, which meant that I was three whole minutes early of my goal! You see, since my first class started at 8:25, I had intended to arrive at 7:55 am in order to be 30 minutes early. (Oh, 7:55. How this time reminds me of running in the door at Westminster, my high life school.)
I noticed that the students all just congregated at the bus stop to socialize because I don’t think they’re allowed to enter and exit the school grounds as they please; there are certain time periods when the gates are open and they show their ID’s to come to class. The teacher from the bus, however, went up to the security portal and they let her in, so I did the same thing. Of course, it was a staff member whom I’d never met, so I had to introduce myself, but she didn’t make a big deal over it, thankfully. I swung by the administrative wing in Building C to see about turning in paperwork to get partial reimbursement for my transportation from the school district, but a member of the housekeeping staff was basically like, “Who are you looking for? Cuz they ain’t here yet.” So I went to Building A to hang out in the teacher’s lounge, which was very sparsely populated. However, I had username and password info in my « casier » (mailbox/cubbyhole), so I could actually log on to the computers and have access to (dun dun dunh) printers! I printed out a voter registration form from GA as well as an absentee ballot request form since I knew that some students had asked me about how I could vote from overseas last week, so I wanted to follow-up with them later in the week. (Shout-out to Mom for helping me get this taken care of, by the way, because I didn’t wrap up that process fully before leaving the country.) Otherwise, I was just going to print and then photocopy other materials as needed on Thursday and Friday before classes.
As I hinted before, I had never actually met the students in these three classes before because of orientation, so I had decided through prior email correspondence with the lead teacher that it would be best to observe their classes on this day as I had done with the other classes last Thursday and Friday rather than taking them into my charge in breakout sessions right away. In the first class, which consisted of « Première » (11th grade) students, the “document” (I told you that they use this term differently than we do) under inspection was actually a Young Turks video about the New York City soda ban. My exposure to the Young Turks is through their production of very informal YouTube video debates/humorous takes on current events that are informative but certainly not unbiased, as in a regular news broadcast. I was surprised that the students were being exposed to a video with so much talking at such a fast rate that included so much colloquial language and so many nuances. I mean, this was like an 11-minute video of a man and a woman going back and forth, rapid-fire, on this topic and cracking jokes, some of which were not appropriate for polite company, and I was thinking that this would be almost an engaging video for me to watch and discuss in one of my classes, so…what were these French students getting out of it?
Actually, it turned out that the extreme body language and mannerisms helped the students understand or, at least, infer the points of view that the speakers had in the debate. Some of them were able to reiterate the basic points that were being made as the teacher made opposing columns on the board, but others had trouble even picking out words in English that had been said in the preceding clip when the teacher randomly called on them. Basically, she played the video once through all the way and then repeated it, stopping every once in a while for a class analysis. I guess the lessons that I garnered from this were: a) it’s okay to broach complex and interesting topics rather than “babying” the class BUT b) you have to be careful not to leave “Suzie” in the dust while “Johnny” blazes ahead with his advanced grasp of the topic at hand. The only somewhat strange part of this classroom observation was that I was not afforded the occasion to introduce myself formally and allow the students to ask me questions about the USA/my personal background, as the other classes had done last week because we ran out of time. So they probably thought I was a representative of the school district who was assessing the performance of their teacher or something since I just sat quietly at the back taking notes until the very end when the teacher briefly said my name and that I would be working with them this term.
In the second class – « Seconde » = 10th grade – the students used a set curriculum in which the current unit focused on teenagers defining their own sense of style. The teacher created a list of vocabulary by part of speech as the class discussed the concept of “being yourself”: looks, fashion, a trend, a brand… (nouns); to wear, to spend, to model (verbs); usually (adverb); addicted, lonely, shy… (adjectives). I thought it was interesting that she had to help them understand the difference between “lonely” and “alone” because the French equivalent is the same – « seul(e) ». This is a teacher who really tries to stick to speaking English at all times rather than resorting to French to explain stuff, which I admire. At first the students struggled to differentiate the two words. But then she asked, “Which is a fact, and which is a feeling?” and a student correctly identified being “alone” as a fact and being “lonely” as a feeling. She reinforced the concept by providing them with the English expression, “You can be lonely in a crowd.” Now that’s foreign language instruction at its best. Even when the power in the building cut off in the middle of the video that she was showing for the second time of an interview of a teenager describing her personal style, the students were very cooperative, and class proceeded without problems. I did get to introduce myself, and they pretty much asked the same questions as the students last week. (See previous post. Also, more on the power outages later.)
I met with this teacher during the break between classes that we share during third period and was glad that I’d brainstormed some lesson plans on the train ride there because she definitely asked me about my ideas for the future. I actually have all three of my Wednesday classes with her and one on Thursday, so we talked about all of them. For the third Wednesday class, which was at the « BTS » (technical college) level, the teacher actually asked me to intervene in one of the activities rather than just sitting at the back and taking notes because she realized that these students are going to be away on an internship for the next two weeks, so I won’t have another chance to work with them for a while. At first, one student was giving a summary of an assignment at the front of the class, and I had not yet introduced myself. There was a vocabulary word that he was having trouble describing related to the place where a company’s representative would distribute samples of a new product in a grocery store. He called it a “stand” but then felt that that wasn’t the right word and asked the teacher for help. She looked at me and asked for my suggestion, so then the whole class turned around to look at me. And the guy who was speaking was like, « Oh! Bonjour! ». I offered “display” as a possibility, which they accepted, and he continued with the report.
Afterwards, the teacher distributed two different articles on eco-friendly businesses and said that the class had to work on summarizing them diligently if they wanted to have the chance to hear my introduction and ask me questions at the end of class. She and I then floated around and helped with vocabulary and such. Some of the students kept raising their hands to ask me questions whereas others were wary of me and waited until I passed by to ask their regular teacher for help. I don’t blame them! They didn’t know who I was and whether or not I was qualified to assist them. I enjoyed trying to find ways to get them to understand unfamiliar words, such as “overdue,” in which case I used the illustration of taking a book from the library or a video from the video store for a period of time, but then having to take it back before a certain date or else it was __________. One girl in the group of two got it right away, and she explained it to her partner.
So the reason that I said this day didn’t end as victoriously as it had started with the notification of passing scores on all three subtests is that I started developing a migraine during one of these classes – probably because I had woken up so abnormally early – and realized that I hadn’t restocked the emergency medication that I carry on my person after the last time I had one = worst. feeling. ever. There wasn’t much I could do, especially since I couldn’t go straight home due to an appointment I had with a Fulbright staff person to take care of some paperwork that hadn’t gone through properly towards getting my equivalent of a work visa validated, which is important. So I treated myself to dinner, at least, and didn’t do much else that evening other than paying my kitchenmate who is organizing the outing to Sister Act because she’s buying the seats together. The only saving grace was that it was just a half-day of work rather than one that lasted until 5:00 pm. Now I know to get my bedtime/wake-up schedule organized, even when I’m not working, and to make sure I’m always armed in case of migraines.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Week That Flew By…Plus a Couple of Weekends

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!
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.)
Chantilly - Interior
Chantilly - Exterior
Chantilly in the sunlight
Chantilly - Gardens
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.
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.
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.?
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.)
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
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 :)