One week of teaching…then two weeks of vacation

Sorry it has been such a long time since I have updated, but it’s because I’ve just been living life the French way. I worked for one week…and then went on vacation for two. Makes sense right?

To review, I should have started working on October 1^st. Well, because the teachers at my school are French, they see “time” as a fluid concept. “Organization” does not exist in their vocabulary. I didn’t receive my schedule until two weeks after I should have started teaching. I asked about it several times, but they just said, “Come back next week...don’t worry about it... you can start later.”

The first week after I received my schedule, almost none of the teachers were ready for me to observe their classes (I don’t know why, but they said I would “disturb” the class). I ended up only attending one fourth of my classes (3 out of 12). So in actuality, I really didn’t start teaching until the third week in October.

However, the last week of October and the first week of November are vacation weeks in France, for the Toussaint holiday (All Saints’ Day). As a result, I had one week of teaching, followed by two weeks of vacation. I have now been back from vacation for two weeks, bringing my grand total up to three weeks of teaching so far. This past week was the first in which I actually taught all twelve of my classes!

I teach twelve classes a week, equating to twelve hours in front of the students. In typical French fashion, I only teach 3 to 4 days a week and usually only one full day, morning and afternoon, anyways (not bad, eh?). I take about 7-15 students each time, which can be anywhere from half to a quarter of the full class, while the rest of the students stay with their regular teacher. The groups alternate each week, meaning I see most of my students every other week at the most or only once a month at the least.

I teach high school, the French equivalents of 10^th – 12^th grades, but the ages here vary widely. I have students as young as 14 and many who are 22, as old as me! This is a result of a major difference between the French and American education systems. When French students enter high school, they must choose (or have chosen for them) which subject track they will follow, either Literature, Economics and Social Science, Physical Science, or any number of technical/professional paths, from marketing to carpentry. Once the student chooses, it is extremely difficult to change and really does determine what career path they will follow, especially whether or not they can go to university, and if they do, what university they will attend.

I cannot imagine having to decide what I would want to do for the rest of my life at 14. But that is reality for French students. I have students from all of the tracks, including technical students. As a result, my students’ English levels are quite varied. In my literature or economics/social science classes, the students speak at a very high level and can discuss complex subjects. In my technical classes, we’re still working on how to say “My favorite movie is...”

In the same vein, the behavior in my classes can vary greatly. Some classes are very well behaved, like what you would imagine a strict French classroom from the 1950s was like. For example, these classes stand at their seats in silence until I tell them they may sit down. At the other end of the spectrum, a couple classes can be zoo-like; shouting, throwing things, doing other homework, etc.

Luckily, all of my students, so far, have been extremely nice to me. Actually, of the “difficult” classes, the students are much better behaved and respectful with me than with their regular teachers. Probably because they know when they are with me they get to play games and watch movies, while with their teacher they do grammar exercises. So if they get out of hand with me, back to grammar for them! Still for the most part, the kids seem to be genuinely excited to have an American teacher and learn about the US.

I spent my first weeks of teaching just getting to know the kids, their favorite movies, tv shows, music, and hobbies. Many of which are the same as any regular teenager in the US. They watch Grey’s Anatomy and Gossip Girl on TV. The girls love Twilight. Everyone listens to Beyonce and the Black Eyed Peas.

Though there are several fads among the French high schoolers that are way behind the times in the US or just never really existed. Prison Break is hands down the most popular TV show, which I’m pretty sure was never, ever popular in the US. I mean, is it even still on the air? Although now I regret not watching it, because all my students yell at me when I say I have never seen an episode. The boys are all obsessed with Scarface and wrestling, like WWE, which they call “Le Catch” for some reason. And everyone, I mean everyone, has razor scooters. The bike racks at the school are filled with scooters, not bikes. This bizarre fad extends beyond school kids too. I see business people riding down the street on razor scooters. So weird.

I also let the students ask me any questions they wanted about me, my life, or just the United States in general. Most of the questions were pretty standard, where I am from, do I like France, but some questions were quite complex and intelligent. I had questions about healthcare, 9/11, or Arabs in the US (at least 75% of my students are North African/Arab immigrants). I also have gotten some really hysterical questions. For example, they all want to know if graduation really is like in the movies, especially with the caps being thrown into the air. They are always very happy to learn that it is, because no such ceremony exists in France. I have been invited to a “couscous party.” But my favorite questions have been, “Do you have a gun?” and “How can I get a green card?” The last question was followed by a marriage proposal.

This past week I’ve also started doing Thanksgiving lessons. I love explaining all the Thanksgiving foods to them (although it makes me really hungry). When I explain what stuffing and pumpkin pie are, usually at least one student exclaims putain! (a commonly used curse word in French). Even if they don’t like the thought of stuffing, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie, they have all been interested in learning about the Thanksgiving traditions, many of which they have seen in movies or on TV. I really had a great time teaching them about my favorite holiday.

All in all, I have enjoyed teaching so far, even with all the frustrations about the French lack of organization or my talkative students. I’m sure I will soon have many more teaching stories to tell. I definitely have plenty more differences between the US and French education systems to discuss. But this post has gotten quite long, so I’ll stop here. Though in the coming days, look out for posts on my vacation and my life outside of work in Lyon.

Jaime ma vie francaise

I think it’s about time I explain the title of my blog to the non-French speakers out there. Jaime ma vie francaise has two meanings in French. “Ma vie francaise” translates to “my French life.” So the first meaning of my title is simply “Jaime: My French life,” a pretty basic description. However, my first name, when written with an apostrophe “J’aime”, means “I love” in French. Using this meaning, my title is “I love my French life," which I find much more appropriate.

I absolutely love my French life. The past two weeks I have really settled into Lyon. I constantly meet new people from all over the world. Two different maps are always in my purse. I discover a new part of this huge city everyday. But even in a city of millions, I accidentally run into friends around town. In my neighborhood, the waitress at the café recognizes me. I can sometimes even give directions.

Erin and I at a café after running into each other in town

I would be lying if I pretended everything has gone perfectly. For the first time in my life, I am not a student. I’m starting my post-graduate life in another country, which adds another layer of difficulty to an already tough transition. Frustrations undoubtedly lead to bouts of homesickness. Looking back I know I experienced homesickness when studying abroad in Angers. But back then I was so incredibly busy with classes and homework, I did not have time to realize I was homesick. Here, I only started working this past week, leaving me a lot more time to be homesick. Not to worry though, the spells of homesickness end quickly when I go out for a nutella crepe with my wonderful roommates or a café crème with a friend.

I should have started teaching on October 1st. In typical slow-paced French fashion, I actually started teaching this past Monday, approximately two and a half weeks later. I’ll tell you about my first week of teaching later, but for now here are some highlights of my couple weeks of paid vacation.

Besides lots of errands with my roommates, many afternoons spent lounging in cafés or parks, and evening drinks (apéros in French) at English pubs or friend’s apartments, I have also spent time being a tourist. One Wednesday afternoon I planned with a group of other assistants to visit a museum. Our first attempt, the World War II Resistance museum, was closed…due to a strike. How French. After stopping at a café (of course) and watching a movie being filmed on the square in front of city hall, we tried again and went to the Musée des Beaux Arts (art museum). The museum is built inside an old church/monastery and features art and artifacts from ancient Egyptian up to the modern works of Picasso. Although a few rooms were closed, because of the museum workers strike (seriously, I kid not), I had a great afternoon.

Courtyard at the art museum

Two Saturdays ago the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) building was open for visitors. It is only open one day a year, so I certainly did not miss the chance to tour the beautiful building constructed in the mid-1600s with some assistant friends.

Me at the City Hall


The whole group at City Hall, with the Opera Building behind us

Inside we found an interesting mix of ballrooms decorated in the style of the Second Empire of France, a modernly decorated mayor’s office, and practical conference rooms.

A Second Empire Ballroom


The out of place decor in the Mayor's office

In one room of the building, entertainment groups and venues from around the city set up booths to promote their events. I took home a huge bag (about as heavy as a small child) full of information. Included in this was a coupon to attend a performance of a play written by Emile Zola (the namesake of the street I live on here and a famous French author) that same night. With an offer to get tickets for 8 Euro instead of 35, my friends and I decided pourquoi pas (Why not?). We ended up getting front row seats! I really enjoyed the play and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I understood almost everything they said. I guess my year in Angers really did pay off for my French!

The following Sunday after church a couple friends and I went to a “salon,” meaning an exhibition of traditional food and wine from the area. With free tickets my friend Erin’s teacher had given her, we were lucky enough to spend the afternoon tasting cheese, wine, frog legs, wine, meats, wine, sauces, wine, desserts, and…did I mention wine? All for free. Needless to say we had a great time and even took some delicious treats home.

Friday before I went to the city hall I actually did kind of work. The school district had an orientation meeting for all the English assistants in the city that I attended for much of the day. Although the district employees were generally unhelpful, I got some helpful ideas to use in the classroom in the afternoon session. Even better though, I met tons more English assistants in the area (there are about 60ish in total). After the meeting, I went off to a café with new friends I had met that day. Some of these new friends were a married couple, both English assistants, who very kindly ended up inviting me and another assistant over for a delicious home-cooked meal (much better than my sorry attempts at cooking). We spent the night dreaming about vacation plans for the rest of the year. I finished the long day with drinks at a Scottish pub, a popular ex-pat hangout in Lyon. The place was packed, both with locals and other assistants I had met that day, many of which were British. I had an enjoyable night, especially when the live band played an amazing Britney cover.

Now that I’ve caught up to this past weekend, I’ll stop here. But be prepared for a post tomorrow about the most random and surreal, yet awesome night of my time here so far. Oh, and I may talk about my job a bit…

L'auberge espagnole: Part Deux

L’auberge espagnole (The Spanish Hostel) is a film I watched my senior year of high school for a French class project. It’s about Xavier, a French college student who spends a year studying abroad in Spain with the Erasmus program. After a horrendously difficult apartment search (which many of my fellow teaching assistants are now suffering through, sorry!), Xavier ends up living in a flat with 6 other Erasmus students from all over Europe. The movie follows the roommates’ adventures living in a foreign country, learning a new language, and trying to understand each other and their cultures.

In high school, I remember thinking I would love to live in an international apartment like Xavier. Now, I actually am. In the apartment provided by my school, I am living with the school’s German and Arabic teaching assistants. The German assistant, Ramona, is from Austria and the Arabic assistant, Aya, comes from Palestine. The last time I posted, I only had one roommate, Ramona. Wednesday night, when Ramona and I returned from a day of being tourists and exploring Lyon, we opened the door to find “surprise!” (again), we had a new roommate, Aya, who had been alone in our apartment all day wondering if she actually had other roommates! Plus, we will eventually be getting one more roommate, although right now it’s all up in the air as to whether our fourth and final roommate will be from Spain, the UK, or another Palestinian. We just have to wait and see. I imagine we’ll probably come home again one night to find the fourth room occupied.

Most of my past week has been spent getting to know my new roommates. Although we unfortunately don’t have a common room or living room in our apartment, we’ve become completely comfortable hanging out in each others’ rooms. Just like in the film, we try to speak mostly French (emphasis on try), but we really end up speaking a mixture of French and English (which they both speak fluently, better than their French actually, putting me to shame as a speaker of only two languages) with frequent games of charades thrown in to help us understand each other. Sometimes we even use pictures. Regardless of the language barriers, we’ve been having a great time, or at least I have!

We come from three different, basically polar opposite backgrounds, but we all bond over shared experiences getting started here in Lyon. I really appreciate having two people who come with me to the bank or the grocery store. On their first days here, I got to play tour guide a bit since I had been living here for a few days already. But now we help each other find the nearest laundromat or understand our cell phone plans. We complain together about complicated French bureaucracy and laugh together when we enter and exit the metro three times before finding where we want to go.

The three of us have also come to Lyon with different friends, some from home and some we’ve just met through our programs, but we always take each other along to get togethers with friends around town. So our little international circle of friends in Lyon just keeps getting bigger! On Friday night last week, there was a massive get together of all the teaching assistants in Lyon, from every language. In all, I think there was about 50-60 people there! I had a great time meeting people from literally all over the world, (England, Russia, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and more!) , as we spent the night mingling on the terrace of a café located in the shadow of the beautiful Cathedral St. Jean.

Cathedral St. Jean

Besides other meet-ups with friends I met on Friday night, I’ve also been making French friends. A friend, Spencer, who I met in the US through Liz and Korey (my best friend from Pittsburgh and her husband) actually is dating a Lyon resident, Harmony. Harmony and I met up for a typical French afternoon at a café on Friday, spending hours chatting in the sunlight. Then Saturday she brought me along to an afternoon BBQ with her university friends. It was great fun seeing what a French BBQ is like. They call it a BBQ because they grill hotdogs on a mini charcoal grill, put them on ripped off pieces of baguette, and eat them with spicy mustard spread. I must say, they were better than most American hot dogs in my book. I also had another great day getting to know some native Lyonnais.

All together, my week was spent meeting new friends at cafés and restaurants, running errands around town, and not working. I did accomplish some important steps in getting settled here. I got a cell phone, filled out paperwork, did major grocery shopping, and reopened my French bank account (which I found out had 121 Euros in it I didn’t know about!). What I have not been doing is working. I am basically on a paid vacation right now. Even though I was supposed to have started on Thursday, the teacher in charge of my schedule at my school hasn’t made it yet. He told me not to worry about working or observing any classes until I get my schedule. When that will be? TBD. Until that happens, I love getting acquainted with international friends and the city of Lyon.

A view of Lyon from a top its highest hill

Back into life a la Francaise

After recapping my two days in Paris, its now time to get back to the present. Sorry this post is so long, but after this, I'm finally caught up to the present!

For the past five days, I've been happily and, honestly, pretty easily settling into my new life in Lyon. Since I have lived in France before, everything seems much easier the second time around. I know what to except from French bureaucracy (slowness). I understand and am accustomed to the French pace of life (again, slower). I can actually speak the language this time, which not surprisingly, makes adjusting to a new setting a lot less stressful. Basically, with most of what I am now experiencing, I can say, "I've done it all before."

As a result, the last half a week has been quite pleasant. Although I still don't have a bank account or a cell phone, I'm not really concerned about them. I am just going with the flow and slowly establishing myself in Lyon. Mostly, I've been meeting new friends and colleagues, running errands, and just exploring this beautiful city.

A view of Lyon

Lyon is the second largest city in France (behind Paris, of course). It is built upon the hills on the banks of Saone and Rhone rivers and the island created where they meet. Half way between Paris and the coast, the city was founded by the Romans, serving as the capital of Roman Gaul (I'll post plenty more on the history of Lyon later, the history geek in me promises). Today, Lyon is well-known as the gastronomic capital of the country (yeah!). Hundreds of thousands of college students study here at 3 large universities. With a metro population of 4.5 million, Lyon is known globally as a center of commerce and home to the Championship League football (soccer) team, Olyimpique Lyonnais.

The city is divided into 9 districts and several suburbs. I am actually living and teaching in a suburb of Lyon: Villeurbanne. Although technically a suburb, Villeurbanne is located just below the 6th district, often called the Upper East Side of Lyon, and the Parc de la Tete d'Or (the Park of the Golden Head). I am living just a few blocks from both the 6th district and the park, one of the largest parks in Europe, so quite a nice location for me.

My school, where I live, is in the area of Villeurbanne known as les Gratte-Ciels, meaning the skyscrapers. Here's why:

The view from my window

The buildings you see in the picture I took from my window are skyscrapers according to French standards, meaning really any building over 5 stories high...not exactly the Sears Tower or Cathedral of Learning.

I've been exploring the neighborhood here over the last few days and it is quite nice. It has everything I could ever need: a great boulangerie (bakery), two big supermarkets, banks, all three major cell phone companies, a laundromat, movie theater, restaurants, cafes, and parks. Plus, its right along two metro lines and a tramway, although my ability to use these has been severely hindered by the transportation strike (which yes is still going on!).

I live in an apartment on the top floor of a building attached to the high school where I will be teaching. The other apartments are full of teachers, faculty, and staff at the school. My apartment has four separate bedrooms, a bit like a college dorm, where we each have a bed, desk, two wardrobes, sink, and mirror. Then we share a common kitchen, shower, and toilet.

My bedroom, furnished with the same Ikea sheets I have at home!

Thursday and Friday I spent the days exploring my neighborhood and the districts around it, including a HUGE mall close by. I have never before seen a mall in France (except for the famous Les Halles in Paris) and have definitely been enjoying this one! Although I have managed to mostly restrain myself from buying anything, I made one non-necessity purchase: the book Twilight in French (called Fascination). I just couldn't help myself. I was too curious.

Saturday I met up with two other American assistants, Erin and Anne, that I had talked with through facebook. We had lunch with Erin's roommates, a French and a Polish university students. We had a great lunch (courtesy of Erin) and a lot of great conversation. After a long lunch I went to the center of Lyon just to see a bit more of the city. Well, not only did I see the city, I think I saw quite a few of its residents!

As I experienced in Angers, Saturdays are for shopping in France. The French flock to the pedestrian streets in their cities, filling the stores and cafes with huge crowds of people. Lyon certainly seemed to follow this custom. You could hardly move along the streets they were so crowded! Also in typical French fashion, the main square in the city was holding two little festivals: one a concert benefiting the handicapped, the other a rollerblading festival. Completely unrelated of course. I had such a fantastic time just being around so many people and seeing how the residents of my new city spend their Saturdays. I always loved shopping Saturdays in Angers so it was nice to experience it again here.

One of the pedestrian shopping streets

Sunday morning I also followed French custom and went out to the grocery store and bakery. Almost every store in France is closed on Sundays, based on the Catholic tradition of resting on the Sabbath. The supermarkets and bakeries that are open only stay open for about 3 hours, from 9 am - Noon, just enough time for the French to do their shopping for Sunday lunch. I joined the crowd at the supermarket, stood in line at the bakery (a line that wrapped all the way down the block!) and felt very French while doing so. It also made me really feel like a part of my neighborhood.

When I returned to my apartment, I ended up being invited to lunch with the family of the facilities manager for the high school, who live in the apartment just below me. Sunday lunch in France is a big deal. A major tradition. It typically is a several course meal, lasting all afternoon. It is a time for family and friends to just enjoy each others' company. The manager and his wife have three children, a 21 year old daughter in college, a 17 year old daughter in her last year of high school, and a 12 year old son. We had a fantastic 5 course French meal and I loved getting to know their family. They were so welcoming and kind. It was nice to be among a French family again. Sunday lunches are by far one of my most favorite traditions in France (even more than shopping Saturdays!) so I loved taking part. And of course, the meal was amazing!

Yesterday, I woke up to the building manager telling me, "Surprise, you have a roommate coming tonight!" Until yesterday I had been living in the 4 bedroom apartment alone. In the normal French fashion, the school administrators didn't really know if they would have any other language assistants joining me. However, just yesterday afternoon, they discovered a German teaching assistant would be arriving that night! My new roommate, Ramona, from Austria, arrived last night. I spent the day today showing her around our area and helping her get settled in. She is incredibly nice and I think we will get along great. Its also been nice to have someone else in the apartment with me. Plus, even though I know she speaks English very well, we've decided to only speak in French, which has been a great help in refreshing and getting back into the groove of speaking French again.

I've had a fantastic first half week in Lyon..and I've only seen a tiny bit of the city so far! It is definitely shaping up to be a great year. Even more so, however, I am just incredibly excited to be returning to the French way of life that I grew to love 3 years ago.