Monday, October 5, 2009

Sacrifice the Chickens!

Things I learned last week.
Lack of sleep catches up with you.
You cannot buy sheets at all hours like you can in Amerrika
How to say fart (péter)

I got sick last week, probably because I was averaging 3 hours of sleep a night. I almost changed foyers, but decided the other one was too expensive. I'm starting to settle here. I got a better room. It's on a corner and has two windows. But, I got this cold and my nose was running terribly and I had to go to this orientation business. It was miserable. I couldn't concentrate, and of course, this man was speaking in French for a long time. I listened for a while, and the next thing he said was, "And we'll start with you..." He was looking right at me.
My friends laughed, and I stuttered. Someone whispered, "introduce yourself."
Fabulous

After I moved to my new room, I finally bought sheets. You'd think, "oh, bedding, I can get that anytime." Well, unless it's before 7:00 pm and not Sunday, you cannot buy sheets. And when you're on the go, after 7:00 and Sunday is about the only true free time there is. The French like their time off. I believe 24-hour Wal-marts and Krogers would disgust them. On Saturday I went to Carrefour, which is a bit like Wal-mart and bought sheets and a nice blanket that is super warm. Saturday night I slept a good 9 hours. The best since I've been here.

On Friday Oct 2, I observed two of my schools. French primary school (age 5ish to 11ish) goes something like this:
1.5 hours of class
15 minute recess
1.5 hours of class
1.5 hours lunch/recess (where students can go home if they so choose)
1.5 hours class
15 minute recess
1.5 hours of class
They only go Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

The breaks seem excessive to an American who spent 7 hours a day, 5 days a week in elementary school. I'm not sure if it is superior, persay. But it does provide a different way of approaching learning. Kids need frequent breaks to wear themselves out.

My schools are a little ways out of town, about a 30 minute bus ride. Another interesting thing about France is the socio-economic distribution of population. While in the US many of the city centers contain the lowest on the Economic scale, in France, the banlieues, or suburbs, are usually concentrated areas of lower income individuals.
The kids seem, for the most part, great. Many of them were so excited I would be the English teacher. As far as, I can tell there a lot of immigrants. Turkish immigrants probably count among the highest in France. Maybe this will help, the fact that many of the students speak another language at home.
At one of my schools, two girls spent their entire recess asking me what certain words were in English. Necklace, wall, square, star... I made them tell me the French word first to check my own vocab. Anyway, the crowning moment was when one little girl said a word I didn't understand... "Un moment, un moment," she said, sliding her hand into her shirt and under her armpit. She tried several times to make the noise. "Un moment, un moment" I didn't tell them, though. It might be too inappropriate, but I did learn the word "péter"

Have you ever seen the show Prison Break? It's terrible. Do not watch it, expecially in French. I'm pretty sure the plot is terrible. The only thing I understood was something about "sacrifier les poulets" as in, "You have been sacrificing the chickens." Otherwise, I saw people shoot people, a woman jump out of a truck, and other various, bizarre occurences.
Fabiola and I cracked up. There were no chickens in the show, and, as far as I could tell, it was more about government secrets than sacrificing anything.

Finally, does anyone want to donate some money to fly me home for Christmas?!?
The lowest price I've found is $813, and prices are rising as I type. I really would like to spend Christmas with my family, Kevin, and my friends. I don't know what I'll do otherwise.
Any suggestions?

There's more. There's always more. But, I will save it for next time.

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