Finally...a class
Friday, 6 October
Just sat in on my BTS math/physics class, and they seem fairly good. There are about three students that will reliably talk, and the rest sit there and stare mostly. I see two chatty ones, so gotta make sure I learn their names so I can call on them to add to everyone's discussion.
Feeling a little overwhelmed because I am getting professors confused. There's so many of them, and I'm forgetting what they wanted me to cover, what problems they had with my schedule, when they wanted me to meet them... Gaah!
Need to post pictures soon.
Thursday, 5 October
Another riveting day of orientation, after a quick run to school to apologetically cancel meetings with professors. I got to the orientation about 15 minutes late, sneaking in next to Catherine, who discreetly handed me a letter from our mailbox reading “Urgent.” It was a letter announcing that I needed to attend the meeting I was currently attending. Really now...
Got a good lunch, however, at the cantine…a public school lunch, and it was better than many a cheese log at B-W. Although I do like cheese logs.
Went to the CDDP in Blois—an educators’ library, full of books, videos, DVDs, tapes, etc. for teaching. Got a high school English textbook out to look for ideas, and if I had time to read the thing, that’d be great.
Ducked out early to go to the bank—this guy who works there is always in when I come to sort out some business or other, and today he just laughs at me, and I’m like “Yea, I know…I’m always here.” But he helped me figure out how to deposit money in the account—you don’t need a bank card, just the account number and a deposit slip, and you can do it by ATM.
Walked around a little, stopped to get a coffee, talked to Katie via phone (yay!), and got my head together. Then on to France Telecom, where I asked the lady why our phone wasn’t working yet. No solution, but I thought I’d switch some wires around when I got home and hopefully have some luck. Gave her the RIB so she can do direct withdrawal from my French account each month for the payments (hence the trip to the bank, so as not to get arrested for overdraft). The computer system was down, so she’ll call my cell phone and tell me when it’s gone through so I can come down and sign the contract.
We are rather miffed at our landlord—phone is still not working, and we got our nice French neighbor, Xavier, to take a look at it. He brought his phone over and it didn’t work either, so we pretty much figure the phone jacks—all three of them—are bad. Or France Telecom screwed up somewhere, but I asked the lady today about it, and she called the switch-phone-on service, and they said it’s on. Maybe we’re just missing some sort of master switch to make the phones work, but in any case, it’s frustrating. We also found out, through our neighbor, that we are paying significantly more for our house than they are, and it’s the same identical house. We figure M. Bride upped the price because he did provide a refrigerator and oven, and we are foreigners and will leave in seven months. But after all this money we’ve given him, he will not give us the garage door opener:
Rose: “Can we have the thing to open our garage door?”
M. Bride: “Why? You have a car?”
Rose: “Well no, but if we have a friend to stay, they’ll possibly have a car and would want to put it in the garage.”
M. Bride: “Well there is parking right in front of the buildings, they can park there.”
Rose/Me:
According to Xavier, the garage is included in the rent, and since we pay even more than them, we BETTER have use of the garage. We think M. Bride doesn’t want the cat who he’s put there running out. That’s all very well, but the cat is his responsibility, and we’re meanwhile bleeding money to pay him deposits and rent in cash. Moreover, have we received the receipts repeatedly requested for such exorbitant expenses? No. Cash payments, and no receipt. There is a recipe for disaster.
Anyways, after feeling very bitter and tire-slashy about the landlord, we ate pasta with pesto and went out for a drink at the Velvet Jazz Lounge. Very snazzy little bar with vaulted ceilings—looks like an old chapel really—and rather expensive cocktails. I settled with a half-pint Guinesss for 3 euros.
The number of people that honk and yell when they see a group of girls is amazing. I don’t remember this happening in the States like this. Yea, the odd car here and there, but here it’s definitely once a day at least.
After brioches with jam and a good attempt at understanding the various educational systems—French, English, and American—it’s definitely time to sleep. Up in 5 hours to get ready to meet my BTS math/physics students with Alain tomorrow. It’ll be the first class I meet, and I’m really quite ready to have contact and a routine. I hope he’ll let me sit in on the class as well.
Just sat in on my BTS math/physics class, and they seem fairly good. There are about three students that will reliably talk, and the rest sit there and stare mostly. I see two chatty ones, so gotta make sure I learn their names so I can call on them to add to everyone's discussion.
Feeling a little overwhelmed because I am getting professors confused. There's so many of them, and I'm forgetting what they wanted me to cover, what problems they had with my schedule, when they wanted me to meet them... Gaah!
Need to post pictures soon.
Thursday, 5 October
Another riveting day of orientation, after a quick run to school to apologetically cancel meetings with professors. I got to the orientation about 15 minutes late, sneaking in next to Catherine, who discreetly handed me a letter from our mailbox reading “Urgent.” It was a letter announcing that I needed to attend the meeting I was currently attending. Really now...
Got a good lunch, however, at the cantine…a public school lunch, and it was better than many a cheese log at B-W. Although I do like cheese logs.
Went to the CDDP in Blois—an educators’ library, full of books, videos, DVDs, tapes, etc. for teaching. Got a high school English textbook out to look for ideas, and if I had time to read the thing, that’d be great.
Ducked out early to go to the bank—this guy who works there is always in when I come to sort out some business or other, and today he just laughs at me, and I’m like “Yea, I know…I’m always here.” But he helped me figure out how to deposit money in the account—you don’t need a bank card, just the account number and a deposit slip, and you can do it by ATM.
Walked around a little, stopped to get a coffee, talked to Katie via phone (yay!), and got my head together. Then on to France Telecom, where I asked the lady why our phone wasn’t working yet. No solution, but I thought I’d switch some wires around when I got home and hopefully have some luck. Gave her the RIB so she can do direct withdrawal from my French account each month for the payments (hence the trip to the bank, so as not to get arrested for overdraft). The computer system was down, so she’ll call my cell phone and tell me when it’s gone through so I can come down and sign the contract.
We are rather miffed at our landlord—phone is still not working, and we got our nice French neighbor, Xavier, to take a look at it. He brought his phone over and it didn’t work either, so we pretty much figure the phone jacks—all three of them—are bad. Or France Telecom screwed up somewhere, but I asked the lady today about it, and she called the switch-phone-on service, and they said it’s on. Maybe we’re just missing some sort of master switch to make the phones work, but in any case, it’s frustrating. We also found out, through our neighbor, that we are paying significantly more for our house than they are, and it’s the same identical house. We figure M. Bride upped the price because he did provide a refrigerator and oven, and we are foreigners and will leave in seven months. But after all this money we’ve given him, he will not give us the garage door opener:
Rose: “Can we have the thing to open our garage door?”
M. Bride: “Why? You have a car?”
Rose: “Well no, but if we have a friend to stay, they’ll possibly have a car and would want to put it in the garage.”
M. Bride: “Well there is parking right in front of the buildings, they can park there.”
Rose/Me:
According to Xavier, the garage is included in the rent, and since we pay even more than them, we BETTER have use of the garage. We think M. Bride doesn’t want the cat who he’s put there running out. That’s all very well, but the cat is his responsibility, and we’re meanwhile bleeding money to pay him deposits and rent in cash. Moreover, have we received the receipts repeatedly requested for such exorbitant expenses? No. Cash payments, and no receipt. There is a recipe for disaster.
Anyways, after feeling very bitter and tire-slashy about the landlord, we ate pasta with pesto and went out for a drink at the Velvet Jazz Lounge. Very snazzy little bar with vaulted ceilings—looks like an old chapel really—and rather expensive cocktails. I settled with a half-pint Guinesss for 3 euros.
The number of people that honk and yell when they see a group of girls is amazing. I don’t remember this happening in the States like this. Yea, the odd car here and there, but here it’s definitely once a day at least.
After brioches with jam and a good attempt at understanding the various educational systems—French, English, and American—it’s definitely time to sleep. Up in 5 hours to get ready to meet my BTS math/physics students with Alain tomorrow. It’ll be the first class I meet, and I’m really quite ready to have contact and a routine. I hope he’ll let me sit in on the class as well.
posted by madameb1789 | 9:18 AM
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