Today in class we talked about English speaking countries. When I started the lesson, I asked, "In which country do people speak English?" and the kids spouted out nonsense. "Italy?" "China?" "North Africa?" "Greenland?" "Asia?" I can't believe they could respond with such serious, wide eyed faces. Are they confused into thinking that because I'm Asian that everyone in China speaks English (even though I've told them a billion times that I'm from California)? One kid even responded with "France?" and the teacher rolled his eyes and said, "Are you speaking English??" PLUS the kids didn't even know where the U.K. is! I had to keep myself from shouting, "IT'S RIGHT NEXT TO F-ING FRANCE!"
In other news, a week ago I went on my Dijon mini-trip and couchsurfed for the first time! I stayed with a French couple who were around the same age as me. They were very sweet and we shared the same love for macarons. I did enjoy the whole couchsurfing experience and being able to hang out with locals rather than sleeping in a cheap hostel by myself. I'll admit that it was a little odd at first when I realized that I was staying at a total stranger's place... What are we supposed to talk about? Am I supposed to be formal to some degree? Should I act like a guest or a friend? But after dinner and a glass of wine, it still felt awkward, but at least we were on an aquaintance level and there was a small degree of trust/friendliness.
They were pretty busy that weekend, so I mostly wandered around the city myself. The first thing I did was go to the tourist office to find out where the mustard museum was, but the man said it didn't exist anymore. Booo... he pointed me in the direction of the Maille mustard shop, but I didn't really want to go to the mustard museum to buy mustard, I mostly just wanted to tell people that I went a museum dedicated to mustard.
I visited la Musée des Beaux-Arts, a lot of cathedrals, Tour Phillipe le Bon (tower of Phillipe the Good), la Musée Archéologique (free on Sundays!), walked around Jardin Darcy, sat in some cafes, and even conquered my fear of eating alone in a restaurant (the key is to bring a book).
Eglise St. Michel, 10:30 A.M.
Empty fountain at Jardin Darcy. I sat peacefully reading my book in the sun until some lame ass thug wannabe (how can you be thug wearing a fake plaid Burberry sweater with tight pants and a man purse??) French guys sat at the bench near me and dared each other to "talk to the Chinese girl with the book." Um, you wish.
View of Dijon from le Tour Phillipe le Bon
View of place de la Libération from Tour Phillipe le Bon
Speaking of being Chinese, I went to a café after work to grade some papers. As I was leaving, a guy at the bar was asking me how grading went and we talked a bit. Of course he found out I was American and asked where I was from. "California," I said. He asked, "Where were you from before?" And I gave him a confused look and repeated, "California." He gave me a look as if to say, "Oh, come on...." and said, "Yeah, but you have these," and pulled his eyelids back, which is just about when I turned on my heel and left. I can think of about a million different ways to ask "What ethnicity are you?" without being an asshole. But whatever, he probably can't even find the UK on a map of Europe.
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