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!

My first strike, among other things

Bonjour mes amis!

Nothing too exciting has happened here in Nevers since I posted on Sunday, but I do have a few updates to share! First of all, I read in the paper yesterday morning that the guy I saw stuck under the bus did survive – he was wearing a helmet, which saved his life! Also, apparently the bus didn’t hit him – it seems he lost control of his motorcycle and flew off the bike and under the bus.

There are a good number of administrative details that have to be taken care of in order to live and work in France for 7 months, so yesterday I ran some of those errands. It only took about 45 minutes for me to open my bank account, which was kind of a nice surprise – I was expecting it to take much longer! I did have to initial about 35 pages worth of documents, however, and it’s a very involved process. Now that I have a bank account already, this means that I can apply for my salary advance at the end of October, rather than having to wait until the end of November to get paid!

Any long-term visitor to France has to have a medical visit in order to be approved for a “carte de séjour,” (which allows you to access the French social security system, among other things), and to schedule this visit you have to mail a form to the French Office of Immigration in your region. As I was paying for the postage on the envelope at the post office, the man behind the counter asked me, “So when does this need to get there?? They’re on strike today…” I’ve only been here 5 days and I’ve already experienced my first strike! Apparently the letter carriers are striking to oppose a possible privatization of the postal service; I actually saw them demonstrating in town yesterday. I think they might have better luck getting their way if they didn't play such AWFUL music during their demonstrations! Imagine, if you will, the most stereotypical Euro techno music you can... Then make it worse! That's what it sounded like.

Yesterday afternoon my mom and I went to see if we could find one of the schools I’ll be working at – it is NOT close! I did get to see some of the other parts of town, though, as well as the Loire River, which was lovely. It’s about a 45-minute walk, but maybe I’ll be able to figure out how to get there on the bus… On the plus side, I’ll be getting all sorts of exercise!

Mom left to go back home at 7 this morning, and I don’t think either of the other English assistants is coming until Friday, so my plan is to take a little day-trip to Vichy tomorrow. While it was originally famous for its hot springs, most people now associate the town with the Nazi-controlled collaborationist regime led by Philippe Pétain during WWII. (Yes, I am kind of a history nerd.) It’s only an hour from Nevers by train, and it should make for an interesting little trip.

I also bought my SNCF Carte 12-25 this morning, which is a card offered by the French national rail service to give you a discount if you’re between the ages of 12 and 25… So I’m ready for discount travel now!

Hope all is well with all of you!