First Impressions

After a too-short stint spent on the home turf, I have returned to France.  I think the anxiety of my return to teaching made me terribly antisocial while I was home, so I didn’t contact as many people as I would have liked.  I did make it out to the Fair Grove Fall Festival, though, which I really enjoyed.  In all, I felt that my zombie time served me well as I was still recovering from the shouts of three-year-olds.

Now that I am in France, I can still feel that ‘funk’ that I was in, but I hope that I am slowly creeping out of it.  You see, I visited my schools this week.  The first thing I noticed was the lack of screaming.  Due to my experience with Spanish schools, I never would have realized that the building even had children hidden behind the doors, until recess that is, but kids need to let their steam off sometime.  My first impression was that this year actually has the chance to be completely different from last year.  I am working with slightly older children (8-11 compared to my majority of kids between 3 and 5 last year), and these kids actually seemed like they pay attention to the teacher.  Who knows, it may have been because I was walking around with the director, but even just walking through the hallways it seemed like there was very little noise from the classrooms.  So, I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve bought into the notion that a child is to be seen and not heard, right?  But I’m actually thinking it is less than that.  There were very few times when I felt I had the attention of even a few of the kids last year, and just going through the classes it seemed that here the kids were giving their teachers their undivided attention.

My welcome was also much better than last year – someone from the school district showed me around and she introduced me to the director and the teachers, and then I went into all of the classes I’ll be with and told them my name and what I would be doing with them.  Throughout the day, I think my French held up all right, but I could tell I was really starting to waver by the end of the day.  Maybe I’ll have a better rapport with the teachers since I can speak French, and they all seemed shocked that I could.  But maybe having that ability to socialize with them at lunch will also make my time in their schools less awkward than it was last year, as well.

Then, I had my first days of official work, which I spent observing / assisting.  I guess it went all right, and it is still a lot better than Spain, but it seems that each teacher will want something different from me and I’m not really sure how that will work out.  Some want me to take groups from the class and work with them in a more personalized setting, and others want me to just assist during their class.  And while the level of English of the teachers teaching English seems to be higher than in Spain, there is still a wide range of proficiency.  And it seems that the ones less comfortable in English are trying to get the children to understand concepts that are still way beyond them.  I tried to say this, but it didn’t go over very well…  Oh, well, I guess I’ll just see how it goes, and hopefully since I only work two days a week (yes!) it will go a lot better than last year and that 'funk' will move away from my life.

On getting settled in France, I suppose you could say I’ve cheated a little bit compared to the other assistants.  I already had a bank account from my previous stay (which, I was chewed out a little bit for leaving it open, but at least I already have an account!).  For lodging, I just used an agency so I would have a place to stay as soon as I got here.  I’m only in this apartment for the first month, and then I’m moving closer to my train line.  I’m currently near the most famous cemetery in Paris, Père Lachaise, and while it seems to be a good enough area, I still feel like I’m cut off from other parts of Paris.  To get to the center, it’s taking me about half an hour by metro, and to get to my train station so I can take the RER another hour to my two towns it’s taking between 25 and 40 minutes.  My new place will be near Bastille, which is only one stop away from the train stations I need.  So, that will be much better to cut down my commute time.

I have heard that a few people have already left the program because they haven’t been able to find a place to live.  I know a lot of assistants feel that they were deceived a bit about how easy it would be to find somewhere, but it’s all a part of the game, really.

As far as the other assistants, I feel like I’ve started to make friends with a few of them.  I don’t think we’ll have any other official time together as our two days of orientation are now over, but we’ve exchanged phone numbers and email addresses, and I feel that I've been staying busy between school and going out doing things.

Last Saturday was La Nuit Blanche here in Paris, when a lot of museums and special exhibitions are open for the entire night.  I went out with Kelly and Max, and also invited another assistant, Rebecca, along.  We had crepes at Creperie Josselin, and then walked for ice cream and just wandered around to find things going on.  It seemed that everyone was out!  We went into the Police station to see a marble sculpture exhibit, there was a light show on at Notre Dame, and we went across a bridge that had a huge square metal structure built over it.  I’ve also been to a one-man show with a couple of other assistants entitled “How to become Parisian in one hour” which was quite good, and picked fun at the French, Americans, and several other nationalities.  And tonight I’ll be going for Chinese food with a few people, so I guess you could say I’m staying busy.