Medical visits, strikes, and turkeys

Bonjour mes amis,

Since my last post I’ve officially been medically cleared to stay in France for the entire duration of my visa, I’ve paid my first bills here, and helped cook an English Sunday roast with nothing more than one electric burner, two toaster ovens, and a microwave.

As I believe I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I had to go to Dijon on Monday for my visite medicale, a pretty important part of the process that allowed me to get my titre de séjour, a yellow sticker with my numéro étranger (basically like a resident alien number) that’s now stuck inside my passport. The OFII (l’Office Française de l’Immigration et Intégration), which handles the legal aspects of immigration into France, had set aside two days for all of the language assistants in the Académie de Dijon to have their medical visits and to get their titres de séjour, so half of the assistants went when I did, while the other half went the week before. I got the day off work because the visit is mandatory, so I took a morning train to Dijon, arriving there around noon for my 1:30 appointment. Once I got called in, the visit just consisted of a chest and lung xray (which had to be done torse nu, or topless), an eye exam, and then checking blood pressure and breathing. It was easier than I was expecting it to be, and I now have my very own xray of my chest and lungs, which is pretty cool!

On Wednesday night I ventured back to the Foyer Les Loges, where I lived for my first month and a half in Nevers, for a Repas Anglais. The Foyer organizes activities for its residents, and once a month they do a big group meal – each month is a different type of cuisine, and an individual resident organizes the menus for these meals. I have a English friend still living in the Foyer (her schools are only five minutes à pied from there, lucky thing!), and she somehow got roped into organizing an English meal for 20 people. Although I had hoped to never need to return to the Foyer again, I went with 5 other assistants, both as a sign of solidarity and to help with the preparation for the meal. As Lizzi, Mari, and I were waiting at the train station to meet another assistant to walk to the Foyer together, we received a phone call from Tish (the English girl organizing the meal), who shared the news that the oven and four burners weren’t working on the gas stove and that we would have to cook for 20 people using only two toaster ovens and one electric hot plate. While it took 3.5 hours to prepare the meal, it went better than I was expecting, and it ended up being pretty tasty as well!

My students still constantly amuse me with the hilarious things children say and do, and I laugh every time I swap stories with my fellow assistants about things that have happened in their classes. On Friday morning, for example, I was working on animals with my CM2 class (they’re about 10 years old). We were working on spelling English words, so I would say an animal and then they would have to write it on their little whiteboard and then hold it up for me to check. The first few went fine and most of the students got them right, but then we came to ‘polar bear.’ Out of about 24 students, no one got it right, but I was trying VERY hard to keep from cracking up – one kid had written ‘polar beer,’ but my favorite was the boy who wrote ‘paul webber.’ Close, kid.

The weather has been oddly and surprisingly nice here for the past few days, so this afternoon we’ve planned a walk along the path beside the Loire River, which, if you follow it for long enough, leads to the meeting point of the Loire and Allier rivers – it’s supposed to be very pretty.
I might get to become officially French on Tuesday! There’s a strike scheduled, and I already know that one of my schools will be closed because the teachers there will be en grève (on strike). Tuesdays are my long days, and I’m really hoping that my other Tuesday school, where I have 3 classes, will also be en grève.

As I’m sure you can imagine, France does not celebrate Thanksgiving, so all the American assistants are a little bit sad that we have to work on Thanksgiving, for the first time in our lives! We’re planning a big meal though, and will be introducing the holiday to our English, German, and Costa Rican friends. They don’t sell frozen turkeys in the stores here, and the French really only eat turkey at Christmas, so even the first butcher shop I visited told me it would be impossible to get one for November 27. Luckily we found another, more accommodating butcher shop, and have ordered a turkey. I’m a little nervous, however, that we might just get a turkey with its head, feet, and feathers still on – I hope it’s at least beheaded and plucked!

That’s really all my news for now, j’espère que tout va bien avec vous!

Dijon and orientation

Bonjour mes amis!

I just got back last night from Dijon, where all the foreign language assistants in the Burgundy region had an all-day orientation meeting for our job. It was a lot of fun, and it was really nice to get to meet all the other assistants from the region. There are more English language assistants than any other language, but there are also assistants for German, Spanish, Italian, and even Russian! Nevers has at least 11 assistants total, including myself, making it one of the places in Burgundy with the most assistants. (There are at least 7 English assistants, 2 Spanish assistants, and 2 German assistants.) I arrived in Dijon on Thursday afternoon with 3 other English assistants from Nevers, and we spent about 2 hours exploring the city of Dijon – which is a lovely city – before getting the city bus out to the Centre des Rencontres Internationales (roughly, the Center for International Encounters), where we were fed free food and given a room for the night. About 25 of us walked into the centre ville of Dijon on Thursday night (we had nothing to do until Friday morning, when our orientation started) and found a bar where we could sit and chat. (As a side note, at a bar in Dijon, France, I heard ‘Sweet Home Alabama.’ The band had changed the words, however, and was singing, “Sweet home Barack Obama, yes we can!” It was ridiculous.) It was really great to get to talk to people from all over the world – there are lots of Brits and Americans, but also quite a few Australians, a couple New Zealanders, and even people from Costa Rica and Colombia.

Our actual orientation was held on Friday and lasted most of the day. Most of what we talked about I already knew or had already taken care of, but it was definitely still very helpful in that it laid out exactly what steps we need to take to get ourselves officially settled. Of course, in typical French fashion, all these steps involve mountains of paperwork and TONS of photocopies – I can tell you already, the French are NOT too concerned with saving the trees!

We got some information about our sécurité sociale (social security), and even the most basic benefits are great! Even as non-citizen assistants who work only 12 hours per week, we’re eligible for French social security. Doctor’s visits cost €22, and everyone has the right to be reimbursed for half of that, meaning that with even the most basic social security, you can have a doctor’s visit for €11!

The apartment complex where I live is called a Foyer des Jeunes Travailleurs, and it’s essentially just apartments for young people under the age of 30. It has an office staff and occasionally organizes different events so the residents can meet each other and get involved, etc. On Wednesday night, 2 other English assistants and I (one of whom also lives in the foyer) went to one of the events – it was ‘un repas africain’ (an African meal), and anyone who wanted to come could help cook and then (obviously!) eat it. About 20 people ended up coming, and I got to meet 2 French girls who are in Nevers for their BTS, which, from what I understand, is similar to an associate’s degree… The French education system is super confusing, which is not good, as that is who’s employing me for the next 7 months!

I’m excited to start working, and I have another meeting on Monday afternoon with my responsable, the woman who oversees all the primary school assistants in Nevers. Hopefully I’ll be getting my schedule then and starting on Tuesday, but one never knows in France!

I went to the market this morning and bought homemade blackberry jam with a hand-drawn label... How cool is that?