"Why did they let me have a bike?" "What am I suppsed to be doing today?" "How do I do laundry?" and other questions I've been asking myself

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(I'm including here, among other things, some photos of some of the people I've met so far)

I started teaching. It was really, really frustrating; one misunderstanding after another. Oy. So, I didn't really have a schedule for Camille Jullian yet, and I was supposed to get one by email last weekend. But I didn't. But the French aren't known for punctuality, so I waited. Monday, nothing. Tuesday, nothing. Wednesday, still nothing, and I'm supposed to start on Thursday. I can't email the teacher in charge of me and the other assistant, because her father died on Monday, so she's away. So I go to the school. Twice. No one is there and there is no mail in my box. EXCEPT a class list from some mysterious person I've never met for some mysterious class that is marked as starting the next day, but does not list a time. Okaaay... So, I go home and email all of the teachers in the English department, hoping someone will write back. There are 11 of them. Two of them wrote back by the evening, both telling me that they know nothing but not to worry. Okaaaaaay... The sun goes down and I still don't know when/where/what/with who I'm supposed to teach the next morning/afternoon/whoknows. I had to observe a class at 10am last week, so perhaps I will be teaching those students; that would make sense. So I'll show up at 9:30 just to be safe, and maybe someone will tell me something. And, I stayed up late preparing very general lessons for a few different levels. So, I show up at 9:30am, and upon entering the staff room, a teacher I've never met before comes up to me and says (in French), "Are you the American assistant?" Yes. "Where have you been? Your class has been waiting for you since 9." Fantastic. I explain to her quickly that no one ever gave me my schedule, my classroom, or any keys, so I have no idea what's going on. I told her I tried emailing the entire English department but no one knew anything either. She was really nice, but couldn't help me either, or even tell me where my students were (not that it would matter, since I have no key). She told me to go to Vie Scolaire, and office that handles attendance and other things. The lady there gave me the same "where have you been" business and I tried my best to explain to her, but I was very flustered and my French suffered. Fortunately the first teacher (a French teacher, as it turns out, who does not speak English) came to my aid. The Vie Scolaire lady knew nothing helpful either, and so sent me to the assistant principal, a really nice lady who talks WAY too fast. She nicely told me to go back to the teacher's lounge and wait for Fanny, who would be in at 11. I said, are you sure? I though she was going to be out all week. Why would she be out? she asked. Well, since her father died... OH! I didn't know that! The assistant principal didn't know? Odd, but whatever. Well, in that case, go back and wait for one of the other English teachers to show up. Okaaaaaaaay.... I run into the French teacher again and she says that she'll take me to one of the English teachers to try to sort it out, but the teacher she wants to take me to is one of the ones who wrote back to my email with no information. USEFUL. Ah, but then, on the way, we run into a Monsieur Fontanie, who happens to be an English teacher AND who has been told to get me keys and a classroom. HALLELUJAH. And yes, he speaks perfect English, so I can relax just the tiniest bit and take a little break from my broken frantic French. But curious, he did not know I had a class at 9 either. His schedule for me says I start at 10 (it is now 9:45) with his students (and YES, he is the one who left me the class lists! Okay!). So where does he take me? Back to the asst principal. We get there and she pulls out a schedule for me. It's different from Fontanie's. FANTASTIC. So they don't know what classroom to give me, because her schedule doesn't have me teaching at 10, so they haven't reserved anything. They finally work something out and I have to borrow Fontanie's key, since the key lady isn't in her office. On the way to the classroom, Fontanie realizes that the kids won't know to go to that room, since we just decided on a room. So, then we have to go figure out where the kids are. While looking for them (time is now 9:55) we run into the class I was supposed to have in the morning, and guess what! They're Monsieur Fontanie's students!! So let me clarify: THE TEACHER DID NOT EVEN KNOW WHEN HIS STUDENTS HAD MY CLASS. Oh my god. But the good thing is that no one blames me for any of this and they are all being really nice about it, so at least there's that.

We found the other class. It's 11 seventeen year-olds, and they were quiet, but nice. Class went ok. Except when I go to wrote on the board, there is no white board marker. Everyone neglected to tell me that I'd have to go get one from some other office (as I found out later). I asked the kids if any of them had one, and miraculously, one boy did. Except, when I went to erase it, it wouldn't erase. Crap. It wasn't a dry erase marker. I remember that I saw a men's room on my way to the classroom so I excuse myself and run and grab a wet paper towel (thank god there wasn't anyone at the urinals). Mercifully, the wet paper towel worked. Ok, onward; I would just hold up my notebook instead of using the whiteboard. I had them draw random verbs and nouns out of bags and make up sentences on the fly to get them in English mode. They were about as enthusiastic as you would expect any teenager to be in a morning class. Then I had them introduce themselves to me, answering the following questions: what is your name? what is your favorite subject in school? have you ever been to the US and where? what other languages have you studied? and what is one thing I should do or see in Bordeaux before I leave? Most of them are from Bordeaux, and several of them couldn't tell me one single thing I should do. So I pressed: there must be something you like to do here, maybe a favorite restaurant? a favorite cafe? a favorite store? a park? a museum (snickering ensued... yes, how uncool of me to suggest they would like a museum)? But it was ok. Not stellar, but ok. At the end of class Fontanie came back. I asked him what he thought I should do next (since I am back to having no schedule... since Fontanie's was different from the asst principal's they didn't know what was right). He said to go back to the staff room and wait again. Cool.

So I did. Another English teacher was there, Michel, who I had met before, who is also good friends with Fanny, and Ah! had a schedule for me. It was different from both Fontanie's and the asst principal's, of course. At that moment another English teacher I had met before, Nathalie, walked up and she had a schedule for me too. AND it was the same as Michel's. OK! Progress! So Nathalie took me back to the asst principal (round three) and they decided that Nathalie and Michel's schedule must be the real one. So they got me a room. And a key. Yay. And, I had an hour and a half before my next class, which meant time for lunch. Brreeeaaathe.

Surprise! My next class only had four students. Four. the activities that filled an hour with eleven students took about 20 minutes with four. CRAP. So I asked them a bunch of random, made-up-on-the-fly, really really lame questions to keep them talking (have you been to Spain before? Where? Do you know who the US presidential candidates are? The vice presidential candidates?). Also, their English was really good; much better than the first class, so I sort of felt like the exercise I had them do was a waste of time. Oh well! I was sooo glad to leave campus that afternoon. I needed a drink.

The next day, one of the teachers called me in the morning to let me know class was cancelled. How nice of her to let me know! Someone is finally on top of things! So I went to my morning class (with the lesson I'd stayed up late creating), where I sat by myself for 45 minutes before I gave up and left. I emailed the teacher whose students I was supposed to have, who wrote back 3 hours later to tell me there was no class that day. Really? Thanks. Sigh.

But! It was Friday, and I was done! And the weather was beautiful!! So all was not lost. I went and got lunch, sat in the sun, got a new cell phone that actually works, and then went to the Parc Bordelais (beautiful!! And right across the street from where I'm living!) and lay down on the grass and read my book in the sun. Ahhhh. In the evening I went to a bar and to see "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (in English with French subtitles, thankfully not dubbed) in a really neat old theatre that used to be a church with a bunch of my friends. It was lots of fun.

On Saturday I did the most amazing thing: I went to a vineyard and helped with a grape harvest! I'll write about it in a seprate entry sometime very soon.

Today I went to the big Sunday market down by the river. It was packed again. People salsa dancing in the street, food and wine everywhere, beautiful weather. I bought a giant loaf of bread, a canele and some zucchini. I met some friends there, and we bought a bottle of wine and sat by the water talking and sipping.

And then I did laundry. At a laundromat, because our washer is possessed and I am afraid it will eat my clothes if I try to use it (Meghan tried and it washed her clothes repeatedly for 7 hours in scalding hot water until they were all the same drab beige color. She couldn't get the door open, and it wouldn't stop. So she kicked it until the door finally flew open, spilling hot water all over the floor). Laundry is so expensive here! I washed and dried ONE load and it cost me 12 Euros (roughly $17)! Not cool!! But at least now I have clean clothes. I really hope the management replaces our freaking washer soon.

Oh, and earlier this week I got a bike. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the city lends out bikes for free (well, with a 167 Euro deposit). I went down to the Maison du velo (literally, house of the bike) and got one. I was excited. I hopped on and took off. Kind of. Turns out I haven't ridden a bike in 6 years, and it shows. I wobbled awkwardly around the alley behind the shop and wondered how on earth I was going to get it home (a 25 minute bike ride through traffic, narrow one-way streets, and confusing French traffic signals). But I did, and both me and the bike are still in one piece.

Okay, well it is really, really late. I had hoped to write about the winery, but that will have to wait until another night. That will be a more upbeat blog, I promise.

Bonne nuit a tous! Vous me manquez! (good night to everyone, I miss you all!)

-Lisa

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Photos

French kitty
He was at my school. he let me pet him.

My walk to Camille Jullian
I will walk down this street every Thursday and Friday to get to the high school

Saint Michel
A church downtown. The have the flea market here on Sunday mornings. It's actually a slightly seedy part of town, but you'd never know from tis shot.

Le Parc Bordelais
big, beautiful, and right across the street

more Parc Bordelais
view of the little lake, filled with ducks and geese

A French Yaris
For Annie. A bit different, eh?

Le Grand Theatre
A major landmark in downtown Bordeaux. They have operas here. Lizzy and Meghan are in the shot, too.

Got bread?
One of many stalls selling this French staple.

Salsa dancing on the Quais (docks)
This was going on right next to the Chartrons Sunday market.

Velo de Bordeaux (it rhymes!)
This is the bike I got from the city. It's pretty nice: it has a basket and lights, too! (Mairie means mayor's office)

Comments

[AnHoOgA]

omg it looks so nice there!!! :) n i had a freaky dream of a cat attack last night! was that kitty as nice as it looks? =P