Little bit of craziness

It has been a while since my last post, and probably with good reason!  It seems like life has been a little more crazy than usual these past few weeks.
My classes have been going well and I am enjoying it for the most part.  It seems so weird to me, I have been teaching classes here for the last two and a half months and I still haven't even met all the students yet.  Another difficulty I had was adjusting to a less-than-fully-equipped classroom to teach in.  Since my go-to lesson plan - having every student introduce him or herself then ask questions about their likes, dislikes, hobbies, and future plans - can't really be used anymore now that I'm seeing some students for the third and fourth time, I have had to start thinking about what else to teach.  The English professors in the school gave me free reign.  They said I can talk about anything I want.  Some might think this is perfect and couldn't get easier, but it is actually a lot more difficult than it sounds.  I don't know what these students have already learned in their classes.  I don't know what they are expected to be able to say, the vocabulary they are supposed to know, or anything regarding their academic goals in English.  I also don't know if I'm expected to give grammar lessons or just cultural lessons while talking in English so the students have a chance to talk to me and listen to a native speaker... I chose, for my first round of lessons to give to all the students, a subject that I find interesting and fun, that has a lot to do with American culture in my opinion, and allows for a lot of speaking in conditional tense in English - Super Heroes.  This allows the students to say things like, "My favorite super hero IS/ my favorite heroes ARE," then we switch it into past tense, "When I was young, my favorite hero(es) was/were..."  Then I start encouraging them to be creative.  "If I were a super hero, my powers would be... my weakness would be... I would use my powers for good/evil... etc."  With some classes this has been extremely entertaining and enjoyable, whereas in others... well, I'm pulling my hair out after thirty minutes and praying for time to pass quicker to get out of the class.  Do students in high school really have so little imagination?  They can't even think of a single thing they would disguise themselves as?  They can't imagine one power they would like to have?  One class full of students with zero imagination was particularly getting on my nerves.  Every student was responding "I don't know" to every question as if it was a get out of jail free card.  I was pushing one student to respond SOMETHING, ANYTHING, but he couldn't, and a student behind him whispered, "Just say 'I don't know' and it's good."  That's when I got a little frustrated at them.  They did start coming up with things to say after they saw I was upset and I told them that "I don't know" is not an appropriate answer.  I told them that if they didn't have an answer, they had to at least tell me in a complete sentence in the proper tense.  Instead of answering "I don't know" when asked what their childhood hero was, they had to tell me, "When I was young, I didn't have a favorite hero."  When they realized I would make them use the grammar whether they wanted to answer or not, they started to play along.  We all had a good laugh.  Students started creating a super hero persona for themselves and every answer they gave added on to the previous answers.  Still, it was hard for them to think of things to say, and it wasn't just the English that made it hard.  I blame TV/video games.  Last night I watched Toy Story 3 with Ariel and there are several segments of little children playing with toys and imagining an entire world around their toys.  I remember playing with toys like that.  I remember Power Rangers/Ninja Turtles/race cars/etc.  I also remember pretending to be a professional athlete and playing in a championship game even when I was out playing alone.  I once drew an entire basketball court on our driveway around the basketball hoop in chalk and pretended that I was playing for the Jazz in the championship game against the Boston Celtics.  Now all the imagination is gone.  You pop a NBA CD in your Playstation 3 and you don't need to pretend anymore, the players are all there in front of you.  I like a good video game every once in a while, but I think it has taken the place of imagination in most of these students, and I think that is very, very sad.  Ariel and I decided that we want our future kids to play with toys, to imagine worlds, to create with their minds, because this sort of creativity will lead to a more practical creativity in the future and who knows what sort of things our kids could think up for themselves and for the world.

I suppose that has been the main part of my teaching experience recently, talking about super heroes each day.  What a tough life, right?  I am enjoying it, even though it is tough some times.  Aside from the teaching, things have been interesting.  We had Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago and that was quite an ordeal.  We were having the missionaries over for the dinner, and we wanted to give them a nice, American Thanksgiving meal.  With our tiny kitchen, two burners, and glorified toaster for an oven, we knew it would be hard to get everything cooked and still be hot when we ate, so we decided to start cooking as last as possible so it would all be hot at meal time.  Mistake.  I guess we were using a little too much electricity by using both burners and the stove at the same time and the power went out one hour before meal time.  I ran out to the concierge, the person in charge of the building, to ask him to call the person to fix the electricity.  That is what I had to do last time the power went out and it was a really easy fix, but one that I could definitely not do myself because the box is located in the girls dorm on the same floor of the building we're in - probably not the smartest place to put our electric box, but I guess that's how it is.  So unfortunately the concierge office was closed.  I had no idea where to go to get help.  It was definitely a blessing when I ran into one of my BTS students out in front of the school.  He approached me and started talking in English.  He told me he loves English and wants to get better at it.  He invited me to look in his little apartment in front of the school, which I did out of politeness, and I was trying to hurry because I knew Ariel was in the apt in the darkness waiting for electricity and the missionaries would be over soon and the food was not near ready.  Then the student told me he worked at the school.  I was so happy.  He took me exactly where I needed to go and got the right person called and he showed up at the apt shortly after.  We thought everything would be alright, we even unplugged a bunch of stuff to keep the power from going out again... but it did!  About five minutes after the repairman left, we were again in the darkness.  I ran out and found him again and he helped us a second time.  We unplugged even more things and turned the water heater off so we could make it through the night with no more problems.  We did end up having a nice Thanksgiving after all.

Last week was the Stake Conference in Bordeaux.  I had always taken for granted transportation to church meetings and events in the USA, but getting to Bordeaux for the conference was quite an ordeal.  It seems that hardly anyone in the Branch in Perigueux has a car and every single car that went to Bordeaux was full.  We were supposed to go with a member that lives somewhere out in the countryside, but we decided it wasn't worth the 15 euros each that she was asking and that we could probably get there cheaper in a train.  Another family heard about this situation and decided to take another car so we could fit along with another person who was supposed to come with us.  They did ask us to pay for the tolls on the freeway, which came to about 13 euros, and that was fine and definitely understandable.  It was a little frustrating trying to find a way to get to Bordeaux, having to pay and trying to find a way to get to some random freeway to meet someone to give us a ride for something spiritual, when just the day before, we had gotten to Bordeaux for free for something completely unrelated.  We were invited by our dear French friends, Clelia and Cyril, to go watch the Harry Potter 7 movie in Bordeaux so that we could watch it in English.  They are both English teachers in a high school, just barely having graduated, so they wanted to watch it in English anyway, but I thought it was so thoughtful of them to invite us, drive us there, pay for parking and toll roads, etc. and ask for nothing in return.  We went out to dinner before the movie, a nice little place that they knew of, and it really was a good meal!  When we payed for the tickets, they had all be reserved under Clelia's credit card, so she had to pay for it.  I didn't have cash on me and told her I would repay her the next time I saw her.  She told me not to even worry about it!  When I saw her, I handed her the money and a some extra to help pay for gas/tolls/parking and she refused the extra and only reluctantly accepted the money for the tickets.  To top it all off, they had originally wanted to go to the movie on Sunday because it was much less crowded in Bordeaux on Sundays.  I told them that we would rather not go on Sunday because we had church meetings we wanted to go to and the immediately accepted to go with us on Saturday.  They really are such kind people and have made Ariel and I feel so welcome in this city.

Last Saturday evening, I had just finished planning and preparing for my Sunday School lesson for the following day when the phone rang.  It was the teacher of the adult Sunday School class asking me if I could teach his class as well as mine the following day since he had had his knee operated on.  I agreed, but unfortunately that meant I had to prepare another lesson entirely because my class was one week behind theirs.  I knew it was for a good cause so I got to working and spent the following hour or so preparing for the lesson.  The next day, I was giving the lesson to half the branch and had been teaching for about fifteen minutes when one of the sisters got up to go get a drink of water.  She reached the back door of the room and fell over flat.  I saw the whole thing.  It looked like she had just tripped.  I started heading back towards her, along with several other members of the branch.  We were all worried because she wasn't moving.  It took a moment to even bring her back to consciousness.  She just stayed on the floor not moving.  The ambulance was called and they came to pick her up.  Her husband showed up to see how she was doing.  It was quite an ordeal.  Some people were insisting we needed to give her sugar or something to drink.  Others were saying we should definitely giver her nothing at all because we don't know what caused her to pass out like that.  I guess it was a good thing the ambulance showed up pretty quick so they could take care of her as they should.  I was able to help giver her a blessing and did the anointing before letting the branch president do the actual blessing.  It was quite an ordeal.  When she was gone in the ambulance, the hour for my lesson was up and it was time for Sacrament meeting.  I guess I will be able to give the same lesson again another day...  While I'm on the topic of the church, last week there was a television show called "Enquete Exclusive" that was all about the Mormon Church.  All the members were encouraged to watch it.  I watched it and was honestly a little frustrated  by what I saw.  It was not a fair representation of who we are in the church.  Many of the things they showed are true, but they presented it in a way that makes even the most harmless thing seem so bad.  There was one part where they said, "Every week the family takes one night to get together, to sing, and to talk about God."  I tend to believe there are people of many faiths who get together and have religious conversations.  I don't think this is something particularly evil or bad or even weird.  The person presenting it said it with such a tone of voice and foreboding music in the background that, if you didn't speak French to understand what he was saying, you would think he was saying the family was about to sacrifice one of their children to a golden calf.  Since that show, many of the students that I have had in classes but have only seen once or twice, so I don't necessarily know their names or where they are from, have approached me outside of classes to tell me they saw something about Utah and ask me if I am Mormon.  Usually I don't have time to engage in a serious conversation so it basically ends at me telling they that, yes, in fact, I am Mormon.  I can only wonder what that will change, if anything, in terms of the students and their level of respect for me.

Well, that is pretty much all for now.  We are getting ready for Christmas vacation.  The city is all decorated and it is starting to feel like Christmas.  It helps that my lovely wife has been making Christmas desserts while I am teaching classes, so when I come home, it smells like freshly baked cookies!  In fact, there is a batch now, I'm off to eat a cookie.

MacDOH

This week we had a rather... how to word it... ironic experience.  From the first day I started interacting with students, I have been asking them what they think of when they think of America.  Probably the number one response among students is "MacDoh!" which is their affectionate title for the American franchise McDonald's.  Actually, "McDonald's" is just too hard for them to pronounce so "Macdoh" is the best they can do.  Anyway, back to the story.  So it seems like the only thing most of the younger students know about America is McDonald's.  They all ask me what the differences are between the French and American McDonald's.  It was a little hard for me to answer those questions because I honestly haven't eaten at McDonald's for years (except for occasionally for a breakfast biscuit, but those aren't even served here so I hardly find it fair to count that).  In one of my BTS (post graduate) classes, I asked the students what they had done during their break off school and one of the students told me he had worked the entire time.  I asked him where he worked and he told me he worked at Macdoh.  This prompted a class discussion about McDonald's in America and France.  Several minutes later the discussion moved on to another topic.  When I asked the students if they had any questions for me, one of the raised his hand and asked, "Do you want to come to Macdoh with us next Tuesday?  With the whole class?"  Of course I wanted to go!  The irony, in my opinion, comes from the fact that they all think Americans can't get enough of McDonald's, but it took me coming to France to finally go eat there.  Another interesting thing is that the day they invited me to go was a Wednesday.  They had planned a trip to McDonald's an entire week in advance, which is evidence of their different opinion of the fast food chain.  If I were to go to McDonald's, or any other fast food restaurant for that matter, in America, I would definitely not plan on it a week in advance.  In fact, I usually don't decide where I want to eat for lunch until I'm already driving around looking for a nice place to eat and my decision usually comes from whatever restaurant is closest/cheapest.  To top off the irony of the situation, one of the students mentioned to me that Macdoh was hosting a Monopoly game, peel the pieces off the food and hope to win.  All the students had been participating, collecting pieces hoping to win the grand prize.  This particular student told me that in the past two weeks, fourteen days, he had eaten at McDonald's ten times hoping to win.  During our meal, someone came up to our table asking if we would be willing to give him our pieces.  I suppose I had always just assumed that those peel and collect games that the restaurants hosted were rigged and there was no way I could ever win.  Looks like the marketing tactic works a little better in France than in Utah - I guess I can't vouch for the rest of the country, but I don't know anyone who has ever collected game pieces hoping to win.
Despite the irony and the fact that we were eating at McDonald's, we managed to have a great night.  The restaurant itself was much nicer than any McDonald's I've been to in Utah, they had employees walking around taking orders with their little hand held computers so you could get your food faster at the front of the line.  There was modern art hanging on the walls.  Plus we had pretty good company.  After the meal we all went and played bowling.  Everyone assumed that Ariel and I would be amazing at bowling since we are Americans.  It seems they weren't let down!  Ariel and I are not great bowlers.  I played a lot of bowling when I was a little younger, playing on teams and doing some tournaments and such, but that was quite a while ago and I'm really not that good anymore.  Ariel is consistent, but again, not state champion quality.  Well, based on their reactions to some of our shots, you'd think we were bowling celebrities.  Every frame they would all clap for us and make comments about how amazing we are at bowling.  They could not believe the way I made the ball curve to knock over pins in the corners.  It seems to me that the French struggle with things that require your hands.  This is completely off the topic, but we played ultimate with some other friends a couple weeks ago and they all really struggled throwing and catching the frisbee.  Not to mention their struggles with basketball as well.  Bowling seems to fit in the category of sports with hands that the French are not naturally good at.
I have really grown to like working with the BTS students.  They seem more invested in their studies.  They seem more serious and generally they are more mature.  I think this comes from the fact that they have chosen to be in school rather than having it forced on them.  They are also more interested in me, in where I come from, why I am here, America in general, school systems in America, etc.  That makes it easier for me to talk to them, I get more excited about telling them things because they seem to appreciate it more.  I have been struggling a little bit with the younger 14 and 15 year old students.  They all come in larger groups so when I am not addressing certain students, they talk to their friends.  They don't want to try, they don't care about America, and really, coming to my class just means another hour of class that they don't want to do.  They are disrespectful to me sometimes, nearly always disrespectful to the other students.  Some of them are well behaved, but the ones that don't behave make it harder to help the ones that do behave.  Because of all this, I have come to hate Thursdays.  On Tuesday and Wednesday I have mostly BTS kids.  On Thursday I have five hours of young kids and only one hour of BTS.  It's nice knowing that after Thursday I have a long weekend starting on Friday!
The weekends are always nice.  We spend a lot of time with the members of the church on Saturday and Sunday.  We play sports Saturday morning (when it is raining we play Ping-pong), and because of that we became pretty good friends with some of the youth from the branch.  Then on Sunday we go to church and I was asked to teach the Sunday school lesson to the youth, which has made our friendship with them even stronger.  Ariel is really starting to get along with the relief society and her French is improving immensely.  She is getting more and more brave when speaking French to them.  We study French for almost an hour pretty much every day then spend a lot of time talking to each other in French so that has made a huge difference.  After church on Sunday, we have our Institute class, which is about eternal marriage.  That is fun but sometimes kinda weird since we are the only married ones in the class.  Last Friday, the ward held a great big Thanksgiving party.  Everyone brought some food and a dessert.  We made sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  Everyone looked at it and said something like, "that is weird, that's just not right, I don't know about this..." but after they tried it, they went crazy about it.  Everyone wanted more and they ran out almost immediately.  The next day Ariel made some Gingersnaps and a green onion food that they often have for Christmas in her family.  Everyone loved those too!  It seems the French really love American food (everything from McDonald's to home made specialties), just like we tend to love French food!
The one complaint we have had is that it really hasn't stopped raining for the past few weeks.  We had one nice, warm day last week and spent it exploring the Gallo-Roman area of the city and some buildings/ruins that came from the first century up to the twelfth century.  That was incredible and I will have to put some pictures of those buildings up.  It was crazy to see ruins of a first century arena and imagining the movie Gladiator taking place right here in Perigueux.  We are planning on going to the museum of the Gallo-Roman time one of these days to learn a little more.    

Almost an entire week of work... I need a vacation.

I almost did it!  I almost did an entire week of work!  This week was looking like it would actually be the week that I would do all the hours that I am meant to do, but it didn't work out in the end.  Turns out there was another holiday this week: Armistice Day.  Armistice Day is a commemoration of the end of World War I and is celebrated by taking school off.  Taking the day off to celebrate the end of WWI made me realize I don't really know ANYTHING about WWI.  I have studied WWII quite a bit and feel like I have a pretty good general understanding of what happened in WWII.  WWI, on the other hand, was somewhat of a mystery to me.  In order to change that a little bit, Ariel and I went to the "Musee Militaire" in Perigueux which is a museum dedicated to the evolution of the military from the Middle Ages to present day.  They boast the fact that they are the largest military museum in Europe.  I was very impressed by the huge amount of legitimate war artifacts actually used and salvaged from the wars of the world, particularly French wars - everything from clothing to weapons to art and newspaper clippings from the time of each war.  Some of the items were damaged from bullets or fires from the wars, which honestly made it feel more real to me.  I thought it was very unfortunate the way that most of the stuff was displayed.  For the amount of amazing artifacts they have and the history that is behind each and every piece of it, they could have gone to a lot more effort to present it in a more beautiful/pleasing/informative way.  I think if they were to tidy the place up, they would have a lot more visitors.  All the mannequins were terrible colors, broken, ugly, etc.  There was little information about each artifact, sometimes a date but not much else.  Because of the poor presentation, I learned less about WWI than I was hoping, but had an enjoyable time none the less.  Perhaps it was a good thing because it inspired me to want to learn more about the war on the internet which I will do during my 5 day weekend.  What better way to commemorate the end of the war than by studying the war?
The days I did work this week were great.  I was glad to have Thursday off because it is my longest and most difficult day.  I learned very quickly that the younger students are much more difficult to work with than the BTS (post-graduate students), even if they have a better level of English than the older ones sometimes.  The young students may know how to communicate better, but they really don't care about English, they aren't interested in learning English or the American culture, they tend to talk to each other, joke in class, and always speak French.  I ask them questions in English and they respond in French.  They understand the question and I know they could respond in English if they wanted to, but it is too much effort to speak English when they know I will just understand their French.  Another thing that is pretty annoying is that, among the younger students, there are many of them who are pretty good at English so they make it their responsibility to translate everything I say in English for the other students of the class.  I will ask a specific student a question and from the other side of the room someone shouts out the same question in French.  Then the student responds to me in French and someone else in the class will translate their response or tell them what to say.  None of this is doing them any good, neither for the students who are translating or the students receiving the translations.  I think I am going to have to make a strict NO TRANSLATING rule for the classroom and maybe make a couple posters or something to hang on the walls.  Perhaps a punishment of bringing me a dessert if you are caught translating too many times or something.  I don't know if that would be allowed in French schools.  I guess I better figure that out.
I am really loving working with the BTS students.  They are closer to my age, between 19 and 22 for most of them, and they seem genuinely interested in learning about me and America in general.  They often times have a harder time speaking English since it has been a couple years since they studied it, but they make more of an effort than any of the younger ones.  They ask questions - not because I tell them to ask questions - but because they want to know.  During one of the classes, one of the students told me he had worked a lot during the holiday break.  He explained that he works at McDonald's and we proceeded to discuss as a class the differences between a French McDonald's and an American one.  They really enjoyed this discussion and later on in the class, when I asked them if they had any questions for me, one of them raised his hand and said, "Do you want to go to McDonald's with us next Tuesday?"  Apparently they are going as a class, the whole class, but not officially as a class, to McDonald's together and Ariel and I will be guests of honor.  We are very much looking forward to this experience.
Speaking of going out, the students are not the only people from the school who have become our friends.  Some of the teachers of the school have been very kind to us as well.  There is a young couple, both about 25 years old, both English teachers in high schools, who have been very kind to me since I got here.  Ariel just met them yesterday for the first time when they invited us over to their apt for a home cooked French lunch which was delicious.  We sat and talked for hours and hours about many things.  It's funny because I think they know more about American Pop-Culture than either of us!  They know all the American actors, tv series, movies... really anything related to the television and celebrities, they know it.  They were kind enough to lend us a couple DVDs of French sitcoms so we could catch up a little bit.  I must admit I'm a little nervous about what we will find on these sitcoms since I know the French have very different standards of what is appropriate for television than we do in the United States.  I suppose all we can do is give it a try and see what we find.  Most of the sitcoms are actually pretty historically accurate, based on King Arthur and Camelot or King Henry VIII.  That will be not only entertaining but also educational.
Aside from that, life has been a little uneventful due to the weather.  It has been raining since Monday, and today is Friday.  Tomorrow is supposed to be mostly sunny, then we will start another week of rain every day.  It makes it hard to want to get out and explore when you are cold and wet after just two minutes outside.  On top of that we have both been battling little colds, so not a whole lot of new experiences to recount.  Hopefully my next week of work, which will actually be my first FULL week of work, will bring some new adventures and insights.      

Semaine de vacances

It's crazy to think that I have already been living in France for a month and a half! Especially since, honestly, it still feels like I haven't even started working in the school and doing what I came to France to do. I have started, but everything has been a little particular considering the strikes and vacations that have seemed almost constant since my first day going on a little tour of the school on October 1. I did one week of actual teaching the week before last and it went relatively well. It seems there was a minor misunderstanding between the students and the "vie scholaire" which is basically like the school office. For some reason there was a sign posted at the vie scholaire that said there would be no classes with the language assistant until after the "New Order." Some students thought that meant after the new year, others didn't know what it meant but just decided to not go to class. Coupled with the strike that was lingering from the previous week, my first week of work was rather uneventful. I was to start on Monday with one class. Not one student showed up. Tuesday I had several classes scheduled and no one showed up. Wednesday I had one class and a couple students actually did come to class! It was nice to actually have some students. Thursday, my first few classes were empty, then one student showed (and you're not allowed to give a class to just one student), then they seemed to have got the message and I had a couple full classes in the afternoon. Having never met most of the students before the class, not knowing their level of English, and having no clue what they were learning in their classes since every teacher sort of does their own thing, it was very hard to prepare a lesson ahead of time. I planned on just getting to know the students, asking questions, letting them ask me questions, and trying to help them realize that this year can actually be fun! Some of the classes responded very well to this lesson. They had questions and comments, they shared ideas and it was a genuinely interesting class. Other classes really could have cared less and the fifty five minutes I spent with them seemed to last forever. I managed to get a hold of some of the teachers who send me their students and they gave me a few recommendations of what they would like me to cover with their students. That will make it a lot easier.

After a day and a half of actually doing what I was meant to do in France, it was time for vacation! Since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in France, they make up for the lack of Thanksgiving break by celebrating a holiday called All Saints Day. I don't really understand the nature of the holiday, but from what I gather, it is similar to Presidents Day in America where we celebrate all the presidents in one day, but for them they are celebrating all the Catholic saints on one day. My wife and I took advantage of the week and a half of vacation time to head to Paris for a nice little visit. What an eye opener it was to be in Paris for five days. I have been to some big cities in France. I lived in Nice, I passed through Marseille a couple times, but these cities don't even compare to Paris. Paris is like a four story building and we spent time in all four.
The top floor is everything elevated above the ground. Our hotel was on the fifth floor (sixth by American counting since we call the ground floor 1 and the French call it 0, thus adding an extra floor to any building), which was even higher than our third floor apartment in Perigueux - which we thought was high in the first place! The top floor of Paris also includes the top of the Eiffel Tower, the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral, the top of the Arc de Triomphe, etc. Unfortunately most of these elevated locations all cost a lot of money to visit. Aside from our hotel, the only raised attraction we visited was the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

The ground floor of Paris is obviously everything on ground level. The Eiffel Tower, all the Cathedrals, the monuments, the museums, statues, fountains, parks, roads, cafes, restaurants, everything you could possibly imagine. We loved seeing all the famous sights. The museums were more beautiful than I had even imagined. My very favorite visit was that of the Monet exhibit in the Grand Palais. Monet has always been my favorite painter, and he was French en plus! The exhibit had hundreds of his paintings from the most famous to many that were almost completely unknown. It went through basically chronologically which allowed the visitor to notice the changes Monet made as he grew and matured as an artist. We used the audio tour as we went along which also proved to be invaluable - explaining things that were going on in Monet's life at the time of each painting. If the only thing I had done in Paris was to visit that museum, it would have been worth the trip. I haven't been able to justify buying the official book of the exhibit because it costs 50 Euros, but I would love to have it and maybe after I start getting paid I will consider it. For now it is just a dream. The Louvre was amazing as well, but everything seemed so much darker, even bordering morbid, compared to the works of Monet. The pieces were incredible to say the least, it just isn't my favorite type of art - although that does not mean I respect it any less.

The next level of Paris was the transportation level - the metro. The metro was incredible. There were cars every 2 minutes most of the time, especially during the day. If you showed up and saw the metro car driving away, all you had to do was wait less than five minutes and the next one would pick you up. It was so easy to transfer from line to line and we could get anywhere in the entire city in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Our first metro ride was particularly nice as there was a group of accordion musicians on the tram with us playing what sounded like old time French music. It was quite nice. The only complaint about the metro is that it was always so crowded. I could count the number of times on a single hand that we were able to sit down in the car. Usually we were pushed up against a wall and hanging on to a railing so we wouldn't fall into the crowd and cause a major domino effect. Along with the crowds came the fear of pick pockets. I felt particularly conscious of this because I was carrying my favorite camera and all the cash we had with us. Not to mention I had a camera stolen from me in a train station in Marseille during my mission. A little extra vigilance and constantly feeling our pockets to make sure everything was still there helped us to make it through the entire trip without having anything stolen.

And the basement of Paris, one that probably many people don't actually know about and that isn't often mentioned when there is talk of Paris, is the Catacombs. Twenty meters even farther down under Paris than the metro is a giant set of tunnels and caves filled with nothing but human bones. It seems that there were some problems with some of the cemeteries in Paris so in the 1700s they decided to put all the bones from the cemeteries in these tunnels under Paris. They began by throwing them in at random, but later decided it would be better to organize the bones in a beautiful manner and allow people to come visit. They did get a little creative making designs in the walls, anything from hearts to doors to crosses. On many of the walls they had written messages to those who would be visiting, all of which were very morbid in nature. The first one, right above the entrance to the first hallway with bones, said "Stop, here is the Empire of Death." Later there were signs that said things such as, "If you have ever seen a man die, always keep present in your thoughts that the same end is waiting for you," or "Every morning when you wake up, remember that you may not make it to the evening, and when you lay down to sleep at night, keep in mind that you just may never wake up." I couldn't tell if this was done as somewhat of a joke to make the already eerie experience even more creepy, or if everything that was written on the walls was legitimately a belief they held at the time - that everyone should always be thinking about their impending death.

Living in the big city for a few days was a great experience, but it helped me to realize how much I appreciate my small town of Perigueux. I spent a fair amount of time thinking about Perigueux while I was there. Perigueux isn't even as large as on of the arrondissements of Paris, has no metro or tram and a mediocre bus system at best. There are no universities, no major museums, nothing of international appeal, and not a whole lot of people. It is hard to find a good kebab, there aren't many creperies along the roads, and you really only hear French as you walk around outside (compared to the Italian, Dutch, Arabic, German, English, Portuguese, Romanian, etc. that we heard in Paris). There is a much smaller risk of pick pockets, there are no beggers on every street corner, bus stop, or church entrance, no one trying to sell us five Eiffel Tower key chains for one euro, and no Romanians asking us if we dropped our gold ring then trying to sell it back to us for who knows how much. I haven't seen people walking around with their point-and-shoot digital cameras held at arms length or video cameras out trying to capture the greatness of their surroundings. From what I can tell, there are no officers dressed in military camo with machine guns around the major parts of town, but it doesn't feel like they should be here anyway. Yes, Perigueux is much smaller and there is a lot less in terms of Tourism. If you don't know how to enjoy yourself wherever you are, you might find yourself complaining that there is nothing to do here. Nonetheless, I love it here. Perigueux has made me feel at home already. People here are able to be nice, they have the time to go out of their way to help us because there isn't a line of people behind me waiting to do the exact same thing I'm trying to do. I understand why people in Paris are so... how to put it... rude? In a bad mood? It is because every single day there are thousands of people trying to take advantage of the service they provide. Even if they started with motives of helping people have an enjoyable experience in Paris, they are now overwhelmed by the constant visitors, the complaints, the theft, and all they can think about is protecting themselves and earning a living. That doesn't happen in Perigueux.
Well, now that I am risking to start rambling, I will end my speech/overflow of thought by saying I look forward to becoming a member of the society in Perigueux. I enjoyed my visit to Paris, but I'm glad to be back where I belong right now.

Second week of observations - observing empty classrooms...

My last week of my two weeks of observation was probably a lot less useful to me than it could have been.  Part of that can be blamed on my attitude.  I went into the two weeks of observation thinking that two full weeks seemed a little much, a little more than I needed.  Having taught French classes at BYU for a while and having been a missionary which is a much more one on one type of teaching – giving me experience in both large class and individual teaching situations – I felt that two full weeks would not benefit me as much as someone who is unable to comfortably stand in front of a group and teach.  Besides that, with everything I witnessed during the first week of observations, I knew that I wasn’t necessarily planning on following the “French” style of teaching.  Another reason that this week was not a beneficial for me as it could have been is thanks to the French national sport – going on strike.  In France, striking is a right that each citizen has, similar to the freedom of speech we have in America.  When the French go on strike, the people they work for are not allowed to fire them or attempt to find a permanent replacement.  The strike is pretty much a crippling event for the entire country.  Everything stops – trains and busses stop working, many stores stay closed the entire day, and affecting me more than anything else, many of the school teachers decide not to hold class and a large majority of students don’t come to class.  The strike was scheduled for Tuesday of this week, but since that meant the “internat,” or student housing used by students during the week when they do not live close enough to the school to travel home each day, many students chose not to come to school on Monday leaving me observing classes that were less than half full.  On Tuesday I was scheduled to attend quite a few classes and some of them had me somewhat interested.  My first class was going to be a math class, which was cancelled.  My next class was supposed to be an English class, but only one student showed up.  Before cancelling class, the teacher asked the next teacher down the hall if he had students and it turns out he had only one student as well.  We combined the classes and had two professors, one assistant, and only two students for an entire hour.  This could have been a very beneficial time for both of the students with a lot of one on one teaching, but one of the students seemed so… I don’t really know how to describe him… he was timid, scared, perhaps thinking about something else, and very bad at speaking English.  Despite only asking him yes or no questions and eventually translating the questions into French so he knew EXACTLY what was being asked, he still struggled to respond.  Rather than moving on when he was struggling, the professors spent a lot of time trying to get this one student to repeat sentences that they were telling him to say.  Because of all the time we spent trying to get this student to talk, the other student, who was older and quite a bit better in English (still not a really high level of English, but better than the other student), was not able to practice almost any English at all.  The rest of the day was pretty much the same story.  Classes were cancelled as teachers were on strike, other classes cancelled because no students showed up, and when the classes actually did take place, there were always less than ten students in the class.  The strike was scheduled to be over the next morning, so when I showed up to my first class and learned not one single student had come to class, I was very surprised!  The strike did not end on Tuesday.  Nor did it end Wednesday or even Thursday.  Each day there were more students, but the only full class I went to the entire week was an English class for a group of “scientific” students who are known to be the most dedicated and hard-working students in the school.  It seems so weird to me that students are allowed to go on strike!  The teachers act as if it is completely normal.  They mark the students as absent, but aside from that, there is no other penalty.  Their grade is not lowered, no quizzes are given, nothing.  Teachers and students alike admit that students mostly only go on strike because they would rather be having fun than being at school.

                So what is it that is causing the French to be so mad that they are closing their stores, cancelling their train and bus routes, and skipping school (both teachers and students!)?  The answer is their retirement.  From what I can tell, the French law says that they can officially retire at age 60 and receive a certain amount of social security.  If they wait another five years, to 65, that amount of money increases.  The government has proposed that two years be added to each of those making the limits 62 and 67.  Being notoriously lazy (a couple years ago they were all going on strike to make their work week on 35 hours instead of 40), this makes sense.  As usually happens in such situations, things are blown way out of proportion and many of the rioters are making claims that are obviously not true (ie. “At this rate I’ll still be working when I’m 90!”).  The French are truly, honestly mad about this proposed change.  Even the students claim to be sincerely worried about working too late in their life, which illustrates another difference in thinking between the French and me.  When the US government begins proposing things that will change what happens to people who are older than I, I never really consider that it will directly touch me.  My thought is that, if they are making changes now, they will definitely make more changes before I reach that age.  Nothing is stable, nothing is certain.  The economy is constantly changing, the laws are changing, the country is changing.  The French do not see it this way.  So far the government has not budged and another strike has been planned for next Tuesday as well.  My first week of actual teaching might be just as productive as my second week of observation!

                The strikes aside, I am glad my second week of observation is over and I am looking forward to actually starting what I came to France to do.  I did learn some interesting things during the weeks of observation and some of the classes I attended during the second week were much better than the classes that bothered me the previous week.  There are so many different techniques to teaching, so many theories on how to best teach students, and unfortunately not one of them has been proven to be successful 100% of the time.  Thus every teacher tries to teach in the best way they can.  Every teacher has to put him or herself into the lessons being taught.  There has to be a passion in the teaching that will cause the students to begin to feel a passion of their own.  The key to good teaching, in my very limited experience, is to make the students want to learn. 

                The teachers have been extremely kind to me and have treated me like any other professor at the school.  They have immediately started treating me like a friend, yet also showing me the respect they would show someone who is very knowledgeable in a given subject.  Apparently word travels very quickly between teachers (I asked one teacher where I could find laundry machines and the next day another teacher offered to let me use her laundry machine any time I needed because she heard from a different teacher that I had been looking for a laundry machine), so they all know that my wife has been out of France for the past few weeks and they all know/assume I am bored and lonely.  They have been inviting me to things with them, telling me about things going on, offering to take me places, etc.  Several teachers asked me to go to the riots with them, but I had legitimate reasons I couldn’t go and I’m not sure I would want to go given the current terror threats in France.  Countless others have offered to have a coffee with me or to take me out to get a drink.  They have all been very kind and understanding when I explain I don’t drink alcohol or coffee but I would happily have a hot chocolate with them or drink a coke and talk for a while!  I am quickly falling in love with Perigueux and the Dordogne!  I can’t wait for my wife to come back and experience these things first hand with me.   

Going back to high school

The past few days have been very interesting for me.  I graduated from high school in 2005 and thought I would never be going back. It had never even crossed my mind or entered my wildest dreams that I would not only be going back to high school, but high school in France! 
My assistantship began with a training meeting that took an entire day - from 9am to 5pm, with an uncaricteristically short lunch break of a little over an hour (at least short for the French who often enjoy two hour lunch breaks.)  We did have a nice forty-five minute coffee/tea break somewhere in the middle there too...  The entire morning section was dedicated to telling us what exactly our responsibilities would be and what sort of procedures we would need to go through to be legal here in France.  I don't know if it took so long to tell us that because we are in France, or if it took so long because it was a Brittish man telling us those things all in French - probably the latter.  By one o'clock it was time for lunch and I had made some new friends and we all had a good kebab together.  The afternoon was more dedicated to principles used for teaching our little classes or groups of students.  It was strangely familiar - very similar to the trainings I went through to teach my French class at BYU, although I must say, and if you are reading this Mme Thompson, it is definitely a compliment for you, the trainings at BYU were MUCH more effecient, effective, enjoyable, and beneficial for me.  From one thirty to about four thirty, we all did ONE teaching practice and we were given about five minutes to do it, and on top of that we had to do it with a partner, which we will never have in real situations.  The practice was not too intimidating for me because I have done so many in the past and I feel comfortable in front of a crowd.  I could tell that it was much more difficult for some of the other assistants from the other schools though.
I was glad to be in my own school, Albert Claveille, the following day.  I was told that for the first TWO WEEKS of my time in Lycee Claveille, all I will be doing is sitting in on classes taught by other teachers in the school in all sorts of different subjects.  I have seen classes in English, French, Philosophy, Engineering, Auto mechanics, P.E., and I was supposed to have two different math classes as well, but it didn't work out.  I have one more week to go sitting in on classes, but just in this first week, I have decided how blessed and grateful I am to have been born and raised in the United States and in the US school system.  I know our system has flaws and I could talk about the flaws for hours, but seeing the way the French students are forced to learn was an eye opener for me.  My first class was an English class with the professor who is my "contact person" for the school.  She is a wonderful lady who means well, but I did not like the way she ran her class.  Students were pressured into talking in front of the class rather than invited or encouraged.  Rather than giving the open ended questions to answer and asking them for their opinions, they had to give very specific answers to questions the teacher asked.  If their answer was not what the teacher wanted, it was wrong.  Rather than looking for the positive in the answer, it was just deemed wrong.  If any student made any comment when he was not addressed, he was quickly scolded.  If I had started my language learning career in classes like that, I know I would not be where I am today.  I had such good language teachers in high school.  They treated me like a student, with the distance that required, but I also felt like I was a friend.  I need to make a point to go back to my high school and thank my Spanish teacher for her hard work.  I fell in love with languages because of that class.  That took me down a path to French and now I'm living in France.  I'm living a life most people could only dream about and a lot of it is thanks to my high school Spanish and French teachers.  I know that I would not have liked my language classes if they were taught like the ones I have seen here are. 
I thought to myself that perhaps it was just the one class that I didn't like... until I visited others.  Other English classes were the same.  Students would have an idea that they wanted to share and they were cut off and scolded before they could express any of their idea and other students were asked to correct their mistakes.  How discouraging for them!  Then the teachers wonder why no students want to participate in class!  I was sent to one English class, on the other hand, that was much better.  The teacher had not really warned me ahead of time, but when I got to the class, he basically asked me to stand in front of the class and let the students ask me questions about anything and everything.  We talked a lot about the differences between French and American school systems, life, politics, sports, hobbies, careers, etc.  I don't say it was better because I was talking the whole time, but rather it was better because the students were interested in the subject matter, they had opinions and questions and comments, and they were allowed to express them - EVEN if they made mistakes when doing it.  I respected the teacher for that.  One student wanted to tell me his futer plans, what he was studying to become, but said in French "I don't know how to say it."  The teacher told him, "just try and explain it."  It took a couple sentences, and there were definitely a couple grammatical errors, but I now know what he wants to do with his life and it was very interesting to me.  I told him I was interested in that and the rest of the lesson he was actively involved.  If he had been shouted at, I'm sure it would not have been the same.  He seemed like somewhat of a trouble maker, but he was well behaved the entire class.  I hope to run my little language groups the same way.  Open communication about interesting topics for the students.  This cultural exchange, this sharing of ideas and opinions is why I wanted to come do this assistantship in the first place.  I love the multi-cultural exchange that takes place naturally if you let it. 
Other classes have been more or less interesting as well.  Some I like while others I definitely did not like.  It seems that students are not encouraged to "take notes" in the way that most American students think of it.  Rather, the teacher presents a topic, asks for one or two students to comment, then gives them the "correct" answer in a Word for Word sentence that they are to copy down into their notebooks and study for later.  Every student has the same notes.  Every student has the same SENTENCE that is the "correct" answer to the question of the day.  This way of teaching was particularly bothersome to me in the philosophy class.  The teacher presented a text about artists and inspiration and whether the concept of "inspiration" in a work of art really exists.  Being an artist myself, I was excited to hear the comments of the students.  Sadly there were none.  The text had several "comprehension" questions at the end and the teacher answered them with her pre-written sentences.  No discussion, no debate.  Question.  Answer.  Same thing in the French litterature class.  History.  Everything.  I would not have done well with the one sentence answers to every question if I had been in French schools.
I suppose I can see some of the benefits though.  If you are in class, you will have the important notes in your book for sure.  I remember sometimes sitting in classes writing things as fast as I could as the teacher spoke, studying everything I wrote only to find out on test day that I hadn't written the right thing and did poorly on the test... but tests aside, I feel I learned the material better seeing it being used.  Language for example - in a class, a teacher would explain a concept such as pronouns or verbs.  I didn't necessarily understand right away.  Then in open conversations in class, with the teacher and with students, I figured it out.  There was a light bulb that suddenly turned on and I never forgot how it worked.  I can still remember some of those "ah ha!" moments to this day.  Could something like that exist if all I had to study were the sentences I was forced to write every day?  I suppose if I had been raised like that from birth I would have managed, but it is not in my personality. 
I'm looking forward to being finished with my high school attendance and being able to finally start what I came here to do - speak English with French students.  Help them love speaking English the way I love speaking French.  I will be able to teach them and talk to them in my own way.  I can talk to them the way I did in that English class the one day I was allowed to talk to them.  At the end of the class, the teacher told the students I would not be going back to their class because there were too many other classes I had to work with.  The students started complaining and said, "Isn't there some way he could come back here?  It's not fair!  He is the best English assistant this school has had and we don't even get to talk with him!"  I take that as a compliment.  The fact that he would even ask that means he enjoyed the class, the conversation, the exchange.  If I can make it so that every student enjoys the class periods they spend with me, I will consider my time here in France well spent.  I know I won't make any students fluent in English, that is their own path to follow.  If they want to speak English fluently, they need to practice.  My job is to make them Want to practice and hopefully it will come as naturally to them as it did to me. 

First weeks in France

When I found out I had been accepted to come to France for about eight months, I knew it was going to be a great adventure.  I had lived in France before, so I felt confident that everything would just fall into place just like it did when I was here as a missionary.  I knew how to use the train stations, I knew how to figure out the bus system, I knew there would be an immediate base of support and friendship coming from the ward in Perigueux, and I knew French.  I figured that would be enough.  For the most part, everything has been as I expected it to be.  But I believe I did underestimate exactly how much of an adventure this experience really was going to be.
I have been in France now for almost three weeks now and still haven't written a blog post, and I will get to the reason why in just a moment, but I would like to start from the beginning, just so nothing gets left out.  The trip started in Salt Lake City on September 20, 2010.  Everything went smoothly at the airport, all our papers were in order, we hopped in the plane and took off.  The first flight was smooth.  The second flight would be the most difficult of them all, and we knew that getting on the plane.  It was about ten hours long and it was overnight.  Everyone knows that sleeping on a plane is very difficult, but I think it would have been less difficult it the elderly couple with noise cancelling headphones in the seat right behind us would have realized the could have heard each other better if they had taken the noise cancelling headphones off instead of just shouting to each other and if they had turned off their overhead lights during at least some of the flight... none the less we ended up in the Netherlands and finally landed about a half hour late because of extreme fog.  The flight messed with our minds.  We were flying east and the darkness of night was heading west.  We passed through the darkness and back into the light in what felt like no time at all.  We really only had about two to three hours of night.  Shortest night I have ever experiened.  Because of the late landing, we only had fifteen minutes to get to our next gate, we were nearly running.  We showed up at the gate only to find our flight had been delayed a half hour - also because of the fog.  We sat down, extremely tired from not sleeping all night and running to our gate, and waited a half hour.  That half hour turned into an hour which then turned into over two hours before we were finally boarded the plane.  It felt like an eternity because we were so tired and so anxious to finally arrive in France.  We did finally get off the ground and shortly after landed in Bordeaux, France.  Getting a train to Perigueux took another couple of hours of waiting and when we arrived in Perigueux, we had no map (there was a map distributer, but it was broken.), and even if we had found a map, we had struggled getting in contact with the person who was keeping us at his house and didn't know where he lived or how to get there.  Getting in contact with our friend seemed almost impossible!  There were no public phones around, I saw no cyber cafes around (beyond that, he doesn't really use e-mail anyway), and the only pay phones we could find wouldn't take coins, only French credit cards.  It seems illogical to me that the only way to pay for a pay phone is with a French credit card.  Don't most French people already have a phone or some way to contact people in France?  The people most likely to use pay phones are TOURISTS who need to call someone in a city (like us) or call their hotel for directions or something of the sort, meaning they won't have a French credit card.  So we waited at the train station for a while, bought a kebab (not the best I had ever had) and had to borrow some random girl's cell phone to try to get ahold of our friend.  No answer.  We left a message and told him we would be sitting in front of the train station.  An hour later he picked us up.  What a relief it was to finally get to rest in a confortable house and get all cleaned up!  Sadly the first few hours in France for my wife and I were not as enchanting as we might have hoped.  The next day we took a bus into town and tried to get our bearings, which was also hard.  How do you find the interesting parts of a town if you don't know anything about the town at all?  We took the first bus we saw and spent the day walking. 
Our third day was another great experience.  We didn't do much the entire day, we had no plans, nothing to go see... and in essence, that was our cultural experience for the day: it was a day of greve (strike).  No busses, no trains, no planes, nothing of the sort.  We were completely stuck in our little suburb outside Perigueux with our gracious but slightly awkward hosts.  I suppose we now know what it is like to be a French person who is particularly bothered by the nation wide GREVES. 
A few days later we took a train to Bayonne.  I suppose that is when the truly enchanting part of our voyage really took place.  Visiting Bayonne was heaven.  I knew the city because I had been there on a mission, I knew members who were excited to see us and very excited to meet my lovely wife, I knew what was worth visiting... really it was the epitomy of a perfect vacation.  We spent little money because people kept us at their houses and fed us.  We made the most of every day.  We got some good exercise.  Everything was good.  We attended church in Bayonne and everyone was so happy to see us.  People I knew from my mission and even many that I didn't know from my mission were so kind to us.  Probably seven different families offered to let us stay at their house if we ever wanted to visit Bayonne again.  Even people I had never met before were offering us their homes!  The kindness was almost overwhelming.  I couldn't help but think to myself that if the whole world were more like the members of the church in Bayonne, well... I suppose we would all be translated already!  The highlights of the trip were the beaches of Biarritz (even though it was a bit cold and rainy), the open air markets, driving down to Espelette where they hang piments from every Basque looking building, the cathedral in Bayonne city center, visiting people I had met on their mission, and of course, the U2 concert in Spain.  We were worried about how we would get to the concert, but even more worried about coming back because I realized that there were no trains scheduled that late in the evening.  We were very blessed because a family that was inactive when I was on my mission -but still invited me and my companion over for Christmas dinner my last mission Christmas- had started coming back to church the week before we arrived and they were going to the concert as well.  They drove us and we considered it a miracle.
Getting back to Perigueux and finally moving into our apartment was like jumping into a cold swimming pool after sitting in a relaxing hot tub for hours.  Because of French policies, we were NOT allowed to move into our apartment until October 1st, even though there was no one in the apt.  Not too big of a problem for use because we had a generous host, but how are all the assistants in the past and future supposed to deal with that situation if they can't move into the apartment until their first day of training?  It seems unreasonable to me.  We moved in on a Friday and started getting settled.  Later that evening, around seven or eight at night, I realized we had no hot water because the water heater was not plugged in.  Obviously an attempt to save energy when no one is living in the apartment.  I plugged it in and immediately heard a small explosion of water.  I looked in the toilet room where the water heater was and water was spraying all over the floor and walls.  I quickly unplugged it again and turned off all water that was passing through it but nothing would stop the leak.  It wasn't as bad anymore, but it never stopped.  Drip, drip, drip, drip... We had no phones.  We had no internet.  I had no phone numbers of people to call except one of the English teachers who was my "Contact person" from the school.  I went to all the offices where I had been introduced earlier that day and everyone had gone home.  We managed to get a bucket in place to catch the falling water and decided to try to find a phone in the morning to get ahold of my contact person.  We walked to the chapel and were lucky enough to find the missionaries holding a sports activity with some members and investigators and we used the church phone to call Ginette.  She ended up completely unable to help us because she didn't have anyone's phone number either.  She said to just keep an eye out for anyone at the school and tell them.  We did end up seeing someone at the school and told them about our problem.  By this time the leak was getting worse and we had to drain the bucket every couple hours.  "Sorry, there is nothing I can do during the weekend, it will have to wait until Monday."  That was the response every time we managed to find someone and tell them about our problem.  Weekend = we don't care.  On Monday, though, everyone started really worrying about the situation and the problem was quickly solved.  An easy solution that could have been done on Friday night if anyone had bothered enough to care.  I recognize that it was the weekend and everyone needs their personal time, but there are also situations that require a little extra effort than the minimum.
Things have calmed down now that the leak is fixed and we have hot water again, but it still seems like we have been struggling with many minor things that are never too much of a problem in the United States.  Maybe we just aren't as accostumed to the French culture as I thought I was, or maybe Perigueux is particular in its nature, but things have been difficult.  The stove top was broken and the school refused to fix it because they fixed it last year.  It was obvious no one had cleaned the apartment before moving out and we spent an entire day throwing away boxes and trash that had been shoved in the closets probably for years.  Ariel, my wife, was particularly worried about the cleanliness of the beds and such and spent several days cleaning everything to perfection with bleach and any other cleaning agent she could get her hand on.  If only I could demand they take all that labor out of the cost of my rent, as well as the price of a new stove top thing and a small convection oven... but I'm sure that wouldn't go over well.  Little by little we have taken care of all the major problems and are finally starting to get confortable not only in the apartment but in the city as well.  We are starting to know where things are, how to best get around, etc.  Once we both feel more confortable in this city, I'm sure it will be the paradise that we were hoping it would be and we will enjoy Perigueux as much as if not more than we did Bayonne.  Now all that is left is to start my assistantship, the actual reason we came to France.