Vacation Number One - Amsterdam

After a "grueling" two weeks of classes we have finally reached our first vacation for All Saints Day! We just finished packing and are about to head out the door to catch our trains to AMSTERDAM, check back soon, we will return on the 28th.

Lille Gastronomique

One thing that has not been lacking here in Lille is adventurous and delicious meals. We have been eating well to say the least. This is not only a result of the experienced chefs of Lille, but we have done our fair share of experimentation chez nous. We have put together some amazing French meals with a twist of Americana as an accompaniment. In our aforementioned blogs you have already been updated about our outings to the middle-eastern restaurant where we have met the entire staff as well as assisted the owner’s daughter with her English homework. Well this is now our favorite overall restaurant in the entire city. Its name is ELRIYADH, and besides the fact that it is one of the most inexpensive restaurants in the city, we have yet to get as much bang for our buck anywhere else. From our initial trip where I had a great kebab and Kathryn had a delicious crêpe au chocolate, we have since progressed to la viande. Our next visit was on Thursday when I was completely exhausted, and starving because I had been working from 8am until 5pm. I also did not have the opportunity to grab lunch because of some confusion with my schedule.

I met Kathryn in the courtyard of my school after she had finished with her initial observation class. We were so hungry and had no food left at the house so we decided to venture back. Before even arriving we had decided we would be getting an order of the Mouton, each, which is just a roasted leg of lamb shank on a plate full of fries and a petite salad. However, upon arrival we happened to turn one page further in the menu and stumbled onto the couscous portion. Here we found what was named the CousCous Royal, and it was a meal fit for a king. Of course we were obliged to order. Now this was not your ordinary plate of meats. This was a large bowl of couscous, a large bowl of sauce/soup to be poured over the couscous, and a platter of one of every meat they had on the menu. There was the leg of lamb, two Moroccan sausages, two shish-kebabs of chicken, onions and green peppers, two spicy meatballs, a leg/thigh of roasted chicken, and two of the hottest green peppers I have ever tasted in my entire life. This was all for only 17euros. We also ordered 1.5 liters of Fanta to wash it all down. There was so much food they had to pull over the table next to us just to get it all to fit. Needless to say we finished everything.

As part of our own culinary explorations, another night we put together our take on le steak-frites, sans frites. As you would expect, steak at a restaurant will run anywhere from 15-40+ euros, but at the Carrefour we got them for 5euros a pop. This was the centerpiece for our meal. I was in charge of the meat, and Kathryn made a delicious French version of haricots-verts. After boiling the green beans she quickly dunked them in a bowl of cold water, then sautéed them with bacon, diced onions and mushrooms and covered them in butter. They were the perfect side to our steaks which we quickly fried in a skillet and covered with sautéed onions and mushrooms. We washed it down with some wine. Unfortunately not all wine you buy in France is good, so next time we are going to have to shell out more than 2euros for a bottle. As good as the meal was, the real treat was the fresh apple pie Kathryn made (I helped peel and cut the apples). It was a real taste of home, and got us both longing for autumn in the States.

Today was a very long day for Kathryn, and it is for that reason that she has chosen to add her portion of the blog another time. I can tell you right now that you will be very entertained. Also we went out for a very nice French meal at a little brasserie just off the Place Rihour. We both had le Magret de Canard en bleu (‘nuff said).

À Demain,

-Jor and Kathryn

Early Mornings

I just finished up with my first week of assisting English classes. Thank you to everyone that gave me some suggestions on how to deal with my students. They all were very useful, but I still have six more months with these kids so if any more ideas pop into your head don't hesitate to let me know. Anyway classes are starting to get a little better as well. Teachers have made a point that the students are really enjoying the opportunity to talk with a native English speaker, and even the kids who normally never say a word, are posing questions. The most difficult aspect of this last week was getting to school on time. I have not officially been "late" yet for the shear reasoning that classes rarely start when scheduled. Thursday and Friday mornings I am obliged to be ready for class at 8am. This requires waking up at 6am, something I have not done since high school. Looking back now at all the problems and issues I had with school at OPRF, I would argue that most could have been totally avoided if only class started at 10am, and I had a 2 hour lunch period.

I am not a morning person, and today it almost made me late for real. I jumped out of bed at about 6:50am (after turning the alarm off at 6:15am) needing to leave the house by 7am to have ample time in case there were issues with transportation. Luckily I have mastered the art of getting up and out in no time flat. However, I did not anticipate how terribly unorganized, busy and violent the Lille metro gets if you arrive after 7:30am to Gare Lille-Flandres. Not understanding the metro's insane rituals I figured I had time to grab a croissant and a café as I transferred from the tram to the metro. However necessary the café was to keep me from totally collapsing on the train, it was a bad idea to stop. By the time I got from the little patisserie/café to the doors of the metro, the number of people in the station had more than doubled. As well there were already so many people on the trains that only a select few at the front of the lines who were quick enough, and pushed hard enough made it on. I say quick enough because the metro, for one, is completely operated electronically. There is no driver at the front making sure people don't get themselves caught in the doors. Instead there is a buzzer that goes off and a split second later the doors slam shut. An old lady in front of me was almost crushed when she lunged at the last second only barely slipping through, but getting slammed by two sets of doors in the process.

During my wait I was able take a couple sips from my double espresso, and as the 4th train past with out me aboard, I was determined not to be held off the next. One problem was the French are very skilled/slick/sneaky when it comes to getting on the trains, and know exactly the right angle to take to avoid the passengers getting off. As the next trains lights could be seen in the distance down the tunnel everyone started crowding together and trying to slide past me to get better position. For those of you who haven't seen me in a while I will remind you, I am ~6'1" and 225lbs, I've got the average Frenchman by a good 30-40lbs and 4 or 5 inches, so this time no one was getting past. The previous attempts I was too tired to ensure my boarding, and was overtaken by the most sneaky and slick of the travellers. Not this time, I was starting to wake up. I stood my ground, pushed back against those doing the pushing, and while checking to make sure no one had stolen my wallet, I stepped through the double set of doors and on the train. I was not aware, though, of the immense wall of people I was actually holding back because as soon as I made it on, and let my guard down for a split second, I was smashed up against the other passengers as 15 or so more people crammed their way on. There would have been another 3 or 4 but I'm pretty sure they were sliced in half or had their limbs broken by the closing doors. And I thought the Greenline at rush-hour was bad, what a trip!

This being my second week roaming the halls of Lycée Baggio, I am starting to feel much more like a part of the faculty. I recognize other teachers and students in the halls, and I've finally begun to get around without having to look at each passing classroom number to find my destination. I've also noticed that I am being recognized around the school as "l'Americain." I hear it whispered as I pass, or students say "hello" instead of "bonjour," and word apparently travels fast because I am getting this from students that I have not taught or met. I even heard one girl as I walked past remark, more to her friend than to me, "I vould like...eat...a kebab wif you...baby." It was hilarious.

Aside from the students being welcoming and eager to speak, everyone at Baggio has really been amazing and helpful. I have already made some friends with the other English teachers, (they are throwing a little fête after the upcoming fall break, in my honor) and the security guards at the front gates (so I'm no longer given the 3rd degree when I try to enter school grounds at unusual times). As an "ice breaker" for two of my classes I was given a tour of some of the technical facilities in Baggio like the printing workshop, and engineering/mechanical fabrication areas by some students to get them to explain what it is they are actually studying for in English. Teachers remind me now and then to keep a relatively professional relationship with the students, but many of them are 21, 22 and 23 years old, and are constantly talking about the good bars and fun things to do in Lille. They also mention taking Kathryn and I to these places so they can "practice their English and we can practice our French." Of course I would never do anything to jeopardize my teaching position, or damage my reputation with the students, but an insider tour of the city sites and attractions is very high on my list of things to do here. I am looking forward to it.

Right now Kathryn is at another day of training on how to deal with out-of-control seven and eight year olds. Hers are not ordinary O.C. seven and eight year olds either because she is in the ghetto, and has already been told whose parents are drug addicts (about 50% of the class) and which students are always "doing well" in case their parents ask, to make sure they're not badly beaten. Again any advice would be helpful as we have zero experience on how to calm down kids (only how to incite them). Also look for her upcoming addition to the blog as she begins her first days of teaching next week. They should be very interesting.

Á Bientôt,

Jor

Any Suggestions?

We have really jumped right into things here at Lycée Baggio. I have had zero time observing any French teachers in action. I worked with two different classes today, and they consisted of sitting in a classroom by myself until the teacher sent in 3 students whom I was supposed to converse with. The kids are studying for a B.T.S. exam, which is a higher education degree in electromechanical engineering, and a major portion of their upcoming exam is geared towards English oral skills...So my only instruction is that I need to get the kids talking. This is more difficult than it sounds because some do not have the greatest comprehension skills. Even when I can think up interesting questions to ask, most of the time they do not understand, and I have to give up and move onto another question.

A big problem that I have encountered is just thinking up enough questions to fill an hour's worth of conversation. After going over the basics regarding their studies, educational background, work experience and goals for the future, it really starts to get difficult. Before arriving I figured the easy fall-back if I hit this road block would be to talk sports, and more specifically soccer. Unfortunately, unlike the stereotype suggests, not every European is in love with the sport, and even more so they just do not like sports at all. This of course is a big problem for me because, as most of you know, sports are a major part of my life. Also, given my university degree, I enjoy talking politics, and bad-mouthing (in a very informed and evidentiary way) Republicans. This I cannot do because of our Devoirs des Reserve, preventing me from truly expressing my political or religious opinions.

Finding myself in this predicament I would like to turn to you, my reading audience, for comments/suggestions of anything and everything I might be able to discuss or pose to my students. Kathryn gets to play games and teach numbers and the alphabet, but I really need to get these kids talking. Any and all ideas will be carefully considered, and I will report back which were most helpful. There may be a prize as well (in case you lack motivation). I have Wednesday off, and my next class is not until Thursday morning, so lemme have 'em!

I thank you all in advance for your assistance.

-Jordan

P.S. - If you have not yet learned how to comment on the blog, click on the word comment just below this blog and it should give you directions. If that still doesn't work you can email me at jataren@gmail.com

First Real Day of Class

Today was my first real day of working with a class, and for Kathryn it was another day of training. My class did not start until 2pm so I had an opportunity to try and sleep a little later. This did not work out so well because some builders showed up at the house at around 8am and started banging around with hammers and cleaning the grout on the outside of the house with drills. Fiona said that she was a little surprised they showed up because they were originally supposed to come last month, and just didn't come until this morning. Hopefully they will be all finished very soon. Since I was up, I got ready and headed towards my school. I arrived at about 12:30pm, and to kill some time I went over to a little cafe and got a big espresso so that I would be in the correct mindset (wired) to speak and understand all the instructions given by my quick-talking professor.

The class I was working with today was the same one that I helped out with last Monday. This time I was prepared. As I mentioned in the other blog, the kids kind of took advantage of me because I was unsure how to begin. So today was all about conversation and oral language skills. My job for today was to speak individually with four of the students about their reports, let them know what I understood and what they needed to do better. I was also supposed to pose different questions regarding the information they were telling me. She started the class off by handing out a schedule of whom I would be meeting with on a weekly basis, then I went over into the classroom next door to wait for my first victim. The first guy that came in was named Benoit and he was the best English speaker in the bunch. I conducted our session by initially having him read/tell me about his two week internship over the summer. Benoit, along with the rest of the kids, had a pretty short report and after only 15min or so I had run out of questions. So I began asking about life, music, sports and anything I could think of. Something that was very surprising is that he is not a soccer fan!! I couldn't believe it. I was under the impression that if a European kid begins growing up not liking soccer they would drown them (or maybe just send them away to boarding school in another country because they were so disappointed by them.) He was, on the other hand, a big fan of American Football. So thanks to our conversation you can tack on one more Bears fan here in France! (One of many more to come).

The rest of the kids I spoke with had varying levels of English comprehension, so a lot of my time was spent repeating questions and simplifying my word choice. Overall it was helpful and informative, but when I was finished the teacher told me that I needed to write up a report detailing the students performance. Well...I was unaware that this was going to be part of the process so I didn't take any notes, plus I'm not a real teacher and the kids were so nervous at first that I have no idea how to grade them. Everyone seemed to do a really good job once I actually got them talking. Benoit of course gets an A+ for agreeing to become a Bears fan! When I finished with my class I walked back to the Centre-Ville and met up with Kathryn and two friends of hers that she had met today at her training session.

She had to get up very early to make it over to the office of her contact by 9am. She made it there ok, and the day was spent learning all of the best ways to control a room full of grade-schoolers. They taught her little games to play like BINGO and that sort of thing. Most of the teaching will be done in French with emphasis on certain phrases and words. Her contact told her that if by the end of the year the kids know 10-15 words/phrases by heart then she would be very successful. Another little tip that she got was to be very confident, not only with the children but with the other teachers. There were a few more hints, or maybe flat out remarks that she will be working in a "rough" area, and that she needed to stay strong . She said it was very tiring speaking in French for the entire day, but she was done by 1pm. She spent the next couple hours hanging out with friends from her primary school group until we met up later in the day to grab a sandwich, baggette and an amazing tartlette de framboise (little raspberry tart), then we took the tram home together.

Today was relatively short (for me) but still tiring. It was definitely a learning experience, and I am looking forward to the rest of the week. Kathryn begins her observation period at her primary schools tomorrow, and is very excited to finally get into the classroom. I also got my schedule set through January, and tomorrow I start again at 2pm and go until 5pm. Should be fun.

-Jor and Kathryn

Rendez-Vous, Shopping and the Wazemmes Market

Last Wednesday we had our big "Rendez-Vous" with all the other assistants in the Lille region. We had been gearing up for this since we got here because it is the unofficial start to our work schedule. We went into it anticipating lots of paperwork, teaching strategies and hopefully to make a couple more friends. It would be nice to have some other people to go out with on weekends or possibly on vacations. More or less this is exactly what happened.


The first real challenge of the day started before we even left the house. We needed to mark out the directions for Kathryn to find the Lycée Gaston Berger where her rendez-vous was taking place. My meeting was supposed to be at my Lycée Baggio. I was confident that there would be no problems locating the assembly hall, and all the other High School assistants. Luckily the school Kathryn was supposed to be at was only about a 10min walk from Baggio so we were able to take the tram/metro together, and get off at the same stop to make things a little easier. Once we had set the correct route, we departed with just enough time to arrive at the schools before the meetings were set to begin.


As we were getting off the train it became obvious we weren't the only assistants trying to locate the rendez-vous. As we were standing outside of the station consulting the map for a final time to get our bearings; we were approached by a couple of English assistant from Scotland who had printed out directions. This is where Kathyrn and I parted ways. She headed off towards her rendez-vous with the Scot's, and I went towards mine. Because of our semi-late departure I had just enough time to stop by the teachers' lounge to grab a café before following the posted signs to find the amphitheater. It was located on the 3ème étage of the main building (which in French is actually the 4th floor) and there were hundreds of assistants already waiting. This is where it got a little complicated. As I mentioned before I was under the impression that I was supposed to be at Baggio for the meeting. In fact, once I arrived I was told I was actually supposed to be back over at Lycée Gaston Berger just like Kathryn, and that the meeting at Baggio was for all the assistants teaching languages other than English. The French lady made some smart-ass comment about not reading the material that was sent to me (I never got a single thing in the mail telling me about the rendez-vous, and only knew we had one because of Kathryn) and so I just kept my mouth shut.


In my defense there were a number of very acceptable reasons for assuming that I was supposed to be at Baggio. The first of which was that EVERYONE that I have encountered in my trip so far told me I was supposed to be there. When we went to meet Kathryn's contact, while she was explaining to Kathryn where she was supposed to go, she said specifically that I was going to be at Baggio, and we would not be together for the rendez-vous. She was speaking in rather quick French, but I did understand her. Next, just to be sure of my location for the rendez-vous I posed the question to my contact René when we were going over specifics of starting to assist. He again reassured me that the rendez-vous, for me, was at Baggio. Even with all that assurance I ended up in the wrong place. I was not the only person to make that mistake either.


This led to a very fast-paced walk the 10 blocks or so back over to Lycée Gaston Berger. The only plus side was that in our planning for Kathryn, I knew exactly where I needed to go, and how to get there. On the walk over I ran into 10 or so other assistants who had gotten lost or were just unsure where they needed to be. By the time we got to the school we were only 10-15min late, and because it is France nothing had started yet. The only problem was that the people assigned to direct the incoming assistants to the correct building and rooms, were no longer at their posts. So we wandered around the campus trying to find where everyone was meeting. It turned out that they stuck us all (~300 assistants) in a building in the process of being renovated. There was scaffolding up the sides, the stairs were all torn up, and there was construction plastic over all the windows contributing to the intensely humid conditions inside. Aside from being slightly out of breath and sweating buckets, at least I was in the right spot and soon after I arrived we began with the presentations.


There were four women that spoke with us, and they explained that they would be rotating to make sure we did not get bored. First off was some paperwork to fill out. I got lucky because in showing up late I had to go sit at the very front of the classroom (it was the only seat left, not as punishment.) This allowed me to be the first person to sign my name and information to all the paperwork that was handed out. I was lucky because there were so many assistants in the room, and so much information to fill out on the 3 sheets they gave us, that most of the assistants sitting on the other side of the room either did not get the chance to complete them, or had to wait and fill them out later.


The second presentation was telling us about teaching methods, and how to stay in control of our classes. These were relatively important yet common-sense points like: if you want the kids to respect you, you must show them respect, and, you are the teacher and they are the students so make sure not to become too close or they will not respond to your requests. We were told explicitly that we were not to work more than 12 hours per week because any more than that we could not be paid for. Also they told us that we were there to assist with spoken English, and they were paid more than us, so it was their job to teach grammar. They also said for the first 24 teaching hours we were supposed to do nothing more than observe classes. The reason for this was to get a better understanding of how the class system worked, how the teachers interacted/controlled their kids, and to be more prepared to take on our responsibilities.


Our schedules were supposed to be set for us at least a week or two in advance so we could be prepared. By no means should teachers be calling us up, or emailing a day before asking to help in their class. I have already blown past this stage. As I mentioned in the blog about my first day at Baggio, I had about 10min of observation in the O.C. class before beginning to converse with students. As well, I had received an email the night before from one of the English teachers asking if I could assist with her 9am Thursday English class. There were lots of kids in the room that were concerned about their schedules, and how lackadaisical their contacts were being when it came to setting them up. I figured I'm much more of a "roll-with-the-punches/learn on the go" kind of student. I would much rather just jump right into assisting rather than sitting at the back of a classroom with nothing to do for two weeks.


One thing that really stood out was something called Devoirs des Reserve. This statute held that as teachers in France it was our duty to keep our opinions (political, religious etc...) to ourselves. If you were Christian and wore a cross you must take it off, as well, if you were Liberal try and illustrate opinions/positives and negatives of all views without giving too much away, and if you're Republican just keep your damn mouth shut no matter what (that was my opinion, I might have a little trouble with this "keep-your-politics-to-yourself" part). She then added that this was applied to the structure of teaching, in that, there was no reason to try and get this type of information out of the students. Of course there was one pompous kid who had to question this statute in the most asinine of ways. He was going to be teaching in a Collège, which means working with 12-14 year old students. His question was: "What if I want to ask the kids what they think about the job Sarkozy is doing?" The teacher's response was that the question was bordering too closely on the line, and that kind of question is not really appropriate for the classroom. My response was why the hell would you ever ask Jr. High kids that question? Your lesson plan probably won't stray any farther than holding up a picture and saying: "This is a GREEN DUCK, please repeat," or something along those lines. I had hoped this was the end of it, but he comes back and asked: "So...What if I wanted to ask them how they felt about the law stating that Muslim scarves were not allowed to be worn in schools?" Pompous American ignorance. I just put my head down and closed my eyes. (Sorry, just had to get that off my chest). I'm sure that I will never see this kid again in my life so who cares?


When the presentations finished we were given little tickets to use for our meal at one of the university lunchrooms in the city; then led out of the school to begin the 45min walk over to the cafeteria. I met up with Kathryn outside, and we walked together with about 400 total assistants over to the university restaurant. We couldn't get there fast enough, both of us were starving. Of course with so many people going together the line for food was pretty long, but when we finally got to the front the selection of foods was minimal to say the least. There were about four stations where you could grab items, and I was under the impression (because it said on our ticket: "good for one meal,") that I was at liberty to indulge in whatever looked good. I found out this was not the case when I got to the cashiers, and they looked sternly at me. Then stated "too much!" and then took my orange off my tray.


After lunch we had about an hour and a half before we were scheduled to reconvene. This time it definitely was at Baggio. We went to a little café/tabac that one of the other English professors from Baggio had taken me. The hope was to get an espresso to try and perk up before our afternoon meeting. It got the job done, but only for a very short while. This was in part due to the fact that the amphitheater we were meeting in was about 100degrees, and we had already been told most of the information that was being explained. So the last meeting was pretty much a waste of time, but overall the day was a great experience. We did get some good tips on how to be better assistants, and we met some very nice people as we had hoped. Now we have friends to communicate with and possibly go out for drinks, or travel with.


Oh and I forgot. There was a little bit of bad news. As I had told many of you (because I had our vacation schedule memorized) I was under the impression that we had a spring break from the 4th of February until the 22nd of March. Well all hopes of a 2 month paid vacation have gone out the window. Apparently it was a typo, and the vacation ends on February 22nd. Ce n'est pas grave, but still a little disappointing.


Thursday morning was a little hectic. I am still battling with this whole getting up at 7am deal so I showed up to Baggio for my class with about 2min to spare. Thinking I was late, I ran up to the classroom to find it completely empty. This was because all of the students had been locked off the grounds by security, because of the unusual hours that classes commence. Now I haven't gotten the schedule down yet, but if a class is set to start at 8am it actually starts at 7:55am, and for my class, which was scheduled for 9am, it did not actually begin until 5min after 9. The problem here was that some of the other classes that are scheduled for 9am do not actually start until quarter after. This meant the security guard refused to let any of the students into the building until 9:15 so everyone came into class about 20min late. This gave me a little more time to prepare, but it was so early, and in my haste to make it on time, I did not have an opportunity to grab a café. I was too tired, and had a very difficult time speaking in French. I could understand things just fine, but when it came to asking even the most simple of questions I just couldn't find the words. J'étais très fatigué!!


When the kids did show up, they were all prepared for our conversation. As homework the teacher had assigned them to come up with questions. It, again, was not a class that I will be regularly working with, but they were in the process of learning the basics like: what is your name? how old are you? do you like cats and dogs? and things of that nature. The most difficult part of the class, besides getting the kids to stop talking to each other and pay attention, was making sure I was speaking slowly enough so they could understand. This is actually much harder than I had imagined. They have such a rudimentary understanding of the language that not only did I have to speak very slowly, but I needed to choose my words carefully. It all went well and luckily the teacher was in the back of the room to yell at/scold the kids who wouldn't shut up.


The class ended at 10am, and my schedule was clear for the rest of the day. I called Kathryn hoping that she would be in my area because it was supposed to be her first day of introductions, and visiting the two schools she will be assisting. Unfortunately right before heading out she received an email from her contact saying the schools were not ready for her, and she should just take the time to rest and get over her illness. This was not totally unexpected because in true French fashion, the directions initially given by her contact were: "Just show up, you pick the time, you pick the school, just tell them who you are. They should be expecting you." So instead of starting work she came into the center of Lille and we met up for lunch. We went to a little brasserie just off the main Grand Place. We chose this estaminet because it had Magret du Canard (medallions of duck) on the menu. Kathryn had the plat du jour which was grilled ham with steamed potatoes, and I had the duck (obviously) which was covered in a peppery cream sauce that was unbelievable. The only problem was I could not remember how to ask for it cooked to my liking, so it was a little over done. This did not make much of a difference, but next time I'll make sure to get it right. It was delicious. After lunch we just walked around a bit more then went home. I was so tired from getting up early, and walking back to the city center from my school (Kathryn needed "about" an hour to get ready, so I decided to walk rather than waste one of my metro/tram tickets.)


Friday we had nothing planned, and Kathryn was jealous of my duck from the day before so we went back into the city with the intention of getting some more canard. We got going a little later in the day which gave Kathryn more time to get ready, and me more time to sleep in. This time we chose a place just down the block from the one we ate at Thursday. They had a very good looking menu, and it was slightly less expensive than the other place. Kathryn got the duck which again was delicious, and I had Osso Buco that was falling off the bone tender (Still not as good as my Mom's, but very tasty.) After lunch we had a grand café to perk back up, and Kathryn wanted to do some shopping.


Her one goal was to find a beautiful French coat to try and look more European. We had stopped in probably 10 different stores throughout the last couple weeks trying to find one that not only looked great, but fit our price range. I figured I was in for the long-haul. Quite to the contrary though, the very first store we walked in had the perfect coat. It was a thick, black, wool, belted, trench-style coat that actually fit! (Seeing as we are bigger than the average Frenchie, finding something that fit was a challenge in itself.) She looks very beautiful, and with the purchase of a lovely scarf to accompany the jacket, now looks incredibly European. No one will be mistaking her for an American. I on the other hand was wearing my black Air Jordan jacket that John Poplar gave me when I was in Jr. High, and some sneakers. I felt out of place and jealous.


This led to our next adventure which was trying to find something that would fit me, and make me look more French. First up was trying to find a nice jacket. This actually did not take too long, but apparently being a Large in the States means I am a XXL here in France. Luckily for me there were plenty of coats in that size. I was able to buy the coat that I originally wanted back in college, but was unable to get because of Chibuike. What I wanted was a double breasted, button up, black wool pea coat, and that's exactly what I got. Now I can pretend I'm straight out of the movie The Boondock Saints. Next on the list was finding a pair of shoes. I had only brought 2 pairs of shoes and one of them was heavy Timberland boots to be worn in the snow and rain. The others were the sneakers for working out/running/playing sports etc... No one in France went out of the house in gym shoes or heavy boots so it helped me stand out even more (being 5inches taller and about 30lbs heavier than almost everyone contributed as well.)


Finding a nice pair of shoes was not the hard part. The challenge was finding anything in my size. The first store we went into had a great selection of men's shoes, but I had no idea what 13's in US sizes translated over into European sizes. So once we found a pair that I liked we went over to the sales clerk and asked if they had a device to measure my foot. I don't think she understood what we asked, so I decided to check the tongue of my sneakers to see if they had a conversion. In fact they did...47.5. When she saw this her expression changed very rapidly and she said: "Non, nous n'avons pas cette taille, peut-être les baskets!" This is translated roughly into "Of course we do not carry that size! Your only chance is basketball shoes you freak!" Well this was a little discouraging, but I hoped that it was only this particular store. Again, I was wrong. From that point on our strategy changed to simply asking if they had size 47's because we were wasting too much time picking out nice shoes only to be turned away. The next 8 or 9 stores we tried had the same results with varying degrees of astonishment from the sales clerks ranging from the simple "non" with bewildered eyes to "Oh la la la, Absolument NON!" After this last one we thought the best idea was to just ask where we might find shoes of that size, and were directed to a mall complex around the corner where "big" people shopped. I'm not sure if we actually found the right mall they were talking about, but I did finally get a great pair of comfortable, brown, casual/dress shoes. I had to settle for a size 46, but they fit just fine. Also in our short conversation with the sales clerk, when she found out we were Americans, she explained how excited she was that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, and that we had the Greatest President in the WORLD! We agreed! If only the rest of America could realize how lucky we are to have him and stop bitching and criticizing every little thing he accomplishes, good and bad, maybe he would be able to get more done and truly earn his award....Back to the point. Kathryn and I, now dressed as sharp, hip Europeans, will never again be mistaken as Americans...at least until we start speaking.


We didn't do anything on Saturday. Kathryn was sick, and I was tired so we hung around the house, and went to Carrefour and picked up some groceries and just took it easy.


Today got started a little earlier, but I was still able to sleep in. Our main goal was to get to Wazemmes for their Sunday market. It was supposed to be the biggest in the city with everything from food, to clothes, to anything you could think of. And boy, they were not joking around. In an area of about five or six square blocks there were vendors selling everything from shampoo and bathroom supplies, to cell phones and DVD's, clothes, underwear and lingerie, to whatever may have "fallen off the truck." It was anything you could find in Walmart or Target for at least 75% off the original price. I don't know how they do it, but you can't beat their prices anywhere. It was so much fun just wandering from aisle to aisle looking at all the different merchandise as well as the people lining up to buy everything.


After a full run through of the market we started getting hungry, and decided to stop into a little Thai restaurant that had a line outside that went almost all the way down the street. Lucky for us everyone was waiting for food "to-go" so we were able to bypass them all and get a table to ourselves inside. It was nice after weeks of French food to have something a little different. Now I love French food as much as the next guy (maybe not as much as my Dad) but Thai was a good change. Now we can go back to a couple more weeks of heavy cream, cheese and baguettes.


This upcoming week should really be the start to our teaching adventures. In true French fashion the rules are being thrown out the window, and I believe I begin conversing with students on my own tomorrow. Kathryn has another training day, and hopefully will get some classroom work in the days that follow. Besides getting structured, finalized, schedules for at least the next couple weeks, we are hoping to explore some other parts of Lille, make new friends, and begin gearing up for our first vacation that starts on Oct. 24th. We haven't fully decided where we will go, but we have narrowed it down to either Paris, to visit my friend Yann, or Amsterdam. Stay tuned and I promise to try and keep these posts coming on a more regular basis. (As long as interesting things keep happening.)


À Bientôt,


Jor and Kathryn

"A Waste of Time" (No Motivation)

No, I'm not talking about moving to France, or dropping everything to become an English teacher, or even explaining the new health care agenda to "the other side of the aisle." This is a direct quote from my contact at Lycée Baggio in reference to the class of misfits he was trying to teach about the English Speaking World. It was an unexpected exclamation, and the first bit of English I had heard spoken the entire morning. Let's just say that my premier jour d'ecole was quite an experience.

But...before I can get into what an interesting time today was, I must mention our first real night out on the town. In my last post we were in the process of getting ready to go out and meet up with all the other English assistants in the Lille area. Well that didn't happen, but we still had an amazing time in the city. Lille is beautiful at night. The streets are all lit up with bright lamps and the buildings are illuminated with neon spotlights all throughout the city. The average Saturday night sees thousands of people crawling out of every pub and café and bar and really anywhere that is actually open past 7pm. I'm not just talking about your average "lets get wasted" high school or college student either. No, literally everyone was out on the town, young and old, kids as young as three and four years old out with their parents until well after 11pm, and for no particular reason other than blowing off a little steam from the week past.

Initially our plan had been to meet up with the other assistants, but they were meeting at 6pm, and we weren't ready to leave the house until about 6:45. So we got into the city a little "late," and there was no giant group of Americans waiting to greet us outside of the Gare Lille-Flandres. Our first thought was to try and find them; this we did unsuccessfully for about 20-30min before giving up, and wandering into a bar whose name seemed familiar, possibly from pre-trip research on the Lille nightlife. It was called the Australian, a very dark place with lots of people watching a soccer match, but there was no room for us. Also we hadn't eaten dinner yet so we decided to try out the "PUB" next door. This place was much calmer, had good beer and a nice dinner menu as well. Kathryn and I split a pizza and enjoyed a few...refreshments. The first of which was the French version of Red Bull and vodka which included some unusual garnishes of fruit-flavored marshmallows (we passed on those). Next we switched to beers for the rest of the night. The pub was nice, the waiter spoke English (we still tried our best to respond in French) and the food wasn't too bad. The pizza was still better than almost any I had in Oregon. We stayed there long enough for me to tell Kathryn almost everything I knew about international rugby (the T.V. had switched to it once the soccer was over).

The rest of the night was spent hopping from bar to café to estaminet to anywhere that looked appealing as we strolled through the damp Lille night. During our time we met a very nice waiter who spoke of some of his adventures in San Francisco and Las Vegas. He summed it up as so: "Las Vegas...lose your inhibitions, lose your money, lose your wife, lose your mind" and we guessed he had a good time. He also mentioned how much he enjoyed SanFran. He said he didn't mind the cool grey weather. I'm sure it's because we are in for a lot of the same this winter here in Lille. The beer we had at this particular café was the best we've tasted in Lille thus far. That's not to say it was amazing (I think the stuff my Dad and I made was still better) but this was less fruity than most of the others we had to this point. On our way back to the tram station Kathryn got a craving for a Nuttella crepe, and I got one for a kebab. This led us to a little Saudi Arabian restaurant just blocks from the Gare. It was the only place we could find at midnight still serving both crepes and kebab. Again the waiter was incredibly nice, and we chatted (in French) about how he had studied English for years, then spent time living in England only to return to France and forget every last word he had ever learned. The late night food was great, but it was what the other patrons in the restaurant were eating that will drive us back there to sample the dinner menu. Finally we had to rush out of there because we were minutes away from missing the last tram back to Wasquehal, and we didn't want to have to pay for a taxi home.

That was our fantastic first night out. On to my first day of school.

I haven't had a real first day of school in a very long time. Yes at U of O I had plenty of first day of classes, but that was nothing like a first day of school. This was real...like first day of Jr. High or High School real. Nerves the night before, trouble sleeping (more from getting over my flu but whatever) and of course, showing up late and having absolutely no idea what room I was supposed to be in or how to find it. The showing up late part wasn't exactly my fault. Halfway through my tram ride into the city the conductor came on the intercom, and spoke very quickly in French. I had my headphones in listening to my ipod so the only real part I understood was something about mechanics, which I assumed meant there was a problem. I was right because no sooner had I paused Kanye than the doors opened and everyone filed out onto the platform, and into the rain. Luckily we only had to wait about 5min or so before the next tram pulled up and we packed it to the gills.

Once we arrived at the main train station I started looking around to try and find the correct metro line I was supposed to get on that would take me to Baggio. Before this trip I thought I was very prepared, but the problem was last week when we went to visit my school we had walked from the main train station, and I never really checked which metro line to get on. This cause a little bit of stress since I was already running late. Just remember it was very early in the morning and I was still thinking American. If I had more of a French mind-set I would have remembered that being on time really doesn't matter (one of the "fact facts" I picked up today was that in many places it is rude to arrive early or even on time). After walking back and forth between the maps showing the routes of the metro lines about 5 times I gave up and figured I would just walk. It would add on another 30min or so to my trip but, so what? Then once I got to the school all I would have to do is get on the metro going back to the main station and where ever it let me off, next time I would know where to catch the right train.

This was a good idea until I actually made it out of the station, and found that in the 10min or so that I was underground pacing, the rain had picked up. It wasn't anything worse than a normal Eugene Oregon misty shower, but I had a couple kilometers to go. The real problem was that I was wearing my winter coat, and it was getting hot, and I was quickly losing interest in walking. My path to the school led me to the Square of the Republic that has the Palais des Beaux Arts which also happens to have a metro stop. I guessed that since I was about 1/4 of the way to the school this metro must go the rest of the way. I was wrong, but it did get relatively close to the street that my school is on. I got on the train and hoped that when I got off I would be facing south so when I turned left, like the map in the station said, I would actually be headed the right direction. I ended up at the Wazemmes station, went up the stairs and took a left. As chance would have it, after six blocks or so I reached the street Kathryn and I had walked down originally to get to Baggio, so I was back on track. Once I knew where I actually was it only took another 10min or so before I finally got to the school.

Since I had arrived late everything was locked up, and I had to wait at the gate for the security guard to come over. There were also two other students that were late to school waiting beside me. I was let right in, they were beaten mercilessly. Just kidding. They did get what sounded like a stern talking to then one was let in and I have no idea what happened to the other. Actually getting onto the grounds of the school was just the first step in the battle to find M. Gonzalez my contact. He told me to meet him in the "Salle des Professors" (teachers lounge) which was in the main building on the ground floor. What he didn't tell me was that the school is actually two schools technical, and professional, so the first two people I ended up asking for directions could do nothing more than lead me to someone else who again had no idea who I was or where I needed to be. Finally after being led to 4 or 5 different teachers offices we found the head secretary who was expecting me, and had a dossier with my contract waiting on her desk. Luckily everyone that I met and dealt with in the entire school was very nice, and understanding, and helpful. By this time it was around 9:30am and I was standing at the door to M. Gonzales' classroom.

He came out and greeted me, and suggested that I go wait in the teachers lounge for him because he needed to finish teaching his class. Well I had already tried to get into the teachers lounge, but you need an electronic pass key to get in (something that I obviously did not have yet) so I asked if I could sit in on the rest of his class. He said yes but also mentioned that this class did not have the students I would be working with, but instead was full of trouble-makers. He said I would be working with the "honors students," the best the school has to offer, and these kids did not care, had no motivation, and were a waste of time. I thought he was being a little harsh, but he was more or less right. They were loud and obnoxious and didn't stop acting like...well...we did when we were freshman in high school (they were probably 17/18 years old though) At first they thought I was a new student, but when they found out I was American the most pressing issue was finding out how much the Iphone cost in the States. There was only 10minutes left in the class when I arrived and M. Gonzales ended things early so we could talk and he could show me around the campus.

The next couple hours were spent being introduced to the instructors in the English department, getting my electronic pass key so I can have access to the teachers lounge, and also use it in the cafeteria to pay for lunch. I didn't have lunch in the school restaurant, but I am looking forward to it. Lunch only costs about 2euros, and I have been told by some of the other professors that they eat very well at Lycée Baggio. For lunch I went out to a little sandwich shop with the English teacher that actually helped Kathryn and I set up our housing situation with the Cook family. After lunch we went to a little Middle-Eastern tabac/café for a very good and very strong cup of coffee. This was all leading up to my first actual class to assist.

At 2pm I was led up to the room by the teacher. On the way she explained (in very fast French) that the kids were upper-level students studying for their BTS exams, and needed to be proficient in English to get a job. BTS is some kind of electro-mechanical engineering degree. I figured this out because my first assignment (or what I thought was my first assignment) was to go around and read the students reports they had written about a two week internship they had over the summer. So after introducing my self twice (the first time I spoke way too fast because this was right after finishing the big cup of very strong coffee, and no one could understand me) I began to go around the room reading these reports and trying to ask them open-ended questions about their experiences to get them speaking in English. However, even though the kids had been taking English for about 10 years already there were only 3 or 4 that spoke very well at all. Asking questions really wasn't very successful so instead I just went through the reports with them, and pointed out some mistakes and sentences that made no sense or that I couldn't understand. This was made a little more difficult by the fact the students all had jobs repairing metro and train cable lines, or working to fix the machines that replace bowling pins in the lanes at bowling ally's. The problem was they used a lot of technical language that I couldn't tell if it was correct or not because I have no experience with their field of study.

When the class had been let out the teacher told me that the students were taking advantage of me by getting help correcting the errors in their papers. Apparently what I was supposed to do was talk to them about the paper, tell them what I didn't understand and then they were supposed to go fix it themselves. Oh well, now I know for next time that they are supposed to do everything on their own. It will be easier for me as well to just have them read/tell me what their papers are about, and let them know how horrible they are at English and to stop wasting my time (that's the French way).

After school was finished I rushed home on the metro and tram to tend to Kathryn who was home dying of the plague. The real problem was that since we had been sick last week all the meds' had been used up so she had nothing around to make her feel better. I made some pasta so we could have a warm meal then found the Tylenol PM to get her feeling better. We crashed early last night because she was sick and I was just exhausted from getting up before the sun.

We have a big rendez-vous at Baggio on Wednesday where all the Lycée assistants from the Lille region will be attending. I believe it will not only be English assistants because I was told there will be over 350 of us there, and I know there aren't 350 English assistants in Lille. It should be interesting to finally meet some other assistants, and get all the necessary paperwork filled out. I'll let you know how it goes.

-Jor and Kathryn

P.S. - I almost forgot. Sunday I got a chance to talk with my parents on skype. This is the most amazing piece of technology because we were able to hook up the webcams so it was like we were chatting in person (and for free). Yes, I enjoy talking to my parents and seeing them and all, but the BEST part was they just aimed the webcam at the TV and I was able to watch the second half of the BEARS v. lions game!!! So now I have a way to watch Da Bears pound the NFC into submission on their way to the Super Bowl, and my parents have a definite way to get me on the phone at least once a week. Love you guys.

How Français the French Can Be

Here in Lille it is quite apparent that autumn has hit hard and winter is quickly approaching. We are noticing it a bit more than the rest of the country, due to the fact that the home we are living in, it seems, was built in an era before the invention of insulation. To be honest, I'm not too sure when the French actually started using insulation seeing as we were told the house was constructed in the 1950's. Our room is freezing in the mornings, if the central heat of the house isn't turned on soon Kathryn is probably days away from going to buy a space heater. It is getting cold rather fast. Even with a sweater and jacket there was a biting wind that took us a little by surprise once we got into the city today.

The weather is just one of the things that has been changing over the last couple days. Another would be the fact that Kathryn and I are starting to integrate ourselves into daily French culture. Yesterday, Kathryn had a meeting with her contact from the premier schools to help her fill out paperwork, and to give her the schedule for the upcoming weeks. Between Kathryn's contact and mine, we have almost put together all the pertinent information necessary to actually begin teaching, and (hopefully) getting paid for it. One thing we had to make sure to get accomplished before seeing the contact was setting up a French bank account. We are now proud members of Crédite Agricole. We had a very nice banker help us through all the paperwork, and in approximately 10 days we should have our brand new French ATM cards. This information was necessary so Kathryn could fill out documents to get an advance on her first paycheck. Something I still need to do.

Anyway, to get to the contact's office we had to walk (because we couldn't figure out where to catch the #7 bus) over to the western part of Lille. After only one wrong turn, which we discovered pretty quickly after making, we ended up, once again, in a kind of prison looking school compound. Kathryn's contact was very helpful (for Kathryn). Not only did she give her a complete schedule for how the next couple weeks will play out up until our first vacation (Oct. 24-Nov. 4), but she also helped her fill out all the paperwork necessary to get an advance on her paycheck. She was a very nice lady, and gave us all types of information about special cards we can buy to get unlimited rides on the tram/bus/metro, and even where the best markets are on the weekends to get cheap clothes, fruits, veggies etc... She also put my mind to ease a little since I have not heard anything from my contact since about a week or so before leaving.

That is a completely different story in itself. What Kathryn's contact told me was that in the Secondary Schools there are not specific people assigned year in and year out to be liaisons to in-coming language assistants. Whichever teacher has the most time on their hands will be my contact. Also more than likely they have never done this before, and things may get a little backed up or slowed down. When I told her that I had not heard anything in weeks from my contact she just laughed and said it was normal. This helped a lot because initially when my contact introduced herself, and we began our correspondence everything was moving very smooth. I had a response from her no more than 24hours after I had written. Then about a week before leaving (when I started asking important questions like when do I actually start? and what time do I need to be there for the first day?) all replies ceased. I was starting to get worried because in one of her first letters she said my first official day of class would be Oct 1st. Well October 1st came and went, so has the 2nd and I still haven't heard anything from her. Now I know it's just because they're French. So no worries.

I know this is the moment you've all been waiting for...the votes have been counted and expert witnesses have testified. Kathryn and I are officially teaching in the ghetto! Exciting, right? She is actually a little more in the "rough" part of town than I am, but our schools are only a few blocks apart. This was confirmed to us by Kathryn's contact. The first wind we had gotten of it was when Fiona informed us that the area that our schools were in was, in her words, "dodgy." After walking around my school it was apparent that we were in a largely Muslim/immigrant part of southern Lille, but we didn't really think much of it. Kathryn's contact was a little more explicit telling her that the area was very poor and the children can be "rough." She mentioned she knows from experience because she was a teacher at one of Kathryn's schools for 7 years. This should be a very interesting experience, and at the very least make for some good stories. I mean, what area could use more assistance than one that is impoverished? We are not discouraged in the least.

All of that happened yesterday. Today we slept in, and then went to the Centre-Ville of Lille to use our Cadeaux from joining the bank. As a reward for our new membership with Crédite Agricole we were given 35euro in gift certificates, each, to use at a store called La Fûret du Nord. This place is like Borders on crack. It has a huge inventory of books, movies, ipod's, magazines, day planners and much more. It's also 5 stories in the middle of one of the biggest squares in the center of the city (right next to the MacDonalds!). Originally we went there hoping to combine our gift to get a clock radio with a hook-up for my ipod so we could listen to music while getting ready in the morning. That idea changed pretty quickly when we stumbled on the Virgin Mobile stand tucked away next to the escalators. The French cell phone system is way different than that of America. All you have to do is buy a phone. There are no contracts to sign, and no monthly charges. You just buy minutes at any big supermarket, or tabac, or post office once you start running low. They had phones for sale for only 30euros, so we decided the best gift the bank could give us was two shiny new French cell phones. We probably won't use them very often, and definitely not to call the USA so as not to run up 900euro bills, but in case of emergency or just to meet up for lunch during the school day we are well equipped.

After getting our new phones we walked around until we got hungry, and stopped at a little brasserie down one of the side streets off the main strip of shops. It was a nice place playing some of the strangest techno music we had ever heard. However the food was delicious. We just got the menu which included a meal, a drink and a coffee or tea. We ordered the coffee first because we were both pretty tired, and unlike true French fashion, when we ordered our food it was brought out within about 5 min. Kathryn had a great Coq au Vin and I had the Lapin. Both were falling off the bone tender, and smothered in tasty sauces. We had a very strong Leffe amber beer to accompany our meal which was also very good. These Belgium style beers they have are all good, but they start at about 7% and go up from there. Three or four of these beers and we might not have made it back home at all.

After eating we walked back to the train station, stopping shortly at a bar/restaurant claiming to be a brasserie des sports. The hope was that we found somewhere to watch the Bears games, but alas, they only showed European football matches. I'm still searching around for somewhere to watch the game free online, but nothing too promising has shown up yet. Worst case scenario I can still listen to it on the radio.

Last night we were invited to a string quartet concert by our host Fiona. Now I was expecting a concert setting maybe in a theater in the city. Really we just went to her church for the performance. It was good, for that type of music, and they (two violins, a viola and a Cello) were accompanied by the church choir. I'm guessing this will be the last Friday night we spend listening to classical music in a church (not just in France, but for the rest of my life).

After the concert we just came home, and I started writing this blog while Kathryn did everything possible to warm up. There has been an email chain going around between all the assistants in the Lille region to meet up at the train station Lille-Flandres tonight, so we will probably go and check that out. Whether we actually go out with everyone is yet to be determined. Something about walking around Lille in a group of 100 Americans just doesn't seem too appealing. It might just be a quick meet-and-greet, but either way we should have fun spending the night in the city.

One last thing...I finally heard back from my contact this morning. She apologized saying that the Internet had been down (I'm sure) and that I can meet all the teachers in the schools lounge Monday morning. I am very excited, and will probably drag Kathryn down there with me just for some company on the short trip. She also wants to go check out her schools which are in close proximity. This means vacation will finally be coming to an end, well for the next couple weeks anyway until our real vacations start. I have to be there bright and early at 8:30am. I haven't been up that early in a pretty long time, but I'm sure I can manage. Well, gotta start getting ready for our first real night out on the town.

Á Bientot,

Jor and Kathryn