The 1st of May: Attitude Readjustment.

(photo by the amazing Elvynia)

It is the the 1st of May.  Do you know what that means?  We have made it through 1/3 of the year.  ONE THIRD?!?!  Doesn't that seem crazy?  When did time suddenly start flying by all the time?
What does that mean for me and La Vie Française?
Well I have exactly 2 months left on my contract, and approximately 2 and a half months left in Europe.  I haven't bought a ticket home yet, which I probably should do soon.

Anyway, I'm also trying to approach teaching with a better attitude.  It's a little late, Allie, you might say.  But hear me out:  I started with a good attitude.  And at times, I've really enjoyed those little (cough cough) kids. Though by about mid-January, I would say, I was just worn out, along with all the other teachers.  And in Mid-January, there's not much to cheer you up.  The weather sucks.  You don't see the sun for weeks.  It's cold. Your room is so poorly insulated that you sleep in several layers, socks, slippers, and a wool sweater, and you have to put duct tape over the cracks in your window to lessen the wind tunnel effect your room has....  Then you have to go to work and deal with children who are stir-crazy for the same reasons.
Now, however, it is May, and it is beautiful out.

(A note about April: In April, French people feel that almost anything can be explained by the fact that it's April.  For example: the weather was crazy and would go from sunny and cold to pouring rain to not as cold to hailing back to sunny in a matter of minutes.  The explanation: It's April.  There were train strikes making transportation in France the most frustrating and stressful experience ever. It's April.  There seemed to be more absurd things that were answered with "It's April," but I can't think of them now.  Therefore, Allie's reason for not updating her blog: It was April.)

And because it is May and beautiful and sunny, I have decided to change my attitude, I am going to come to school each day with a sense of humor.  This worked out pretty well this week.  I just laughed when the kids said ridiculous things.  We're learning how to say "Where are you from?" "I am from..."
The cool thing is that at one of my schools, my kids are from lots of places.  So it was kind of fun to hear where they (or their parents) were from, and they got a kick out of the Anglicized pronunciation.
Here's where I have kids from: France, Algeria, Morocco, Cameroon, Chad, Turkey, Italy, Reunion, Congo, New Caledonia, India, Russia, Chechnya, and I think there's more.
More than one kid was convinced that Marseille was somewhere other than France.  They ignored me when I tried to explain that it was, in fact, a city IN France.  Although, I will give them credit and say it is very different from Angers.  It is also on my to-do list for places to go back to before I leave.

This good humor thing lasted pretty well too.  Until Friday afternoon when I was tired, and I started threatening my last class with copying lines if they didn't shut up.  I can handle a bit of chattering, but there's this one kid in the front row of my CE1/CE2 class that just talks and talks.  The teacher even moved the kid next to him, so he wouldn't have anyone to talk to. And he continued to talk, just right in front of my face.  I will admit I cut loose a little on him, in English.  I basically said, "Would you stop talking, you're driving me insane!" And I hit his desk.  He didn't seem to mind too much, as he started talking again about 3 and half minutes later.  I prefer it if they're talking in the back, so I can ignore them.

Also, although I've told most people what I'm doing next year, I thought I should share on here, for those  people I'm not in constant email conversation with.

I will be attending McNeese State University next year.  I will be in the MFA program for creative writing in fiction, and I will, over the course of the three year program, also receive an MA in English Literature.
Now, this is exciting for a number of reason. The first and foremost being that I am incredibly excited to start my masters.  But reason 1a is that this is the same program as Kevin.
Not to toot my own horn or anything, but MFA programs are competitive because if they provide funding, there's just not a ton of spots available.  So, to get into the same program as Kevin was pretty damn cool.
The other reasons I am excited: living in a new place, being in a program where I can write, eating fresh seafood.

There is funding involved in the form of a teaching assistantship, so I'll be teaching two sections of remedial English in the fall and living off of a stipend.

Finally, this Wednesday, I had the best day ever.  I'm learning if you make yourself have a great day, it will happen.  I got a run in the day before, so I didn't have to deal with that.  I didn't have any tutoring engagements.  So what did I do?
I went to a café and had coffee and sat in the sun with my notebook.  I sat in the park and read. I went to the library and checked out 3 books.  I had a delicious galette for lunch.  Then I went to the river with Sam and Elvynia and sat for a long time.
Lauren said this sounded very European.  I hate to say I was living the cliché, but I sure did enjoy the hell out of it

Sooo woohoo for May!  I'm ready to face the next month of insane children with a laugh.

(note: picture at the top of the post was taken by Elvynia in the Keukenhof in the Netherlands, which I will talk about next time.)