This week has been...frustrating. I feel like I've been floating merrily along since I got here, everything pretty much falling into place without too much effort...until this week. It started over the weekend when I started getting sick. First a sore throat, then a stuffy/runny nose, then a cough, and eventually the chills. I'm still coughing a week later, but I'm feeling better. Then on Tuesday I was asked to prepare something about The American Dream. Those were my instructions: something. I assumed that meant I could do whatever I want. So I first talked about my personal definition of the American Dream and then I handed out several sheets of paper to the students, each with a word that I associate with the ideal American Dream: equality, liberty, happiness, success, etc. I wanted them to work in groups of 2 or 3 and try to define the word in their own terms and explain how they thought it related to the American Dream (either how I had described it or as they imagined it). The teacher seemed very annoyed with my activity because it was "too difficult". She pushed through it as quickly as possible and after class she explained that I can't do open-ended things, I have to give them concrete tasks with specific questions and I have to know in advance the answers that I want them to give. She sounded so annoyed with me and I was feeling like a complete failure and so of course I started crying...and couldn't stop. And then she was like OMG! It's not that serious! Everything's going to be OK! But it took me forever to compose myself. The thing is, this professor had been nothing but nice and helpful until this point and I hated to disappoint her and I felt like it wasn't really my fault. But yeah. I cried. The next day she left a note for me that said how sorry she was. That she talked to Michael about it and he said it was her fault, that she expected me to know what to do already without any guidance and then got upset when I DIDN'T know. Everything's fine now, but it was pretty sucky at the time.

So, I got past that incident, but there was more awfulness to come! This time closer to "home". There's a man who lives at l'internat with his wife (and some kids?). And he gets PISSED if anyone makes any noise after 9 PM. Luckily I have avoided his tirades, but one of my roommates got screamed at for taking a shower after 10PM on her first night at l'internat. And we heard some high school girls getting screamed at the other night for...something? Sitting in the stairwell (to get better wifi signal)? Anyway, APPARENTLY, this lovely man and his wife HAVEN'T SLEPT A FULL NIGHT SINCE WE (the assistants) MOVED IN. BECAUSE....we flush the toilet between the hours of 9PM and 7AM. GASP!!!!!!! His first step was to post a sign on the door of our bathroom asking that we THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! Basically it says: PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! LET US SLEEP! LET OUR CHILDREN SLEEP! I. kid. you. not. And since the sign asked that we use the toilet "with discretion" during the aforementioned hours, we made a concerted effort to pee as little as possible during the night. Seriously. I woke up at 4 one morning and had to pee and actually debated for 15 minutes whether or not I should. But even with our discretionary use of the bathroom, we were still basically RUINING HIS LIFE.

So, without first talking to us about it, he went to the PROVISEUR of the high school, THE PRINCIPAL OF THE SCHOOL WHERE I WORK, and complained that we are impossible to live with. So the proviseur sent the three of us letters asking us to please learn to respect others since we all have to live together. Then the ogre wrote me a letter by hand saying that when we flush that toilet after 9PM we wake him up and we wake his wife up and we wake up Tiny Tim and Oliver Twist and every other pitiable literary character ever known to man. So basically the letter from the proviseur asked that we meet with the guy to resolve our problems. So Anne and I found him and said we wanted to talk about the "problem". He actually tried to avoid us!!! But we told him we had somewhere to go that evening and had classes early in the morning and needed to talk right away. So we explained that we have made every effort to be considerate, but that it's impossible to refrain from using the toilet at night. He and his wife said they understood that, but that the water runs right in their room and wakes them up every time, sometimes three or four times a night. And then they proceeded to explain that when we flush the toilet we can push on the flush, but then stop it. In this one aspect of French/European life I was completely ignorant. I have never seen a toilet designed for more economic use of water. I guess I'm just an UGLY AMERICAN. But anyway, couldn't he have just come upstairs and explained that without talking to the proviseur of the high school?? What a whack job. Seriously. But at least that's resolved....for the moment.

But yeah, this week has just seemed SUPER SHITTY. But it's ending on more positive notes. I had two really good lessons today. One involving Paul Simon's "American Tune" and one involving more NCIS, with acting and a discussion about Gibbs' interrogation techniques, the anonymous favorite being "the Creepy Uncle". And last night even though I was still feeling sick and still upset about the whole toilet drama, I went with Anne and Chrissy to a Mulhouse Assistants party. It was hosted by two assistants, one from Scotland, one from Germany. It was really nice to meet everyone, chat about whatever, and just chill. I'm obviously not a social butterfly, but I really enjoy meeting people while I'm here and it's nice to have things to do.

So, I guess it makes sense that after two positive, uneventful weeks I would have one really sucky one. But I hope the universe has gotten all that out of its system and will now let me continue with my life in France without too much hassle...or crying. And I hope to finally have my 3G wireless on Monday, so I won't have to hang out at MacDo anymore (like I am now)...although, really, it's pretty comfortable here. And I don't have to worry about walking/tram-ing home alone at night since Anne and I always go together.

Tomorrow, we're going to take a day trip to Basel, Switzerland. Taking the train. Will probably go to a museum and who knows what else. It's kind of really cool that I can easily spend a Saturday in another country if I feel like it. Plus, the train ticket only costs 5 euro, soooo you can't really beat that. I mean, you could if it was 4 euro...or free...but I'm not complaining...not about this at least.

Also, IT'S COLD. Like legit cold. I don't even want to know how freezing it will be in a month. It will be interesting to spend Christmas break in Florida and then come back to cold weather. Oh, also, I'm totally going to England at the end of November. Did I mention that? It wasn't definite, but now it is. Going with two English professors and 13 students from the high school. And Monia's coming too! So that'll be really neat. Yay for travel!! Anyway, I guess that's all I have to rant and rave about for this evening. I still need to post pictures...which I'll do eventually.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Stephanie (:

I’ve been pretty busy since I last posted. Which is a good thing! Because the busier I am, the happier I am. I had to get up early Friday morning to head to Strasbourg for my orientation…which was soooooooooooo helpful. Seriously. I mean how would I have ever known about the French school system if I hadn’t gone to that riveting presentation?! So in summary, orientation = waste of time. But I at least got to meet everyone. I think I now know almost all of the assistants in Mulhouse. After three hours of mind-numbing information, I headed out with a bunch of assistants and had some delicious pizza. Afterward, we headed for the cathedral, which is really beautiful and has this really neat horloge astronomique (astronomical clock). After that we took the scenic route back to the train station, taking in the amazing architecture and overall ambience of Strasbourg. Chrissy and Chris stayed later with their friend Leah, who was a Strasbourg assistant last year and now lives there with her husband. Monia stuck around to meet her boyfriend, who was coming into the Strasbourg station. Mary waited around for Elias because they both needed to go to a dinner together. So that left Anne and me to head back to Mulhouse. She had to get back early enough to pick up the rest of her things from the house where she had been staying but ended up hating. She was going to do it by herself, but I thought that was ridiculous so I went with her. And I saw exactly why she was desperate to move. She was basically living in an attic. The bed took up pretty much the whole “room” and the ceiling slanted down so that for anyone taller than me it would be hard to stand up straight. Anne remarked that the woman to whom the house belongs had been a lot nicer before she asked to move out. We gathered up her stuff and headed back to l’internat.

I realize that I should probably explain who all of these people are. I already mentioned MARY. She was the first assistant I met in Mulhouse. ELIAS is the Spanish assistant at her high school. MONIA is the German assistant at MY school, but she doesn’t live at the school, she lives downtown with an older French gentleman and a French girl who’s getting her Master’s. CHRISSY is one of my roommates at l’internat. She’s from Maryland and she was an assistant in Strasbourg last year. CHRIS is a guy who’s very into foreign language teaching and has a lot of experience with that. ANNE is my other roommate. She’s the German assistant at the same school as CHRISSY and she’s pretty much the nicest person ever. The great thing is that since I most often hang out with ANNE, MONIA, and CHRISSY, French is the common language and so we speak French all the time. When it’s just CHRISSY and I, we’re lazy and we revert to English.

Anyway, back to my recap. I had a very interesting weekend. I stayed at a chalet in the Vosges Mountains with a bunch of professors from my school. Michael (English professor and head of the English department) picked me up Saturday morning and we drove to Gaëlle’s house so we could pick her and her son Eloi up. Eloi is one year old and ADORABLE. From there we headed toward the mountains. It took about 30 minutes to get to the place where we parked the car. Then it was a 40 minute walk to the chalet. And by “walk”, I mean excruciating climb! Perhaps I exaggerate. But it was tough for me, with the incline and the altitude. But I did it!!! And when we finally got to the chalet and I looked out at the expanse of mountains and the rolling hills, the cows, the horses, the sky, it felt amazing. Michael and Isabelle had to go back down to meet some other professors and help them carry up some food, but I stayed behind and enjoyed the weather and the view and the fresh air. We eventually ate lunch and then I had to take a nap because I had a headache and was really tired. Isa was worried that I was homesick or something, but I was actually just very tired. When I woke up, I went outside and joined everyone for some coffee. After that three people left. Isa, Michael, and I headed out for a walk. We ended up staying out for two hours, basically making our way around the mountain. I can’t even describe how fantastic it was to be making our way over mountain paths. We saw the sun set and even stopped at a farm (which is now built up to include a restaurant and lodging). We sat outside and had a beer, chatting about family and board games. We heard some children singing, so Isa and Michael taught me a song that we sang at the top of our lungs:

C’est à bâbord qu’on chante, qu’on chante
C’est à bâbord qu’on chante le plus fort

And the kids had to respond:

C’est à tribord qu’on chante, qu’on chante
C’est à tribord qu’on chante le plus fort

And basically it’s a contest to see who can sing the loudest! When the kids (with their parents not too far behind) finally got to where we were sitting, we declared ourselves the winners. After that we finally headed back to our chalet, where I met Carl (math professor at my school), his wife RoseMarie, and their three daughters Juliette, Céline, and Aurore. Everyone had dinner and then we played this murder mystery game called Petits Meurtres et Faits divers. We played until almost two in the morning and then those without children to take care of headed to the kitchen to do some dishes. Isa and I were the last ones up, listening to music and scrubbing plates. It was after two when we finally went to bed.

In the morning, I was the last one up and joined everyone already drinking coffee and eating their tartines. RoseMarie insisted on making mine for me. She was so motherly towards me the whole weekend and it was really lovely. Honestly, everyone was incredibly nice and always making sure I was comfortable and happy. We played more of the murder mystery game. Afterward, we had lunch. Then I drew with Juliette. She really seemed to like me and everyone started talking about how I should babysit for Carl and RoseMarie. I said I’d be happy to!

People started to leave throughout the day. I helped put things away and clean up. And then in the afternoon, I took one more nice walk with Michael and a couple other professors. After that we made sure that everything was sparkling clean and we made the trip back down to the cars. And it was pretty difficult too! Because even though you don’t have to deal with the whole incline thing, you have to walk very carefully because the path is very rocky/pebbly and it’s easy to slip. On the way back we stopped at Gaëlle’s and had some soup. We talked about popular names in France vs. in the US and about TV shows, particularly Scrubs! :D Michael finally dropped me back at l’internat after 9 and I was exhausted. I recounted my weekend to Chrissy and Anne and then I passed out.

Monday morning, I took a shower and then headed over to the school to see if there had been any developments in my schedule. I left a blank table for the profs to fill out and when I came back in the afternoon, it was full! Michael actually had to write “12 hours” at the top to remind everyone that that’s all I can work per week. I actually have 14 hours this week. But it will all balance out eventually. Some weeks I’ll barely work. Other weeks, it’ll be packed. Tuesday was exhausting!! I had six classes to go to. And THEN, I had a welcome dinner with all of the English professors. And I didn’t get home until after 11. It was a CRAZY day. But it was fun, too. Some classes kept their questions to things like favorite movies and what it’s like in Florida. One class, though, threw me for a loop when they started asking questions about Obama, healthcare reform, the death penalty, the Spanish language in the U.S., America’s relationship with France, Sarkozy, etc. etc. etc. The last class of the day was a group of guys who already have their bac and are preparing for engineering school. They had to do an internship and now they are writing about the experience so that they can give a presentation in English in December. Basically, I have to listen to their presentation, correct their grammar, ask them questions, and generally give them advice. But before I started working with them one on one, I stood in front of the class with the teacher and she told them to ask me questions if they had any. They didn’t really seem too interested. They asked me my name and eventually if I was being paid and how much and could they do the same thing in the US. I said that there isn’t a program like this in the US and the teacher argued with me. I don’t really like working with her, but I guess I don’t really have to, since I’ll be with the students. Honestly, though, I can’t worry too much about her because everyone else is beyond nice and helpful and enthusiastic. So the overall atmosphere is a very good one.

What’s been most difficult is that the wifi wasn’t working in l’internat. There’s a lot of construction going on at the school and the workers hit something. So I went days without have internet. It game back last night, but kept disconnecting. I ended up going with Chrissy and Chris to MacDo and we stayed there until 11 (when they close). The first thing I did was talking to Melissa on MSN messenger and start downloaded shows!!! It’s so weird not having a TV and not watching my favorite shows. And while you might say that there are more important things, and you would be right, it’s still really nice to be able to watch House and Bones and Glee and NCIS, etc. Unfortunately, as I probably mentioned, it takes forever to download things using the wifi at MacDo. THANKFULLY, the internet is working at the moment at l’internat and I’m downloading all of my shows (very quickly!) while I type this LONG entry.

Today I’m going over to the school for a “vin nouveau” gathering. So, basically just a bunch of professors drinking wine in the teachers’ lounge. Then I have a break. Then I have one class this afternoon at 4. Tomorrow will be busy again. I have five classes to go to. But then it will be the weekend and I can catch up on sleep and go with Anne and Chrissy to get some things we need for our rooms (hangers, blankets, etc.)

Congrats to you if you made it all the way through this ridiculously long post. I think I’ll stop here.

P.S. Please see facebook for pictures!!!
P.P.S. Please see facebook for pictures when it decides to let me upload them!!!!