First Day of Work

Yesterday was my first day of work! I’m going to be obnoxious and cut straight to current time in order to catch up. Hopefully I’ll be able to go back and fill in the rest in time. This might not make a ton of sense without any context but hopefully it’ll eventually all come together. I was a bit nervewracked for my first day of classes. For the first period, it was pretty simple. The class was divided up into groups of three (sent in turns to see me in another classroom), and the topic was introductions. I would introduce myself, have them say their names and a fact about themselves, and then the floor would be open to any questions about me…or something. It went pretty well, and I was usually ready for the next group by the time the conversation really began to dry up. These kids were not very strong in English at all. For the next period, the teacher just left me in a room alone with about fifteen kids and told me to make them talk for an hour. These students were slightly better at English but damn, an hour? With no prep? Eventually I was really grasping: “so…foods? Does anyone like any specific ones? Your thoughts on foods and their relative merits are sought, particularly in mumbled, broken English.” The kids were very nice but may have thought I was an idiot. For the third class, most of my responsibilities were, thankfully, lessened and all I had to do was stand in front of the class while the teacher squeezed them for as many possible questions about me as possible. They must have thought I was either a serious egomaniac, or, once they heard my answers, really boring. Actually, in two different classes I was asked if I had seen any stars in New York. Also, most of the students were seriously perplexed that someone from New York (apparently) would come live in Quimper. I think they’re under the illusion, from movies, that everywhere else is super-exciting and fun. Well the joke’s on you, kiddos—everywhere sucks! Just kidding…I think.

The students were overall really nice and generally assuaged my fears that they would realize I was pretty uncool and throw French things at me. I am looking forward to future classes, because they’re going to have a lot more structure and a lot less of me blushing and generally feeling like an idiot.

Then, in the afternoon, a miracle! I had received a piece of paperwork from the school secretary about a French class for foreign assistants (information here only comes in the form of paperwork. Instead of newspapers, they actually read tax forms). It had a phone number on it, and I tried to call (with my new French cellphone!) but nobody picked up. So I figured I would just go to this place and hope that, a) I would be able to find it, b) they would be willing to add me, and c) the class had even started. So I took the bus (with my new monthly bus pass!) and then somehow managed to navigate my way to the university where the class was, IUT (which somehow reminds me both of UTI and IUD at the same time…lovely). I was able to find the classroom just in time, and the class was great! The teacher is American but fluent in French, and the makeup is very across-the-board—aside from me, there are two people from China, one from the Ukraine, one from Germany, and one from Finland. The class was just at my level of ability, and it was the most people around my age I had met since coming to Quimper. At the end, we all decided to meet on Friday night—wow, real social interaction! I’ll have a reason to venture outside of my cavernous abandoned high school where I live (more on that in later flashbacks), which is nice. The class is a fairly big time commitment (three hours a week spread out over two days) but it seems like it will really be worth it.

Communication is still difficult but I think my French is already improving a bit. Not having real Internet access is forcing me to read my French young adult novels (oy) a lot more. If this blog post isn’t eloquent, you can blame it on the imminent atrophy of my English. gfvjhgrfiojgrdijg