(already?)

It's SNOWING enough for a Chattanoogan snow day! In October! 

That's all for now. 

:-)

(laugh out loud)

Another amusing moment from a faraway classroom: 

Today I surveyed a CE2 class (3rd graders) to see what they had already learned in English. It is their first year, but French kids in general hear a handful of English words through cartoons, advertisements, what-have-you, and in my brief experience, they love sharing those knowledge nuggets with me and their classmates. After hearing the standard "dogs and cats" and "hellos," Matthieu raised his hand and pronounced a word with which I was unfamiliar: "luhl" (imagine a French accent). I asked him to repeat it, and then finally asked him what it means in French. Matthieu responded succinctly, "Well, you say it when something is, you know, funny." 

It then dawned on me that Matthieu was pronouncing "LOL" à la française. I LOLed in response, but quietly, and then took a short rabbit trail with the class where we discussed the difference between words you use in regular speech and words you use in "textos" (text messages). 

Ah, the glories of the English language...

*For those of you who don't know what LOL means, it stands for Laugh Out Loud, and is often used in text messages and online chats.

(what i learned at school today)

According to modest calculation, I have spent well over 18,000 hours of my life watching teachers teach. Between Fall 1991 and Spring 2008, it was, in fact, my principle responsibility in life to listen to them and appropriately appropriate the knowledge that they helped me to discover, understand, and apply.

So you can imagine my state of mind as I walked home from my first day ever as a bona fide teacher and mulled over the fact that, somehow—despite so much time logged in the presence of teachers—I found it so foreign (haha), overwhelming, and even intimidating to step into that position myself.

Don’t get me wrong—I expected exactly as much when I signed up to come teach in a foreign country. I don’t think I realized until today, though, after it was all said and done, just how much meticulous adjustment would be required of me. In a couple short months, I’ve gone from being the taught to the teacher (in theory, anyway). Not only that, I did it while giving myself a crash course in the workings of a school system I never went through and speaking a language that doesn’t always come naturally when I’m nervous before a class full of 20 expectant little French faces. Not to mention that I’ve got no training whatsoever about cognitive development, lesson planning, or classroom management. Even my handwriting is not up to par, as one of the teachers kindly informed me today.

So that’s the part of my new job that is (understandably, I think) quite daunting. HOWEVER, in the face of all the aforementioned scariness, I have a lot going for me, here, too. Such as:

1) I’m quite good at what I’m teaching, if not yet at how to teach it.

2) Experience is a master instructor, and that’s what I’m getting!

3) My students are completely enthusiastic and mostly fearless, and instantly resilient in the face of failure (qualities I’m relearning from them as I build confidence to be a good teacher).

4) Handwriting is an easy thing to practice.

And, as an additional perk, I get to smile at the funny things my students say and do, because they’re pretty damn cute, as it turns out. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of “monster” moments, too—but for now I’m enjoying reentering the world of the primary school student. Oh, and gaining new respect for my old teachers…Now in the course of my day, I frequently find myself thinking “Whoa…someone taught me how to do this. And they had to be creative about it, clear, and patient.” It’s so easy to forget as adults just how labor-intensive it was just to get us all functioning independently enough to navigate daily life.

For your enjoyment, a fun moment from the day:

Upon being asked “Can you guess what country I come from?” one exuberant 3^rd grader raised her hand and declared, “From Obama!”

 

Much more to come…

(first day of school)

Monday was a big day, for sure--my first "first day of school" at a primary school in 12 years! And let me just say that it is quite bizarre to belong with the group of teachers surveying recess instead of the buzzing mass of students on the playground.

For this week, my job is to observe the classes I will start teaching on Monday. I've met tons of kids and teachers in the four schools I'll be working at, and while I feel overwhelmed by the newness and a bit frightened at my responsibilities, I'm very encouraged by the raw enthusiasm of the students whose faces light up as soon as they hear that the exotic American lady will be coming to teach them English. Hopefully, their enthusiasm will make up for the lack thereof I've already sensed in a few of their teachers...

So. Keep your fingers crossed (and your thumbs pressed) that all will go smoothly as I get my feet under me in the classrooms and with the lesson planning for all the different ages and levels--this is a completely new endeavor for me! Hopefully my eager 6-10 year-olds won't notice that I'm just a little terrified of them. I'm going to try my best not to let on, and to have some good, educational fun with them. Deep down, I think it will be great.

(playing catch-up with pictures)

Alright, everyone. I promised myself I wouldn't just throw tons of pictures at you all at once anymore, but would instead post them in a timely fashion, little by little. However, as internet time is a bit scarce, here comes a barrage. I'm sure you won't really mind ;) This picture, by the way, is of part of where the Bishop of the cathedral used to live. Now I think it's the headquarters of the Episcopal church in Rodez, or something of the like.

This is at Place de la Cité, and behind those men chilling under the statue is my bank. That's right, I have a bank account now, which means I'll soon have internet!

Voilà the Foyer Sainte Thérèse, which I called home for my first eight days as a resident of Rodez. It was a very nice, inexpensive place to stay, but I'm ever so glad to have my own apartment now!

This is the view out of our kitchen window at 59 rue Béteille. We don't have access to the gardens, but they're nice to look at, and the sun sets this direction and lights up our kitchen and dining rooms quite nicely.

Look at our kitchen! It's big! It's fully equipped! It has a dishwasher! It has a washing machine! It even has a salad spinner, a meat grinder, a food processor, a tart pan, a pressure cooker, a cast-iron pot, a juicer, and a potato masher (among other appliances)! That's what I mean when I say fully equipped. I don't think I need to tell you that I'm pleased as punch about being able to really cook!

This is our salon (ie, living rom). It has a clic-clac, can you find it? Don't know what that is? Neither did I. It's the futon to the left. When you fold it into a bed, you push up (it makes the clic sound) on the seat area, and then let it down (it makes the clac sound). I love how the French never seem to hesitate to name something after the sounds it makes. The fact that we have this means that you should come visit, by the way--because there's somewhere for you to sleep!

This is my room! It's the smaller of the two bedrooms, and has a smaller bed, but I like it very much--it's quite comfy and I especially like the mini-cabinet going on to the side of the bed--perfect for storing books, stationary, small electronics, etc.

OMG KEBAB NEXT TO MY APARTMENT!!! I measured, it's exactly 32 Emilee steps (approximately 20 normal-person steps) from my door. And it's the best I've had so far in Rodez! Of course, if I get tired of kebab or cooking, I can also easily head across the street to the middle-eastern market, or one door down to the Indian restaurant. A couple doors down is a burger place (haven't been yet, but it's always interesting to find burgers in France), and if I'm feeling truly ambitious, I can head up to the end of the block and buy myself one of the nice, gigantic paella pans they have for sale in the window. I've heard that real estate is all about location, but having such a good location (also about 5 minutes on foot from the town center) has made me realize just how true that is.

We went to Toulouse on Wednesday for assistant orientation. This is all I saw of Toulouse (besides one of its high schools) the whole day. No, seriously. Two hours of driving, hours of lectures, then two tired hours back to Rodez as soon as orientation was over. But I shall return!

The night we moved into our apartment, we had all the Rodez language assistants over for dinner (Sandra wasn't there yet.)! It was a delicious extravaganza of salad, soup, wine, and company--the perfect way to break in the new apartment! The funniest part is, I only sent one text message of invitation in the afternoon, and by dinner time, I'd either run into assistants on the street, or they'd already heard about it and showed up! Rodez is not a big town, as I said.

I think the "kitchen-themed" tiles in our kitchen are funny. My favorite is the timer tile.

Today Sandra (the roommate) and I had a special treat--a road trip! We had a married couple of assistants over for dinner last night who live in a smaller town about 30 minutes from Rodez, and they invited us to come with them on a Sunday drive day trip to Conques--a beautiful medieval town in the hills north of Rodez. On the way there, we accidentally discovered the town of Salles la Source, and its awesome waterfall!

We climbed behind it!

This is Adrianne on top of Jacques, their little Renault who lugged five of us around the countryside today.

Look, it's Sandra (my Colombian roommate) and me at the waterfall!

There's a sign at the top of this cliff-like thing that only says "ICI MIEL," meaning "HERE HONEY." We were intrigued and climbed up to find it.

We never did find the honey, but we did find some delicious wild blackberries (as well as some very picturesque views).

Downhill was a little extension of the village, with an old Romanesque church and pretty changing viney leaves.

The sunlight was really beautiful.

In Conques, mimicking the pig. I can be such a ham. Aaaaahahahaha.

Conques!

Adrianne with a pilgrim. Conques is part of a famous pilgrimage to Spain whose name I don't know in English.

Reflection of the cathedral of Conques in a pool full of 20-centime coins.

New friends Adrianne and Jorge :)

The girls: Emily, Adrianne, Emilee, and Sandra.

More soon, I promise. For now, my café is closing! Hope all are well and enjoyed the pictures!

(blustery days)

For those of you who hear "Southern France" and think "warm weather" (as I did), I would like to share some knowledge that I've recently come by as a resident of Rodez: Southern France is warm if you're not in the Massif Central. 

The Massif Central is a region of South-Central France which is just generally elevated--some mountains, plateaus, etc. 

Yesterday, it was so windy that I saw hail being blown up a steep hill at a high velocity as I tried to keep my balance and to keep my heavy computer bag from blowing off of my shoulders. Today the low temperature is below freezing--in the beginning of October, no less! Of course, tomorrow the high is, once again, in the comfortable range...so I'm learning that weather on the hill is fickle, to say the least. The trick, I've decided, is layers. 

So, now you're all a bit more informed ;) 

I'm going to venture back out into the wind with my produce from the market in hand, my beret (yes, my beret) on my head, and get to making some more soup! 

(moving day)

That's right, I said moving day! 

Sandra and I (my as-of-today flatmate) met with the super-nice landlords of the perfect furnished tw0-bedroom apartment this morning, and...We've already moved in! After well over a month of living out of my suitcases, it is so invigorating to know that I have my own, real place to go home to tonight. I'm enjoying my chocolat chaud more than ever at my favorite internet haunt on this freezing, rainy day as I take a few moments to reconnect with the rest of the world and share my good news! Fortunately, the sun peeked out just long enough for Sandra and I to drag our luggage to 59 rue Béteille without getting soaked. And as Rodez is built on a big hill, I'm also quite thankful that the apartment is downhill from the foyer where we were staying. 

I will post pictures soon (I already have them, but they take forever to load onto the blog). For now, I'm in a bit of a rush because we've got guests coming over for dinner and I have potato soup to make! I'm really excited to spend our first night in our new home having a dinner party! I invited the two American girls and their German flatmate by text, and then invited the other two assistants (English and Scottish) as I ran into them separately while "out on the town" setting up bank accounts and getting the internet ball rolling. 

Hurray! 

Oh, and look! I have real-person contact information again! Here it is: 

Emilee Head

59 rue Béteille

12000 RODEZ 

France

+33614923909