First day of class in the front of the room...

It's Tuesday here in France and I just finished my first two days as a teaching assistant.  I have had a wide range of experiences these last couple of days so sit back and enjoy my roller coaster week!

This past weekend was pretty quiet, I didn't have any grand plans, just to meet with the other assistants for lunch and maybe some coffee.  We went back to the first creperie we went to together, Rose and Grey.  I think it is safe to say that we will be having lunch here every Saturday we are in Caen.  Not only is this the cutest little restaurant in France that you will ever see but there is the sweetest, kind, warm-hearted woman who works there making all of the galettes and crepes.  We sat in the front of the restaurant this time and I ordered the set menu which came with a galette Normandy (a version of a crepe only with cheese, ham, and an egg inside), a sugar crepe for dessert and a cafe (coffee in France, one espresso shot, very strong).  All for only 7,50 euro.  Most restaurants have a set menu like this and we have all found that it is worth it to order the set menu because you get the different courses and it's not terribly expensive.  Throughout the course of our meal, this sweet woman who either works at or owns the creperie kept coming back to us and sometimes correcting us if we said something wrong in French.  I know that she is the one who makes all of the food at the restaurant so we were thrilled when she kept coming back and talking to us as if we were friends.  We told her we would come back every Saturday and she agreed that we would have a "lesson" during lunch each time.  We all just love her, so it's safe to say we know what we are doing this Saturday at noon.  We had dinner together Saturday night at a different place, and Hannah brought some of her house mates who are assistants in other languages.  We went to an Italian restaurant that night and had a wonderful evening eating and talking.  

Sunday, Margaux came to church with me at Saint-Pierre.  She was interested in seeing what mass is like and also wanted to experience a mass in such a beautiful cathedral.  I tried my best to explain to her what was happening throughout the mass but I am still getting used to the responses myself because they are in French.  Luckily, the parts of mass do not change from region to region so I know exactly what part of mass we are at, I just might not fully understand the prayer being said.  But I am proud to say that I can now answer "Et avec votre espirit"( and also with you), sing along with songs if I have the words in front of me, and follow along with the "Notre Pere" (Our Father) although I still do not know the words in French to participate.  That is my next goal.  Nadege told me that she would write it down for me. 

After church, we went to McDonalds, to use their free wi-fi to plan our trip during our first vacation.  Although we were there for far too long, we got a lot done and our trip is booked!  Margaux and I will be taking a ferry to London, staying for about 5 days, heading on an overnight bus to Edinburgh, Scotland, staying for about 3 days before flying to Dublin for a 3 more days and then making the trek back the day before we have to teach again.  We are very excited to be able to experience all of these new places. While we are in London, Margaux is planning to visit Oxford, while I take a day trip to Wales.  Then, one day the two of us will take a day trip to Stonehenge, Windsor, and Bath.  Needless to say, I can't wait and am very excited!

Monday, my contract started.  I arrived at Jules Verne High School in the afternoon and had 3 hours of class that day.  For those of you who don't know, high schools in France are separated similar to American colleges.  They have to know what they want to study and based on that they will go to a specific high school.  Jules Verne is a technological high school, which means  kids who what to study mechanics and engineering go to this school.  It also means that the majority are boys.  And when I say majority, I mean that I have only 4 female students in the 6 different classes I teach in.  That is background you will need for my stories.  So, I had spoken to the teachers before and I knew that I was simply going to introduce myself to the students and answer any questions they might have.  The first class was nothing short of a frustrating, disastrous, train wreck.  These boys talked the entire class period with absolutely no respect to their teacher and did not show any motivation in class at all.  When I went to the front to introduce myself, the quieted for about a minute before resuming their chatter.  I definitely stood my ground, showed them I would not take all of their chit-chat and laughing fits.  Some of them were very nice and participating in asking me questions but some were complete brats.  I would address them directly, they would look down, ignore me, and then as soon as I turned my attention to someone else, they were talking again.  Luckily, this was by far the worst class I have had and I do not think the other students will give me as much grief as those ones.  I only have them for about 55 minutes a week so it is manageable.   I went back to the high school Tuesday and had a wonderful class who were all interested in American culture and asked me very intelligent questions as well.  I guess that in every school there are going to be hooligans and there are going to be angel students.  This is just a little of what I have to get used to. 

And finally today was my first day at the middle school Lechanteur and I was very pleased with that class as well.  The teacher had made them a worksheet of questions to ask me which was very thorough.  This is an advanced English class, so the students have 2 more hours a week of English than the other students and are very motivated.  I had a great time with them and found that their English skills are quite good.  I am really looking forward to working more with them.  They seemed very interested in the geography of America when I explained where I was from, where I went to school, how far away Stephen goes to school, and where Maine is located in the United States.  Next week, I think I will work more with them about the geography of America and see where they would want to go if they had the chance.   

I am off tomorrow (Wednesday) and Thursday I am at the middle school for about 4 hours.  It has been a great start to the week and I can't wait to continue.  It is definitely wearing me out but it's nice to finally have a set schedule again.  I'm sure Thursday will come bring many more experiences and stories and I'm really looking forward to it.  Until then, I need to go buy a new hair straightener (my American one broke Monday) and figure out a way to up my Facebook privacy since I am getting quite a few requests from French high schoolers.   

C'est la bonne vie pour moi! :)