Done.Done.Done.

Hello everyone and welcome to spring (finally),
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.

 The next morning we all woke up around 6am to be at the meeting place to pick up the students by 8am.  Luckily the Scotts lived just down the road from the meeting point so we could walk to and from their house each day.  On day one we went into Brighton and started out at the Royal Pavilion.  The students were split into 5 groups of 10 since there were exactly 50 students.  I think I got the best 10 students :)  They had to stick with me throughout the tour of the Royal Pavilion, but none of them complained and they were so respectful and quiet.  By far the best group!  The Royal Pavilion was once used by George the Prince of Wales.  The interior had a strong Asian influence, which was rather striking to me, but interesting to hear the history of its construction and use nonetheless.  (Sorry no photos, they weren't permitted inside.)

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!  

   

Happy Easter ya'll!

Since Danielle left 2 weeks ago I have been busy finishing up my time teaching and managed to squeeze a little traveling over the easter weekend.  I've started saying all my good-byes to my students (some I'm genuinely sad to leave but of course there are others I'm happy to run in the other direction from).  In fact, as I write this entry I have only one more day of teaching left and it actually feels pretty good.  I know I have grown tremendously from this experience and looking back on the year there are obviously things I'd change, but what's important to note is that all the things I'd change were actually out of my hands: my school placements, the teachers and students I was given to work with and the weather- the bloody cold weather.  With this unfortunate events came some rather fortunate events, such as my 4 amazing housemates (I truly lucked out with that arrangement) and of course I can't forget the wonderful friends I've made since day 1, I'm so lucky to have 4 people come visit me throughout my time in France, and hey I did get to live in France for 8 months on a decent salary and had very little real work to actually accomplish.  If anything this year I've learned to not take a single thing for granted: like living in the good ol' USA!!!
So as I said I've been wrapping up my lessons with classes and saying all my goodbyes.  I got to do a really fun cultural lesson about IU and included some personal photos of myself from graduation, and the students really loved it.  By the end of the lesson I had them singing the school song and making the I-U hand/arm motion.  Most students have a sad reaction when they hear my time has come to an end and I'm due back to the states soon.  I have yet to inform my absolute favorite 6ieme class (11-12 year olds), and I don't think they will take it very well since they are so young and I've met with them every week.  They've become rather attached to the idea that I'm staying in France permanently.  That good bye will happen tomorrow, so fingers crossed all goes well.  I don't mean to give off the illusion that my final week teaching in France went off without a hitch, cause it certainly did not, but why would I expect any less.  Am I right?!  Another teacher quit her position at one of my schools (making that 4 teachers quitting in 1 year).  Since it's my last few days with both of my schools all the teachers are in a frenzy demanding my time with each of their classes so everyone can get a chance to work with me one last time; even classes I've never worked with all year.  Makes me wonder how great this year could have been if they'd only had this enthusiasm from day 1.  I did have a student say, "F*ck you" has he left my classroom.  I then wrote up a report on his behavior and what he said and turned it into the principal and head disciplinary secretary.  Just to name a few off color moments to wrap up my assistantship.
On a lighter note, I did take a trip with two of my housemates (Janine and Deliece) to Mont St. Michel, Honfleur and Etretat.  We had booked tickets with a travel company open to the public but mostly used by international college students.  We departed from Lille at 6:45am  (so you can imagine what ungodly hour of the morning we had to wake up).  By motor coach we drive for approximately 5-6 hours to Mont St. Michel.  We were so ready to get off that bus!  Mont St. Michel was on the top of my list of things to see before I returned home as well as on the top of my bucket list.  It was really breathtaking to stand along the walk way leading up to the site and seeing the abbey perched on top of the mount.  The ocean tide was down so some people were out walking along the unsettled sands of the ocean (with a guide of course).  We started out with lunch because we were starving!! I had a really tasty galatte with all kinds of vegetables- Deleice and I joked that the cook put the entire garden in my dish cause it was so packed with spinach and mushrooms.  I was so hungry that I didn't even think to take a picture of my lunch until after I had eaten it, sorry.  We carried on up the steep incline of the little city settled at the bottom of the mount.  There were mostly restaurants and tourist shops, which really takes away from the authenticity of the place.

 

 

We were able to use our student cards and work visas to show proof that we're young adults living in France under legal documentation to get into the abbey for free!  There really wasn't much in the abbey, but the century old architecture and large size was pretty impressive.  It didn't take us too long to get through the abbey, so we finished up the day with a little souvenir shopping and bought some local specialty desserts: salted caramel crepe and kouign amann.  

 

We then got back on the motor coach and drove another hour and a half to our hotel for the night.  The hotel the travel company selected was a really nice chain hotel, but the distribution of room keys to over a100 people was a mess!  After a long day we were just very happy to be in a nice, clean bed and take hot showers.  

The next morning was unfortunately daylight savings time in France, which meant on our already growing sleep deprivation we lost another hour of sleep.  We got back on the motor coach and drove to a very small town off the northern coast of France called Honfleur.  It was a very quaint town with a port, a carrousel (standard for France) and a very beautiful church.  There was an easter sunday service going on so we tried to not to obvious tourist snapping photos of the inside of the church.  We walked along the winding streets of the city, but it didn't take us long to cover the entire area before deciding to buy some lunch to eat on the bus as we made our way to Etretat.

 

 

 

Our last stop for the day was Etretat.  Another coastal town but this one had giant cliffs overlooking the ocean with a breathtaking view.  The city inland from the cliffs wan't anything magnificent like Honfleur was but still nice to see another city in France.  We walked along the stone beach for a little while and then decided to try climbing one of the cliffs.  Luckily there was a cut out walk way with stone steps leading to the top, but it was still quite the climb.  We made it up both major cliffs successfully, but after too much wind whipping us in the face we decided to head back down.  We made the 4-5 hour drive home on the motor coach and then crashed in our beds after a long and exhausting weekend.

 

Next week I'll be on a 4 day 3 night field trip to Brighton, England with one of my schools.  Stay tuned for more adventures!

The twin's european adventure

My best friend (Danielle) from back home decided to seize the opportunity to visit me in France this past week.  It was so nice to have a familiar face around (especially at a really difficult part of this very long year).  We had lots to catch up and lots planned to do throughout the week.  Our visit started out Friday night technically when her flight took off from Johnson City, TN.  She arrived in Brussels around 8:30am Saturday morning.  I had pre-booked trains to pick her up, but for some reason my train heading to the airport was pretty delayed.  After I found her at the arrivals area, we bought tickets to go back to Lille.  Unfortunately the next TGV for Lille was all booked, so we had to take local trains through Belgium to get back.  After about 2+ hours and one train change, we finally made it back.  It was nice to have the time on the train just catching up on everything we've been doing.  She actually wasn't tired and jet lagged (if at all) once we got back to my house, so we dropped off her suitcases and headed out to explore.  We took the bus to Auchan (a giant shopping center) so she could see a mega grocery store and some clothing shops.  Once we got back from the outing we made dinner and she met all of my housemates.  The next morning we went to an art museum in Roubaix called La Piscine.  The building was once used as a private pool and has since been renovated into an art museum.  The building still has some shower stalls used back in the day and every once in a while a recording plays throughout the museum of children splashing in water all to remind you what this building used to be.  I'd never been before, but it was on my list of things to do while living here.  I'm really glad we got to go and Danielle got to see at least one art museum in France.

Once we got back to the house I did some lesson planning (the last of the year!) and Danielle organized her suitcase.  She had brought me some goodies from the states: Jiff peanut butter, US weekly with an article about the Bachelor, all the ingredients to make pumpkin pie (she knows how much I missed not having pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving), and some bath stuff from Bath and Body Works.  We made pumpkin pie that night and it was soooooo good!

Monday morning I only taught one hour at Boris Vian because my first class was on a field trip and no one told me about this "minor detail" before Monday morning.  Then I only taught 2 hours at St. Exupery since one of those classes was also on a field trip.  I did get to go home an hour early, which was nice to have an extra hour at home with Danielle.  That night we pack our bags to leave for Paris the next morning.
When we woke up Tuesday morning it had snowed more than expected, which meant the buses weren't running.  Luckily we left early enough to just walk to the metro.  We then found out the metro wasn't running into town.  I panicked on how to salvage the situation so I called Deliece and Janine to brainstorm alternative options on what to do.  We ended up taking the metro into Roubaix and got off at the train station stop.  Once we got there we found out there may not be any trains running into Lille.  As we were trying to decide whether or not to just return our tickets a train pulls into the station and we hear someone say "Lille" so we ran for the train and hopped on without a clue as to where it was going and not having a ticket.  We both were too determined to give up!  Luckily it did take us into Lille, but we then found out that all trains in and out of Lille had been cancelled until noon.  All we could do was sit around the train station and wait for a departing train to Paris to be posted.  We left and got breakfast.  We spent majority of the morning going between the shopping mall and the train station to check on train times.  We met up with Emily at one point since we was heading into Carre four we decided to pass the time hanging out with her while she grocery shopped.  As we were walking back through the metro station into the train station I noticed a train for Paris was posted as leaving at 11:40am but it was already almost 12:45pm.  I knew they wouldn't keep old trains posted on the screens so that had to mean a train was still in the station and due to leave relatively soon.  We quickly made our way to the train and just got on.  Of course the train was all mixed up with people sitting in each other's assigned seats, but since this was the first train out of Lille to Paris that was bound to happen.  We did get seats and after about a 20 minute wait the train slowly rolled out of the station.  There was only a minor 30 minute hold up along the way, which was better than the sight of miles and miles of semi trucks pulled over and stranded on the highways.  France can not handle snow.  Once we got into Paris we bought lunch at a small cafe right outside the train station.  After buying our 2 day metro passes we located our hotel.  We had booked a hotel in the Montmartre area (my favorite part of Paris), and had a perfect view of the Sacre Coeur.

 






We dropped our bags off in the room and headed for the Place de la Concorde and the Champs Elysee. The snow was coming down pretty hard and the wind didn't help as we walked along the famous street.  We saw the Arc de Triomphe, but couldn't cross under the street to see the tomb of the unknown soldier since there was a military ceremony going on.  We then caught the metro to the Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower in the snow.  She was pretty :)  We were there just in time to see her light up at 7pm.  We then went to the Louvre Museum and the Notre Dame to see them by night.  We ended the night with a fancy dinner along the Seine.  We both got a chicken in a creamy lemon sauce and a side of vegetables.  When we were walking back to the metro headed for the hotel I saw my first rat in Paris.  Scared the shit out of me!  We ended the night with a trip to the Moulin Rouge (just from the outside).

 

The next morning we checked out of the hotel, but luckily we could leave our backpacks chained to the heater in the lobby for the day.  We started out with nutella crepes for breakfast by the Eiffel Tower and then to the Notre Dame (no rats this time).  I did make it back to the Lover's Bridge and found Chad and my lock still attached to the bridge.  We did a little souvenir shopping before heading back to the Louvre and the royal palace.  We then took the metro up to the Montmartre area, where we had to climb the giant hill.  We stopped for a traditional french lunch of quiche lorraine with fries and a salad.  We then walked to the Sacre Coeur to see the gorgeous 180 degree view of Paris.  We finished up our souvenir shopping in Montmartre before we stopped back at the hotel to pick up our bags.  We had some time to kill before our train was scheduled to leave so we stopped at a little kebab shop outside of the train station for dinner.  While we were waiting for our platform to be announced in the train station I noticed a recorded announcement kept playing over and over that our train was to join another train on the same platform, but the large monitors that list the train times and platforms didn't reflect this announcement.  Luckily we decided to head down to the platform to check out the situation and indeed we were supposed to be taking that train, even though the departure screens didn't reflect that information.  Typical France... I had bought a tarte aux fraise (strawberry tart) towards the end of the day and rewarded myself with a nice dessert on the train as we headed back to Lille.  

 

 
Thursday morning rolled around and despite the fact that the buses may have been running in the snow I still decided to take a mental health day after a whirlwind of adventure the previous two days.  In the afternoon Janine came into town with Danielle and I for a tour of downtown Lille.  We did a little shopping too, since I had finally received my CAF money.  (What a nightmare...)  It was nice to buy myself a little something nice after all the heartbreak that stupid CAF office put me through.  Hey in the end it is free money.  After dinner that night all the girls of the house piled onto the couch to watch the season finale of the Bachelor.
I worked my three full hours on Friday at St. Exupery.  That night the housemates and Danielle met up with some of my other friends for a drink in Lille.  I'm glad Danielle got the chance to meet all of my new friends in France.  We had to come back rather early so as not to miss the last metro home and rest up for our trip to Brussels the next morning.
After eating a quick breakfast we headed to the train station to catch our ride to Brussels, Belgium (and outta France!)  The train went on without a problem and when we got into the station we bought our train passes for the airport the next morning.  Our next trek would be finding the hotel.  We'd looked up the hotel on a map and even figured out which metro lines we needed to take.  The one thing we didn't account for was a crappy 3G signal, which means we had no means of navigation.  After trying to figure out our current location on a map we finally decided to stop a bus drive to see if he knew where the street our hotel was on was located.  He was so kind he let us ride his bus one stop which dropped us off one street away from our hotel.  (Wouldn't get that type of kindness in France.)  We checked into the room and dropped our bags off before heading back out to explore.  We first stopped into a giant church that was absolutely impressive on the inside.

 

Next we headed into the center of town and got a real belgian waffel.  I of course got a waffel covered in speculous.  I just needed a moment to take it in and indulge myself.   After went into at least 5 different chocolate shops, and Danielle got some assortments to take back to her family in the states.  We walked through the Grand Place where the locals were giving out fre hugs.  We then went on an adventure to find the famous statue of a little boy peeing into a bird bath.  Super lame as we soon found out.  We did take some pictures to mock all the chavs we saw taking ridiculous photos in Paris.  (You kinda had to be there to appreciate it.)

We walked through a couple of shopping galleries and found the palace of Brussels.  Just next to the palace was a large spanse of gardens that lead to the parliament building.

We were getting hungry at this point and ventured back into town to find dinner.  We found a quaint winding street lined with traditional Belgian restaurants.  They were all offering the same menu deal but each restaurant manager tried to offer us something different from the last.  We finally settled on one of the many restaurants.  We each ordered a starter, entree and dessert with a free beer all for only 12 euro!  The food was excellent!  We were pretty stuffed and tired after dinner so we went back to the room for an early night's rest.

 

The next morning we woke up bright and early to take the metro then a train to get to the airport so Danielle could catch her flight.  So many modes of transportation.  Danielle got checked in with no problems and all her flights went well.  It was so nice having her visit and I think she really enjoyed the trip!  It will be nice to have a couple of weeks to rest up from 4 weeks of intense traveling before I dive back into sightseeing Europe on Easter weekend.