First few days...

I’m flying First Class on the way home… please. Sept. 25th

I made it 23 hours without sleep… I couldn’t manage to fall asleep during the flight at all which did not sit well with me. Right after the flight I managed to catch a train to Saarbrucken where I was to be picked up. I was supposed to have called before I got on the train, but couldn’t figure out how to make the phone call (the 00 33 is the universal area code for France, somehow I had it in my head that it was only for American cell phones). Once I arrived at Saarbrucken, I managed to make my phone call and was picked up in no time by Francoise’s daughter and husband (during the short wait I learned (again I presume) that you should use the toilet on the train – not in the station…)

After a short jaunt, we arrived at Francoise’s and I was given a tiny tour. I then proceeded to lay down for a nap – for 3 hours. When I got up, Francoise (who is the woman in charge of me) was home and I met her. We chatted over food. There is no way I’ll remember everything we talked about. But I’m welcome at her house any/every weekend and during the vacations since the school residence will be 100% deserted. It sounds like she’s going to be a great help. I might go to Paris with her during my first vacation since I don’t have any plans (she’ll be busy most of it, but I’d get free housing for a week perhaps).

Also on a very interesting note, for little jaunts I can borrow a car they have. Francoise is going to talk to the school and see if I might be able to borrow the school car on weekends so I can drive to the train station. I would probably be very sparing in my use of any car, just ‘cause I’m not sure about driving here (though I can borrow Francoise’s GPS…). That has been my first day.


Moved in – sort of Sept. 26th

I moved all my stuff to the school and into my little room today. It is surprisingly small and there is no way to do any cooking, but one of the teachers is going to bring me a hotplate so I might be able to do pasta (but I’m only allowed to on the weekends). There are very specific hours for the cafeteria – it is basically be there or too bad for you. I am the only one allowed to be here during the weekends and vacation, everyone goes home and the cafeteria is closed Friday night through Sunday night. I was introduced to a whirlwind of people today, I remember next to no names. I have spent a lot of time resting today.

Other events to note: 1) I was told we were doing some special surprise thing involving a fake fire – I was thinking some type of cool fake bonfire thing… no that was the fire drill…. At least I was prepared to be going out.. 2) I tried to take a shower but had to go ask someone how to turn it on hoping that it wasn’t in fact broken… it turns out it’s one of those push nobs, where you push it and water comes out for a very short period of time. It was suggested to just lean on the button continuously.

Sat in a meeting… Sept 27th

I sat in on a meeting today with the “language teachers.” There has been some change in how the nation does their testing and they needed to discuss how they were all going to teach to the same standards. There were two German teachers and three English teachers + me. It was very amusing. It was about 40 or so minutes of really really fast French, occasionally voices were raised, on an issue I was not familiar with, using abbreviated terms and not explaining concepts they were all familiar with. By the end of it, I had a small grasp of the issue at hand.

There has been a change in who needs to take German – apparently fewer ppl are now required to. It seems that the different professions taught here are on different levels of “education” – some require more academics than others. A large issue was the “themes” that must be taught. Which I thought for a while were the topics they taught in the class, but were if fact the subject matter of oral exams at the end of the last year in high school. Each student has to choose any three “themes” (such as a town, or a music group related to the language) and be able to give a five minute presentation about it. I think they also get a photo to show the listener and to act as a prompt for themselves.

At the end there was an argument about how to / when to administer the exams. Overall it was quite interesting from my position.

Other than having my bro Andy get my internet finally working (surely what my dad did helped too), there was a nice gal at l’office de tourisme and she gave me her email so that when I visit her town she can show me around. ☺