Today we had our first of two orientations for the incoming English Language Assistants. It was in Orsay, which is about an hour out of Paris. I took the train down and, because I was unfamiliar with the place, I had googled it and drawn myself an intricate (but seriously off-scale) map. As I was exiting the train station a girl asked me for directions. Side note, at least one person a day has asked me for directions since I got here. Sucks to be them. I give myself a little pat on the back for passing like I know what the F I’m doing, but I’m always brought back down to earth by the “you are SO not French” look on their faces when they realize their mistake. Anyways, this girl asks me for directions and, it’s funny because she dresses very chic so I would have pegged her as French, it turns out that she is another language assistant looking for the same building. I was feeling pretty confidant with my super sweet map so we set out together. We still ended up having to ask for directions because there was a stairway that we weren’t privy to. I must find a way to make my next map topographical.
We shot the shit a little on our way up to the school and had ourselves a bit of a small world moment. Despite teaching in the Versailles school district, we had both chosen to commute to work and live in studios in Paris that are actually within a couple blocks of each other. We also both hail from the American Midwest (she’s born in Paris but spent her adolescence/college years in Champaign, Illinois) and that made us a minority among the other English Assistants because there aren’t actually that many Americans and the Americans there are pretty much all from the coasts.
We got to hear about all the paperwork we should be doing or should have already done. I felt pretty good about that because I’ve already checked a bunch of stuff off of my list. Plus, it was reassuring to meet some people who were running into the same problems and stuff.
The ride home took forever, I think because there was concern about a bomb on the trains. A bunch of us assistants were sitting together and talking, so it took us a while to notice that the train was going really slowly and kept stopping for long periods of time. Our train stopped at one of the suburban stops closer to the city and we waited while passengers from an oncoming train exited and crossed over the platform to board our train. Theirs was being inspected by a uniformed man with what I presume was a bomb-sniffing dog. When we got to one of the first city stops, there was an announcement saying that the alert was over and trains would continue now as normal. We didn’t hear the original announcement, so I don’t know exactly what the alert was, but I’m guessing it was terrorist related and I’m hoping to read about it in tomorrow’s paper. I know there’s been a lot of publicity about a potential terrorist attacks on Americans in Paris. I will keep my antenna up as best I can, but I’m in Paris to enjoy Paris, not to hide in my studio. And I depend heavily on public transit, so I don’t know how much I can really do besides not hang out under the Eiffel Tower or on the Champs-Elysées. Though they are opening a new H&M on the Champs-Elysées this week. But I’m tight on funds, so hanging out there would be dangerous for a number of reasons.
A couple days this week they’ve had me at the high school introducing myself to students and speaking in English with them to give them a taste of the convo classes I’ll be leading. Most kids have been super friendly and curious. When they found out I was living in Montparnasse in Paris, this kid who is clearly the class clown asked me if I had seen "La Tour Montparnasse Infernale." I hadn’t. I asked who was in it and he said "Éric et Ramzy." I mentally scanned all of the names I could remember from the French Film classes I’ve taken, and those didn’t sound familiar. I said I didn’t know them. Class Clown found this super offensive and insisted they were really famous French actors and that everyone knows who they are. I’m no expert, but I know a fair amount about French films, so that stung a little. I decided to look it up when I got home. This is Éric et Ramzy. Some vocab to know:
“Je suis un con” = “I am an asshole”
“Le caca c’est délicieux” = “Shit is delicious.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35qUdu_AE2Y&NR=1
Turns out "La Tour Montparnasse Infernale" is a comedy that's about 20% fart jokes. Soo highschool boy dumb, but I actually laughed a lot when I finally realized what it was. I watched the whole thing so now I can quote some fart jokes to that kid if he ends up in one of my classes. Can’t wait!
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