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