I've been giving random updates to specific people here and there, and have been been receiving death threats from others if I don't update again soon, so!
The last 11 days have been pretty fantastic. I finally settled into my studio apartment Monday night, only to realize I don't have any food. I ended up walking down to the store to find it closed, then settled on eating the end of the day's baguettes from a random boulangerie/sandwich shop near the school, and from there discovered MaCorner on the walk home. MaCorner is one of those prized european fast food joints that encompasses all major american shops in one: McDonalds, Burger King, Popeyes Chicken, Dairy Queen, Subway - all the while offering free WiFi. We're friends. (although they don't offer burritos or tacos, so we're not that good of friends)
Speaking of which I've met all the assistants in my town and neighboring towns and am pleased to say no one appears crazy or violent :) Actually I like them all. And while I have my own studio apartment, the Spanish assistant and German assistant live just next to and across from me, and the other English assistants who work at neighboring schools live 2 floors above us. It's been really weird because we all can't shake this feeling of summer camp crossed with the first week of freshman year college dorm living. We knock on each other's doors when we want company on the quest for free wifi at MaCorner or if we're bored and want human interaction at home. Really, that's been the only issue for me this past week - the lack of things to do. And after coming from 40 hour a week work weeks at a law office, that's not actually a problem at all.
Adding to the whole new-kid-in-school feeling, I followed around a different student Wednesday and Thursday through most of their classes. Meaning I sat in on History, Math, Spanish, Italian, and of course English classes all in French. And got to experience a teacher and student argue and snip at each other in French. Also, I never liked Math and it's even worse in your second language.
The kids are awesome. Obvi there are some girls that still hold a torch for the old assistant (a BOY of all things) but most of them have been incredibly friendly and asked me if I'm 19, making me love them instantly. Some of the older kids (I'm teaching 15-20 year olds, I guess) can see through my charms and Hollywood glamour (I lived near hookers) and don't seem that impressed with my french but for the most part seem pretty excited and willing to learn english from me. Time shall tell! Meanwhile I've already had a few requests for tutoring from various professors at the school, for themselves or for their children but we'll see if that pans out. It's just really nice that a few people have already decided I would be a good person to learn from.
There hasn't been much culture shock except while observing classes, I've gotten the distinct feeling that I'm supposed to represent my country while publicly lauding how much better France is. It's weird. Truthfully, most places the world over have a better vacation schedule than America and France is leading the pack with 6 weeks paid vacation, along with compulsory holidays. Its health system is ridiculously all inclusive and its people make amazing wine, cheese, and bread, blah blah blah. Obvi. And while I try to remain truthful that there are pros and cons to every institution and America is not solely comprised of bigots, faulty politicians, and fat people there's the other side of the coin that blasts Rihanna and Taylor Swift in every department store I walk into here. I'm not experiencing a fit of nationalism or getting personally offended by the leading nature of certain questions - it's just interesting and totally foreign to me. A bit of culture shock.
All of the professors have been ridiculously accommodating, offering rides to town (a 15-20 minute walk), the use of their bikes, wine bottle openers, and in the case of one English professor, his home for the weekend. He is the contact for (person assigned to) one of the other American assistants who is from Virginia and he also went with us to sign up for internet in town with the local service. He's away visiting his parents somewhere in France for the weekend and opened up his home to us for a wi-fi free for all. So we've been skypeing like crazy and catching up on world events and also managed to go out to 1 of 3 bars open Friday night until 1am to meet some other assistants we know in town. Also passed a restaurant on the way which does karaoke EVERY. THURSDAY. NIGHT. Deets to come. Once we got to the bar in question, I had a great beer with tequila in it and played a winning game of foosball with a German, an Australian and a Frenchmen. I'd like to say there's a terrific punchline at the end of that setup mais non. Also kept trying to tip the bartenders and kept getting shot down, as it isn't French custom. Fantastic.
At the end of a great, relaxing weekend we're on to meet an Englishman for coffee and I'm sure, a spot of tea. I can hear someone playing an off key version of Frere Jacques, frere Jacques dormez-vous? on a flute in a neighboring apartment. Hopefully will get internet in the next few days and several other posts up here before I melt into French culture and become one with the cheese....
