Giant Update

So, sorry I've been kind of neglecting this blog, but we just got internet in the apartment over the break (yes, we already had a break), and I wanted to travel on my days off. I didn't talk about the second week of work in my last post, but it flew by. I've been accumulating ideas and material in my bag of tricks for the students, and I'm feeling more and more comfortable reaching the kids and finding out how to help them learn and have a good time all at once. We ended school just before Halloween. Benedikt went back to Germany to find out about job options for next year and Mirna went traveling to Lyon with some other assistants. As I had taken a big trip before school started and we hadn't been paid yet, I opted for staying in the apartment and hoping we got paid, haha. Speaking of my roomies, we get along great and enjoy cooking together, playing games, and watching movies, cuz there really isn't much to do after dark in Joigny. Here's some pictures of us together:

Here's Benedikt making Apfelpfankuchen (sp?)
Here's the finished product :)
This is me helping Mirna make tortillas
Mirna with a tortilla :)
Burritos, guacamole, beans, salad :) :)




Anyway, I spent a couple of days in Auxerre, because it's only 3 euros and 20 mins by train, and there was a spanish assistant from Argentina there in the same situation as I was in. We had a good time wandering around the city and hanging out. Then, we got the internet installed in the apartment, WOO!!!! It's super to have all the information and videos and movies and music at your fingertips, but I feel like I'm also stuck to my computer screen a lot more than I was. Give and take. After speaking to Mirna in Lyon and her inviting me to stay with another assistant in Le Mans, I decided that even though I hadn't been paid yet, no one had, I couldn't just stay in the apartment alone for Halloween. Everyone was hurting in the money department, but we were eating apples and crackers together at least, haha. Alma and Walter (mexican and canadian respectively) were super hosts in Le Mans and we had a super time discovering the city. The day after I arrived, we all got our paychecks and we celebrated by donning costumes and drinking in a local Irish Pub. It was a blast! After that we hopped on a train to Paris and spent more time together with Alma's sister Manse and Walter's friend from Canada, Julia. We all slept on the floor in Manse's studio, haha, but it was great to be with so many cool people and in a fun city like Paris. I have a VIP pass to get into all the national museums for free, so I thoroughly enjoyed spending a day in the Centre Pompidou: the modern/contemporary art museum :) :) I was also planning on visiting the Catacombs, but apparently they're closed for the year for renovations...oh well. It's still a blast just to walk around and enjoy Paris for what it is. And, I got replacements for my holy shoes, and a belt! haha
On the 4th Mirna and I ran back to Joigny to celebrate Benedikt's 30th birthday. Mirna made a chocolate cake and we went out for dinner for the first time together; we might do something else this weekend to keep the good times rolling. I didn't have any courses on the first day back to school, and I have to go to Dijon for a medical exam to validate my visa on Monday, so I'm kind of enjoying an extended vacation. But it doesn't feel right, haha. I feel like I should be working more...and working on grad school apps...
That's all for now I think. I'm going to try and figure out how to share my full photo albums with you all, any suggestions besides facebook?

Week One of Work

So, my weekend starts today! Not bad, huh? It's been a trying week, but I made it through all right.

This week I started teaching conversation classes of 3 to 11 students. The majority of the students have chosen to meet with me and want to practice learning English...for the most part, haha. My instructions were simple: "make them talk". This week was pretty difficult because it's really my first experience being in control of an entire class, albeit a small one, of students, and having to prepare classes without specific grammar or vocabulary concepts. Each group of students has both a focus of study and a designation of either seconde, premier or terminal: the system doesn't really correspond to the US system, but for simplicity sake we'll say that they are either sophomores, juniors or seniors. I have one group that's post-bac, which is much like studying for an associate's degree.

So with all these different levels it was really difficult to guess what media I should use to fuel discussion. I opened each class with an ice-breaker such as "tell me your name, where you live, a hobby, and 2 adjectives to describe Joigny" or "if you were a pizza topping what would you be" or "if you had the day off, what would you do". Really only the last one worked because a lot of the students don't live in Joigny and the concept of a pizza topping and imagining yourself as a food item didn't go over so big. This week has been an exercise in trial and error.

I've tried word games, riddles, pictures, songs, comics and articles this week, and I think I'm learning little by little what is going to work with each group. But, this is a lot more work than I thought I was going to be doing. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying I didn't expect this much.

Yesterday was an excercise in culture shock for me again. I went back to the france telecom/orange boutique to ask for internet again armed with my bank account information, the name of the last assistant who had internet in the apartment, and my passport. After waiting in line for another 20 minutes, the woman told me I would still need an official certificat saying that I live in the lycée and another form saying that I work at the lycée. I'm just not used to this. The last time we took the bus that only comes every hour to the boutique they were on strike, this time I had to wait for an hour for the bus empty-handed to go to another boutique where I got a better deal and signed up to get internet installed in the apartment on the 28th of october. Still quite a shock because in the US you would expect to get internet installed within the week, right? but there are miles of red tape in the France and I took a deep breath and tried to accept that at least the intertron is en route.

After the internet ordeal I wanted a beer. Yet another cultural difference. If I order a beer at a cafe/bar, I know I will get an itty bitty cup for about 2 euro. I opted for the food shop near the apart for some tall boys to watch not an american football game, but a european football game (france vs austria). I prefer the european football anywho.

Classes today went better than before; I think by the end of next week I should have things down pat. I keep filling up my bag with more and more tricks to pull out according to different groups' interests and/or levels. This means I can't really plan each class in detail, but I think it works better to be more flexible. Obviously if a group is having trouble responding to a text, I shouldn't give them more articles, but rather prepare another text for the next session that's more appropriate to their level and with a subject they can identify with.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try and post pics from bordeaux sometime soon.

Starting Work

So, where to start?

This past Thursday I went to a training/greeting for the new assistants in the académie of Dijon. It was pretty nice to back on the old stomping grounds, and I even got to go back to my favorite Irish pub, Flannery's and eat at the university. I met up with some English english assistants from Sens (about 20 mins away) and some other guys from OSU and we had a pretty good time. However, the training/greeting was also an opportunity for the French authorities to unload a metric ton of paperwork on all the non-european assistants. So, I've made friends with the school's copy machine and I'm thinking about filing a complaint against the French government for my developping carpal tunnel syndrome.

Saturday morning we were back in Joigny and an English professor was nice enough to take all the assistants to the town market and point out his favorite stands and goodies :) He also had us over for a 5-course "lunch" which was out of this world. We also had good fun gathering hazelnuts and walnuts from his garden and went to Guédelon, which was super, super cool. I think you would particularly like going there, Uncle Ernie.

Sunday I pretty much stayed in and slept. All this stuff has been really tiring for me, and a day of rest did me good.

This week I've been basically sitting in on classes and trying to get a feel for what will work to motivate the students. There isn't a lot of excitement in most of the classes to learn English, and I hope if I sprinkle in a few themes or subjects that really speak to the kids, then they might work a bit harder in the their classes. The levels really vary, there are some students that speak English really well, and others that struggle a lot, especially in oral expression. It seems that the French system in general has much higher expectations for students in written English than in spoken English. I guess my job is to help them out on their oral comprehension and expression. I've got some ideas, I'll keep you posted.

The search for internet continues. Everyone in the apartment wants to have internet installed; the issue is that we have to contact France telecom and get a landline and see if we can get a deal on the intertrons there. If not, we still have to go through France telecom to get a landline, then shop around for internet deals. The issue? the France telecom boutique is a good 40 walk or a bus ride away from the apartment...we went today and the workers are on strike!
How French.
Looks like it'll be a couple more days on that one.
On the other hand I did open a bank account today so I can get PAID :) :) :) at the end of the month...
It's gonna be an international fiesta with beaucoup de VIN
so good BTW- there's a little shop nearby that sells local appélations direct from the viniculteurs starting at 3€50. not bad at all, huh?
Also I'm excited about going to a free wine tasting this weekend in town with the other assistants. We're finding things to do.

Anywho, questions? comments?

I hope y'all r doin' real good back home.
à plus!

Back in Joigny

Hello all!
I'm back in Joigny and I've met up with the new assistants who are also my roomates for the school year :) First off, there's Mirna, the Spanish assistant who comes from Guadalajara, México. Looks like I'll have the chance to practice both Spanish and French this year! Secondly, there's the Cherman assistant, Benedikt who comes from Cologne, Uzbekistan.
That was a joke, he comes from Deutchland.
So far we all get along really well and we've been trying to communicate in broken French, haha. It's a blast. If you haven't seen the film l'Aubèrge espagnole yet, you should rent it to get a bit of an idea of the living conditions.

Last but not least, I have an address now, so feel free to send postcards, livestock, single slices of american cheese, or duct tape:

John PETRUS

Lycée "Louis DAVIER" -Apt. 8

Avenue Molière BP 247

89306 JOIGNY Cedex

FRANCE

More pictures to follow once I have internet in the apt. Ta ta for now!

BORDEAUX

Hey everyone! I am having an absolute blast in Bordeaux. I'm surfing a couch here at a really nice apartment with Jérome, Vincent, and Fabrice my hosts. So far we've had international dinners every nite with excellent, excellent wine, I made paprikas last nite and everyone thought it was really good, and I've had the chance to tour the town with one of my hosts who pointed out all the little details in the history and the architecture of the town that i would have never seen otherwise.
I think that's all for now, haha. I'll talk details when I post pix later.
Much love!

AHA! Photo time

So I finally found a computer that will take my memory card; photos will start in Lourdes with the Pic du Jer that I climbed with all my gear:

Here's me at the top:

Here I am very tired and out of water:
But it was worth it for the view!

This is the famous pain au chocolat that I wouldn't stop talking about to my family:

On to Cauterets!:

Pretty darn high up there:

But with miles and miles of berry bushes; rasberries, blackberries, blueberries....

And cool glacial lakes:

And this was the trail:

Hey y'all. I'm in Pau right now, headin' to Bayonne tomorrow afternoon. So far so good. I went to a concert last nite, I might go to another one tonite. 'Met some cool kids at the hostel im staying at. The museums were all free today, so that was cool. Nothing too spectacular, onward I go. I wish people were more generous with their couches! After bayonne i'm going to Bordeaux, then paris, then back to Joigny. send me some love via comments!