Images valent mille mots

I'm going to Berlin to see my sister tomorrow and there will be a full posting on our adventures in Germany (hooray for beer!) But, I uploaded a few pictures and decided to just create a little post with some photos for you guys to see how it's going here!

This is the courtyard to the apartment I share with JoHanna. Our apartment is the one with the white shutters on the left. It's small but we love it and the area we live in is central, fun, and very safe!

Speaking of JoHanna, she's the ginger in the middle. I love me some gingers :). The other girl in the picture is Jessamyn who is also an assistant and is an au pair in the suburbs. We took this when the weather was still warm and we could sit near the Seine and drink wine and picnic. 

This is the fish market I pass on the way to the Métro every day. One of these days I'll stop in and get some fresh fish for dinner. They even have sea urchins! I'm not sure how one cooks sea urchins .. but maybe I'll find out some time!

This is the back side of Notre Dame from Pont Marie. It's really beautiful in the afternoon sun. Paris really is a gorgeous city. Come visit me and see for yourselves!

FWOTD: se promener (v.): to walk

La Grève et autres choses...

Hello Everyone,

I'm starting to get finally settled and accustomed to French life. Speaking is still mostly difficult but I'm willing to practice and learn, so I think that's a positive for me as long as I can find someone to speak with who doesn't mind my American accent. I can understand a lot more than I can speak, so that's okay, except for when I want to participate in conversation and I get nervous. After about 3 weeks in my lycée, I realized that I am one of the few lucky assistants with the best teachers and really great students. Of course, there are some duds, but I really do like my students. I didn't think that I would actually like teaching as much as I do (maybe because I haven't seriously had to plan lessons yet, or because my teachers are so welcoming and nice), but I enjoy teaching and not having to grade students (and also only having to be at school 12hrs per week). Today, we went over a cartoon in class about technology and I taught a few students the phrase "to peck the keyboard" and when they went over what they learned with their teacher, they used the phrase. I felt so proud of them, first, and also myself, for teaching them (and the teacher) something that they hadn't learned before.

Last Tuesday was my first experience with a Métro strike. I take the suburban trains to my school which were running smoothly, but the city métro was on strike. I wish I knew why, but when I asked, they just said "because they want something". Apparently this happens quite often.. So, fortunately for me, one of the math teachers generously offered to drive me from Central Paris all the way out to Pontault-Combault to school. There were fortunately no problems on the way home for me, but one of my friends said she had a 6 hour commute back home from school, which is way much more than my patience could even comprehend dealing with. I think I'd just give up and spend the rest of my night in a bar or something.

Other things of interest:
-I had an amazing meal tonight: Chestnut pasta with mushroom, duck, onions, and white wine cream sauce. Essentially my favorite foods in one plate. Topped off with Claufoutis. Which, is incredible. I cleaned my plate. AND, the restaurant is kiddie corner from where I live. I can't tell you how AWESOME French food is. You have to come to Paris to try it!
-One of my students has been showing me magic tricks that he learned off a DVD. And I'm easily impressed. But, my students were more impressed with my ability to bridge shuffle cards, and now they all think I was a poker dealer.
-I'm going to meet my sissy, Megan, in Berlin on Monday and I'm so excited to see her. I miss my family. It's been one of the hardest parts of adjusting to life in Paris. That and missing my dogs and Mexican food...
-Speaking of food, I presented a lesson on McDonald's breakfast (No McMuffins here, friends!) and the students were both appalled and shocked that sometimes we don't make it to the 10:30 cut off when we're craving breakfast, and not even a substitute of a McMuffin will satisfy us. But, I also learned they're OBSESSED with pancakes!
-JoHanna and I are not quite settled yet in our apartment (still awaiting gas, internet (that we're not mooching off our landlord) a real bed/fouton. We're apprehensive of putting up decorations (especially because she doesn't want a Bears flag in our common area..) so I promise I will put up pictures soon, but the one I'm posting for now is our poppin' "champagne" picture of the first night we slept in our apartment!

FWOTD: Grève (n): a strike
           

La Petite Americaine

This was my first week of actual school and orientation. Mostly it was just being introduced to the class and telling them about myself. The looks on their faces when I said "I'm from Chicago" ranged from completely shocked to befuddled. Most of them have asked me if I'm a Chicago Bulls fan. That seems to be the only thing they know about Chicago. The students are great (so far), most of them look older than I do, and all of them are fascinated that I came from so far away to teach at their suburban school. During the introductions, I was asked a few strange questions and gave a few strange answers. So, some of my students think that I ran over Barack Obama's dog with a stolen car and had to flee the United States. Others think that I have six boyfriends. And others are convinced that I aspire to be a prison guard one day. The levels of English range from barely comprehensible to close to fluent. I also find it very interesting that I've been asked in the classroom about my political affiliations in the United States and also what my opinions are on certain issues. It's pretty taboo at home to ask these sorts of questions, so I've been put off guard a few times when these questions are coming from my students.

During one of my lessons, I was asked to help a girl correct her exam. The writing portion consisted of a political cartoon about illegal immigration and the paradox it poses for Americans. So, the girl I was helping has a sentence that went something like this "The potty tasks of the housekeeper were..." and "The other woman in the cartoon asks the housekeeper to do potty tasks". After a few seconds of befuddlement, I realized that the girl meant to write petty tasks. When I told her what she had written, she was mortified and explained to me that her friend had told her that "potty" meant small or unimportant. It was my first experience with mis-translation and it was quite amusing.

I've also overheard some of my students in the hallways referring to me as "La petite Americaine" (the Little American) or "Chicago". My name is very difficult for the French tongue to pronounce. When students were asked to write my name on the board, the majority of them wrote "Christine", which seems to be the closest translation to Kirsten that the French have. They've all been trying very hard to get the pronunciation right, but having them call me Mlle Crowhurst might be even worse.

In other news: I found an apartment and am rooming with a girl from Wisconsin. It's in the 5th arrondissement of Paris (which, from what I gather at the other teacher's reactions when I inform them of where I live, is a VERY coveted area). I'll write more about the location and post pictures of our new place as soon as we're 100% settled.

FWOTD: langue (n.): language

J'arrive.

I've been in Paris for a little over a week now, sorry for not updating! Housing is a nightmare, I haven't found anyone who has been successful at finding their own living space. Except for those who have agreed to au pair or babysit. So I've been a bit preoccupied with that. But, definitely trying to be optimistic about it.

I went to my lycée today to meet the head of the English department. On my way there, I was mistaken for a German (twice). I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not, but I suppose I'm at least blending into the European vibe. It's quite a ways outside of Paris, but it seems to be in a quaint suburb.

The English department director is very nice, I will be teaching what seem to be called "European Classes" which are classes taught for the large part in English but concern various issues around Europe. My focus will be with the Economics and History classes. I'm not supposed to speak French at all (except for in the exclusive company of the other teachers at the high school). I got a tour of the school and they said I could take any book I want out from the library! How fabulous! I got a set of keys and also my computer log-in, which is excellent! The department head said I could also brink my laptop in case I wanted to use a projector for anything (which will be useful when I somehow find a way to tie in Arrested Development to my lesson plans...). I start my real first day on Monday, with introductions. I teach 3 days a week (Monday, Thursday, and Friday) for 4 hours at a time. I'm actually excited to meet the students and see (if) how well they can understand what I'm saying!

Here are a few other tidbits that happened in the first week of my arrival:

1. Opened a French bank account. This proved to be difficult due to the language barrier. Since I'm out in the suburbs it's increasingly difficult to find someone who speaks English and although I was confident in my French speaking abilities before I got here, I've found out that I'm somewhat lacking. Especially with financial lingo. But the woman who helped me was very patient and was able to open my account without any problems!

2. I've been mistaken for a French person approximately twice. Once by an actual French person! Though, when I start speaking, it's quite obvious that I'm not French at all (so obvious, in fact, that apparently I used a phrase "too vulgar to be repeated" in a bar. Well, that's probably not the first time that has happened, but it's the first time it's happened to me while speaking French!)

3. Successfully navigated the métro (and bought a permanent metro pass!) and only got lost once, and it was entirely my fault for not paying attention to where I was going.

4. Ate some traditional French cuisine and met up with other assistants, who are all so fabulous and I would be having a very hard time adjusting without!

FWOTD:
Bienvenue (adj.): Welcome

Une fois un blaireau, toujours un blaireau

It's two weeks until I officially leave for Paris. I wasn't planning on writing another blog post until I arrived, but I can't think of a good enough reason NOT to write this post. As many of you know, the Teaching Assistants in and around Paris (for the most part) are responsible for finding their own housing. This is nerve-wrecking as many of the landlords in and around Paris are not comfortable with leasing to Americans (or foreigners in general) which shrinks the available housing pool for all the assistants who are arriving around the same time as each other. So, I'm trying to exhaust all ideas in the search for an apartment.

Fortunately, this lead me to find out that there is a Wisconsin Alumni Association chapter in France (most of the members are in or near Paris). After e-mailing the provided contacts about possible tips for finding housing and standing out as a lessee, one of the alumnus very generously offered for me to stay with her for a few days until I found a place on my own. The outward hospitality and graciousness of the Badger alumni on behalf of a recent grad inspired me to write this post. I know that many people from their various universities swear up and down that theirs is the best or at least "better than yours". I respect their loyalty to their universities, but I have to say, even as an alumnus, Wisconsin continues to outdo itself and inspire me. 

Not many people would blindly take a recent college graduate into their home solely with the knowledge that this grad went to Wisconsin and is moving to Paris to be a Teaching Assistant. Even fewer people would offer to additionally pick this alumnus up from the airport so that they don't have to lug their bags around the Metro or pay for a cab on their meager income. After graduating in May, I knew my time as a Badger would never really come to an end, because as they say "Once a Badger, always a Badger", but this experience was a realization of the interconnected web that are the Wisconsin Alumni and how fortunate I am to be a part of such a widespread and proud group. I'm hoping one day I'll be able to pay it forward in as big of a way as this Badger helped me.

For those of you who aren't Badger alumni, I hope this post at least inspires you to believe that there are decent, kind, and wholehearted people left in the world and you really don't have to look too far to find them. And if that point didn't get across, well, just watch this Badger video* for laughs anyway.

FWOTD: Blaireau (n.): Badger

*-video contains vulgarity, not appropriate for children or my mom (sorry).

L'introduction

Bonjour tout le monde,


It's officially one month until my departure for France with the Teaching Assistants Program. I've decided to create a blog based on my experiences in France to keep in touch with all of you while I'm gone. I just received my Visa in the mail and am anxious to start my journey!


Here's a little background on what I'll be doing and how I got to where I am. By suggestion from one of my French professors at University of Wisconsin, I applied to the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF). The process was long and somewhat tedious (I would like to thank my brilliant friend Ross for helping me with scanning/cropping and calming my technologically illiterate nerves during the process!) but in late April, I found out I had been accepted into the program and placed in the Académie de Créteil, which borders Paris. I will be assisting in teaching high school level Economics and History for 12 hours a week at Lycée Camille Claudel in Pontault Combault. I will be teaching in English and I'll be bringing plenty of Chicago/Badger pride with me. I doubt I'll be able to persuade the French lycéens of the power of squeaky cheese curds and American football, but I hope by the end of the year, my students will have a little more knowledge of American culture and customs and realize that we're not half bad. Or at least associate Chicago with something other than Al Capone.


It was recommended to me by my lycée's contact to live in Paris, which I could not be more excited about! I'm hoping to stay for the entire year, through next September, and I'm looking forward to having visitors and introducing them to the city of lights, a city that I immediately fell in love with, and I'm hoping they will too. If you have an interest in visiting during my stretch in France, feel free to contact me and I'll do anything I can to help you out!


In this and subsequent posts I will also be introducing a "French Word (or Phrase) of the Day" in accordance with the theme of the post so you all can pick up a few words of French!


FWOTD: Lycée (n.): High School.
                  Synonym: Secondaire
                  Variation- Lycéen (n.): high school student.