Once again I haven’t been good about posting. What else is new?
I had a good weekend, nothing too exciting but I had fun nonetheless. Friday night I went to visit a friend in a town called Montmorillon (I went there about a month ago to celebrate her birthday). I ended up sleeping over her house because she has an extra bedroom so why not?! We made dinner, and when I say we, I really mean that I watched her make dinner. Spaghetti with an olive oil sauce with tomatoes and homemade meatballs. It was really good and now I know a cheap way to make meatballs in France. Well not exactly cheap…meat is so expensive here! Chicken is about $7/lb and ground beef is $5/lb. I just find that ridiculous. For 2 pieces on boneless chicken, it costs about $5! And people wonder why I eat so much pasta and bread! Anyways, Stefanie and I watched a movie and talked a lot and then I headed out on Saturday afternoon. I would have stayed longer but it was Jose’s birthday party on Saturday night. The birthday party went well although it was a little awkward at times because not everyone knew each other and there were many different ‘clicks’ there. And of course, I often feel like the awkwardly shy foreign girl. I did have fun though and ate paella for the first time. For those of you who don’t know, paella is a Spanish dish made with rice, peppers, tomatoes, seafood and/or chicken. It was good (and that’s saying something for someone who doesn’t like sea food)! After dinner we ended up playing a game called Mafia (the ‘mafia’ kills people during their sleep and the police have to guess who the mafia is). The game was a tad bit complicated but I got the hang f it eventually. It was good that we played the game though because it made everyone talk to one another! Otherwise, that probably wouldn’t have happened. I didn’t end up getting back to Bellac until 3:30 in the morning, it was quite the evening.
I ended up staying awake until 5AM watching an online show and needless to say, I had no problem sleeping in on Sunday. I slept until noon, which for those of you who know me, NEVER HAPPENS!!! Sunday was spent watching shows on the internet, eventually I went for a run and lost an earring. I noticed in the beginning of my run that I had my earrings in but I was too lazy to bring them back to my room so I ran with them in and could hear them hitting against my headphones so every once in a while, I would become conscious that they were still there because I heard the noise. I was back in my room when I realized I lost it and remembered hearing that they were still there within the last 5-10 minutes of my run. So I decided to re-trace my steps…I walked for about 10 minutes and couldn’t find it so I turned around. And apparently I missed it the first time around and I found it on the way back! Woohoo, I was really happy because they were the earrings that Jordan gave me. So I learned to not be lazy and if I realize that I have my earrings in while I am running, I need to take them out!
I did some cooking on Sunday night and made pasta and some fried peppers for the week. Something to spice up my pasta a little bit.
Monday and Tuesday (today) have been average. Classes are going fine, not awesome but not terrible. The more I teach, the more aware I become with the major differences between the American and French education systems. I really prefer the American way much more…but maybe that is because I am used to it. The teacher/student relationships and completely, 100% different here. For example, at the beginning of every class, the students wait in the hallway until the teacher arrives (normally in between classes, the teacher go to the teacher’s lounge). When the teacher arrives and opens their door, the students wait to enter until the teacher says to ‘come in.’ After this, the students go to their seat and stand behind it. They are not allowed to sit down until the teacher tells them to ‘sit down please’ and the teacher does not say this until the students are silent. It is only then that they are allowed to sit down. It is just so formal. I would really like to shadow a student during a day to see how all of their classes go. On top of all of the formalities, I also feel like the teacher’s are not available to the students for extra help like they are at home. Teachers are only in their classrooms when they are teaching a class, they don’t just ‘hang out’ in their classroom because each teacher does not have his or her own classroom…they share (yet another thing I don’t like). Meaning that if I was a student and I didn’t understand something, I either ask a teacher or I am S.O.L. Maybe at the same time this could be a god thing…teaching the students self-responsibility? I don’t know though, I would bend over backwards for a student who came to me for extra help. The system is definitely different and I don’t care for it very much. Maybe it will grow on me?
Alright, I think this is all for now. I am just counting down the days until I get to see Jordan. 21 days!!!! WOOHOO!!!! I am unbelievably excited!!!!
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