Warning: long update ahead and a lack of pictures. As in no pictures. Basically this week has been pretty crazy busy, except for Sunday where I did nothing. I went to my first day of work and got to play volleyball! Also, one of the teachers invited me to sit in on one of his band's recording session at his friend's house, because I told him I play guitar. So here's the story:
On Monday, just like last week, we left the house around 7:40 to drop Anouk off at her high school and then to get me to Bernaudin on time. I started off in the kindergarten-level class, and all we did was sing 'row, row, row your boat' which is basically impossible for 5 year-old French kids to learn. Then I went to the 1st-2nd grade class where we prepared an 'American' breakfast of toast and jam, waffles and butter, corn flakes, scrambled eggs, diced sautéed potatoes, and some fruit. I tried to explain everything in English, but even that was hard. Most of the time I just say it in English and then translate, which is actually really fun for some reason, haha. After that I went to the 3rd-5th grade class where we went outside and did sprints. And by we I mean they did sprints while I said, "runners, on your marks. Get set. Go!" for an hour. That was pretty fun too.
After that I was done at Bernaudin, so one of the teachers gave me a ride to Vissenty to eat lunch with the Isabelle and the other teachers. I started in the primary class there as well, which was pretty awkward because the teacher there has no idea what she wants to do as far as teaching English goes. That puts me in a rough spot, because I'm just an assistant. I didn't bring a weekly lesson plan for the 5 year olds, that's her job! So I just sang 'row, row, row your boat' with them a couple times and then answered some questions and then left. Thankfully I'm only in there for half an hour, otherwise it would've been awful. Hopefully she has something figured out for us to do by the time we come back from the All-Saints vacation.
Anyway, I went to Jean-Luc's class after that. He's great. We sang the "how are you?" song, which is nice...what I mean is that I could write a better song in my sleep. But the kids love it and they're learning from it, so that's what counts. During recess Jean-Luc asked if I wanted to go with him on Tuesday night to his friend's place and hang out with them as they recorded some songs. They write kid's songs and just silly stuff for family members to enjoy, but they also play at youth festivals and stuff, it's really cool! I told him I'd love to go.
After recess I went to Denis' class, where we reviewed months, how to say your birthday, and colors I think. I left to go to Isabelle's class of 1st-2nd graders, and they had a ton of questions for me that were just hilarious. I got "do you know the months in English? Do you remember them?" and like, "do they have trucks in America?" "Do you know Barak Obama?" I don't know, I wish I remembered all of them that made me die inside of laughter. I just did that for an hour, and that's my last class for the day, and I'm usually home by 4:45. That's what all my Mondays will look like!
On Monday night, after a dinner of frozen French cheeseburgers that were actually pretty good, Isabelle took me to go play volleyball with a club that one of her friend's belongs too. I was a little nervous because I didn't know if they were super legit or anything, and I had never been on a real team before and I didn't know if I would even be allowed to play. Basically I had a blast.
There were probably 30 people there, and I think I met every single one, even if only with a hand shake. They loved that I was American, of course. One of the guys named David kindof took me under his wing while and warmed up with me, and by the time we started playing I was feeling pretty great. The team I was on and the one we were playing against consisted of pretty average players I would say. It was perfect for just having fun. I played pretty well, too! I still don't know if I'm necessarily on a team or not, but I guess I'll figure out as the week goes on. They play on Mondays and Thursdays, but at different gyms.
After we were done playing, one of the guys from one of the teams playing on the other side of the gym invited me over for a beer the following night and gave me his address and everything. I told him I'd prefer an orange juice and he was ok with that, haha. I was bummed though, because I really wanted to go hang out, but I had already told Jean-Luc that I'd go hang out with him and his bandmates. I hope we can still get together sometime later, I guess I'll just talk to him either tonight (Thursday) because I won't be home in time on Tuesday because I'll be on my way home from Grenoble from my training thing. I also have his phone number, so maybe I'll just call him. Using the phone still scares me though.
On Tuesday we left at the same time in the morning, but I went to Van Gogh this time. I sat in the first teacher's room, who also happens to be the directrice (basically a principal who also teaches a class), until she was ready for me to come outside to do something in English with the kids. I really didn't know what to do, so I resorted to playing Red Rover. Do you remember that game? "Red rover, red rover, send so and so right over..." Anyway, that was pretty fun!
Then I went and answered a bunch of questions from another teacher's classroom. There were a bunch of funny questions, as always, but I don't remember all of them. One was, "are there bridges in America?" After that I went to a class of handicapped kids, and all I did was introduce myself for like 5 minutes because usually I'm supposed to read them stories and they didn't have any books yet, so I just went and ate lunch. Isabelle prepared me some kind of traditional dish that was like tomato covered hamburger and short breadstick-like things, but I really don't know what it was...
After I was done with lunch at Van Gogh I caught the bus to Bernaudin, where I spent the whole afternoon in the garden helping the kids with pulling up trees, planting flowers and seeds, and raking up strawberry plants. I actually really enjoyed that, even though I kinda struggled with teaching English at the same time. I just did what I usually do, said something in English and then translated.
I got a ride to Vissenty (to meet up with Isabelle to go home) from Fabienne, the directrice, and she asked me if I wanted to teach her 19 year-old son private English lessons for 20€ (about $30) an hour. I said yes. So now I have an extra flow of cash coming in on Wednesday afternoons!
I ended up just getting a ride from Vissenty with Jean-Luc to his place for a bite to eat before we headed out to meet up with the other bandmates to carpool out to the drummer's house. I met Brice (pronounced Breece), Xavier (Zavee-ay), and then we drove about 25 minutes to Bertrand's (Bear-trahn) house. They just record in his basement, which is sound proofed and everything. Brice brings his iMac there and they record with some software that I've heard of but can't remember what it's called, Jean-Luc plays bass, and Xavier writes the songs, plays guitar and sings. I just sat and listened in with headphones as they recorded the vocals, guitar, and drum tracks. They're a great band! We also ate this really good homemade bread with this smoked-duck paste, another kind of meat paste, sardines in mustard, and chocolate. France's national futbol team was playing Bosnia to qualify for the European Cup, so we also had that streaming on Bertrand's laptop while they were recording. They tied, which means they move on and Bosnia has to play another game to qualify. It was a good game!
SO. That's what happened Monday-Tuesday, and then I went to St. Étienne, which I'm writing another post about because this one would've been forever long if I hadn't split it up. Ok bye!
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