vrai auberge espagnole

Sunday, October 8

Hehe this morning I awoke to a yell of surprise from Susan, who had returned from Paris to find Claire borrowing her bed.

Been lesson planning in my PJs all day. I’ll have one class tomorrow—premières in basically remedial English. As far as I can tell, their grade levels are reversed from ours in the States, i.e. the larger the number, the younger the student. So premières are practically done with high school.

I’m going to do introductions—have them say their name, their age, and where they are from. This can also save me the embarrassment of butchering their names during attendance. They say their names, I check them off the list and figure out how to pronounce names like Idriss and Belhacem.

Then I’m gonna give them a collage I made of random pictures from magazines, and they’ll have to use one picture as a jumping off point to tell us something about themselves.

Then it’ll be on to a funny cartoon about school uniforms (these two kids walking down a hall with sagging pants, saying “School uniforms!...NO WAY! We’d be mocked!” And behind them, a teacher laughing hysterically at their exposed behinds). Can have them explain why it’s funny and the issue it involves. Next, divide the class in groups, have each take a section of a short article about school uniforms, and then summarize it. Segway into brainstorming pros and cons of uniforms, all together. Decided if I get students that don’t want to participate, I might have them all stand up, and then require each one to give me a pro or a con before s/he can sit. Harharhar.

If we’ve got any time left after that, I figure the “I like people” game is always a winner. Stand in a circle with one person in the middle, who has to say “I like people who…wear red shoes.” And anybody wearing red shoes has to switch spots with someone else wearing red shoes/the person in the middle. Goal is to get out of the middle. Whoever’s left over after the frantic running goes in the middle.

Didn’t realize how tired I was until we walked to Claire’s for dinner. Practically fell asleep at the table. I am feeling a bit worn out language-wise today. My brain just turned off for French, and anything said to me in French today went right over my head. It’s also very hard trying to make decisions and get information when you just don’t quite understand what people are saying. Very frustrating…I could ask people to write it and have better luck, I think.

Bed earlyish tonight, in the hopes that my brain will click on tomorrow. Gotta get the train to Orléans around 1:30 for the health appointment…hopefully no strikes are in the forecast.



Saturday, October 7

So that scene in L’auberge espagnole when the English girl answers the phone and is butchering a French explanation to Xavier’s mother (“Xavier neez paz eecee…”). Yea. It happened for real, today. I answer our phone, and hear “Blah blah blah blah Susan?” So I figure, ok Spanish. Susan was in Paris and had left us a little blurp to say, running along the lines of “Susan is in Paris. Call tomorrow.” So I dutifully and enthusiastically say “Susan esta en Paris. Llama mañana.” Reply: “BLAH BLAH BLAH SUSAN BLAH COLUMBIA??” My attempt at Spanish quickly deteriorated to “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish” and the conversation ended when whoever it was hung up in frustration.

In other news, the weather is very fine—a rarity for this time of year, we hear—so Catherine and I monopolized on this by going biking along the Loire.

Went out in the evening with the other assistants…the Loch Ness is a Scottish-style pub in town, complete with billiards (which I have yet to play) and dance floor (which I have yet to frequent). People are crashing here tonight—a 30-minute walk in the early hours of the morning is a baaad idea.