Overall, I had a much better experience this past year in the classroom. The kids were better behaved (for the most part, I only really had one 'incident' where a student exposed himself to another student), and the teachers were more considerate in letting me know what was going on and how I could be more effective at practicing what they knew. But, every class was just a little bit different, and every teacher used me in different ways, that I never really got the hang of what they wanted from me. I think that I met or exceeded their expectations, but I still have anxiety over the fact that I wasn't doing the job well since I wasn't sure what they wanted.
In the weeks leading up to the end, I was invited on a few field trips with the students. I went to a couple of science exhibits, and learned that France is an area where there was once sea, and that there have been quite a few pre-history organisms found in the area. The main thing I gained from the field trips, though, was that I got to visit the Château de Fontainebleau, which was gorgeous. I think I might even prefer it to Versailles. The bus to go there was a rickety old thing, and we ate lunch in the gardens on the grounds. Even though we were on a field trip, lunch was still two hours, and the kids got to run around and play a form of tag that had to do with putting people in the dungeons, very appropriate since we were at a castle. We visited the castle in groups of 6-10, and after the tour of the castle, we waited outside for the rest of the groups. To keep the kids from being too restless, they were given pencils and paper to draw the castle. However, there were still kids running around trying to roughhouse.
The last day in class, one of the teachers asked her students how many of them liked English at the beginning of the year. Two raised their hands. Then, she asked them how many liked English now, and every single student had their hand in the air. She then sat me down in front of the classroom, and I said I felt like I was sitting on a throne, so a kid pulled out a cardboard crown he'd had from a play they did recently as a class, and I wore it while they went around the room and thanked me for teaching English. Now, that was really sweet! Some of the students got a little bit out of hand, saying that the regular teacher didn't speak English (even though she spoke VERY well), and that he wouldn't have learned anything if not for me. Well, it wasn't so great saying bad stuff about his teacher, but it was nice to know that he had a good time when I was in the class with them.
Other teachers used the last day for their students to draw me pictures to say goodbye. Some were generic, but others you could tell had a lot of heart in them. I also left an email address with the students, and I have about 10 that email me occasionally to see what's new.
In the rest of my life, things were a bit disconnected for the last couple of months. I visited a few places, like La Defense, just to visit them. I went to see the opera of Romeo and Juliet with my assistant friends. I had my friend Sarah from London stay with me for a night when she was in Paris. My fellow Spanish auxiliar, Sara, also came for a visit at the beginning of April and we visited EuroDisney. I wandered new areas of Paris, like the Parc de Bercy, which was quite near where I lived but where I had never been before. I went to the Musée de Rodin since I had never been, but I'd heard wonderful things, and I got in free due to my teacher discount.
Then, there was the last trip I took. Kelly, a friend who works at HEC now, accompanied me to Orléans for the Fête Medievale. I had wanted to go to this since I went to Orléans the first time in 2009. This is basically a two week festival, commemorating Joan of Arc's arrival and eventual liberation of Orléans. I had a colleague that was from the city, and she told me that it would have been better to have gone the weekend of May 8th, but I guess I'll just have to go back someday. As it was, Kelly and I went on May 1st, a Sunday. I had not really been able to find online where the festival was at, so we had to just walk and try to find it. We went by the cathedral, by the Loire, and around to different places. We narrowly avoided a protest, and we saw evidence of Joan's ride through the city earlier in the day. With all of this, it took us forever to find the festival.
Once we got there, it wasn't quite what I expected. It was held across the river, overlooking Orléans. It's cool that this is where the French camped out, back in the day when they were trying to liberate the city, but it was so far to walk to get there. The fête seemed more like an excuse for people to camp out for the weekend and pretend they lived during the 1400s. There were a few demonstrations going on, a few items for sale, but mostly it was people living their lives as it would have been over half a millenia ago. There were a few food stands, but the people staying there for the weekends had their pigs roasting on spits. There were a few hands-on demonstrations, like teaching kids how to shoot a bow and arrow, but there were also guys preparing for battle in their encampments (never mind that they were being taped by tons of cameras). Kelly and I wandered, and ended up laying in the grass for a while relaxing in the sun before the big joust began.
About 15 minutes before the joust, some performers came out. I guess the best way to describe them would be as animal tamers. The animals, however, were sort of dragon-like, and walking around on stilts. I was one of their unfortunate victims - as they walked around, they went to areas where people were sitting and tried to trap them between their arms and legs.... I guess instead of trying to get out I took the 'play dead' course of action. Part of me was thinking I'd knock the person over if I tried to get out, though. Pretty soon they went on to another group of unsuspecting victims.
The joust was all right. The theme was something to do with King Arthur and his knights trying to win Excalibur. I wondered if they were the same group I had seen in Tours in 2009, but there's not really a way to be sure. The most eventful part, in my mind, was that the center line had fire, and it caught the cloth on fire. There were people running to the railings every time the horses went by trying to stop the fire with sand, but it didn't do much good.
After the joust, I rushed Kelly to get back to the center of town. Joan of Arc was parading through the city again, and we caught up with her finally. The parade was full of boy and girl scouts, and once Joan got to the center of the city, she stopped and each troop came up to salute her. It was a pretty interesting ritual, in my opinion. When it was all over, Kelly and I went to a restaurant on the square, one of the only ones in town that appeared to be open. We then walked back to the train station, and I exchanged my ticket for an earlier train, but Kelly was unable to do change her ticket, too. So, we parted ways at the train station.
I then used the rest of my time to pack up, really. I cleaned my apartment (which was a waste, since my landlord still charged me for cleaning and took it out of my deposit), and I left Paris. It was bittersweet, really. I am ready to enter a new chapter in my life, but I was sad to leave this wonderful city and the friends I've made there, even if they've moved on to other places, too. Now I'm looking to start a career, and I hope that my experiences these past three years in Spain and France will count toward finding a position that will be a good fit. Until then, hello unemployment!
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