Bonne Année!

I suppose that it’s finally time to update my blog—it‘s been almost a month. Maybe a new year’s resolution should be to update more often?

I spent mes vacances in England, first visiting my sister in London and then spending the holidays with my cousin and her family in Peacehaven (near Brighton). I found it kind of ironic, because on the train ride to London, my brain was still a bit in French mode and I even chose to listen to Zaz (a French artist) on my iPod. During the first couple of days, I was still somewhat in French mode, especially when I heard people on the bus or in museums speaking in French. Also, I want to say that I love accents and whenever I heard people speaking, I was so tempted to speak back in my oh so fake and horrible British accent. Luckily, I resisted (and avoided embarrassment—maybe I should just stick to my bad French accent).

Going from the small town of Béthune with 30,000 people (according to Wikipedia, but I swear it’s less) to the big city of London (should I even bother to look up this statistic?) was a pretty big change. Walk around Béthune at 9 pm and there’ll barely be any cars or people (if you’re not in the centre-ville, but even then, it can get pretty empty, especially since the Christmas Market is over). Walk around London at 9 pm and it’s completely the opposite. Cars, buses, and people everywhere. I did tell my sister that there were so many Asians (Béthune also isn’t too diverse). But of course, there’s so many of … everybody.

My first full day in London, Tuesday, I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and saw the Power of Making exhibit since it was free, but I didn’t see the Postmodernism one, which I wanted to see. Unfortunately, I didn’t think about taking my sister's ID so I could get in for free. My favorite part in the V&A Museum was probably the jewelry room. I like looking at the jewelry from way back when over the centuries and I can’t help but think how much I would love to wear some of their pieces. They also swords and crowns—so cool! Afterwards, I went to the British Museum, where I saw the Rosetta Stone (of course there was a huge crowd around it the first time I walked through the room), and other things like the remains from the pediments of the Parthenon, and Greek vases. Then, we went out for my sister’s early birthday celebrations and got to listen to some blues. It’s always nice to listen/see live music. :)

V&A Museum

Inside the British Museum

Rosetta stone

Wednesday, I wandered over to Buckingham Palace, took pictures along with other tourists and then walked down the Mall and stopped in the Institute of Contemporary Art for a bit before heading over to Trafalgar Square, where I was touristy once again and took pictures before going into the National Gallery. I saw some impressionist paintings (one of my favorite artistic movements) and some paintings by Camille Pissarro and Georges Seurat. Then I headed over the National Portrait Gallery, where one of my sister’s friends escorted me into the First Actresses for free. The weirdest thing in the NPG is the blood head. At first, I was just looking at it and thought maybe the artist had just used red wax. Nope. It’s his own blood. Kinda creepy, not gonna lie.

Buckingham Palace

Trafalgar Square

Thursday, we headed to Greenwich. We wandered around the market, and of course we bought some food, sweets, and mulled wine. Noms. Then we wandered around the Old Royal Naval College before trekking up to the Royal Observatory. I wasn’t going to pay 7 pounds just to see the Prime Meridian; so luckily, I was able to take a picture of it through the gate. :P We visited the Queen’s House for a bit and then later that night we saw Chicago, starring America Ferrara! As always, musicals make me wish that I could sing and dance (side note: I wonder if taking dance when I was younger would have helped prevent my old lady foot problem, or if it would’ve just made it worse). That actually reminds me, I’m surprised that I haven’t tried to download the soundtrack yet…



Royal Observatory on top of that hill



 The Prime Meridian

View of London

Friday was Aisa’s birthday, so that meant FOOD. We headed to Bourough Market (omg like heaven for my family ha), where there was TONS of food! We had two delicious sandwiches – one was chorizo and the other had lamb… nomnoms, once again, more mulled wine, and bought some baklava (teehee). Trying to fight the itis, we then went to Tate Modern. I wish I could’ve seen the Gehrard Richter exhibit since from the postcards and books I saw in the gift shop, I would’ve liked his work/probably should have studied him back in high school.

Christmas Eve, we left for Brighton to visit my cousin and her family. It was really nice to be around family and with the Filipino parties and food, it felt more like the Christmas season and a bit more like home (the rest of my family went to Orlando and went to Harry Potter World/Land (?)… kinda jeal!). The week in Brighton/Peacehaven from Christmas to New Year’s involved lots of food and therefore, naps. It was a nice relaxing week. Aisa and I took walks along the coast to try and not be complete bums and try and maybe work off some of the holiday weight (even though we ended up buying chips on the way back…). I also did a bit of post-holiday shopping in the town centre, but I didn’t buy too much (I’m actually being better with my shopping habits now!).

On the coast-- Peacehaven

One day during the week, Aisa and I went into Brighton and visited the Royal Pavilion and the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. I thought the Royal Pavilion was really nice, especially with the Asian influences (although the dragon on top of the chandelier in the dining room was a bit scary). We also had some tea and scones in the tearoom--- my first real cup of English tea! Afterwards, we just wandered more around the shops in town. Brighton is such a nice quaint town and it’s on the coast—so pretty!

Royal Pavilion

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery

tea and scones

New Year’s Day we headed back to London… and the wheels on my suitcase broke off. Lesson learned: don’t buy cheap suitcases. But I made it back to Béthune… back to being the only Filipino in the village. I definitely have to visit England again, not only to visit family, but also to do more touristy things (like the Tower of London, the London Eye), and see other parts of England. This is one perk of being in the north of France.

As for teaching, well it’s teaching. There’s not much to update there. Wednesday was my first day back teaching (school officially started on Tuesday, but I didn’t have to teach). For a bit during my first class of the day, I forgot that I couldn’t speak at my normal-having-conversation-with-friends speed since it’s hard for the students to understand me (props to any students who could). If you know me, you know that I speak pretty fast (my family likes to say it’s because I was born in NY), and it’s a bit shocking to hear how slowly I speak to my students. As a matter of fact, a couple of months ago, I found the interview I did for the school on youtube (I’ll have to find it again) and I was surprised at my speed.

For some reason the dreary, windy weather here in Béthune just feels more depressing. Sure, it was rainy and cloudy in England. Maybe it’s because at least in Brighton and London, the streets were still busy and full of life. That’s not really the case here. I feel like the streets only look busy when it’s noon and all of the students are leaving the school to walk that one block to the cafeteria.  

I can’t believe it’s 2012. 2011 was a pretty good year, probably the best that I’ve had in a while. A year ago, I was praying and hoping that I would end up in France after graduation and here I am. I had always told people that I would move here at some point after I graduate, but I didn’t really expect it to come true and so soon!

Here’s to an even better 2012… !

Bises x



Turkey Day in France and Stereotypes

So it’s been a while since I last updated, but better late than never?

“Francsgiving”

After teaching many of my classes about Thanksgiving, there was no way that I was going to not celebrate Turkey Day. So along with two other American assistants (Melissa and Erin) and the German assistant (Yvonne—it was her first Thanksgiving), we decided to have our own version of Thanksgiving. We knew that it wouldn’t be different since we don’t have an oven, but we were determined to make it work.

Our “Francsgiving” was a success! We went grocery shopping together to get all the ingredients and then cooked it all together Thursday after we were all done teaching. We had to use 3 different kitchens since each kitchen was small and only had 2 burners each. We made it work! Our menu consisted of stuffing, green beans, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes – all made from scratch! And of course, turkey. Well since we don’t have an oven, our turkey was just turkey breasts and we ended up buying some pastries from the local patisserie instead of having pumpkin pie. Our dinner definitely tasted like Thanksgiving! We had a good time having dinner and spending time together. We definitely have to do our “family dinners” every week.

Stéréotypes

I’ve been doing a little lesson on stereotypes in my classes, and for the most part, the students seem to enjoy it and like listing all the American stereotypes that they’ve heard or seen from movies and TV show. I have them list both American and French stereotypes, but they don’t seem to have as much fun with the French ones, except saying that all French people are beautiful. I’ve been showing this cute video of French stereotypes:

Here are some interesting American stereotypes that one of my classes came up with…

All Americans…

-          were in fraternities in college

-          eat burgers and drink soda

-          drink beer

-          are fat

-          girls wear a lot of makeup, wear heels, and are superficial

-          have a lot of money, big cars, and big houses

-          boys are cool and beautiful

-          are vain

-          have a lot of shops

-          have better movies (Hollywood)

-          girls were cheerleaders in college

-          guys were the quarterback in college and got all the girls

-          stars are beautiful millionaires, are attacked in magazines/tabloids, and do drugs and are alcoholics

-          play sports

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Anyways, I can’t believe that it’s already December. Despite the somewhat colder weather (it’s been raining too), the Christmas market, lights, and music, it doesn’t feel like the holiday season. Maybe it’s because I don’t have any Christmas decorations in my studio or maybe because for the past four years, I would be studying for finals at this time. It will be weird not being at home for Christmas, but at least I’ll be with family! I bought my train and bus tickets, so I’m all set to spend Christmas break in London and Brighton!

ALSO, I tried escargots for the first time last week… and they were actually pretty good! I guess I still have to try rabbit and/or horse…

À bientôt

Belgium, getting stranded/adventures, and of course, more teaching

La Belgique

One of the best things about being in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region (Lille region) is how close I am to some major European cities. Paris is only a little more than an hour away by train, a couple of hours from London (if you live on the coast, you can easily take a ferry to Dover), and really close to Belgium. As a matter of fact, the train ride to Brugge is only 1 ½ hours (and that’s with a longer stop, with the train just chilling in another Belgian town). Driving, that’s about the same amount of time from Richmond to Virginia Beach, with no traffic (and really depending on how fast you drive).

Last weekend, we had a 3-day weekend. Or at least us assistants did. Friday was a holiday, but some students still had to go back to school on Saturday morning. Thank goodness none of the English teachers I work with teach on Saturdays. Ideally, we would have liked to spend the weekend in Bruges, but it was a lot of last minute planning and we couldn’t find a cheap enough hostel or hotel that was available for at least one of the nights. So on Saturday, I headed to Bruges for a day trip with 3 other assistants. We did get a late start and caught a train 4 hours later than originally planned, but we got there!

Bruges

Bruges’ chocolate festival was that same weekend, so that was kind of the reason for our trip, but once we got there, we just really wanted to wander around, especially since we only had the afternoon. Bruges is beautiful, but of course very touristy. At some places, I couldn’t decide if I should speak in English or in French to order…I ended up using both languages. I definitely want to go back again, to actually see more and maybe go inside some museums or up the beffroi. I’m seriously glad that I’m close enough to be able to take a day trip, plus we got this special pass/ticket that cost only 20 euros round trip!

Perfect Belgian town?

Wandering around, we saw plenty of chocolate shops and we even stumbled across the beer wall – a wall/glass case with the thousands of Belgian beer on display! And of course before we left, we had to have a Belgian waffle (and fries), AND I bought a kilo of chocolate… and I got a small box free (which came in handy later…)! It kinda sucks that the last train from Bruges to Lille left at 7:32 pm, but it’s ok. It’s close enough.

One of many chocolate shops!

The kilo + of chocolate that I bought :D

Only one small part of the beer wall!

Bloquées

So we already knew that we would be cutting it very close with our trains because our train was scheduled to arrive in Lille at 8:56 and then the last train to Béthune was scheduled to leave at 9:02 pm. We knew that we would literally have to jump off the train and book it to the other side of the station, and by the end of the day, we were just so tired so we were very eager to get back home. Unfortunately, the train pulled into the station at about 9:02 and we still booked it to the other side of the station... and yes, we missed our train. Just by a minute. Darn these trains for always leaving at precise times.

Luckily, we had bumped into other assistants at the train station in Bruges and we got their number, just in case we really did miss our train. So after sitting in McDonald’s until it closed using their wifi and texting a bunch of assistants in the Lille area, looking for a floor to sleep on, one American assistant offered us his floor! Now French apartments are known for being pretty small and there were 3 of us stranded, but there was no way that we were going to split up. So, we met up with a group of assistants and were able to sleep with a roof over our head (yay no having to sleep in the train station)!In exchange for a floor (it was carpet… how luxurious!) and to express our gratitude (especially since we were really desperate and tired), I gave our gracious host my small box of Belgian chocolate. Everything happens for a reason right? And at least we made some friends and some good came out of being stranded. But on Sunday morning, I had never been so happy to come back to the small town of Béthune.

L’enseignement

Teaching, is, well, teaching. I’ve definitely had days with good classes who are more interested in the lessons and who participate more and then I’ve had bad days with classes who clearly aren’t interested and/or don’t want to participate at all. We did a little activity today in our last meeting for lycée assistants and we were really put in the shoes of our students. It really hasn’t been that long since I’ve been a student, but sometimes you kind of forget how difficult things can be in a foreign language. Also, for them, English is a required subject, so not everyone is learning English because they want to. One of the teachers told us today that it seems like in general in the French education system, the students have been somewhat trained to listen and have never really had to participate as much.

I have also started tutoring 2 boys, ages 11 and 9. They’re the kids of a Spanish teacher at Blaringhem and they’re actually really enthused about learning English. They’ve already learned some at school, so they get really excited when I tell them some words they already know. So far, I’ve only had one session with them and I was just trying to get a feel of what they already know and try and see what kind of activities I could do with them. I did play Simon Says with them (which they loved) and I’m excited I get to plan some activities, etc. for little kids too!

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Thanksgiving is in a week, so this past week I did a lesson on Thanksgiving for some of my classes that I see every other week. I taught a little bit of history, food, and contemporary culture (football, Macy’s Day Parade, and Black Friday). My students have seriously been in awe of how much food we eat at Thanksgiving (I had shown them pictures of the main things—turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc.) and how crowded it gets on Black Friday. Also, showing my students all the food made me super hungry.

To celebrate Thanksgiving (sometime next weekend probably), the other assistants and I are going to make our own version of a Thanksgiving meal. None of us have an oven, so I guess we’re just going to buy turkey meat from the store and just cook it on the stove? We’ve found cranberries here, so the only thing really missing is a pumpkin pie. I guess we’ll just have to have some sort of French pastry as a substitute!

À plus! xx

On doit toujours parler en français!

With the beginning of our real teaching period and the end of our first break, the other assistants who live at Blaringhem and I have decided to actually speak in French with each other all the time, or as much as possible. We had been speaking English with each other ever since we arrived, so it hasn’t really done much to improve our French, and when we actually do speak French to other teachers or waiters, we found ourselves stumbling, trying to get our mind back in French mode, thinking about vocab and grammar. Now with us trying to constantly speak in French, it’s helping our brains constantly be in French mode and like anything else, practice makes perfect.

To help my brain stay in French mode, I’ve been watching more tv when I have time and at times, I just leave it on the music channel (even if there are some songs in English), instead of watching whatever shows I have on my external HD or listening to music that’s in English. I’ve been watching a show called Plus belle la vie, which is on during lunch and in the afternoons, and I guess it could be almost like a French soap opera or drama? I’m still trying to follow the characters and how they’re related to each other. All I know is that this one guy is in love with his mother-in-law.

Also, in the mornings, when I’m getting ready and eating breakfast, I’ve watched cartoons/kids shows, like “Le Petit Nicolas,” or the news. In the morning, there are a lot of infomercials, and a few of them are dubbed. I find it interesting because I have seen a lot (and I mean A LOT) of infomercials for these undergarments for women that instantly slim the figure. I think the name of one them is ceinture ventre plat (belt for a flat stomach). A lot of them are things that help enhance/slim the figure or exercise equipment in general. I wonder if this has anything to do with the stereotype that all French women are thin.

On Sundays, after church, How I Met Your Mother is on tv. And of course, anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love that show, so of I course I watch it, even dubbed in French. Legendary is translated into = Hallucinant! “C’est hallu… attends… cinant!” That definitely doesn’t have the same feel as legendary. It also makes me wonder how they translated the line with “… and I hope you’re not lactose intolerant because the end is dary (or something like that).”

Teaching

Now, I really understand how teachers feel when students don’t participate, when they ask a question and nobody raises their hand, and why they randomly call on people. I know it’s difficult because it’s a foreign language and because they’re not used to hearing an American accent as opposed to a British English accent. Hopefully the lessons when I do games, etc. will be better, but for now, I’m still seeing certain classes for a first time, so I have to get a feel for the students and their levels. Also, I’m hoping that the students are just shy and eventually they’ll warm up to me. Thank goodness for the Hermiones of the class (the student who will raise his/her hand and will most likely have the answer to every question or who volunteer for everything). When I think about it though, 5 years ago, when I was in their spot, I barely ever participated. One of the teachers lent me some books with ideas for games, etc. for teaching English as a foreign language, so I’m definitely going to look into those. 

One really interesting thing that I found out from my students’ introductions is that they live all over the place. When I say all over the place, I really do mean throughout the region. Some of them don’t actually live in Béthune, some live in the small towns right outside of Béthune, and others live in towns that are a bit farther out. For example, one student lives in Arras, which is the big town I visited over break, and that’s a good 30 minute train ride away. I’ve also heard of students living Hazerbrouck (another town, at least a 15 minute train ride away). This isn’t too weird to me considering that I went to Henrico High School for IB, so students came from all over the county, but Blaringhem doesn’t have a specialty center. It doesn’t seem like they do zoning at all, and I wonder how students choose to attend this particular lycée. There are other lyccées in the area that do have some sort of specialty program as well. I guess this is something that I’m going to have to find out in a lesson I do about high school in the US vs. lycées in France.

We have a 3-day weekend coming up for Armistice Day (11/11), so hopefully I’ll be able to go to Belgium… more specifically Brugges! I heard it’s the chocolate festival there this weekend too…

Bises xx

Madame!

I have to admit that I have been pretty lazy in updating my blog and I am literally forcing myself to write this entry.

All Saints Day is an official holiday here, so a lot of places were closed, and the church was actually packed. It’s interesting that a religious holiday is a countrywide official holiday, considering the fact that France is all aboutlaïcité and keeping church separate from state. All Souls Day also seems to be more important here. Flowers were being sold all over the place during break.

For the rest of the break, I explored a bit of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. I also went up 3 beffrois, (I’m pretty sure there’s one in almost all of the major towns in this region), which means there were a lot stairs to climb up and down: in Arras, Béthune, and Dunkerque. Luckily each day I went, it was pretty sunny and not raining or too many clouds.

Arras – view of the Grande Place

Béthune – my studio is just down this road

Dunkerque – I think that’s the port

In Arras, we had a guided tour of les boves – the area underground that people lived in, was used during the wars, and merchants even used it for storage. We also visited the Saint VaastCatherdal and a cemetery (I believe it was British?). It was so nice to actually get to see a slightly bigger city and get out of the small town of Béthune.

I think I would have liked to live in Dunkerque, a town on the coast. Not only are there beaches, but there seemed to be a good amount of shopping. They have an H&M and if I spent more time in there, I probably would have walked out with plenty of bags and a good amount of my first paycheck spent. Surprisingly, I walked out of there empty handed. Besides the beach and the shopping, we visited the Saint Eloi church and then the Port Museum and got to tour 3 ships.

Aside from the day trips around the region, I also discovered Bruay-La-Buissière, a small town right outside of Béthune. It seems more like suburbia and has a shopping center, which consists of a movie theater, a bowling alley, various restaurants, and shopping! Luckily, this is more affordable shopping! There are many shoes stores (comparable to Payless or Shoe Carnival) and even clothing stores (comparable to Marshalls or TJ Maxx) that are pretty cheap! And everything is really cute… I just want to buy everything. Going with Melissa on her search for boots, depresses me a little, because I just want to buy my own boots. One of the stores has so many boots—there are so many black boots, but they’re all somewhat different, whether it is a slight difference in the heel or the point of the toe… but there are so many and I don’t know how I would be able to pick just one pair! Also, a thicker heel is more common here; a thin, more stiletto-like heel is rare. I guess it makes sense though, especially with all the cobblestone sidewalks. I feel like eventually, I will give in and buy a pair… or at least sometime before I leave. Also, heels in general are just more popular… I’ve seen a lot of the sneaker heel.  Despite all the (very cute) clothes and shoes tempting me, my only purchase during break (other than postcards, food, and train/bus tickets) was a (very cute) purse.

I’ve begun teaching by myself and it is a bit scary and nerve wracking, but I’m glad that I get smaller groups (on average 10 students). I realized that one hour is not super easy to plan for and that some students really do not like speaking English at all. I’m definitely going to have be more strict with only speaking English, but it is hard when they don’t understand and sometime slowing down and using simple words doesn’t cut it. Some teachers have told me that their classes are weak, but they all have to take the bac at the end of the year, so they need to pass (although apparently failing/repeating a grade is more common here). During my observations, I was also surprised at how much French was spoken in the classroom. If I remember correctly, we had to speak French all the time in high school classes and English… c’étaitinterdit (forbidden)! I also find it kind of funny that I was the student that barely ever participated, but now, I’m the one that has to force the students to participate. Now I know how teachers feel when nobody raises their hand or volunteers.

I only had 3 classes yesterday and one today. For one, I was just sent groups of students to help them with their pronunciation. So we’ll see how everything goes next week, when I have my first full week. I also realized that I’m going to have to brush up on current US events/news because one teacher wants me to work a bit with current events in the US. I love how as I type this, I’m watching the French news.

Donc, c’est tout. Bon week-end!

Bises x