Teaching Commences

After returning from Troyes to Montmorillon, I spent the remainder of the weekend relaxing and unpacking. My roommate Leidy had also left for the weekend so I had the place to myself when I returned. I tend to read a lot when I'm living in France so if you read any good books, send them on to me ;)

Monday October 5th all the assistants of the Poitou-Charentes region gathered in Poitiers for a "Stage". A "stage" is basically an informational meeting. They had us fill out documents all day for social security cards, health care stuff, housing assistance and things like that. It was extremely dull for me, because I'd already done all the stuff last year and already 'knew the ropes'. The one good thing about the 'stage' was that all the assistants who returned from last year were there, so I got to hangout all day with all my friends and roommates from last year who all returned to Angouleme this year (I'm the only one who decided to try a new town). We also got a free lunch so that was a plus. I met all the new assistants of the different towns and made sure to get emails and phone numbers so I'd be able to visit them and have a free place to stay (booyeah, La Rochelle here I come). After the meeting they held a little 'mixer' for all the assistants to mix and mingle (bless the french for always providing lots of free wine) and then me and some of my new friends headed to the bars for a drink before we all had to catch our trains home.

The rest of the week was basically spent going to classes and introducing myself to my new students. Basically I'd stand at the front of the class and they'd have to ask me questions about myself in english. I got 'asked out' by a few of the little 12 year old boys which made me laugh so hard it was a good thing I didn't have in liquid in my mouth because everyone would have had a shower. My students range from the ages of 11 to 19 years old. I think I like teaching the younger kids better because they are still a little afraid of authority, but mainly because they are at least willing to try to speak. Lots of the older kids don't really care or try and always say 'I don't know how to speak english' when you ask them something. Which is really stupid because they've been studying english for 6 to 8 years so they know how to speak, they just won't. They also tend not to pay attention or participate. But I guess I can't really complain that much because I know I was just the same (and probably even worse) when I was in High School.