Thursday, February 2, 2012
VICTORY!!!
Feeling talkative today because I'm happy. It's no secret that I've been struggling with the whole teaching thing, but today was a really good day. All of my classes went really well and i even converted some of the difficult kids. Miss Lauren is finally winning over the disgruntled middle and high school masses!!! The turning point in my somewhat defeatist attitude is all thanks to an extremely difficult little boy who will henceforth be referred to as Y. Y is the terror of his class. Thanks to a disappearing teacher, I have his class twice a week instead of once a month (voluntarily of course. I suppose I'm a bit of a masochist.). As a result, this is the only class where I know everyone's names. Y is a pain in the ass. The biggest candidate for ADD and ADHD medication I've ever seen. The boy never stops talking, moving and making life difficult for everyone around him. Last week he finally vocalised his blatant disregard for my class by saying "Why bother with this class? I'm never going to use English anyways." I'd pretty much given up on capturing his interest. But lo and behold, it is possible. We split the kids up into the good kids and the troublemakers today, and I took the troublemakers to the back of the room to give them my own lesson, where they couldn't disturb the other kids who wanted to work. With the exception of one (B, the devil incarnate) the rest of the kids (who are normally quite disruptive, be it constant chattering or actual violence) were GREAT! They seemed to really enjoy the lesson I gave (which really wasnt the most interesting) and Y was actually helpful! He volunteered information. He participated. He did things I was not previously aware that he was capable of doing. And at the end of the lesson he uttered the most beautiful words I've ever heard: "Miss, can we do this every lesson? That way we can learn more and learn better." The boy wanted to learn. The boy that dismissed my subject as completely worthless was asking for more knowledge. From me! I almost hugged him. Instead I gave him a green sparkly smiley face sticker. It seemed to have the same effect.
Just another day in Stenay (sung to the tune of "Just two little girls from Little Rock")
In a strange mood today. Most likely a result of my first unsuccessful attempt at adulthood of the day. I awoke (sounds dramatic, doesn't it?) moments before my alarm went off, thus sparing myself the pain of waking up to that universally horrible beeping noise, and automatically putting me in a good mood, and I thought to myself: "I'll start the day off productively, let's go do some dishes." But little did I know that my attempt at cleanliness would be foiled by the very elements themselves (da da duuuummmmmm). This is all a very melodramatic way of saying that I couldn't do the dishes this morning because everything in the sink was frozen solid and in one big chunk (but wasn't it more fun with a little creative rhetoric?). Obviously, being from predominantly warm countries, I found this hilariously absurd and made a point to mention it to my colleagues. But when I did, the other teachers couldn't understand the point of the story. They looked at me as if to say "Doesn't everyone wake to find their dirty dishes frozen together? Surely this is how a normal morning begins." The cultural (or climate-al) misunderstanding was fun for us all. We all learned something today. And as teachers, isn't that what's most important?
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Strasbourg and the Strat
Continuing the series "Lauren and Liane take France", this weekends episode was Strasbourg, the jewel of Alsace and hopefully someday my future home. Preemptive apologies for the length of the post, I just want to make sure I get all the details in, for maximum accuracy and dramatic effect. So...let's get started, shall we?
VENDREDI
After dragging myself out of bed and barely making it to class, giving half-assed advice to BTS students on clearly underprepared presentations, I finally made it home and, still only semiconscious, realised that I had 37 minutes before the only bus that could take me to the train station in Verdun, and I had neither showered, packed nor eaten breakfast. Obviously panic ensued. Fast forward through a lot of waiting, to arriving in Metz and almost missing the train to Strasbourg. For some reason the trains between Verdun and Metz are never on time. Regional trains never are. And unfortunately they are what stands between me and the rest of the world. Anyways, Liane taught me this cool twine knotting thing on the train. I'm sure it has a much more recognisable name, but I don't remember what it is. You probably know what I'm talking about anyways, if not, just fake it. So...we got to Strasbourg, a train station I've often passed time in, but had never actually left. Anyways, it was pretty late and we had to walk right past our hotel a couple of times before we realised where it was. We checked in with a leggy blond who wasn't wearing anywhere near enough clothing for how cold it was, dropped off our stuff and spent the rest of the evening wandering around the city. We saw the facade of the main cathedral (Notre Dame de Strasbourg) and a number of smaller, less touristy restaurant and bar type areas which would come in handy later. I must say that Notre Dame (indeed all Notre Dames) was awe inspiring in the dark. An elaborately carved mountain of stone, it was the only thing that was truly lit in the city, which gave it an almost magical presence. In that moment, I could understand religious fervour. How could you not believe in God if you lived in constant contact with such a monument to belief? I'm glad the first time I saw it was almost alone in the dark. I don't think I would have been as impressed if my first impression was one that was swarming with tourists, as I would experience in all subsequent days. We concluded the evening with a brisk and brief trudge along the banks of one of the many rivers that flow through the city. We though it would be fun to walk along the river like people did in the postcards. However, we quickly learned that when you have to climb over a railing to get to something, it's usually not worth getting to. I'm still covered in mud.
SAMEDI
We rose at the butt crack of dawn, hastily dresses, grabbed a pastry from a salon de thé (that I swear wasn't there the night before) and jumped on the early train to Colmar, a perfectly preserved "petit village" about 40 minutes south of Strasbourg. While I'll admit that i wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of visiting a supposedly tiny town during my weekend reprieve from living in a tiny town, I'm delighted that we went, as "petit village" it was not. Much more than a tiny town, it was a medium sized city, home to beautiful, colourful buildings, wonderfully weird alternative shops and the most cleverly hidden tourist office I've never gotten lost trying to find. Colmar is perhaps best described as quaint, but still seems bursting with life and activities for people of all ages. I would love to have seen their Christmas market. It must have been breathtaking. Sections of the city look like they were made my toy makers, too cute to be true.
Others, like "Petite Venise" are painfully pretty. They must be incredible in the spring, when the weather is a little less bone chilling. Truly lovely, a must for anyone travelling in the area.
Upon returning to Strasbourg, we wandered through a used and antique book fair in one of the main squares, on our way to lunch. Maupassant for 1€50!!! Not antique of course, but books are expensive here. It was exciting (especially for the French major I was travelling with). Lunch took place at a hole in the wall italian place that we had discovered the night before. GARLIC PIZZA!!! Need I say more? Absolutely wonderful, regardless of how badly my breath stank for the rest of the day. Then church hunting. We tried to check out all the major churches in the area, most of them gothic, all of the impressive. I particularly enjoyed one of the smaller churches (whose name I can't remember); beautiful stained glass, lots of light, no tourists (except us, but we tried to look inconspicuous). We then headed down to an area called "la petite France", apparently famed for looking like Venice.
I found it underwhelming (Comar's "petite Venise" was much more charming), but much more importantly it was there that we made (or thought we'd made) a groundbreaking scientific discovery: the Strat, half beaver, half rat, native inhabitant of Strasbourg, most photographed rodent in Europe.
We found out later that it was a muskrat, but we persist in calling it a Strat. It just sounds cooler. As you can tell we were rather excited by our discovery. Apparently they're quite common in both Alsace (where Strasbourg is located) and Lorraine (where I live) but this was the first one I've ever seen. His name was Gaspard.
DIMANCHE
SNOW!!!! Lovely, soft, white snowflakes coming from every direction. Very beautiful, but not conducive to any sort of desire or motivation to be outside or productive. Spent most of the morning in the only café in town that was open (and thank God it was) and then caught the tail end of mass at Notre Dame. A children's choir was visiting from somewhere and they performed admirably. Incredible voices. We then proceeded to hide ourselves in one of the cathedral's many nooks and crannies and watched as the tourists descended on Notre Dame's famous astronomical clock. Taking up most of the right chapel, this monsterous, incredibly detailed, infinitely useful clock seems able to do and measure everything: time, solar and lunar cycles, the position of the planets, to name a few, all while retaining theological value. The clock chimes every quarter hour, to mark the 4 stages of a man's life, and at noon, a statuette of death chimes the hour while a mechanical Christ blesses each apostle that seamlessly files past him. With every fourth apostle, a rooster, perched on top of the clock, flaps its wings, raises its head and crows. Really an impressive piece of machinery.
The trip ended with 2 hours on a train back to Metz with a bunch of men who seem unaware that they were much too old to be playing stupid practical jokes on each other. And then finally we parted for our separate trains "home". Until next time...
VENDREDI
After dragging myself out of bed and barely making it to class, giving half-assed advice to BTS students on clearly underprepared presentations, I finally made it home and, still only semiconscious, realised that I had 37 minutes before the only bus that could take me to the train station in Verdun, and I had neither showered, packed nor eaten breakfast. Obviously panic ensued. Fast forward through a lot of waiting, to arriving in Metz and almost missing the train to Strasbourg. For some reason the trains between Verdun and Metz are never on time. Regional trains never are. And unfortunately they are what stands between me and the rest of the world. Anyways, Liane taught me this cool twine knotting thing on the train. I'm sure it has a much more recognisable name, but I don't remember what it is. You probably know what I'm talking about anyways, if not, just fake it. So...we got to Strasbourg, a train station I've often passed time in, but had never actually left. Anyways, it was pretty late and we had to walk right past our hotel a couple of times before we realised where it was. We checked in with a leggy blond who wasn't wearing anywhere near enough clothing for how cold it was, dropped off our stuff and spent the rest of the evening wandering around the city. We saw the facade of the main cathedral (Notre Dame de Strasbourg) and a number of smaller, less touristy restaurant and bar type areas which would come in handy later. I must say that Notre Dame (indeed all Notre Dames) was awe inspiring in the dark. An elaborately carved mountain of stone, it was the only thing that was truly lit in the city, which gave it an almost magical presence. In that moment, I could understand religious fervour. How could you not believe in God if you lived in constant contact with such a monument to belief? I'm glad the first time I saw it was almost alone in the dark. I don't think I would have been as impressed if my first impression was one that was swarming with tourists, as I would experience in all subsequent days. We concluded the evening with a brisk and brief trudge along the banks of one of the many rivers that flow through the city. We though it would be fun to walk along the river like people did in the postcards. However, we quickly learned that when you have to climb over a railing to get to something, it's usually not worth getting to. I'm still covered in mud.
SAMEDI
We rose at the butt crack of dawn, hastily dresses, grabbed a pastry from a salon de thé (that I swear wasn't there the night before) and jumped on the early train to Colmar, a perfectly preserved "petit village" about 40 minutes south of Strasbourg. While I'll admit that i wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea of visiting a supposedly tiny town during my weekend reprieve from living in a tiny town, I'm delighted that we went, as "petit village" it was not. Much more than a tiny town, it was a medium sized city, home to beautiful, colourful buildings, wonderfully weird alternative shops and the most cleverly hidden tourist office I've never gotten lost trying to find. Colmar is perhaps best described as quaint, but still seems bursting with life and activities for people of all ages. I would love to have seen their Christmas market. It must have been breathtaking. Sections of the city look like they were made my toy makers, too cute to be true.
Others, like "Petite Venise" are painfully pretty. They must be incredible in the spring, when the weather is a little less bone chilling. Truly lovely, a must for anyone travelling in the area.
Upon returning to Strasbourg, we wandered through a used and antique book fair in one of the main squares, on our way to lunch. Maupassant for 1€50!!! Not antique of course, but books are expensive here. It was exciting (especially for the French major I was travelling with). Lunch took place at a hole in the wall italian place that we had discovered the night before. GARLIC PIZZA!!! Need I say more? Absolutely wonderful, regardless of how badly my breath stank for the rest of the day. Then church hunting. We tried to check out all the major churches in the area, most of them gothic, all of the impressive. I particularly enjoyed one of the smaller churches (whose name I can't remember); beautiful stained glass, lots of light, no tourists (except us, but we tried to look inconspicuous). We then headed down to an area called "la petite France", apparently famed for looking like Venice.
I found it underwhelming (Comar's "petite Venise" was much more charming), but much more importantly it was there that we made (or thought we'd made) a groundbreaking scientific discovery: the Strat, half beaver, half rat, native inhabitant of Strasbourg, most photographed rodent in Europe.
We found out later that it was a muskrat, but we persist in calling it a Strat. It just sounds cooler. As you can tell we were rather excited by our discovery. Apparently they're quite common in both Alsace (where Strasbourg is located) and Lorraine (where I live) but this was the first one I've ever seen. His name was Gaspard.
DIMANCHE
SNOW!!!! Lovely, soft, white snowflakes coming from every direction. Very beautiful, but not conducive to any sort of desire or motivation to be outside or productive. Spent most of the morning in the only café in town that was open (and thank God it was) and then caught the tail end of mass at Notre Dame. A children's choir was visiting from somewhere and they performed admirably. Incredible voices. We then proceeded to hide ourselves in one of the cathedral's many nooks and crannies and watched as the tourists descended on Notre Dame's famous astronomical clock. Taking up most of the right chapel, this monsterous, incredibly detailed, infinitely useful clock seems able to do and measure everything: time, solar and lunar cycles, the position of the planets, to name a few, all while retaining theological value. The clock chimes every quarter hour, to mark the 4 stages of a man's life, and at noon, a statuette of death chimes the hour while a mechanical Christ blesses each apostle that seamlessly files past him. With every fourth apostle, a rooster, perched on top of the clock, flaps its wings, raises its head and crows. Really an impressive piece of machinery.
The trip ended with 2 hours on a train back to Metz with a bunch of men who seem unaware that they were much too old to be playing stupid practical jokes on each other. And then finally we parted for our separate trains "home". Until next time...
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