I can officially say I'm done!! My contract technically hasn't ended till the 30th of April and one of my schools thinks I'm coming in on the 29th, but little do they know that I'm cashing in my one sick day card I've been saving all year. It was sad to leave my students in Hellemmes, but several of them have since added me on Facebook and Skype so we can stay in touch, and hopefully someday they will come visit me in the states. My last day in Fives went as expected. Two teachers were missing in the morning so my usually schedule was changed. Remember the student who said the F word to me a couple of weeks ago. Well if you don't here's a quick recap. At the end of one of my classes with the 11-12 year olds a male student said 'F you' to me as he quickly exited the classroom. The other students in the class were shocked and ran to the teacher to tattle. I wrote a report and he got in trouble. Well the teacher responsible for that class made him apologize to me, and that little shit said, "I'm sorry if you misunderstood what I said, but those are not the words I used...". I told him fine whatever, go to class now. As soon as he walked away I turned on the teacher, pissed off as hell (as you can imagine). I told her that if I indeed misunderstood what he said to me, then so did the rest of the class I was working with (10 other 11-12 year olds). Believe me they know what they heard! And that is how the underlings of France are created, a giant lack of discipline and overall respect for authority and elders.
I did however get invited to join my 3ieme and 4ieme euro classes on a 4 day, 3 night trip to Brighton England. These students range in age from 13-15. I technically wasn't supposed to go on the trip since I'm not an actual teacher I can't have responsibility for a certain number of students off the school grounds (or something like that). But how can I turn down a free trip to another country and explore a corner of the world I've not been to yet. Plus I really like this group of students. Since they are euro students they elect to take an additional 2 hours of english class per week, meaning they are more driven to master the language and their language skills are quite advanced for their level. We left the school around 9am on that Monday morning and headed to the northern coast of France via motor coach. Since I'm American I had to get my passport stamped before entering the EuroTunnel, but all the students and teachers just showed their French ID cards. One student had lost her ID card just before the trip and couldn't find it before the morning of our departure, so even though she had paid for the trip she couldn't cross the border without her card. Just before crossing over the tunnel we stopped for lunch, which everyone had packed and brought along with them. The bus driver was a real hard ass and wouldn't let anyone eat food on the bus, so we all had to get off the motor coach and sit on the pavement eating our lunches in the freezing wind. Only in France... It was really neat to cross the Channel via a tunnel where an entire motor coach can just drive onto a large train and traverse underwater in about 30-45 minutes. It's really hard to explain the process so I'll just post some photos that I hope helps.
Once we had crossed over to England we drove through fields and fields of sheep (so British) and finally arrived at our first stop. We spent about an hour touring through a museum exhibit called The Smuggler's Adventure. It was basically a really tacky museum explaining how smugglers and pirates smuggled over various goods due to the high taxes placed on such items by the British government. Next we all went into the small coastal town for about 15 minutes of free time before getting back on the bus and heading for Seven Sisters. Seven Sisters are literally 7 cliffs overlooking the Channel. It was extremely windy and everyone was starting to get very hungry (since we couldn't eat on the bus). We didn't stay for long and then headed to Brighton to drop off the students with their host families.
Once we had arrived in Brighton (well technically Worthing, which is just outside of Brighton), the students disembarked in groups of 2-3 to join up with their host families. I thought this was a really neat opportunity for the students to see what it's like to live in an English household and try some home cooked traditional foods. Prior to the drop off the students were very rowdy and rambunctious, but as soon as they had to get off that bus and meet with host families they sobered up from their sugar candy highs and got quiet as mice. It was actually pretty funny. I stayed in a host family with the 4 other teachers. The Scott family was very nice and the husband made some amazing dinners!! I shared a room with the other female teacher on the trip and all 5 of us teachers shared 1 bathroom in the morning. That was a treat. The first night with the Scotts we were served ham, brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes and carrots all smothered in gravy. For dessert we ate a pudding jello whip cream layered dessert. It was all excellent.
Just before the lunch break we walked along tiny streets weaving through the center of town that were lined with little shops selling jewelry and gold. One of the other teachers had done a teaching assistantship in Brighton so she knew the city really well. The students were given an hour of free time to eat lunch inside a shopping mall. Since I had left my packed lunch on the bus I needed to buy lunch somewhere in town. The teachers all decided to indulge in Burger King for lunch. Don't worry it's just as bad for you in England as it is in the states. Apparently there are no Burger Kings in France so of course the other teachers were super excited to go there for lunch. I just didn't want to eat alone so I tagged along. After lunch the entire group walked out to the Brighton Pier for some free time in the arcades and to ride the carnival rides. I just walked around with a group of my students practicing our english and french. It was still pretty cold and windy, but beautiful sights on the ocean and the coast.
We then walked back to the shopping area in the center of town and let the students have about an hour of free time. All the girls had already researched the stores in the area and made a plan of where to start shopping. They all literally flocked to Primark. It's a cheap yet quality store found all over England and some parts of Europe. I didn't have any intention of buying tons of clothing and spending all of my money since I'd be coming back in a couple of week to stay with Janine, my English housemate. Several students were late coming back to the meeting area since they made a detour of Starbucks, also not widely found across France. We walked to another part of town where the students got a little bit more free time to do some shopping and exploring. We had a hard time getting the bus driver to navigate the city to come pick us up, so with a group of 50 students we did a lot of "hurry! hurry! ok wait... wait... hurry! hurry!". After dropping the students off at the meeting point and heading back to our host family, dinner was waiting for us. That night we had cottage pie with carrots, peas and cabbage. I didn't eat much that night since I don't eat red meat, which was in the cottage pie, peas or cabbage. For dessert we got a banana cheesecake spin-off dessert. I was so ready for bed that night, but first the other teachers decided to head to a pub around the corner and get a pint of beer. I figured I'd tag along for the experience. Since I'm at least 10 years younger than all of the other teachers there really wasn't too much we had in common to talk about, nor did they really try to include me in their conversations.
Each morning for breakfast we were served cold cereal and burned toast with coffee and orange juice. Apparently the wife of the family can not cook, so her extent of working in the kitchen was burning our toast every morning. She also made us cold packed lunches, which were pretty much a sandwich (with cucumber, ew!) a bag of chips and a packaged snack cake. The lack of fruit and vegetables was hard for me so I often stopped at a grocery store to buy something of nutritional value. The 3rd day of the trip we went to Portsmouth to tour the HMS Victory naval ship and museum. Again we split into our small groups for the tours and my group was absolutely lovely. We started out in the museum, which detailed the life of Mr. Nelson, an important naval captain who died during the Battle at Trafalgar. The big battle where England out won France ie. Napoleon. The naval ship was really neat to tour, since it was the original ship used during the battle and had been restored for tourist to explore. There were 6 floors to the ship and it was really well laid out with lots of information. There was even a gold plate on the floor of the upper deck denoting the exact place where Mr. Nelson had been killed in battle.
Next we went to the Gunwarf Quays for some free time and shopping. This area of town is basically an outdoor shopping center. Then we walked into town and found a really nice park where the students got some free time to burn off some energy. Once it started to rain we decided to head into the center of town for some shelter. We found yet another shopping area and let the students have 30 minutes of free time. I quickly realized that this trip was split 50/50 between free time and shopping and actual education experiences for the students. The other female teacher was a solid 15-20 minutes late to the meeting point, which no one let her live down for the rest of the trip. I mean if you're going to be a chaperone and take on the responsibility then be a model for the students and be on time, but this is the french we're talking about... We made the drive back to Worthing in the rain and made sure all the students met up with their host families. The host family situation seemed to be going really well for the students and they were really enjoying their time in the evenings getting to know them. For dinner that night we had chicken in a white wine sauce with carrots and green beans. For dessert we had a fruit crumble with custard. This is was not the best of meals, but I was so hungry I ate it. The teachers decided to go back out to the pub to watch a soccer match, but I was so exhausted I decided to go to bed early.
Our last day of the trip was spent in Canterbury, in the southern tip of England. We spent about an hour touring the giant Cathedral. The site of the cathedral is known for miraculous happenings over time, so I wrote out a little prayer for my grandma Judy and put it in a prayer box. She suffered a minor stroke a couple weeks back and has just recently had a shunt inserted in her kidneys to help out with the flow of blood in her body and hopefully get her off high doses of medicines. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
Afterwards we walked to the center of town to eat our packed lunches and yet more free time for shopping. Towards the end of the free time, two of my male students approached me asking if I'd help them buy some video games. As first I just thought they were too shy to speak with the sales clerk in english, so I agreed to help them out. It wasn't until I was asked to show ID at the counter that I realized these 14 year olds were buying video games rated for 18 year olds and up. Since the transactions had already been completed I couldn't back out of it, but just for the record I do no condone buying video games for underaged teens. Oops! We quickly got back on the motor coach and headed for the souther border of the England to make the drive back to France. Of course the French border control had no interest in checking our ID cards and passports for re-entry. This is exactly why France has such a problem with illegal immigrants and gypsies. Back at the school the students were all picked up by their parents and most of my students said good-bye to me before they left. When I said good-bye to my fellow english teachers I got a less than heart felt good-bye from them, but what was I really expecting. I was so ready to get home and sleep in my own bed again.
It was a really nice way to end out my teaching experience in France: with some of my favorite students. No matter how many times I felt left out by the teachers I kept reminding myself that I was there for the students. I was so glad to get to know my some of my students outside the structured classroom setting and really connect with them. I also got to speak a lot of French with them, which was great practice for me!
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