Besançon

It's been a while, hasn't it? It's because I still don't have internet in my room. It should be set up soon. That will be the day I feel completely content here.

All week I've had ideas of what I should write in my next blog post, but now that I'm here and have been online for over an hour, I'm ready to leave. I don't feel like updating this thing when there's not a whole lot to say. But...

I started work this week, and it's really isn't work at all. All I've done so far is introduce myself to classes and watch. But I've learned so much already! Everything I see, I imagine myself in my own classroom back home telling my French students about it and how it's so different from the United States. Most of the kids are pretty shy. One teacher told me, the next day, that she thought they were intimidated by my pronunciation of the word literature. That made me laugh. British English is an obvious influence on the English they learn here, much more so than American English. And I'm excited that I sound so different from a Brit. And I'm also excited to learn more English because of it! I've already learned a few new vocab words.

The language thing has been extremely fascinating to me. Some places I go, people are so excited that I'm American and speak French so well. Others who know I'm not French can't seem to understand that I'm not French and don't speak or understand French quite as well as they do. For example, today I was at the school waiting to use the copy machine. Someone, an employee of some sort, asked if I was a teacher. So I said yes, and she proceeded to ask something about me being an assistant from another European country. However, I didn't quite understand the question, so I asked her what she had said. Now, clearly she knew I was not French, and clearly I was not understanding. So what does she do? Reapeat it, maybe even faster the second time. I don't understand how I can understand some people perfectly fine, and others not at all. At the bank today, the man helping me was speaking quite quickly, but I understood exactly every word he said. So am I the problem, or are other people? I don't know.

Last weekend there was a market in Lure, and it felt like Christmas morning! I was so excited, I spent all afternoon, both days, walking around being excited. Just being out of the room and seeing people and being present is better than not, right?! Now that work is starting though, I have more stuff to keep me busy. So Saturday I had myself some churros for lunch/dinner, and Sunday a nutella crêpe. Hey, if I'm going to be hanging out alone, I might as well have fun doing it, right?

Earlier this week I had one of two orientation days in Besançon. Took about an hour to drive there, but it wasn't bad. The city itself is perfect. Not too big, not too small. It still has the big-city feel, but it's not full of tourists. I can see myself going back for weekends or whatever, just to get out. Anyway, I met a ton of other assistants at the orientation. It's so cool, all these people from all over the place who speak English as their first language. And there are people from all over Europe, too, here to teach their languages. We did a lot of pointless paperwork. Well it's not pointless, but since Fabienne is as awesome as she is, I didn't have to do any of it. :) After lunch we played a game, supposedly to teach us some kind of pedagogy. Then this woman talked and talked and talked. It was super boring because I felt like I was back in cohort at UWEC. Most assistants who do this program aren't actually teachers and have never taught before. Since I spent the last five years of my life studying teaching, I feel like... well frankly, I feel like I knew it all. And it's not like she was going super in-depth about it all, so really, I did know it. But anyway, that's not my point. I'm just saying it was fun to meet and see people, but kind of a long day to accomplish little to nothing, for me.

I would like to share a brief experience. I was at the store down the street from my apartment. I stood waiting in line to purchase four small items while the cashier was outside finishing her cigarette. Really? She came back and acted like it was no problem. And that's the experience.
Hmmm, that might be it for today. I feel like I am constantly thinking of things to put in this blog, but once I come to write it, it all escapes me. Now I'll go walk home. Walking places is getting a bit more difficult these days. As the leaves fall onto the sidewalk, it's hard to tell the difference between a leaf and a pile of dog poop. For real. So I have to be careful, especially in the dark! And it'll only get worse, as not even very many of the leaves have fallen yet. All the dogs annoy me here, but what can you do? On one hand, there are so many of them barking at me through their gates, every time bringing me back to the great dog chase of... 1990? On the other hand, when they are out on their own, they're much better behaved than they would be in the United States. So it kind of evens out, I guess.

All right, I think I said I was done a while ago. Now I'm really done.

À plus!