Singing in the Rain

From this gloomy, lazy Saturday afternoon in Apt, I am happy to be cuddled warm in a blanket, reading David Sedaris' book Me Talk Pretty One Day. This might sound like completely different weather than my last post, where the abundant sunshine was shining in my eyes constantly. The entire week since, it has rained. One day, it even got cold enough that a couple snowflakes were blowing around outside. All I can say about this: thanks Polar Vortex!

Literally, one day after laying out in the sunshine.

Although the rain did make this week quite gloomy, I was still in high spirits after such a relaxing weekend. Monday, after teaching my business English classes, as my boss Alain was driving me home, he promised me that from now on, each week he is going to try to teach me at least one new French word or phrase. I appreciate this, as I find it hard here to get the opportunity to learn a lot of new words with teaching English all the time. He tends to teach me a lot of phrases that are commonly used in conversation, not formal French but more like slang. A couple of this week's words? De sous, meaning money (though I never had heard of this word to describe it) and le nec plus ultra, meaning the best thing.

In honor of my good mood and rain, my love for Gene Kelly continues...

Along with the less than fantastic weather, sickness riddled my work-week. With all the students bringing kleenex with them to class, it was hard to get them motivated to speak a lot of English. After discussing pedagogy with my teachers, I learned a few new techniques that help with the lack of motivation, like the difference between creators and imitators. It proved helpful in later lessons during the week! That is, the lessons that did not get cancelled - on Thursday, my normal 6 lessons turned into 2 as all others had been cancelled due to teachers being sick.

Friday brought a busy day teaching. Actually it was the busiest day of this past week teaching-wise! Even though I do not teach at the lycée on Fridays, I taught 3 hours of private lessons. It was my third week working with a boy from the collège, and I think that we are really starting to make some progress. He really tries to use as much English as possible, rather than before he would spout off in French if he didn't know what to say. Also, he was brave enough to voluntarily show me his last quiz score, which was less than stellar. As he handed it to me, he said "yeah, this is a sad contrôle*". I said that it is fine to make mistakes, we just have to learn from it and try harder next time. I took notes of what we could work on for next week, and he left feeling accomplished.

My other lesson yesterday was with a girl that is one of my students at the lycée. It was our first lesson together, and we spoke constantly for two hours in English. I am extremely impressed at how well she speaks English, telling me how she went to an international school in Holland where they spoke English in every class. It was quite enjoyable to just sit and talk to a young person in English and for us to understand each other so well. I have found that for every 5 students that are uninterested in English here, there is one that is so incredibly passionate and curious about the language that the other unmotivated, impolite students seem to not bother me as much. I am so blessed that I have gotten the opportunity to teach in a classroom setting here in France but also to have had such a variety of private lesson clients. From middle age Business associates talking about technology to a thirteen year-old boy having difficulty being able to introduce himself, I have really broadened my abilities in teaching for different levels and with different goals in mind.**

Although this past week has been great, I did feel quite a bit homesick. I think this was due to a combination of my birthday being so soon*** and the gross weather, neither of which improved my mood. I know that I will have an amazing birthday here in France, but there is nothing like having your family and friends around to celebrate another year of life. Even though my birthday is on Wednesday, we are going to celebrate on Saturday by climbing the Mont Sainte-Victoire, just outside of Aix-en-Provence. It was something I really wanted to do when I studied in Aix but never got around to it. Now, in honor of 24, and weather providing, I am finally going to climb that mountain and I can't be more excited about it. Until then, a relaxing weekend and week will be just what I need to welcome another year in my life. And maybe a little bit of the Pinot Noir I just bought too.

*Translation: test
**Not to mention, it is REALLY nice to have some extra money around here. Makes saving up for my April-May travels that much easier!
***Countdown to 24: 4 days. Oh god, I feel the wrinkles setting in now!

Les nuances

With the sun shining on my face this beautiful Friday morning in Apt, I can honestly say that I am feeling so happy to be here today. When I return home, I think the first thing that I will miss about this place is the abundant sunshine that permeates every day*, making even the chilled breezy weather seem to be a Michigan spring. This morning, I opened the double windows in the living room and laid for an hour underneath the rays, soaking up every bit of sun. I have a little bit of color now… crazy to think that this is a typical January morning here.

Mmm... soleil

The past week has been uneventful to say in the least. Monday, while I was at my Business English classes, they mentioned the documents I have been translating for them. I honestly haven’t had much time to work on them – resulting that it would become a project for this weekend, which seemed do-able as there are only 3 documents to do. When I explained this, my boss gave me a funny look and said “send them over to me when you are done, there is much more we want to send you!” I am grateful for the opportunity not only to teach for this company but to also do some translating for them, but I hope that I have not gotten myself in over my head. Either way I’m taking it all in stride, as the days are rallongé** now. As my boss tried to explain to me the meaning of this new word and how it is different from its near partner allongé, we had a discussion about les nuances. Nuances in language, but also in life - this includes understanding the meaning of a word or action but also why it is necessary to use it in that context. Much of my time here in France is spent learning to understand the nuances of everyday life, and I constantly am trying to educate myself further in this.

Best thing about the days getting longer: I get to walk back home as the sun is setting. Just beautiful.

Tuesday at the end of one of my lessons, when one of my students got my contact information to set up  private lessons, all the others asked “what’s going on Rebecca?” I explained that she wanted to take private lessons and they responded “we can do that?!” After explaining a bit further, they took down my e-mail as well, excited for the opportunity to see me and speak English more. It is moments like this that make me feel like I am making a difference here, and make me happy to teach every day. 

Favorite boulangerie with the best baguette in town

Wednesday evening greeted us with a surprise visit. This entire week, a business has been coming into the apartments, dorms, and classrooms to do measurements as they are planning on doing some remodeling*** Getting a notification for this last week, I went to the secretary and set up a rendez-vous for them to come in the apartment when I would be here, so they could get in to all the rooms. That rendez-vous was supposed to be on Monday: it came and went with no visitors. I thought this was weird, but again, nothing really surprises me about this place. So when 6pm Wednesday rolled around and I heard 3 people speaking French in the hallway of our apartment, I opened up my bedroom door to find one of the maintenance men and two women with blueprints and measuring tape looking quite shocked to see me. They explained that they would be doing the measurements now. Normally, if I were living in the States, I would have seen this as a huge inconvenience: I had made an appointment and they had not kept it, and then came into my apartment unannounced at a time that I wasn’t expecting them. But the funny thing about living here is that it changes you a bit: I said it was fine and asked if there was anything I could do to help. Maybe this flexibility will continue when I return home?****

Thursday was another busy day of classes. Sometimes at the end of this day, I feel a bit discouraged, as the last class I have is always my worst behaved and I leave my workweek feeling less than satisfied. This week was the opposite. We were working on the second week of a two week project about football/soccer (they learn both British and American English). Their task this week was to make a skit about soccer and perform it. I had been worried about letting this class work in small groups, as their talking normally is hard enough to control, but they were great! They were concentrated on making their scripts as good as they could make them, asking me for grammar or vocabulary help, and even practiced before performing as I had coached them to do so. Leaving school for the weekend yesterday, I felt fulfilled for the first time after that Thursday class and am hoping it will continue. 

The rest of the today will be nice and relaxing: a private lesson with a student, shopping, reading and a movie – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Yes, in our little cinema in Apt, Walter Mitty is playing. For now, I am off to enjoy that sunshine….

*Correction: nearly every day. But still, this is the sunniest place I’ve ever visited or lived!

**Rallongé and allongé basically mean the same thing: lengthened – though from what I’ve read online rallongé is more to mean extended in a general sense, rather than allongé means the enlongating of object. So when we were talking about the days being rallongé, this means the days are getting longer.

***This couldn’t come soon enough. Seriously, really old buildings here folks!

****Unlikely. Very unlikely.

"I like Facebook because I can spy on people."

Today was just another manic Monday but was a good day full of surprises. I taught class very early this morning and was genuinely surprised and happy that my students were not only awake but happy to participate in English! It must have helped that the topic of the lesson was social networks, which solicited some good discussion and debates, filled with memorable quotes like the title of this blog.

After class, I went to la loge to find that I had a surprise package from back home! Two of my best friends, Chris and Marissa, had decided to send me a package of Christmas goodies and letters. This really touched my heart, as I have been trying to get some holiday cheer going on around here lately and now there is plenty of it. I will have to hang up some of the coloring pages to get some Christmas spirit flowing in the apartment. Thanks so much guys and can't wait to see you soon for Christmas!

Pure happiness.

There were even letters inside!

Filled with candy canes, peanut butter m&ms, hello kitty stuff (floss, puzzle, stickers, plate/dish thing, christmas ornament and COLORING BOOK), peppermint hot chocolate mix, gold sparkle OPI nail polish and a CHOCOLATE ADVENT CALENDAR. Seriously guys, best surprise ever!

This afternoon was a new experience for me: it was my first day teaching English at a business! I was told that these would mostly be conversation classes, to get the business associates used to speaking to people and meeting people at conferences. Because of this, and because it was the first day, I decided to do introductions and talking about their lives. I figured that this would be a good place to start and came ready with sheets full of vocabulary and pictures to help with verbs they may not know. However, I was surprised to see that during my first lesson with the computer engineer and electrical engineer, they already knew all of this information and more! We got through my lesson in about 10 minutes and then I just had to wing the conversation for the next hour. At one point, I even asked them what they want to know in English, as it seemed like they had a good understanding of grammar but I wanted to know what topics interested them, and of course what could I teach them. They said that they want to know how to say things specific to their field, as that technical vocabulary is confusing to them. Of course! I had thought of this before, but as their boss told me to focus on conversational English, I didn't think to look any of this up. For next time though, I will definitely focus on a more advanced level of English - definitely the most advanced class I have had to teach here which should be a challenge. The two of them were incredibly nice though, which made our conversation for the hour to be quite enjoyable.

The second group I taught is the boss who hired me and his wife the receptionist. They are at a lower level, though the difference between their levels is going to be a challenge in itself. He can carry on a conversation with me, although pronunciation and tenses can always be improved, while his wife doesn't know any of the numbers past 10. Nonetheless, it was a good change of pace, as I feel like I had something to teach them and the second hour flew by quickly. After getting paid and trying to say goodbye to his dog*, Alain drove me back to the Cité Scolaire in Apt. Even though it is my job to teach him English, I feel like he knows that I want to learn some French - a few times during the lesson and during this car ride, he pointed out words that I probably wouldn't know in French. Although I would love to continually speak with him in French, I know that it is not what I am there for, but during our car rides it seems that he is trying to get me to practice too, which I could not be more thrilled about. We marveled at les illuminations d'Apt together and he told me the difference between illuminations and une fête de lumières. Either way, he likes the Christmas spirit too, and I cannot wait to give more English lessons next week.

*So me and this dog, we really hit it off last week. And this week whenever I tried to pet him, he barked and backed away! This is not the end though, we WILL be friends. It is my new goal.