15 days in France and I am pretty much settled in and continuing the life I left here in Europe four months ago. And it feels great! The French are still crazy (but so are Americans) and stubborn (Americans too) and sometimes ridiculous (USA, yep) but after eight months here last year I have learned how to better deal with this and "be French."
I was technically supposed to start classes last week but my contact here said "eh, we'll have the assistants start next week because we don't have your time tables ready," so I had a lot of extra time to sleep, get to know my surroundings, and STUDY! I have recently decided to take the GRE and the GMAT in February, in order to better my chances in certain graduate school programs for the fall. Math is not necessarily a strength I possess, so I have spent a lot of time reviewing and learning, but I think it will be worth it in the end. Anyway, this extra time last week gave me lots of time to work on applications and study guides.
This Monday I had my first class and though I stayed in the classroom with the prof the whole time, I was in front of the kids, answering their questions. This was all at the middle school and they're so much younger than what I'm used to and, so far, pretty cute. Once they enter the classroom, the kids stay standing in front of their desks until the teacher tells them to sit. And if an adult knocks on the door, the kids stand up IMMEDIATELY when he or she opens the door, just like in the movies! LOVE IT! I think this is how it was for my friend, Allana, last year in the grade schools; the kids didn't stand for her but they did for the teacher and the principal.
Then I had lunch in the cafeteria with one of the English teachers and we ate in a separate room that's reserved just for the teachers, which they didn't have at my school last year! So not only did we not have to eat with the kids, we got to cut line to get our food AND to take our dishes back, which we didn't get to do last year either. Oh, and this is the best part: there were bottles of red wine on the teachers' tables, provided by the school! Wow! Can you imagine our teachers in grade school and high school having WINE with their LUNCH at SCHOOL!?!?! Pretty cool.
Yesterday (Tuesday) the teachers were on strike about the new reform regarding retirement age, so that meant that I didn't have class. Lisa, one of my flatmates, and I walked into Vichy a little before 3pm to watch the protesting. There was someone with on a loud speaker and people with signs and they were all hanging out in front of the post office. Then a little after three, they all walked through town and finished in front of City Hall. It was the first time I'd seen a "manifestation" in person and it was a neat experience.
And then today the STUDENTS were on strike! I arrived at school a little before 8 this morning, finding it strange that no one seemed to be around; it turns out they were protesting outside of the school gates, blocking the doors, preventing people from coming in. There were about five or six policemen, just hanging out, making sure that everything remained peaceful. It was all pretty cool because that kind of thing just doesn't happen in the States! I went out a couple hours later and watched them: large groups walking the perimeter of the campus, chanting about the reform and how they weren't going to let it affect their futures. Then one kid actually got a huge wooden crate and they positioned it in front of the main door. It sounds like schools across the area were protesting, probably around the country too. Even major newspapers didn't publish today or yesterday because of the strike (that is said to last all week).
Everyone outside of the school gates meant that I had two of my four classes today (from 8 to noon) and even in those two classes there were only 4 students each and I just stayed with the teacher and we did a whole lot of nothing. Kind of a waste of time, but I got paid to watch English youtube videos so whatever.
Allana arrives in Vichy tomorrow afternoon then we are going to Aurillac for the weekend. I am so excited to see all my friends, go climbing, and get my bike! Then it's one more week of school before our first two-week vacation! I'm considering going to southern Spain with Allana to see her bf, Austin, and climb and camp. We shall see!
A bientot (see you soon!)
love K
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