Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Hello everyone, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post.  I've just been so busy doing absolutely nothing- since the past couple of weeks have been the Toussaint holiday, or All Saints Day vacation- yes, we got almost 2 weeks off for All Saints Day.  Well, that's not completely true, I did do some stuff, like go to Auchan to visit Mounia.  Mounia works at Auchan, a huge grocery store right next to a shopping mall, apparently the biggest shopping mall in Europe.  I find that hard to believe since it's only about a third of the size of Kenwood Mall.  But, anyway, I also did a little traveling over the break- went to Lille and Brussels with another assistant for a couple of days which was nice.  And I've also made some new friends.  I've been hanging out at my landlord's house a lot recently lol.  He has a son who studied in Cincinnati for a semester(at UC), weird I know.  So, he speaks English and recently has been preparing for a few interviews for jobs in London so he wanted to practice his English.  And he helps me practice French too.  I also managed to find some other assistants living here in Lens!- a Scottish girl who is here with her English boyfriend and an Irish guy.  I think we're going to make Le Mac Ewan's, the pub across the street from my apartment, a weekly hangout so that should be fun. 
So, just started back to school at the end of last week and I'm already ready for another break.  We started back just in time for Guy Fawkes Day, so a couple of the teachers asked me to talk a little bit about this English holiday which I knew nothing about before Friday.  So, they gave me a little video about it to watch to prepare for the lesson.  The lessons went pretty well...Guy Fawkes Day isn't too complicated...for those of you who don't know it's a day in England that they celebrate because the king was saved.  Back in the 1600s, on November 5th Guy Fawkes was caught trying to blow up Parliament and was executed.  So, every November 5th, the British celebrate the fact that he failed by having barbecues, bonfires, and watching fireworks.  As I was saying, the lessons did go pretty well until the end of the day.  The last lesson was supposed to be with Jessica, but lucky me she had to leave for a few mintues and had me start the lesson.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but I couldn't get the t.v. working to start the video so the kids went a little crazy.  I guess they're not the little angles that I thought they were...I saw a different side of them and they saw a different side of me lol, a ticked off Miss Broerman.  But, thankfully I was able to kind of get things under control once I just decided to skip the movie and move on, and now I guess I know what to do next time.  I learn as I go.        
  

Paperwork and Protests

Greetings from MacDo!  Yes, I have found the local McDonald's, and am ashamed to say that I have already eaten here and have only been here for a couple weeks haha.  Mounia and I are just hanging out taking advantage of the free wifi (or weefee as they say in France).  I ordered a coffee and when the girl asked if I wanted a large coffee I hesitated a second thinking that I didn't really need very much.  I got a large coffee anyway and when she gave it to me I laughed cause it was teeny.  I'm pretty sure the large coffee is smaller than the small coffees back in the US.  But, good thing it was small cause Mounia just spilled it all over my stuff. :(  Oh well no big deal.
We've actually been here for a couple of hours now haha- eating, Mounia's been studying, I've been working on lesson plans (going to be doing some Halloween stuff this week.)  There's not too many people here now, but about a half an hour ago the place was packed.  There's a football match going on at the stadium right next door.  Le Racing Club de Lens is playing, yes the name of the team here is the Racing Club.
So, this week has been fairly busy.  Mostly it has consisted of frustrating paperwork and protests.  This week I went to la Caisse Secu (the Social Security office) 3 times to try to figure out what I have to do to get a social security number, which I need to have in order to get paid...well I guess I need the health insurance too.  Each time I have gone (twice with Jessica, and once by myself) they tell me the same thing, that I can't get a number until my visa is validated by L'OFII (office of immigration and integration of France)...but L'OFII won't be able to validate my visa for another month or so- they like to take their time in France.  Uhhggg.  It's just confusing because I have some people telling me to do one thing and others telling me another thing.  Oh well I guess it will get figured out.  Eventually I will get a social security number and eventually I will get paid, even if I do have to wait. 
Also, this week, as you may have heard, there have been a ridiculous amount of protests, even here in Lens.  Just little ones throughout the week...but it gets annoying to wake up every morning to people yelling in the street and cars honking their horns, and it was mostly high school kids protesting this week.  I doubt they even know what they're protesting, they just want to get out of class.  But this Saturday morning was a bigger "manifestation" in the square right outside my window lol.  Mounia told me to be careful and not go outside in case people started breaking windows or something, but it wasn't violent.  They were just loud, yelling stuff like "Sarko, dit non!"  and the police were blowing whistles and honking horns. There were probably a few hundred people, all protesting again the change in the retirement age.  Well we'll see what Sarkozy decides to do.

On fait la greve

Hello again everyone!  A lot of things have happened this week that I should tell you.  So, first of all, I went to Lille for the first time since I first got here.  Well, I was there last Wenesday for the orientation, but that wasn't really too exciting and I didn't get to see any of the city that day cause we spent the day in a high school auditorium.  It was nice to meet some more assistants, but all of the stuff that they talked about at the meeting was stuff that we already knew and so it was slightly boring.  But, last Saturday I went back to Lille with a friend of mine, Ruth, who is an assistant in Lievin (really close to Lens).  We took the train, and it wasn't too far, about 30 to 40 minutes, so hopefully I'll be able to go back a lot.  Lille is really nice, I'd love to live there- it's close but just too far to commute every day, and I'm happy in Lens.  It's kind of like a little Paris- the architecture is neat (both French and Flemish) and there are lots of shops, bars, restaurants, and a few museums.  We walked around vieux Lille, the oldest neighborhood and then stopped and had a Stella Artois at a cafe- Stella is everwhere here cause we are so close to Belgium.  Then we did some shopping and went to see the house where Charles de Gaulle was born.  I hope to go back soon to check out one of the art museums. 
Also, this week I joined a choir!  And it was probably one of the best choices I've made so far lol.  So, the directeur (principal) at the school sings in a choir and asked me if I'd like to join.  I went with him last Tuesday to the rehearsal, and guess what, the entire program is in English!  And, they haven't had anyone help them really with pronunciation, so they were happy and embarrassed that I was there to listen.  The songs that they picked just make it even more ridiculous- let me just tell you that it is fricken hilarious to hear French people trying to sing spirituals and Andrew Lloyd Weber!  I could barely keep from busting out laughing!  I'll definintely go back, cause the people in the choir are really nice, and I think they could use me to help with pronunciation.  It's just a group of amateurs that sing for fun, but we are going to have a concert in Lille in May, so hopefully I can stay for that.  I'll definitely go back next Tuesday- but we didn't have practice yesterday, this Tuesday, because of another greve.
So, I thought that the greve (strike) this week was trains and buses, since we didn't have choir practice.  I thought maybe that with trains and buses not running people wouldn't be able to make it to choir, so that's why practice was cancelled.  But, apparently not.  I'm pretty sure once again (second time so far since I've been here) it was a strike to protest the fact that Sarkozy wants to up the age of retirement.  I don't really know why we didn't have choir practice because of this lol.  But at school on Tuesday Jessica wasn't there- she was apparently on strike.  All the other teachers were there, so I was a bit confused.  I guess they have these arranged days of strikes which seems to be every other week haha and you can choose not to work if you want to protest.  I wonder if next time I could just do that too :) I mean, I'm not really a huge fan of raising the retirement age, even if I'm not French.

First Week in Lens

Hi again everyone, sorry that I haven't been able to post in awhile, if there is anyone out there following this besides my parents haha.  A lot has happened this first week that I've had an actual residence here in Lens.  So, last Monday I moved into my new appartment, and things have been going really well.  The appartment is like pretty much a house that the landlord once lived in and now rents out.  My two roomates and I each have our own room and then share a bathroom, dining room, kitchen, and internet corner.  We don't yet have our own internet connection, but for the past few days have been stealing someone else's wifi.  My roomates are really awesome.  Mounia, a girl, and Amine, a guy, are both students at two different small universities here in Lens.  They are both actually from Morocco, and speak French and Arabic and some English.  Mounia has been in France for about a year and a half, but Amine has only been here for about a month.  They are both really nice...they even keep paying for my dinner whenever we go out to eat lol- which you know is something you might do the first time we all go out together, but they keep doing it and I keep offering to pay them but I don't want to offend them so I'm not sure what to do.  I assume it will eventually stop.  And, Mounia has even invited me to go back to Morocco with her in February to visit her family in Casablanca which I think I will definitely have to take advantage of, haha maybe that means she'll pay for my plane ticket.  Mounia is really friendly and keeps introducing me to all of her friends so it's nice to meet a lot of French people, and Arab people too- she seems to know the entire Arab population in Lens, which means we've been eating at a lot of kebab restaurants lately.  And, we've been eating a lot of fries too.  Apparently it's a northern France thing to have these delicious friteries where I think they double deep fry the "frites."  I thought I would lose weight on my trip to France, but looks like that might not happen with a friterie literally right around the corner from my appartment.  Well there's always the local Curves I could go to which I came across while I was taking a walk today.
So, everything is going well with my appartment.  My roomates are really cool, and the appartment itself isn't too bad.  It's in a great location: 10 minute walk from the school where I work and like a 5 minute walk from the center of town, which has plenty of shops, restaurants, brasseries, cafes, and bars.  My room itself is pretty nice too, I'll have to put up some pics.  And the view from my room is nice of the trees that line the street and the people who hang out at Mc Ewan's across the street.  The only thing that is slightly annoying is the bathroom.  The shower, if you can even call it that, is not ideal- it's very European.  If you don't know what I mean just turn on House Hunters International.  I think I figured out the real reason why Europeans don't shower as much as us- it's not to save water, it's cause it's too much trouble.  Oh well, it could be worse I guess.  I don't have much to complain about, everything seems to be going really well so far.  This week I will continue to observe at school and then on Wednesday I'll go to Lille for an orientation for the assistants in the area, so I'll be sure to let you all know how that goes.  A tout a l'heure!  

First day at School

So, the past few days have been quite eventful.  So much happened last Friday:  I went to school for the first full day and I think I found an appartment!  School was fun but it was such a long day.  We got there a little after 8:00 and hung out with all of the teachers.  Everyone sits around and drinks coffee.  I don't really understand the size of the cups in France.  That morning before school Jessica's mom gave me some coffee in a huge bowl of a mug.  Then we get to school and everyone is drinking coffee in teacups the size of shot glasses.  At dinner too, the glasses they had were teeny.  I think I would prefer more than a shot of water with my dinner haha.  Or more than a shot of coffee in the morning, but less than a bowl I think. 
Oh well, anyway, the teachers are pretty nice at school.  They are mostly younger girls in their twenties, but the head teacher is a middle aged man who is nice, but strict.  For instance, Thursday when I was brought in to be introduced he refused to stop his class to say hi, but Friday he seemed to be in a better mood.  He kept making jokes, including the fact that my new appartment is right across from an apparently popular bar, Mc Ewan's, which everyone calls Mac's.  The best part of school though were the children of course.  They are adorable!  I love their accents, and I could barely keep from laughing when I sat through their English lesson.  We all sang a song using school supply vocab...which was hilarious because some of the words were apparently British words, like a copy book for notebook, felt tips for markers, and my personal favorite a rubber meaning an eraser.  I had to hold my tongue when they all sang "Eeets a rubbahh, eeets a rubbahh." (It's a rubber.)
I can't wait to go back to school tomorrow to observe again, and then move into my appartment!  But, enough for today, I'll be sure to tell you all about my appartment and new roomies once I move in.
A toute a l'heure!

Le Nord de la France

I made it to France!  And the past couple of days have been quite hectic.  Once the plane landed I was nervous but excited.  Stepping off the plane it didnt really feel like I was in a totally new place.  It felt familiar- but that was probably because I could still hear all of the Americans around me speaking English.  I was excited to be back in Paris again where I had spent 5 months before and could navigate fairly well.  But then as I made my way to immigration, I was greeted by a huge mob of other travelers waiting to get into France.  So, after not really sleeping throughout the plane ride, I was not exactly excited anymore about being in Paris and having to wait an hour and a half for them to barely glance at my passport. 
But I made it!  And I really shouldn't have worried much at all, because things seem to be working out.  I had someone to get me at the station, even though I had to wait another hour and a half after arriving in Lille, and  not being exactly sure whether she was going to be able to make it.  Then after taking an hour of that time trying to figure out how to make a phone call on the payphone to reach her (and to reach my parents) I was greeted by a very friendly voice who so nonchalantly stated, I'll be there in half an hour.  But, I had somone to come get me.  And, I have a place to stay.  With her parents because they have internet access and a bed and they feed me.  They're very nice people which helps me feels better about being here in France alone.  But I'm not really alone though-for now I have Jessica's mom and dad (who don't seem to me to be the typical French, at least not the typical Parisiens- her dad wears wife beaters and has quite a few tattoos, and they're both quite humorous when I understand what they're saying.  And I have Jessica, who's helped me out a lot with showing me around and helping me find a place to stay.  Today I went to the school to meet everyone, even though most of the teachers were on strike, including Jessica, go figure!  But the children were adorable and I think they're excited to have met an American.  And I think I even found an appartment, living in Lens with a couple of roomates.  All in the same day!  So I guess we'll see what the next few days bring!

In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines...

Day of Departure

It took me a while to come up with the perfect name for my blog.  And here it is: In an old house in Paris...the first line in the Madeline books.  It really is fate that is responsible for my obsession with all things French.  And, it began at a young age when I was given my first Madeline book. 
So, here I am, with only a couple hours left here in my house in Cincinnati, before I move to France for seven months.  And, I'm nervous!  Still need to rethink my packing arrangements.  I packed way too much crap and I waited until the last minute to do it.  Oh well, I made sure I got all the important things in this last week, all of the necessary American things that I won't be able to enjoy overseas:  breakfast, barbeque, burgers, and baseball.  Notice how most of these things are food.  You know American food might be one of the things I'll miss the most, pretty sad, I know.  Well I guess I'll miss all of you guys too!  You know these seven months will go by fast and soon I'll get to see all of you again and share my stories.  Until then: come visit!  Read my blog!  and remember, I just got a magic jack so I can make free call to the US, so I'll be calling you all the time!