Sunday, September 6, 2009

Two Weeks

All right. Exactly two weeks before I leave the country.

In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the gist of what I'm doing in France: I was hired on a seven-month contract through a program of the French government to be an English language assistant in a public school. I was (pretty much completely randomly) placed in a high school in Quimper, Brittany.

And in case for some reason you're reading this and don't know me: My name is Josh; I'm from the Boston area and just graduated college in Texas with a degree in linguistics.

Ok, with that contextualizing out of the way... When I first found out that I was being placed in Brittany, I was very excited. Brittany (or Bretagne in French) has a different heritage than the otherwise mostly Latinate cultures of France, owing to the double Celtic influence of both Gauls living there who predated the Romans, and Welsh migrants who settled there in the early Middle Ages. (Sorry if understanding of Breton history is a little muddled, I still find it a bit confusing...luckily I don't think any actual Bretons are reading this blog.) I've always been interested in the Celtic world-- to the point of taking an Irish Gaelic class when I was younger-- so I was excited to find out that I would get to experience a piece of it in France. Brittany also has its own native language, Breton, which is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic family. Similarly to its sister languages, it was repressed for a long time but is experiencing a modest revival now. Needless to say, the French language seems to be the absolute standard for public-sphere communication-- it's not like I'll need to carry around a Breton phrasebook.

Brittany is a peninsula in the Northwest of France. It's the region in red on this map. It points at the North Atlantic like an angry finger (apologies in advance if you can't see images-- I can't figure out how to put in alt text):




After I found out the region I was going to be living in, it was a while before I would receive word of where I would actually be. Talk about grueling waiting. There were so many possibilities-- in Rennes or Brest, the two big cities (by French standards) in Brittany, or in the total middle of nowhere sleeping between some cows... it was totally up in the air.

Finally I found out I had been placed in Quimper. It's pronounced pronounced like "kemp aire", or for those of you who can read IPA, [kɛmˈpeʁ]. I get lazy and like to rhyme it with "whimper", because it sounds funny that way. I'm sure the people who live there will appreciate that.

It seems like a really great town. It's in the département (smallish administrative region) of Finistère, which literally means "land's end". As you can (maybe) see from this extremely confusing map, I'll be pretty much closer to home than I would be anywhere else in France:



Quimper is the center of an area called Cornouaille (cognate to Cornwall, just as Bretagne and Britain are related), which appears to be the region in Brittany which retains the most aspects of its traditional culture. Quimper seems to be very touristy in the summer, and not so much in the winter. It's about 60,000 people, and the center of its own micropolitan region, so this will be the first time I've ever lived outside of the area of a major city.

Just wait until I actually get there and everything I learned from Wikipedia and books is totally wrong. It turns out everyone in Brittany speaks only Kannada, lives in ice-houses, and spends 23 hours a day hand-sorting Necco wafers by color.

After receiving my specific placement (at a local high school), I contacted a very nice woman at the school and she informed me that there was housing for me there. Pluses: convenience, cheapness, low-hassle. Potential minuses: ...living in a high school dorm. I get my own room, but I still didn't expect to ever live in a dorm again. That said, it should be a good experience-- I'll probably get to know my students better by living with them, and will be exposed to a lot of the language. And the price is extremely right-- 33 Euro a month. Add to that the convenience of living at the one school where I teach (whereas many language assistants on this program have to commute between multiple schools), and it looks like I will have much more time and money than I might otherwise. Score! There will be a few other assistants at different schools in Quimper, so I'm looking forward to hopefully meeting them. Also, there is a German language assistant living next door to me, who was there the previous year and decided to return (a good sign), so I'll have a fellow foreigner around.

The school is on a road called Avenue des Oiseaux, which translates literally to Bird Ave. (which is kind of punny in itself if you think about it too much). Awesome.

Anyway, I'll stop writing for now because I could ramble forever. Sorry for the nerdfest, this will get more interesting when I actually start traveling... I'm getting very restless to leave, though already sad to say goodbye to my family and friends. On my way to Brittany, I'm stopping through Paris to stay with my good friend MJ, which I'm really excited for. I have a few friends who will be scattered throughout Europe, and I'm looking forward to seeing as many of them as possible. If any of you friends reading this are going to be anywhere in Europe while I'm there, let me know!

I hope everyone reading this is doing great. If you're starting school again (WFR), have an awesome year!


14 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. haha i like the shout out to kannada.
    hope you have a great time. i need to spend time in france one of these days...

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  3. I also didn't expect to ever live in a dorm again, but my contact found rooms for us in the Ecole des Mines...should be interesting. Good luck with your last minute packing and everything.

    Kate, assistante in Raimbeaucourt and Roost-Warendin

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  4. Oh dear, the blog list on the assistants forum will be the end of me -- I'm a little obsessed with people's blogs now!

    But anyways, hello! I'm Kinzie, and I'm placed in Rouen proper this year. I'm also very interested in linguistics, though I didn't degree in it. I took some phonetics courses though, and love IPA. So I just thought I'd give it a shout out.

    əntɪl letəɹ (i couldn't figure out how to do r-coloring in my IPA font... oh well.)

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  5. Yay, Josh! I enjoyed reading your "nerdfest"! Quimper and Brittany have such a fascinating linguistic and ethnic history; what an adventure! I hope you get some opportunities to learn more about that. Also, it seems like you'll be exposed to some maritime culture.

    I forgot that you took an Irish Gaelic class. That's awesome. My mom used to always tell me about this nice nurse she knew in Boston that still spoke Gaelic. That language sounds so lovely to me.

    Well, I look forward to following your blog! You'll be happy to know that after three more months of job searching post-college (what a nightmare), I'm currently working with some speech pathologists at a school for kids with language and learning differences. So, I'm feeling out what I'm interested in!

    Good luck preparing for your big move!

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  6. josh! now we both have blogs, hooray! i didn't read the post because i have a diffeq problem set due in two hours, but i promise i'll read it sometime this week and i'll leave a lengthy comment proclaiming my love for you.

    forever yours,
    alf

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  7. Thanks Josh! I am excited to read your blog- it sounds like a cool job!! Good luck with packing and traveling and everything! Can't wait to hear about your adventures once you get settled and start teaching!!

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  8. Keep me posted! I'm especially interested in the workings of the French public school system and of course, all things gastronomical!!! ;>)

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  9. Chethana-- heh, I was definitely thinking of you.

    Kathleen-- is that the School of Mines? That should be interesting! Be careful of any mysterious holes... good luck on your packing as well.

    Kinzie-- nice to meet you as well! Any IPA-lover is welcome 'round these parts, r-coloring or not.

    Margeux-- Yeah, Brittany seems very nautically-oriented. Quimper is a few (maybe 10?) miles from the sea, but I'm planning on getting a bike so hopefully I'll see the ocean a lot! I'm so glad to hear about your speech pathology gig, that sounds awesome, maybe you can Leah can share notes, hah. Are you and Clint going to be living in Houston for a while?

    Alf-- rock on, what's your blog? p.s. I secretly love that mmm whatcha say rap song as well.

    Bova-- thanks! I'm sad we never saw each other while you were in Mass. Good luck in Indiana!

    Meli-- great to hear from you! I can definitely tell you a bunch about French schools, but my gastronomical adventures might be kind of boring since I'm a vegetarian. Remember Leslie's "tofu ham"? ;) Actually, scratch that, the adventures might be really exciting. Episode 1: No, Cow Eyeballs Are Not Vegetarian.

    I don't even know if you're supposed to reply to people's comments on blogs. I totally need to take Blogging 101.

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  10. Hey! Is this joshou or something from the forums? I went to school in Texas too and now i'm here in beantown (nearby) ha ha. i totally get what you mean by ''just watch and everything i learned on wikipedia will be wrong''-- i had the same fear! did you try wikipedia.fr? sometimes english wiki is diluted haha. the internet bible of knowledge, as colbert would say. anyway, enjoy brittany keep writing!

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  11. on the moon-- yeah, on the French assistants' forum that's something like my username. I tried wikipedia.fr but my French needs some work...haha.

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  12. Hey Josh,
    It'll be the test of my loyalty to see if I can keep up with all your blogs once you're in Brittany- but so far, I've read all 1.25 of them- yay! I'm really excited for you- I'm thinking of when I'll be going (probably another year and a half away still), and how exciting that will be...
    Best of luck in the Franceland...and I'm looking forward to reading about your experiences!
    <3 Becca

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  13. This makes me very excited to follow your blog - it's very Josh of you, (thank goodness - since we're missing you in class) and I'm excited to get a little history lesson as well. Please continue the nerdfest and let me know if anything happens to remind you of Deep Impact. I'll be glad to share with the group. :)

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  14. What if they make cow's eyeballs out of seitan and colored pectin? I'm sure at some of the more esoteric Asian food markets you could find something like that. (Availability in your quarter may be a bit of an issue...)

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