The beginning...

Written on: Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Bonjour à tous!

So, I guess it’s come to that time for my first update… It’s going to be a long one people- I apologize! I’ve been in France for a week and a half now, I’ve gotten to know some of the ins and outs of this place, but still have many things ahead of me. It certainly is an adjustment from Pittsburgh- even from Kintnersville (but I guess it’s closer to K-ville)- a slower pace of life, if you will. My town, Gerardmer, is in the Northeast region of France called Lorraine, which is right next to Alsace, which is right next to Germany. Also close is Switzerland- to the Southeast and Luxembourg up top. Our town is found in the Vosges Mountains, by a huuuge lake. In a nutshell, it’s gorgeous, it’s isolated, and it’s French. That being said, it’s no picnic getting here without a car! From Paris, we’re talking about a 3 hour train ride to Epinal followed by a two hour bus ride to town. Just to get to Michelle (who lives in Nancy, Northwest of me) takes three hours (two by bus and one by train). Luckily, the public transportation in France is good and hasn’t given me too many problems yet (crossing my fingers we don’t face too many gréves (strikes) this year, but we’re in France, so who am I kidding)…

I live in the lycée (high school) campus of Gerardmer, but will be working with the primary schools. The lycée has a boarding school for those students who live further away or are here with sports and need the lake or mountain to do their thing. But our dorm is separate from the actual section where the students are staying, so we don’t pass each other in the hall. It’s on a hill, overlooking the town. From my room window, I can see ski trails, the town, mountains, mountains, mountains, and a little sliver of the lake. I relate the location of the lycée to my Alma Mater, reminiscing about the hike up to PA Hall or Sutherland: the lycée is like PA Hall and the town is kind of like main campus. Distance/time by foot is about the same…so is the incline.

The dorm is simple, the bare minimum, but nice. We have a common room, two bedrooms (each with a SINK, bed, desk, closet), a toilet, a shower room, a kitchen and a dining room. By kitchen, I mean two hot plates, a mini fridge, a tiny sink and no counter space. (Please, if you find a “dinners on a hotplate” cookbook, send it my way! Otherwise, I’m totally coming up with recipes and writing a cookbook.) We’ve covered the bare walls with maps of our region, of France, of Germany, and of anything else we’ve been able to find in an attempt to make it homelier. The previous assistants left a slew of travel books, reading books, and helpful things to fill our dorm (one of which was a bottle cozy from Bison Grass Vodka- Shout out to my Praha peeps!) No TV, which is OK and Internet is only through an Ethernet cable, which is unfortunate and why I’m only getting to you now…

That’s pretty much it for the place… When I first arrived I was alone, but this past Friday my other roommate arrived. Her name is Olivia, she’s half-German, went to Bucknell, and is the English assistant for the lycée. We have a lot in common and share a similar lifestyle, so I’m terribly lucky that I’ll be in good company while I’m (almost) stranded in this tiny town!

I’ve already met with Jean Claude, the director of the primary schools in Gerardmer who has introduced me to some of the teachers I will be working with and who is also the director of a choir, which I might start singing with! Success! I peeked my head in some of the classrooms that I’ll be working with and introduced myself to the kids- so cute! Their age ranges from 7-11ish, the littlest ones take their shoes off outside the classroom and wear slippers in class! Maybe it’s a hygiene thing… I’ll find out and let you know. I’m also not all too sure if they know where the United States are… when one teacher asked the students to point it out on a globe; the first try was Africa and only after great encouragement of the teacher did they figure it out. The schools are bright and colorful, full of life! I’m working in two schools, Ecole Marie Curie and Ecole Jean Mace (both in Gerardmer), and will be video conferencing with two additional schools, La Forge and Bas Beillard (outside of Gerardmer). Next week I’ll be finding out more about the curriculum and program, but already have been given the textbooks to familiarize myself with the main points.

Communication is going fairly well. I can definitely understand everything being said to me (if not exact words then general ideas) and have been able to respond clearly without being at a loss for words. This is definitely only the beginning and I still hope to greatly improve. Luckily most people in Gerardmer speak only French or very minimal English, so that’s a great opportunity for us to speak French. When it’s just Olivia and I we do still turn back to English, for better or for worse! But for what it’s worth, I’ve been getting compliments on the quality of my French, so that’s huge to receive positive feedback.

But let’s get to the fun stuff! Traveling! I’ve been here for just over a week and have already managed to leave the country. Ah, the beauty of Europe and open borders. Last Friday I made the trip to Nancy to visit Michelle (Roommate from Sophomore year and also working as a teaching assistant) for her birthday and to attend a get together for teaching assistants in the area. It was nice to get out of the countryside and into civilization- Nancy is a cute city, full of stores and beautiful architecture, a main square to die for: Place Stanislas (or how the locals call it- Place Stan- pronounced Stahn). Michelle is still pretty new to the city as well, so we had fun exploring and discovering bars, coffee places and patisseries. Peter (fellow Pitt alum, currently living/studying in Metz) came down to visit as well. It was great to catch up- even though he is peacing out to the States for a bit. Had a delicious dinner and wine, which was followed by an Olympic sprint back to the gare (train station) for Peter to catch his train home to Metz.

The rest of the weekend was spent with tiny day adventures around the city, as well as attempts to find American TV streamed on the internet (much harder than it seems! Hulu does not work in Europe and you can’t watch shows on their host sites either), but we lucked out to find streams from the UK and GASP! Watched both Glee episodes from the new season! Amazing! Somehow it’s so much better when you thought you weren’t going to get it (yes, that is what she said). We celebrated Michelle’s birthday by meeting the other assistants. We’re from all over the place! Of course, USA and Canada, but also a bunch of people from the UK, and even some from Jamaica. Everyone is having similar experiences and stresses, so it was comforting to know that we’re not alone in this whole process.

Tuesday we decided to leave Nancy and take a day trip up to Luxembourg. A short two-hour train ride across the border and we were good to go! Weather was pretty horrible this past weekend- rainy and cold, no sun! This didn’t stop us from taking a full tour of the city, exploring the old town and discovering that there is a high town and a low town! For some reason I imagine the story of Cinderella taking place in Luxembourg, little gardens filled with pumpkins, epic courtyards, foliage covered buildings and some ancient churches to make the ambiance of the city quite mysterious and beautiful.

For those who didn’t know, this Saturday (October 2), Latvia has its parliamentary elections. And of course, everyone needs to go vote! So I decided to go to the consulate in Luxembourg to see if that was possible. The consulate is not in the center of town, but in a nearby suburb, easily accessible by bus. I took the challenge and ventured out into the wild. I lucked out because the fare ticker wasn’t working when I got on the bus, so I got a free ride! The consulate was open, but unfortunately only to hand out information about the election, not for voting. Voting will only be on Saturday. Epic bust. I did however receive a ridiculously large packet explaining the voting process, laws. Attached was also a description of all of the running parties and extremely detailed descriptions of the candidates: Birth year, nationality, education, property owned, cars owned, bank accounts, how much in each bank account… I guess it’s an attempt to keep this election transparent and to minimize corruption, but I thought it was a lot- and a waste of paper. However, if every voter had this organized of an overview of candidates in whichever elections, I wonder if results and turnout would be any different? Alas, I was quite upset I didn’t get a chance to vote and left my name and number to be sent out to people in the area with the hope that if I can catch a ride with someone I might make the trip again this Saturday to place my vote… we’ll see.

And now I’m back in little Gerardmer. Olivia and I took a walk around town tonight to see if there was any nightlife… and had some success. At least the local beer was good, can’t say the company looks all too promising. We’ve been told that October- November are down months before ski season starts and many places stay closed because of the lack of tourists coming through. Orientation is next Monday-Tuesday in Epinal, so that will get the ball rolling with many things. I’m excited to get to know other assistants and get more information about what we’ll be doing. By the second week in October, I should be in the classroom getting acquainted with the students!

Like I said in the beginning of this ridiculously long update, it’s an adjustment being so isolated. The first few days were a shock of exhaustion and panic of “How the HELL am I going to get out of here?!” But I’m coming around and taking this as a chance to catch up on reflection, nature and slowing down the pace that was obviously taking a toll on me in college. The lifestyle here is so laid back that going to the bank or buying your daily baguette is an event, not just a quick errand. The food is obviously great. Trying to eat local cheeses, to drink the wine from nearby Alsace, to enjoy what this place has to offer! So I think I’ll get used to this.

PS- I haven’t even started to work yet, but am already planning Fall break, when Michelle and I will be doing this route: Colmar, FR-Strasbourg-Brussels-Amsterdam. If you have any suggestions for places to see, places to stay, etc. in any of those cities, please let me know!