Connected to the world, once again

You might be seeing a bit more of me here on blogger, as I've just recently gotten wifi access here at the house. Actually, it's been here all along, but I've only just received the code to access it. The man in charge of tech. services here at the school came by to set our computers the other day, and spent what felt like forever fiddling with mine before he declared it wasn't going to work. I asked him if he'd changed the security setting, knowing that since I have a mac I usually have to do so to connect to non mac networks. He replied - no, no...I'll come again and try tomorrow. I saw him again this morning, taking his smoke break, where he delivered the heart breaking news that he just didn't think my computer was going to be able to connect, seeing as he had succeeded at getting the other assistants up and running online. I asked for the password anyway and scurried back home to try it out. Sure enough, I entered the password, changed the security setting and was online within 30 seconds. I was quite pleased with myself, to say the least! Now I just might hold true to my word and post once a week...we'll see...
Now that I've given you the visual update of my life here in Quimper, let me give you one in words. I've completed my first three weeks of teaching, and I'm not sure yet whether or not you could say that it was successfully. For any teachers out there reading this, I have a newfound respect for your profession. I had no idea the amount of work and worry that goes into preparing a simple lesson! I teach a total of five different elementary school classes at four different schools twice a week. I also teach five classes a week at the high school I live at. So far I've only just started teaching at the high school; it's been the primary schools that have pretty much consumed my life. I have three first year levels, which I enjoy teaching because they are such a blank slate. They eat up anything I teach them and are so excited about learning! Then, I have a class with 13 second year students and 7 first year students...which I didn't discover until the middle of the first day when one of the older students kindly informed me "umm, those kids over there don't know any English yet". Great. But, thank goodness, another teacher has been coming in to work with them while I take the older kids. While I still feel as if these first few weeks haven't been terribly productive, it's getting better. My other class is the third year, about the equivalent of 5th graders. They're good kids, but I have a super hard time controlling them. First off, they're in their last year before middle school, kind of in the 'we're too cool to do work' stage. Secondly, it's been really hard for me to figure out what to do with them. They get bored easily and I never feel well enough prepared - even when I'm OVER prepared we either fly through everything and I'm left trying to improvise, or it takes so long for me to get control of them/explain the game (because I've got to do it in French) that we barely make it through one activity. I'm determined to make them interested though, and hope to wow them with something fantastic after the vacation.
Yes, I said vacation. Three weeks of work and one and a half off...not bad, huh? We have a vacation for Toussaint (All Saint's Day), and believe me, it couldn't have come any sooner. True, it's only been three weeks, but I am quite ready for a little relaxation! For the holiday, one of the roomies and I (Alyse) are going to the Loire Valley to see the chateaux, and then to Dijon, a total of three nights in each place. It'll be really nice to get away and to be able to explore France a bit.
Other than teaching and vacationing, life is going pretty well here. There's still adjustment, and I certainly miss things about home now and again (Halloween decorations, friends and family, to-go coffee, to name a few), but all in all I think I'm nicely assimilating into French life. Life can only be good when it's filled with copious amounts of wine, cheese and pastries.
All my best to you faithful readers. :) Have a happy halloween!

A few more...

Perhaps there's a way that I could have put all of these in one post, but I'm a bit inept at blogger, so bear with me. Let's continue on with our tour of Quimper, shall we?

This is the core of downtown Quimper, with some examples of the adorable French architecture we Americans find so charming. :)

This a great path that stretches downstream along the Odet. On a sunny Sunday morning or late afternoon, taking a leisurely stroll along the path is THE THING to do. This was one such Sunday, and well...when in Rome, right?

This is a view of my French backyard. It's not much, but it's fantastic to have a little outdoor space of my own (or our own rather, since I've got two roommates).

Here is my room. It's a bit more decorated now, and considerably more messy...if it's ever clean again, I'll post an updated picture.

Finally, here are the other assistants I live with. Left to Right: Helene from Costa Rica, Deepak from India, Alyse from NY state, Amy from the UK and Birgit from Austria. Alyse and Helene are my roomies (we share a house just behind the school) and the other three live in an apartment on the top floor of the school. This was our first soirée, to celebrate Helene's birthday.

Pictures, finally!

This is the main Cathedral, in the middle of downtown. They're just finishing up restoration work, and took down most of the scaffolding a couple of weeks ago. I'll try and post an updated pic sans scaffolding sometime.

This is the River Odet which runs through town and out into the Atlantic, about 30 km downstream. It plays a large role in making Quimper the quintessential French town. :)

Here's more of these river. These little foot bridges (passerelles) cross the river at several places throughout downtown and are usually covered with flower boxes.

Here's a view of town from the top of Mt Frugy ('Mt." being used very loosely, it's definitely more of a steep hill).

Artsy flower pic with some cute Quimper architecture in the background.

Settling In

It boggles my mind that I've only been here in France for three weeks, as of today. It certainly feels longer. The nine months I spent back at home in Olympia between graduating from Western and coming here to France FLEW by. I had a routine, I had fast and easy access to most anything I needed, I had France to look forward to. It's an incredible change of pace to be here in a country where lunch breaks are two hours long, where Sundays are reserved almost solely for long, lazy meals with family and friends, where things get done when they get done - not neccessarily according to what might have been scheduled. It's refreshing and stifling at the same time.
Besides adjusting to cultural differences, the magnitude of change and the new things I've experienced also contribute to making three weeks feel like twice that. In three weeks I've :
- spent five days in Paris
- spent three days in a hostel
- moved into a new house
- met a ton of wonderful teachers and administrators
- adjusted to living with some great new roommates
- spent time aquainting myself with Quimper
- experienced three + years of teacher training crammed into a two day workshop
- travelled all over town to visit each of the four elementary schools I'm teaching in
- visited an adorable town on the sea called Concarneau with nine other language assitants from around the area
- waded in the Atlantic ocean
- taught my first day of classes
- been bombarded with more French than I thought possible

I can only imagine what the next nine months will bring!

Oh - I hope to post pictures soon, I don't have internet access at home, so it might take me a while to get around to it, but I'll do my best.