When I first got here I was pretty homesick and really lonely having not made any friends yet and not having a full schedule to keep my days busy. I did venture out to find a grocery store and took the metro to find my two schools. One school is in a rough part of town where a lot of North African immigrants live and the other school is in the really quaint part of town and in my mind ideal for a future apartment.
Luckily more assistants began to arrive and I started to make friends. I've mostly met british teaching assistants, which we have been using english as a crutch to talk with each other but made a promise to start speaking only in French come Monday morning and only reverting back to english 9pm at night when our brains no longer want to work. I've met a really nice girl named Emily, she's from the middle part of England and currently living in the center of the city in an ideal location, but that means I have to take public transit to visit with her. Some more english assistants moved onto my floor and are just a couple doors down the hall. The day they moved in I was in my room working on my computer and heard english being spoken out in the hallway and felt such a relief to know that I wouldn't be entirely alone anymore! Janine is from England as well and somewhere in the middle part of England (sorry I don't know my Great Britain geography very well). Jack is from the northern part of England and Yasmin is from somewhere just outside London in the south. Another english speaker on our floor, Deliece is from Trinidad and Tabgo (so cool!). We all have very different accents and have been spending hours comparing and differing out cultures and use of the same language. Even though we aren't speaking in french at this point it's till been an amazing cultural experience.
At the moment, Janine Jack Deliece and I are looking for somewhere to live together. The apartment hunt is proving to be unfruitful and a lot more difficult than it ever should be. In my mind, if a landlord wants to rent out an apartment wouldn't it be ideal to respond to pleading emails and so many phone messages one might consider it harassment? But no, the french aren't bother apparently... they just want to drink their coffee and smoke their cigarettes.
The residence hall where I'm staying for the moment is working out decently so far. The internet has a rather poor connection and the director of the place has blocked a lot of websites like youtube so we even have limited access when we actually have internet connection. Here's a side story to explain just how unbothered the french are by rather important things. For days my internet connection in my room (which I had paid for) was not working and I pleaded and begged the front desk staff to help, to which they replied, "Oh but I am not a internet technician wait till tomorrow". As if a new day would clear up all the problems. So I finally a nice lady at the front desk who offered to actually call a internet technician to come help me. (Why golly gee that's ingenious!) So when she called him at 9am he was out golfing and said we'd need to call back when he was done in 3 hours. So I sat and waited for 3 wholes hours. We called him again and while he was indeed done with playing a round of golf he thought 1pm was too late in the day for him to come help me. So I was told to try again Monday morning at 8am when the director would be in. Ok... I'll play this little game... So Monday morning 8am I show up at the front desk and ask the director to help, to which he responds: Oh, I'm busy, I need to go outside for a smoke, I'll look at it later. I was done, completely done at this point and didn't want to waste another whole day. So I packed up my purse and went into town to open a bank account and set up a french cell phone. Of course french banks are closed on Mondays, it only makes sense to not do business on the first business day of the week (right?!). But alas, I did get a cell phone set up and explored the mega shopping mall in town. As my british friends might say: To hell with the bloody french!
In addition to poor internet connection and unhelpful staff at this residence hall there is also a gypsy camp just down the rode and on my walk to the metro. Not sure if it's made apparent to many Americans but Europe is battling a mega problem with Romanian gypsies who are infiltrating other European countries and living on the streets begging for food and money. While France is also battling it's one "fight" with North African immigrants and citizens, there is a growing concern over the number of gypsies that inhabit the streets of France. And the one city in the whole country that just so happens to have it the worst is Lille. The week before I left I read a French news article detailing the growing numbers of Romanian gypsies crossing the borders to live in Lille, France because of its close proximity to England, who freely gives away social aid to such immigrants and refugees. Normally this wouldn't bother. I've seen poverty in my own country and in other countries around the world. In my mind it's one thing to beg on the streets for money and food, but it's another to steal right out of someone's hand. That's exactly what happened to my friend Deliece. Janine, Deliece and I were taking the metro into town to meet up with other teaching assistants at a local bar to mingle and make more friends. Janine and I had day passes we could use on the metro, but Deliece needed to buy a one-way ticket. It was about 8pm and no police in the metro station at this point in the day. Two Romanian gypsy boys (maybe 5 or 6) were standing right next to the ticket machine (as they all do to beg for your left over change after buying a ticket) and begged her for money. She graciously gave them each a euro thinking they would then leave us a lone. Ha ha nope! They continued to whine and beg and push closer to her. She tried to shield the screen from them to insert her money in the machine. Of course the machine malfunctioned and wouldn't take the 2 euro piece she inserted and one of the two boys if not both of them, shoved her out of the way and grabbed the 2 euro piece that was deposited into the return change slot. We all yelled at them to give them money back and go away and a random french lady even witnessed it and yelled at them, but they refused to give her back the money. So we moved to another machine and they followed us again. So Janine and I formed a wall blocking the boys till she could finally buy her ticket. I've never experienced anything like that before in my life. It was rather frightening and really hit home that I need to find another apartment in a better part of town, and very soon. Needless to say after that happened I now walk an extra 5-10 minutes in the opposite direction to a safer metro stop.
On a lighter note! I did get to meet with both of my schools this week and get a tour of the school and meet other teachers, some I'll be working with and others I'll just see around the school on occasion.
First I went to College St. Exupery in Hellemmes, Lille (it's an associated community to Lille and just a 20 minute metro ride from my residence hall. I got there early and had to wait in the principals office. (When I told me mom that she said, "That's the first time you've ever had to say that!). The principal is very nice, fluent in english since he had spent two years in England as a french teaching assistant. He filled me in on all the facts about the school and what I would be doing in the classrooms. My contact teacher (Jerome) and another teacher (Elliette) finally arrived and took my on a quick tour of the school. It's pretty much what I expected and nothing like the schools we have here in the states. By the end of the year I'm hoping I can sweet talk the staff into letting me take pictures of the rooms and students. I ate lunch with Jerome in the cafeteria and was told I could eat there everyday of the week if I wanted to, even when I'm not teaching. It only costs 3,80 for a lunch of a salad, bread, entree, two sides and dessert. Yup, I'll be eating there a lot! The faculty has a seperate dining room from the main cafeteria but I can eat with the students if I feel like it sometimes. The faculty and the students go through the same lunch line, but the faculty always gets to cut line in front of the students. It was so weird to 1. be back in a school cafeteria and 2. be the educator not the student and get all kinds of superiority benefits. I figure it will also be a good way to try some local food prepared by actual french chefs rather than me trying to make it on my own and inevitably making something I'd typically eat at home in the states. I couldn't stay long cause the faculty had a meeting after lunch, but I'm excited to go back on Monday. I'll have two weeks of observing classes (not just english classes) so I get a feel for how they teach and work with the students. So far my schedule to work at that school is on Mondays and Friday afternoons.
Later in the week I went to visit my other school, College Boris Vian, located in Fives, Lille (also an associated community just a 15 minute metro ride from where my residence hall is). This school is in a rougher part of town, and I say that just because the buildings are a little more down and the french aren't fond of it because of all the arabs that live that, but I see it as a great place to work cause I can try to practice my Arabic with the locals and maybe find a conversation partner to pressure up on what I've learned so far. When I got to the school I was told to sit in the teacher lounge and my contact teacher (Matthieu) would come find me. So I walked into the teacher lounge, also a weird experience since it was always "forbidden" to go in a teacher lounge as a student. I didn't have to wait for long and Matthieu and another english teacher, whose name I've forgotten. They were both incredibly nice and spoke to me in english the whole time, whereas the teachers at my other school switched back and forth between french and english. We talked over my schedule and found out that St. Exupery (my other school) miscommunicated when they needed me to teach cause now both my schools want me at the same times on the same days. I'm letting them duke that one out. They aren't giving me a two observation period so come Monday I'll jump right into working with the classes. It'll only be a little interview period where the students can ask me random questions and then in turn I can ask them questions, just so I can assess their level of english. Both my schools have told me I need to try to carry on the lie that I don't speak french for as long as possible. All the teachers know it won't last all year, and maybe not even a week, but the longer the better so the students don't try to use french as a crutch to communicate with me. I've been practicing my really bad american accent to say, "Je ne parle pas francais- I don't speak english" and try to fool them for as long as possible. They also gave me a tour of the school, which is super confusing cause they have one-way halls that loop in and outside of the building and meant for only the students to use cause the faculty has their own hallways but we can use the student hallways and go in the wrong direction and not get in trouble. I felt like I was in a bad Dr. Seuss book walking through one of the characters homes that has hallways going in all different directions and each with its own set of rules.
At the end of my visit I met the german teacher who told me she may have found a two person apartment she'd like me and the other german language assistant to take a look at this weekend. Having never met this assistant I wasn't too sure, but she seemed excited about the option and was kind enough to include me in the plan, so I told her I'd go.
I met the german teaching assistant (who is male keep in mind) and the german teacher Saturday morning in front of a student residence hall. Immediate I knew this wasn't gonna work for two very distinct reasons 1. the german assistant is male, which I'm not ok with and I know Chad will not be ok with either, 2. I can't live in a residence hall cause they have guest restrictions and I will be having visitors throughout the year fly from another country very far away (I'm not about to make them pay for a hotel). But I went along with it. So the guy showing us the apartment didn't even have the appointment down on the schedule (so typical) but he had an open 2 person apartment for us to look at. When we walked in there was a tiny bathroom, a tiny closet he and I would have to share, a tiny kitchen and a tiny study desk. Then there was a set of stairs leading up to a mezzanine floor where there was ONE bed big enough for TWO people. Not gonna work AT ALL. The german teacher asked where the other bedroom is located and the guy giving us the tour said, well it's not two bedrooms it's just big enough for two people. The look of mortification and embarrassment on her face was priceless. So the guy giving us the tour looks at the german teaching assistant and I and asks if we're married? BAHAHAHA!! I told the tour guide, no we had just met 3 minutes ago out on the sidewalk. So once we had left the german assistant and I exchanged phone numbers and email addresses to keep each other in touch in case we found another option and the german teacher kept repeating she was so sorry and would help us find something else.
This morning I went to the markets with Emily, but didn't stay more than maybe an hour. The market is nothing compared to what you'd find in Aix. Oh how I miss those markets.... It still a good substitute with lots of food and clothes and trinkets to buy. There's even a little pet market where a husband and wife were selling gold fish, hamsters and puppies. The puppies looked malnourished and while I wanted to adopt them all, I don't want to adopt all the problems that would come with them...
So far it's been a roller coaster of an experience and it goes without saying I'm very ready for a routine and a schedule working with my schools. Thanks for sticking around till the end of this novela and I hope you enjoy hearing all about my adventures and escapades in France!
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