First Day

Yves, the friendly English teacher, was waiting for me at the train station. He had the funniest accent. It was like a faux English accent, which was half posh and half just off. It’s hard to describe. I soon found out that he was actually French, but had obviously learned British English. He told me that I had a strong American accent, and I think at times it was hard for him to understand me. I have to learn to slow down and articulate my words. Oh well. Anyway, he brought me back to his house in the country because it was midnight and he didn’t want to wake the other assistant in my flat. When I say his house was in the country, I mean farm/cows/cabin country. It was cute as could be. In the morning he gave me a real country breakfast, which I didn’t seem to have much of a palate for. The homemade yogurt was sour and the cruseli cereal was flavorless. But I was hungry, so I did what I could. Yves played some Britonny music for me, I think so that I’d want to delve into the country/Breton culture while I’m here…which I just might do!

My first day at school was terrifying. I really wasn’t at all scared until I woke up Monday morning and knew that I was about to start work. Yves took me to the school and we got my flat situated first. He warned me that I didn’t have a room yet, because they were using my room to store computers while the school is being renovated. That means I sleep in the living room. Lovely. He asked if I was okay with that, and really, whatever. I pay 60 euros a month; I’m not going to complain. More on the apartment later.

The kids here are terrifying. I had to walk through ‘gaggles’ of them (as my flatmate would call it) to get anywhere, and they all stare! They are also all punks, with their greased up hair and black/dark brown getups. What was I thinking??

The other teachers are as sweet as could be. Sylvie took Rhiannon (the other British assistant) and me to lunch in the canteen. She used to go to this school, and now she teaches English at it. I met more teachers later, and they too were all very friendly. There are 9 English teachers, in all, and I’m afraid it will take me awhile to get to know them all. My tentative schedule has me working with 6 of them! And I thought I’d be bored… Actually, it looks like I’ll be working a little everyday, so no long weekends for me. It’s too hard to get anywhere without a ride to the train station, so I can’t come back late on a Monday. By hard, I mean you need a car to get to a train station that will actually have trains because the one by us you still need a taxi to get to and it won’t get you to many places. This is going to be a problem for next Monday, because the girl from Chili and I both have to go to Paris (for the day) to have our doctor’s appointment. Wonderful. It’s a good 4 hours or so to get to Paris, and who knows where that office is? My teacher said I could take his car, which was very kind of him to offer. It’s too bad I’m not comfortable in a manual car (yes, I know, I should have learned how to drive stick, take it up with Mindy who never let me practice!) and I don’t have an international (or otherwise) driver’s license. In fact, even if I had one, I’d be too terrified to drive in Paris. So, we are in a pickle. We’ll see what happens…

On a good note, the class I sat in on wasn’t bad. Yves told me that the kids had a very good command of English, but I would have disagreed. I guess when I was in high school my French may have been considered ‘good’ for my grade but it still probably sucked. It felt damn good to know English though. There were a few times when the teacher mispronounced things (I know it wasn’t Brit pronunciation because I asked my flatmate later) or said somewhat awkward phrases. He was still really good, mind you, but it felt comforting to know that I at least, if nothing else, have a good command of the subject I’ll be teaching!

Another good note, Yves took the assistants and me shopping, and we got him to recommend some drinks for us. I have bottles of red wine, rose, and cider now in my flat that are all highly praised (and inexpensive). Sweet.