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Published: October 8th 2007
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Georg the German Giant
That's becki's purse he's holding. No, I don't know why. I know it sounds like the start of a bad joke, but actually, it’s Pau’s 2007/2008 Language assistants. Wednesday was the orientation where we finally got to meet all the other wandering instructors of living languages who are converging on Pau for this academic year. We had to be at the Lycee St. Criq at 9 o’clock to being our day of introduction to the Bordeaux Academy (of which Pau is a member).
The morning was essentially a complete waste of time. In an effort to impress the assistants with their grasp of technology, or maybe just in an effort to avoid reimbursing our transport fees to and from Bordeaux, the academy had set up a video conference, with one location for each of the five departments that make up the Bordeaux academy. However, the technology didn’t actually WORK, per se. Every question posed had to be repeated at least 3 or 4 times, frequently with static interference. The main gist of the information was that there was one piece of paper we absolutely COULD NOT forget to mail. Somehow, this point took until 11:30 to express clearly. I knew I was going to like Becki, who was sitting two
Becki and Me
A fun night out at "Le Garage" seats over from me, when she turned around to the room at large and deadpanned “you know what guys? I think we’re supposed to send that paper.”
After the wasted morning was lunch break, where we all got a chance to get acquainted. Becki went to College of Charleston, and she’s been in the Peace Corps for the last several years. She just moved here from Madagascar. Joan and Leslie are the other Americans, and Joan actually did her study abroad in Pau. Annyah is Swiss, and doesn’t speak very much English, but speaks excellent French and German (go figure). Georg is German, and regaled us all with stories of beer for breakfast. He was sad to be missing Oktoberfest. Sam is Australian, and he was an assistant last year in Tarbes, which is only a 20 minute train ride from Pau. Helen, Heather, and Paul are the Brits, and they’re the babies of the group, all being in their third year of “uni” and thus about 20 years old.
The afternoon was more profitable, when we got our introduction to the French school system and what exactly our roles would be. They also gave us some good
Helen and Me
Helen made me retake this photo cause she said the first one was "too chinny" ideas for teaching activities. Basically, we’re supposed to facilitate as much conversation as possible. We’re not supposed to translate at all, but I think that’s more for the high school age where the kids are a little more advanced. I know my students would be totally lost if I used only English with them. After the orientation finished, all the assistants went out for a drink.
We spent a lot of time talking about the differences in slang and accents in our various countries. I was able to explain “y’all” pretty easily, but when I tried for “might could”, Sam burst out “what the HELL kind of English is that!?” And of course, there’s the time honored test of what you call a carbonated beverage. For the brits, it’s a fizzy drink, for the Americans it’s a soda, and for the Australians it’s a soft drink. Becki backed me up in my assertion that in certain parts of the country (cough, the South, cough), they’re all called cokes, but no one else believed that because it was clearly too ridiculous. On another note, the Brits call shopping carts “Trollies”.
Last night (Friday) we all went out to a bar
called “The Garage”, which is in something called “Le Triangle”, where all the young people go to hang out. Heather’s housemate from her HLM (hebergement a loyage modere, or cheap government housing), a French guy named Carlo, joined us as well. As you can tell from the pictures, we had a great time, and we made plans today to go watch the Australia/England rugby match even though, as Helen put it “We all know England’s going to lose, because we’re just bad!”
So basically, it’s great to actually know people here, even if they are all silly Anglophones, and hopefully my housing situation will be resolved by this week. That’s my punchline for this weekend. A plus!
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murdock
non-member comment
she exists!
Now there is visual proof you are in pau, not just hiding from us all here in the USA. :)