vignettes: Sunday Afternoon

12:00 P.M.

It's Sunday and the bells at the cathedrale are going craaazy. I woke up to them around 10 A.M. feeling thirsty with a head full of bricks. I still smell cigarette smoke coming from somewhere. I had a late night out with the Americans and Cyril. He took us to his friend's birthday party, where we steadily made our way through at least 6 bottles of wine. From what I remember about last night, I managed to ramble through my rolodex of French bad words, squeal like the Pilsbury Doughboy, use my cigarette lighter as a flamethrower, try to remember how to play Miss Mary Mac, and spill wine on Cyril's nice Hugo Boss shirt. And yet, I'm still hoping I didn't make a complete ass out of myself. Kathy has named my drunk and destructive alter ego Cybil, after the Sally Field movie.

Saturday morning, before the party, the four of us took the train to Nancy, which is about 30 minutes away. It started off foggy and cold, but after having pizzas in a cozy restaurant (where a little girl was sitting in a booth with her dog), the sun came out, and with it, the rest of the population of Nancy. We walked around Place Stanislas and Parc de la Pepiniere, where they had a mini zoo. My favorite animals were the giant, floppy rabbits and a giant chimpanzee. We fed some deer and stopped for a coffee. Inside the cafe, we saw a guy who competed on the first season of Star Academy. We made our way through a crowded shopping center and back to the train station. It was a relaxing day, which soon turned into a drunken blithering night.

I think that night was well deserved, though, after my first two days teaching the kids. All my classes were generally well behaved, thanks to the presence of the teachers in the class, except my smallest class, which is the only class where the teacher left the classroom. I was astonished at how little the older kids retained. Or maybe their pronounciation is just terrible after a summer without English. I think the most difficult part is going to be trying to tailor each lesson to each class level. In some of the older classes, there are kids who have never taken an English class before. Oh boy...
Some of the teachers are scary mean, though. One lady grabbed a boy by the t-shirt and threw him against the door. That was in my sweetest and best behaved class, but they've probably been terrorized into obedience! I have to learn to make my notes on the board really precise because the kids would raise their hands to ask how many lines to indent or if they had to write in curisve. And I must say that their penmanship is amazing.

After my first two days, though, I can't exactly say that I like this job much. I'm hoping that things will get better once I get into the swing of things. The kids can be very cute, though. One little boy raised his hand and said, "Vous etes belle" (You are beautiful) and later drew me a picture with a heart on it. Another girl said the same thing, and then added, "J'adore les Asiatiques" (I adore Asians). That was a little strange to hear from a 10 year old girl, since I mostly hear it from creepy middle aged men. As I was walking to the bus stop, I could hear a few of my students saying, "Hello, my name is..." to each other. At my third school, I wandered into the play area outside and was immedietly surrounded by a group of French girls who giggled saying, "Boys are stupid."

I should stop drinking coffee now... I'm halfway through my second cup and my head is starting to buzz. I'm gonna meet up with some Americans later and then plan my lessons tonight. I wish weekends could last forever! But I have a football/soccer match to look forward to on Wednesday night, at least. For now, I think I'm going to relax and listen to Rachael Yamagata's new album (sooo good!).