well,  it's been well over a month since I've written in here. MY overall experience in France was absolutely amazing. On my last few days, my lessons went well, despite some of what my teacher felt. I realize now what they did when Edith came in to observe me and rate my performance; they were doing PRAXIS III stuff with me. Also, I ended up visiting the US ambassador's residence and met the new French group that's now currently out in Akron, OH. That same night I hung out with many of the french, going out to dinner at a pizza joint not far from the hostel I was staying in, followed by a visit to a local, but very chic bar near the same place. I talked about everything from politics, to sports, the US, and everything else. It was really, really cool.

Then came the trip back.
That sucked. LoL, as I loaded onto the bus, I chipped my thumbnail, and also spent many, many hours in the Newark Airport, delay after delay of my flight. I was able to eventually get transfered onto a different flight to Columbus, getting the rest of the Daytonians along with me. We all made it back home that same night by 10 PM American time. I had been on the road since 3 AM our time, so yea, I was tired.

My time back in the states so far has been somewhat surreal. I'm amazed and happy to be back in the states, but I feel a sense of loss at the same time. I'm not able to just walk to the grocery store and pick them up, I'm not able to have reliable public transit, requiring me to drive everywhere, and of course, there was the initial shock of not seeing  French everywhere.

I know there is a much, much bigger world out there, one where the possibilities are endless. I honestly don't want to be constrained to the midwest for the rest of my life. There is nothing wrong with this area, nothing at all, I just don't necessarily want to cut all of my options off either. I'll just have to see what happens. Some of my new tendencies from France have made some people in particular seem like I'm not wanting to re-adjust back to American life. I am, I'm just simply taking what I've learned during my time in France and adapting it to US life, because I feel like I shouldn't have to give up everything from my time over there. It's as much of a part of my life now as anything else ever has, or will be. I don't think anyone except those who participated in the program or future participants once they've gone through it can quite understand this exact feeling. Well I need to run off to class, off to another fun day of trying to put together my future.

This has to be quick because I'm simotaneously working on my lesson plans for next week. Here are the following classes that I will be teaching, along with the amount of time I'll have to teach each class, at what equivalent educational level they would be at in high school, and what day I will be teaching them.

Monday, December 3rd.

9h-10h: The Vietnam War; 1 hour. equivalent of Senior High School AP class level (though most of them are at the educated level of freshmen in college at this point in history; since they have a trac system here, they will be more knowledgable in the topics)

16h-17h (4-5 PM): Agriculture; 3 hours spread over 2 days. The equivalent of Seniors in high school, though this is not their focus area, so more focus on language work will be required as well. The focus of the first session will be on the global need and what is going to be needed in the future

Tuesday, December 4th

14h-16h (2-4 PM): Agriculture part II; A continuation from yesterday, with a focus on the issues within modern agriculture, and how the USA is tied into it on a global scale. This will delve into the global market, NAFTA, GMO (genetically modified organisms), erosion (which will go into the dustbowl during the 1930's), and  further discussion into sustainable  growth.

Thursday, December 6th

12h-13h:  Jim Crow Part II; From Race Riots to Civil Rights; A continuation from last week, this will continue to observe the Jim Crow era, but with an emphasis on how African Americans fought the system of Jim Crow, through the Montgomery Bus Boycott, to the death of "Separate but Equal" through "Brown vs. Board of Education," and  the eventual signing of the Civil Rights Act of 64.

14h-15h: Minority Populations and Issues in Modern American Society; In this case, I am going to be a guest speaker in this class for another one of the Geography/History teachers. This is not a European Section, so I will have to be especially clear and precise with the English that I use, as well as providing language assistance and instruction as I go along. As the title suggests, I will be going over the demographics of minority populations and where they live, since this is not something that is covered in France, since they do not take into account ethnic backgrounds when doing their census. I will also be going over modern issues of racism, discrimination,and images portrayed in the media that perpetuate the issues of racism and discrimination in modern American society. This is definitely going to be like a university level course by US standards. This is more like a sociology class than anything else.

Well everyone, there's my life for the next 7 days including today! Planning, implementing, and repeat lol. So now you know why I won't be able to get right back to anyone's e-mails immediately! A bientot (cya soon!)

(Haha as a funny anecdote, I almost saved the journal entry as just the title with no body, what a fun read that would have been)

So that time is almost here. It's November 30th, 2007.  This has been one hell of a ride these past 2 1/2-3 months. Though looking back at it, its been quite an adventure here in France. I've missed quite a few people, and have missed some of the obligatory events of college life, but in retrospect, this has been one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life. I've grown quite a bit,  I finally realize what it means to be a fully employed teacher (now if I could only get a steady job :-p), I know what it really means to make difficult decisions and to make sacrafices, and to realize at the same time that sometimes you're not going to achieve everything that you wanted out of something, but rather, to make the experiences and achievements you do have count for something, even if its a personal checkmark for something you've always wanted to do. I've now had my chance to live in Europe for a considerable length of time, and have allowed it to mold me into a different person. Good in many, many ways, though the same Michael that left the USA back in late September is still essentially the same, just a bit more frenchified *wink*

So before I continue, I gotta update everyone on my lesson for Jim Crow. It was an absolute success!!! I got use my own teaching style, I got to implement technology within the classroom, and my experiment worked! My experiment was a variation on a teacher's method of teaching Jim Crow to her class which was very controversial in the classroom. She segregated the classroom according to eye color. I instead passed out different colored folders, which held the materials for the class that day. I created so many different handouts, both for in class use and for homework for next thursday, i spent nearly an hour on the copier just copying everything and placing the materials within the folders!

But yea, I started the class by having them segregate, having blue, yellow, light pink (salmon lol) and dark pink seperate into 4 different groups. I then had the class try to define the term segregation, and eventually gave them the definition "it is the system of making a group of people into second class citizens." What the students had given me was very good, very good, though I wanted them to have this definition because it was the simplest way of defining it for them. When one of them asked me who's definition it was, I just simply stated ,"That would be mine *giving a smile* but I wanted to give you, the class, this simple definition because the term segregation is one that is often times hard to define."

So I continued with the lesson, having them spend a few minutes reading Plessy vs. Ferguson, then explaining to them ," its ok if your not finished, this is often a difficult document for US students to read too! I wanted you to have this for 2 reasons; 1, to improve your vocabulary, its good practice, but secondly, and more importantly, to give a context into how Jim Crow came about." So then we went into Jim crow laws,with the types of laws that existed, helping define certain words, especially why an intermarriage law would use "forever" if a law is something amendable. I also went into the classroom example, taking their room, and having dirt floors and not having any of the proper school supplies. I then eventually made the point to them that because separate but equal was never equal because of the lack of choice, it made the point that these were unfair laws, that they were unconstitutional, and that separate, but equal, was never truly equal. They then made the connection into the whole color folder experiment and why they were segregated, and that they had no choice in the matter :-).

Then, we discussed how Jim Crow was perpetuated, that whites made a exerted effort into passing it on from generation to generation, followed by the question ,"Who is Jim Crow," which was a good question, because there is no solid answer to that, but only ideas, including the "Jump Jim Crow," which I actually did a performance of to illustrate the point of how ridiculous the made African Americans appear.

We then went into the topic of lynching itself, helping the students pronounce the word, and to define it. It was one thing for them to define it, it was another seeing the pictures of it, because they'd never seen the pictures of what a lynching looked like. The 2 slides before the pictures essentially warned of the violent nature of the pictures, followed by a slide with a graph showing the numbers of those lynched between 1865, to 1965. They were expecting the pictures before the graph, which led to some comic relief for them, "The drama and suspense!" I said to the students, but I pointed out the graph and the numbers that they showed, and that it is estimated that 5,000 people were lynched, though this was an estimate. I showed them a total of 4, 2 of Jesse Washington from Waco, TX in 1916, one of an unidentified white male, and one of Stacy Rubin, from 1934 in Florida, (this one is especially disturbing because of the white girl smiling in the background). I was really impressed with the connections the students made, some of them hitting on university level ideas such as the symbolism behind the places where the lynchings took place having biblical connections and of the "sacrificial altar" to cleanse their sins (the sins of the lynchers, of course, not the lynchee). The class went really well, the teacher immediately came up to me and said, "that was much better Michael," this was in french, of course, but still I understood and appreciated what she said. I then took my lunch break, called my dad to let him know how the lesson went, ate, came back to the school, then went back to the apartment and relaxed, taking a 3 hour nap, and then going to bed at 12:30.

So for the future of this blog. I am going to print these entries out and create a huge scrapbook with pictures and items that I've accumulated throughout the time here in France, trying to do the best I can to recreate each moment as it was. As for once I get back, I will continue to write in it for 2 reasons; 1, for the re-immersion  back into life in the states, to compare how the 2 lifestyles will clash, which I'm sure they will from time to time haha, but also, to give updates on the paper that I'm going to write and for the presentation that I'm going to give. I have a lot to update on, including past experiences from  my time here, including my return trip from Bordeaux, the medieval  fair I went to, the concert I was at, my tour in  central paris, and how I walked from the Latin Quarter to the Arch de Triumph (it is a lot of distance) though I will have a lot of work to get done between now and December 6th, since I will be teaching everyday next week 2x a day.Well I need to go for now, but I hope this gives a better idea of how things are going in general. Thanks everyone! Looking forward to being back in the states on the 11th!!!

The long, countless nights, the stress of being an adult, the stress of growing up in general. This has hit my square in the face in the most extraordinary way; living in Paris for 2 months will do wonders for your perspective on things. So that people know, I have now officially taught 2 lessons; one on "the Missouri compromise of 1820, highlighting the causes of the civil war," and "Limits of US power,"  which is a geography lesson. The first of which. did not go so well. My flash drive failed on me at the last minute, so I was unable to use the powerpoint I was working on, so I created handouts at the last minute which weren't really used in the classroom. Secondly, there was a MAJOR miscommunication between me and the teacher in terms of what she wanted covered, so here I was, left covering this class in a primarily lecture format, which is the antithesis of whats taught in methodology in the classroom. I have students do group work, I've freaking taught history by reading poetry!!!  I felt completely trapped in what I was able to do in the class. And I also had someone observing me that day, examining my teaching methods. ultimately, I have next to no ability to use what I've been taught in my school here in France. It's ridiculous. I feel reduced to doing what I always promised I'd never do to other students; bore them to death with lectures. I was so angry with myself that I couldn't really eat until I got home.

The second lesson was a lesson on "Limits of US power," which I'm not going to go into detail about, too much to cover here, I thought went really well, especially with what I had to do in my given amount of time and last minute changes I had to make because she wasn't clear on what was expected. In the US, she would not have been considered very professional, because this would have been unacceptable to get the information for teaching the class changed up on you at the last minute. I'm going to end up teaching more geography here now than I will history. I AM NOT TRAINED TO TEACH GEOGRAPHY! Give me history, I'll give gold. This crap I'm having to do is ridiculous because I'm having to cover topics I've never really studied myself, and I run the risk of looking like an idiot in front of the students. Anyways, I thought it went well, it covered the entire class period, and the students remained engaged, though it was more lecture. I had 2 students come up to the board, and help me out, and I gave them UD keychains. So she told me that it was a good lesson that day, which really boosted my moral, that I did ok. Then today, I opened up an e-mail and she lambasted me for nearly everything I did with the students;
1- You can have students come up, but make it more constructive, one has to feed the mind;

-          You try to be constructive when you have to pull some drastic changes to your meticulously planned lesson the night before its taught…and using non-stop lecture…please….

2- Don’t give them keychains.

            -     I’ll give the students anything I want! Just because teachers are not expected to does not mean that they shouldn’t! Students like random surprises like that. They really do. Hell even seniors in high school still like stickers, so imagine what something like a keychain being given to a child who’s always told “you’re wrong, you’re stupid, why would you say that?! That’s not the right answer…” that is the French educational system. They criticize their students more than encourage them.

 

3- The activities you did in class were below their level

            -   While I think this is true, one has to realize that when major, drastic changes are made to the lesson the night before, it is very difficult for a new teacher still learning (me) in order to come up with something new, especially when the activities he’s been taught to use in a classroom are, in fact, never used.

 

4- Embarrassed someone;

            - I embarrassed a student by calling him up to the board. He didn’t do too much, but by US standards that would have been fine. I had him compare the differences on the board between the distribution of wealth demographically in cities between Europe and the US (US- poor live in center, rich live in suburbs; Europe-the rich live in the center, the poor live in the suburbs.) I do feel bad about embarrassing the student, and that I will say is something of a matter of live and learn, and improve.

 

Overall, the teaching experience has been mediocre, but with not having the expectations given to me for what needs to be covered, and have to discover/figure out everything for myself, including differences in pedagogy between the two countries, I am capable of doing only so much.

 

This was what I wanted to update first. This is definitely more serious and not light-hearted news, but this is what I’m here for. I’ll definitely learn from this, and make sure to show the French how an American truly teaches an AMERICAN classroom. I’ll go over my thanksgiving day touring parts of Paris, Thanksgiving Dinner, and Friday night (Hot Hot Heat is the name of the band I saw) But that’ll have to wait until I’ve had some sleep.

Well, my lesson is ready, as ready as it's going to be. Had to nix the powerpoint idea, would have never slept tonight, which would have, undoubtedly, diminished my overall ability to teach. I created 3 detailed handouts for all the students, very descriptive and what I want the students to learn as I lecture/ask the students questions. I'll do a powerpoint for the next class. I'm nervous as hell, but I'll be able to calm my worries with some sleep, a good breakfast, and giving myself plenty of time to make it out to my school. I need to pick my outfit for tomorrow, and get to bed. Goodnight everyone, and wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

Well, the good news is because I mentioned something to one of the main people in charge in France, everyone will be getting there paycheck earlier. So I should be seeing the amount of money being reflected by the end of today/tomorrow once I get back from my lesson, which I need to finish planning. This is going to take awhile....

I have been toying with this idea, and I definitely want to try to present my experiences here in France at Standard (I am probably spelling the name wrong). I would be presenting the concept of teaching American history in a foreign country, particularly how the French and US models can be adapted to teach American history to others who are unfamiliar with American history. I would be presenting the ups and downs of the situation, as well as tips and advice for others who are going abroad in order to teach, some general bits of advice, as well as concrete, specific examples of how to work within the French system. Any thoughts?

Well, this has been quite an interesting week, needless to say. I definitely have a list of problems at hand, but I definitely have my victories as well, so they've balanced each other out. Welcome to life!

Monday
So the day after my Sunday experience went better, much better than anticipated. I was invited to observe in another geography class for the first part of the morning, which was a refreshing experience. Again, I gave my introduction in Franglais lol, and then proceeded to start answering questions. I introduced them to the great state of Ohio (chuckles to self), Dayton (clarifying that this was NOT Daytona, where they have the race. I've had to clarify that before) and the Wright Brothers. Then the teacher left me alone with the students 2x! lol I fielded more questions, and then one of the students, a girl in the front row, asked me if I understood what the teacher told me. I admitted "somewhat," she said that the teacher had told me that I could sit down in the front row. Of course the students started to laugh, but that was alright, nothing like the language barrier. Then one of the students wanted to know about politics, just as the teacher was coming back in. So she allowed me to take the remainder of the first hour of class in order to give an impromptu lesson on US politics, defining the Democratic and Republican parties, explaining the primaries and the conventions, and an explanation of the US school system, including the SAT and ACT. This was a very interesting point for the students because with the BAC, they take a specific test that defines what they will be doing for the rest of their lives, whereas  the SAT/ACT are more of a scale used by Universities for the type of students they will take. I also got a lot of work done for planning the lessons, including the Missouri Compromise, which I'll be teacher November 15th (tomorrow!). I then spent the remainder of my day in my regular teacher's classes. There was the problem, however, of her classes not ending until 6 in the evening. By the time she was done, and when I got home, I had spent 11 hours that day in the school. She thankfully told me I didn't have to be in until 10 on tuesday morning. So I went off saying, "Vraiment?C'est bonne! Merci beaucoup!" She looked maybe almost slightly caught off guard. Needless to say, I was exhausted. I cooked spaghetti (sketties lol), with a olive/tomato sauce, which was really, really good. I decided by around 9-9:20 to take a 20 minute power nap, which turned into a 3 hour nap lol. I then talked to Caitlin around 12-12:30 my time (6-6:30 US time), and then afterwards, went straight to bed.

TUESDAY
So then yesterday started out very, very rough despite the enormous amount of sleep I obtained the previous night. I wokeup at 7, not needing to be at school until 10 that day. So, I decided to go workout at 7:15. So here I am in my running gear (wearing pants instead of the shorts, thankfully), I ran down the stairs with my key card to the gym. The card didn't work. So I gave up and went back upstairs. So this is where the fun began. My key didn't work! I spent 5-10 minutes trying to get it to work, but, this being me, it didn't work! So I ran back downstairs and had to wait for the front desk to open at 8!!! In the meantime, 30-40 people walked by me, while I was wearing just my running gear, including my friend from Senegal, who wants to jam with me this coming sunday (he just bought this amazingly beautiful trombone, which I'll get to play while here. Yay! I now can practice!), and Katie, Colette, and Alex, in teacher's gear, ready to go teach. Alex helped me a lil bit with trying to get someone's attention to get my card key fixed. So the person at the desk reprogrammed my card, and i ran up 9 floors to get it checked. Still nothing! It flashed red and green, and did nothing. So then I went back and told her in french (and i'm sorry for my spelling, please correct it!) "La kley de porte ne marche pas." or in english "the room key doesn't work." She asked me if it flashed at all or did anything. I told her what it was doing, and it dawned on her "ok..." so she sent the technician up to fix the problem. (Turns out technician is the same in French). So it turns out the new door locks requiring the key cards are ran on 4 AA batteries...The batteries were dead...thats why I couldnt get in. So he fixed that, while trying to ask me questions, which I had to tell him, "je ne comprende pas," which he then replied to,"vous ne parle pas bien francais?" (you don't speak much french?)  and went into my speal of studying for only 6, 7 months now. So I eventually got back into my room, and had to shower, eat, and leave in 40-50 minutes time. So i rushed and did that, and made it to the school by 10 .

So the first class was embarrassing. Why? Well, for those in the field of education, what's the worst thing for a student teacher to do, besides not showing up? Nodding off in class...My teacher brought it to my attention during the break the students had. Needless to say, very apologetic and embarressed. However, second hour went well, and after they dismissed, me and my teacher spent 20 minutes just talking about the whole language thing, including everything from how I really want to keep learning the language, to feeling dumb for not being able to communicate what I want to with people at times, to the type of language prep that the group had been given prior to leaving for France, myself included. She was astonished that Akron felt that it was enough just to give survival french to people when they needed much more. At this point, though, I realized that I forgot to tell her that Akron had been expecting everyone to be in English speaking classrooms, so that this wouldn't be a problem. Obviously, this was certainly not the case. She then went into how she first felt when she was learning the language, how frustrated she was as well because, just how I feel right now, she felt like she had to be 2 completely different people, but that being able to teach her subject in both french and english was something she wanted to do. She knew she would make the mistakes lingually, but it was something that was unavoidable in improving overall. I then mentioned that I just wanted to do the best that I could for not only these kids, but for both the US and France. She then made a very, very good point; it's not a question of country, it's a matter of yourself. You're not doing this for anyone else but yourself. You should be less stressed about this and just be yourself. This left me invigorated and ready for lunch...

So I was 20 minutes late for my lunch appointment! Oops, but me and Monsieur AUDUC, who is the Directeur adjoint of the IUFM of CRETEIL (one of the main figure heads in charge), had a very good and meaningful lunch with one another. We both had the salat du jour, Cider (the alcoholic variation!), and coffee at the end. I spoke a third of the time in French, which made me very, very happy. I mentioned how I was teaching American history at Louis LEGRAND, and how my first lesson tomorrow was on "Le Compromis de Missouri de 1820" haha, and he asked me what my specialty was. I told him early 20th century (European) and American history. He went into the issues of borders and that no country in Europe escaped without a change in borders. I discussed my interest in the political climate of the century and how that made things really interesting, and he went back into Fascism and Communism, and that both used sport to show the ideals of their ideologies. It was very, very interesting. It was also interesting in hearing his take on the Cold War, because he felt that time was not in the sense that most people define it, but that in Europe it was considered an old war (even WWIII) between the old powers, but which were taking place this time within the former colonies. So as some would call it in the US, the Cold War was a series of proxy wars fought between the 2 sides. We also went into the history of Paris, and France, and how that a certain revolutionary when he was young, gave a very eloquent speech in Latin to another person in front of the entrance at my school. This was Robes Pierre reciting a speech to Louis XVI, whom he would years later condemn to the national razor.He also asked me about Angers, what I saw, and what I thought about lecturing in France and taking night courses (this wasn't as much an offer as much as an opportunity for me to better improve my French)

So lunch was good, and we parted ways, I caught one of the Geography teachers outside, taking a smoke break. We started talking in French, which was really cool for me. We talked about everything from differences in the school systems, to what I thought of Paris, where I was living, and how we both felt that my teacher works too much lol. I eventually went back to my class from 2-4, which went much, much better. The students were happy to see me, smiling back at me from time to time, and saying au revoire to me as they left for the day. One of them even ran into me in the street, smiling back at me. Had I thought better of it, I would've taken my headphones off and said hi to her and chatted for a few. Oh-well lol.

So I got back, and just took it easy. My package to Caitlin arrived very, very quickly. She was so, so, so happy when I saw her over the webcam last night, and she looked absolutely stunning in the necklace. That made my night complete. I eventually went to bed at 2 AM here (8 PM US), dozing off and thanking the fact that there was another SNFC/RATP strike today.

Today
So far, today has been mixed. I'm currently doing laundry, have a huge list of things to get done. Plus I'm in a real financially bad situation right now. The one thing I have to say is that there's definitely a major problem with my generation; they've made us too reliant on the internet and other things to make our lives easier, including online banking. My national city account showed me I was fine when I went to bed last night, and when I wokeup, I owe money. I'm not going to go into detail about it, but it's a very dire situation that was partly my fault, but also partly the French's fault for not having our checks to us when they said they would. On the upside, I've been invited to go see to concerts in the end of November. The nice thing is that concert's aren't relatively expensive here. But now I must get going, for if I'm to get everything done, done, I need to get moving. Thanks for everyone's support!

PS- I know that on November 11th, we have Veteran's Day, and no way am I ignoring. It's just different seeing what the school's here in France do for it and how they go about treating the subject.

Hey everyone! I know, i'm pulling another Angers scenario where people are hearing from me only once a week. Part of it this time is, well, besides the discernible difference in energy I used to have, I've just been busy in general with life here in France, as you, my faithful readers,  have been in the USA. It's all been very exciting and stressful, minus today (which I will get into in a minute). But first here's how I'm going to do the next couple of updates;

-The first prompt will be about last Saturday when I was in Bordeaux at the rock show. I'll also describe the train ride back and a French phrase everyone needs to learn if coming to France.
-Then I'll go into the week non-withstanding, seeing what I did and the news I got about being in my school.
-Then the Medieval fair that I went to yesterday.

But first, today, since I feel it's extremely relevant to discuss this topic in depth right now lest I forget to do so and forget the major, as well as minor details, like I have for the past week.

Today was, at best, an average day. I was to go to this rememberance ceremony at my high school since today, November 11, is the day of remembrance all across Europe as the day they honor their fallen soldiers, but particularly the end of WWI. In this case, the school remembered its fallen on this particular day because the fallen from this war were still students at high school age. They were not 18-19, but usually younger. So essentially, kid soldiers in adult boots, but this was the situation, the dark, grave situation back some 89 years ago.
Alors, I had been invited by my teacher to this, which I said I would be honored to come to this. I needed to be there at 10:45 so that I could be there on time to make sure I didn't miss the ceremony. my alarm didn't go off, but by some miraculous miracle, my biological clock went off and woke me up at 9:14 this morning (3:14 A.M. EST), and I kicked into high gear. I showered, shaved, made a nutella and raspberry jam sandwich, and munched on that along with a banana and pomegranate juice. By the time I was done and dressed in my suit, it was 10:05. so I ran to the train station, got on, and played my music on my MP3 player ( this has been a God-send in France, thanks!) I finally made it to my station, Odeon, at 10:50. The thing started at  11. I ran as fast as I could, in my suit, with Evanescence's , "My immortal" playing while I ran. I made it it just as they were about to start. It was a neat little ceremony. They had 4 student's from my teachers class giving a presentation, reading the letters from the front line of these fallen French soldiers, writing home to their friends, family, and loved ones. Their voices still echoing in the distance, even 90 some years after these tragic, and horrifying events. War, war never changes...

Unfortunately, since I do not speak, "Bonne Francais," I was not able to understand much of what was being said, with exception to tiny snippets here and there. After the ceremony, where they laid flowers at their memorial within the school, they gathered into their "cliques" and began talking with each other. I walked up to my teacher, and she did not appear to be happy with me. I could be wrong, but most of the time I can tell when people are upset in some way, shape or form. Later, as the other profs were talking, the principal came up to me and starting talking to me, but I couldn't hear, nor comprehend, what he was asking me. My teacher intervened and said in French. "He doesn't speak much French," and then she said that I'm here until December. After a little while, I left and walked with my teacher to her station, where we talked about my language difficulties, she clearly showed a bit of stress from me not being able to speak much French and talked about how Fulbright students, especially when she was one, had to be fluent in both languages  (this is true, Fulbright students under NORMAL circumstances are fluent in the language of the host country they are in...heh heh...thanks AKRON...)and she started asking me about the classes in French that I've taken. She eventually discerned that since here, I've only had the 2 weeks of French prep in Angers, and, as anyone else would say, "2 weeks is not enough time to learn French," and it seems like she scalded me from not taking further initiative to learn more French! (Though i could be over-analyzing what she said, it's discouraging as far as I'm concerned.) So here I am, just wanting to run away from this entire situation. Wanting to be back home, where I don't feel like an idiot every time I talk because I can't say more than the very, very basic and fundamental things. Akron ill-prepared me and most of my group in linguistic abilities in dealing with the French system. I am definitely going to make this as firm and clear when December roles around, when they debrief us before we head back to the states. So now, I need to call the history professor to make sure he can still do lunch on Tuesday, and call another prof who just called me to setup a time to come see me and evaluate my teaching on Thursday. This will be very, very interesting... So I need to take care of all of this now, but I'll be throwing in my updates about everything else as soon as I have time to do so.

A bientot,
Moi

PS- any kind words of support are always welcomed! I could really use them right about now...

I realize that the updates for the past few weeks have been slow and upcoming at best, and the promise of pictures has yet to be fulfilled. I don't want to feel like i'm making excuses, but the basic thing I've noticed is the lack of energy at times to the things I've been wanting to do, in general. This includes working out, trying to post on here, or even enjoying myself to the fullest. I don't want to paint the wrong picture either, definitely don't want to. I'm extremely, extremely happy to be here in Paris, France, learning a new language, learning more about an amazing culture and country which is often daemonized because it doesn't go step by step with the US. I've definitely come to learn and realize this other valuable lesson; the US is truly not the only player in the world! There's a lot more going on outside of the US, and there are a lot more players involved  now than ever! The One is that the US is a great country, but there are countries just as good as the US, with their own systems that work as well as ours, and within that system have their own problems and issues. One thing is for sure though, I'm very happy to be a US citizen in general.
So my trip to Bordeaux, this was very interesting, in a lot of good ways, and with its own mishaps that could have turned out rather badly...
So I learned a very, very valuable lesson about buying train tickets; where you buy your ticket doesn't necessarily mean that's where you'll be leaving from the next day...So the following day, Saturday, on four hours of sleep, taking part bus and part train because my metro station line was closed for repair (line 1, La Defense de (through) Argentine), and went to Gare de Lyon, which is where I bought my ticket on Friday. Keep in mind also this was started at 4:30, the madness, began. So I finally get to my station at 6:10, bought a petite dejeuner, and waited patiently for my  train, which was to leave at 7:15.  I looked at the departure list, and saw that my train for bordeaux wasn't on the  main departure list. So I walked to the departure desk, showing the worker my ticket, and she immediately replied, "You're at the wrong station." You can imagine the excitement, "BOY OH BOY!" except minus that much enthusiasm...Think more, "*LONG TIRADE OF EXPLETIVES". She told me I needed Mont Panarse, which is closer to the other side of town. I asked her in French, "where is that?" "ou est sa?", and she told me to take the line 93 bus. I made it to the station thankfully within 15 minutes of the train departing!

So made it into bordeaux, though I dozed most of the way there. My friend Adam showed me around the city, while taking the trams, which were very nice! The city is absolutely beautiful in its old and new architecture. Though the one thing, though, was that his apartment is literally a hole in a wall in a city university dorm. It was about the size of  a closet, plastic covered foam bed, and best attempts to clean it made it look like a dump lol. But we essentially spent our time walking around the city, walking down the pedestrian shopping zone, which has the longest street of its type in all of Europe, all pedestrian shopping! We eventually made it back to his apartment, but not before buying 2 bottles of wine between us and deciding to walk to one of the gardens. There's alot more to this afternoon/evening and the rest of the weekend, but I'll be saving the rest of that for tomorrow! But here's a preview of that!
- Lots of Lebanese food
- Amazing rock show (with minor detours) AND A BRASS /WOODWIND ENSEMBLE!
- A whole lot of nothing on Sunday (that's pretty much it for Sunday lol, nothing open in France on Sunday-walked around the city and took pictures.)
- Lesson number 2 learned about train travel.
- AND MORE! lol
Hope everyone is doing well back at home! Miss ya all, feel free to write!

Before I go to bed, here's just a few updates;
The canal ride was simply amazing and gorgeous! This is the quote from their website describing the cruise, which I couldn't have done a better job;

Cruise of the Old Paris on the Saint Martin Canal
From the Paris Arsenal Marina to the Parc de la Villette or inversely.This romantic and out of the ordinary trip of around 2.30 hours offers an opportunity to hear the history of the districts of the “Parisians’ Paris” as you cruise along the calm waters of this canal, lined with hundred year old trees and spanned by elegant footbridges. Under the mysterious vault of the Bastille, the art show “Sounds of Light” by Japanese artist Keiichi TAHARA, promises a magical experience. This cruise, which will take you through four double locks with swirling waters and two swing bridges, will allow you to experience the “atmosphere” of the Hotel du Nord created by Marcel Carné, Arletty and Louis Jouvet and share the pleasure of the walkers strolling along the banks lined with pretty boutiques and charming retro style cafés.
Before arriving at the Parc de la Villette (City of Sciences, The Géode, City of Music and themed gardens) you will cross the Bassin de la Villette, formerly a trading port now redeveloped to form the setting for the Rotonde de la Villette, and pass below the amazing Crimée drawbridge.

This was simply amazing! Gorgeous! There was this cute young toddler that kept walking around! We helped him along and nearly everyone played with him a little bit! He was really adorable. The locks and everything where quite amazing, it's really a different feeling rising upward in a ship!

Today, I went to la Gare Lyon to buy my tickets to Bordeaux to see my friend Adam, and it turned into a 2 day excursion! I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 7:15 local time, and will be getting in at 10:25! The great thing also is that I'll being going to a metal concert tomorrow night! I'm pretty excited for that! So it'll be one more thing that I can say that I'll have done while in France! Well I need to finish packing; I need to be up early tomorrow morning to get myself ready for the trip :-D. Be back Monday!

Well this is shaping up to be a good day! I'm going to  take a 2 1/2 hour cruise on the canals of paris! This should be cool, but ineed to run so that I can make it there on time and get a ticket. Au revoir!

Haha hey everyone, I know updates have been slow and coming the past few days, though I'll go into more specifics in the next day or two. But I had my friend Jennifer come into town and hang out with everyone in the Paris group; we've done and seen everything from boat tours, to seeing a performance of Vivaldis "4 Seasons," at St. Chapelle, Spend the entire day at the Eiffel Tower (which I climbed up the first 2 floors), saw Ratatouille in French, went to the Louvre again, and so forth. I'll write more and sort things out when im not as exhausted, but I can definitely say that I'm doing a lot better and in a lot better health in general. 5.5 weeks left.

Im getting my random halloween fix! Day of the Dead, in English, on French TV! Im eating it up while i can, english programming other than news is rare over here! Relishing every moment of it! This made my day a bit better!

So this is my day; basically what I did was get up, shower, eat breakfast, and then run to the metro, and found out my metro pass wasn't working for some reason. Thankfully someone was able to fix that for me. Got to my school at 10, and me and my teacher discussed what we were doing within the program, and she showed me around a little bit around the school. Then sat in on the 12/12:30 class, and watched the students begin to discuss the beginnings of slavery. something that was cool was that she went into this long introduction saying that they were going to have this amazing opportunity to learn about the topic from a different point of view; mine, the American point of view! So that was cool. Afterwards, I essentially ran home via the metro, and have been in my room since, since I'm sick as a dog right now. Definitely have a fever, and I’m just as congested as can be. I’ve been this way and only getting progressively worse since I arrived…so much for normal cold/flue lol.

Tomorrow I have my Dr. Appointment, though the funny thing with that is that I had an appointment on Wed, which I made at 11:10 for 12:00. And I did this mostly in French!!! I was proud of myself lol. What happened was I basically had to find my way to the Dr, and I found the place, but I was 10 minutes late. Let this be a lesson to anyone visiting France and making a Drs appointment; do no be late. Why? Because you’ll miss your doctor! Literally, the Dr. walked out at 12:01 because he didn’t know whether or not I was going to arrive. I thankfully was able to reschedule as mentioned, which I was happy that I did most of what I did in French! We did switch back and forth with English and French, but I got everything setup. I had to run back to my apartment because I needed my directions to the IUFM. But, I forgot my key inside the apartment! So I had to run back downstairs, get the desk to get me a new key card, then ran back up, grabbed my stuff, and ran to the IUFM via the Metro at 2:30. I found out then that we were getting “season passes” to the Louvre! So I’ll be able to go for free whenever I want! (yes, I know i just went backwards  describing the past 2 days, but oh-well!)

Well I’m exhausted, and need to get some sleep. Hope everyone’s well back in the states.

 

Saturday

 

So I’m writing this journal in 2-3 differing parts; 1 on Saturday/Sunday, and 1 on Monday. This is so that it’s a little more broken down and that it doesn’t take too long to read! I will probably end up writing the rest of this over the next few days, hopefully being completely caught up with the past several days by mid-week.

 

Friday though first! LoL I went to see the LION KING (Le Roi Lion), really amazing show! Summary; for those who’ve seen the movie “The Lion King,” it pretty much follows it right to the dot. Except with more puppets, and people…

 

So Saturday was quite a bit of fun! It started out slow, though I stayed in until about 2:30 in the afternoon, though that was also because I was exhausted! I woke up at 8/8:30 so that I could talk to Cait. That was a fun conversation :-p. But afterwards, I just lay around and took it easy since I was, and still am, recovering from being sick. But we were also going to be meeting with two students from the IUFM of Paris that day (IUFM-school of education in France). So I went down to the meeting place, the Fountain at St. Michel, at around 3:00-3:30, with plenty of time to look around by myself, do a little bit of shopping.

This was also the day of the last Rugby World Cup, the final game going down between England and South Africa. So imagine an additional 50,000-100,000 English speaking rugby hooligans roaming around the streets of Paris (I saw someone from South Africa wearing a shirt made out of an Antelope Pelt at some point). But I walked around for awhile, and ended up in this tiny independent French designer’s shop…ended up buying this cool, chic shirt, olive green, I liked it. LoL, so I also waited around this fountain afterwards for awhile, looking for this Frenchman Timothee, who said to look for a Frenchman over 6 feet tall with brown hair. This was interesting, since there were A LOT OF PEOPLE, OVER 6 FEET TALL, WITH BROWN HAIR! LOL. But then it rolled past 5 o’clock, which was when I was told by the rest of my group that was when we were going to be meeting. Well I called Britni shortly afterwards, and she said that they had changed it to 6, and she said she’d forgotten to call me back. So I then bought at that point my first dinner, a nice kebab filled pita that was huge, very spicy, and very, very filling! So eventually 6 rolls around, and they showed up at around 6:15…So anyways, we’re looking for this tall Frenchman, and we found him, because he was supposedly wearing shoes with orange shoe-laces. So we find this tall Frenchman, exact description, but we hesitated until he called Brit’s phone. LoL he was standing right next to us!

So we walked along the Seine river, talking to him and his friends who’s come along! We then came across our first bizarre incident of that night; british rugby hooligans singing on Pont Neuf (I think that’s how it is spelled) “Swing low, Sweet Chariot, mama gonna carry me home…” which was proceeded by watching a dancing sheep. That’s right, a dancing sheep. This crazy girl in her late 20’s-early 30’s was dressed in this sheep costume, with white stockings, and a plastic sheep face, dancing some kind of mix of go-go girl/burlesque on the bridge, with a sign at her feet that read, and I’m quoting directly because I’m too tired to be making this up… “Thank you for supporting unconventional art…and sheep.” We were all bewildered by this crazy person, but then we found out from Alex, who talked to this dancing sheep, that she’d been there for the past 3 days doing this, and had made a lot of money off of this, but she couldn’t figure out how it was working!

So we eventually made it into this jazz bar in the Latin Quarter, near St. Michel, which was hosting a viewing of the rugby game, of course. There were eventually 12 people in total in the group, mostly French, and mostly guys for a change! Lol I’ve been surrounded by so much estrogen lately, lol, it’s refreshing to actually hang out with some guys, even if there’s a language barrier. But we tried this beer called Framboise, which is this sweet, red beer that taste exactly like Raspberries! It was amazing! It didn’t taste like a beer at all! This was amazing stuff, which I could buy it back in the states! This was also Katie Brown’s first time in a bar, which was cool lol. This was also the first time I’d heard System of a Down at a bar!!! LoL. So we eventually went to this Tunisian restaurant, which is Arabic, uses a lot of couscous, and has this very delicious desert called Baklava. Think the texture of shredded wheat, drench in honey, and has this nutty, sweet filling in the center. I fell in love with the food. We also managed to get on every topic from team mascots, to god knows what else! We actually got a picture of zippy (this is Akron’s mascot, which is an orange kangaroo wearing a blue shirt and baseball cap, with CRAZY EYES!) LoL, it was perched on this guy’s shoulder, as he was puffing away at a smoke, lol very French indeed.

So after dinner, we all ended up at this French Jazz club! But on the way, we met up with more people from the IUFM, more history and geography teachers! :-D (big grin). So as we were walking there, I was being asked by one of them what’s normally covered in American classrooms, (depends on the school/state), and what it takes to become a teacher in the USA. We went over the tests and that they’re sometimes different depending on the states. But this jazz club was pretty nice, though we didn’t stay for too long because we had to catch the Metro before they closed. So we left there at around 11:40, got to the Metro at 12:00, and rode home. On the way, however, we ran past Notre Dame, full of tourists even at this late hour, (mainly rugby fans). When we got on the train, we first encountered a huge group of English/Canadian/New Zealand/South African hooligans on the train, though in their 40’s-50’s. So, they’re chatting away, when these 2 French girls in their 20’s started talking to them. Eventually they get to the question “where are you from?” At one point, they asked if anyone was from Canada. 2/3 of the group started singing at the top of their lungs “O CANADA!!!!....” They sang the ENTIRE Canadian national anthem on the metro! LOL I  could not help but laugh at this! LoL, the girls were trying to get them to stop singing at 1 point! Didn’t work so well. So right after they got off, it went from happy to downer. There was this French African yelling at the top of his lungs essentially “F Sarko (Nicolas Sarkozy, French President), I need money, I’m poor and African, my kids are starving, etc.” in French, of course. Eventually made it back around 1:10 in the morning, talked to Cait for a bit, and went to bed.

Sunday wasn’t that eventful, since I wokeup at 12:30 in the afternoon, because Cait kept me up till 4 in the morning! I basically went to Collette’s room for awhile, told her about the previous night, tried grocery shopping (nothing is open on Sundays, minus a few restaurants, and movie theaters). I roamed around the mall that is right by where I live, even though the stores were closed, and here’s an interesting cultural difference. Even though the stores are closed, there are still A LOT of people looking at the stored inside the mall, even though they’re closed. They’re literally window shopping to its fullest! I had lunch at a quick (burger joint), found out they have a talking hamburger with buns for a head and fries for hair, and the food is ok…LoL. Eventually went back, got ready for today, and went to bed around 10:30-11:30.

While it would take another hour to write what I’ve done today, I’ll give a preview for tomorrow, though I can say that today was an amazing day!

·         I have an amazing and wonderful teacher, we’re on a first name basis already!

·         Have been well received by the students and faculty so far!

·         I met the headmaster of the school!

·         I personally met a resistance fighter from “La Resistance” during WWII. He was even with the Americans when they were in Italy!

·         Had a wine social at the school in honor of the resistance fighter (who was also a graduate from the school)

·         I’ll definitely get to be teaching!

·         I’m going to be teaching AMERICAN history to FRENCH students. Oh the Irony! LoL, its perfect though, here’s what I’ll be covering

o       Beginning of Slavery through Civil Rights movement

o       Our Civil War, including the differing points of view from the North and South

o       WWI, covering the Americans from their volunteer days with the French in 1914, to their official entrance into the War in 1917

o       And possibly more!

o       MY teacher’s really looking forward to working with me! Feeling’s mutual!

 

·         Contacted Mike Schneider’s mom and tried calling American Hospital in Paris, was going to cost 250 euros (about $300).

·         Need to try to find Dr. Tomorrow

·         Have to wakeup around 5:45 tomorrow morning…This’ll be interesting

 

So this is the basic summary of Today up above! If I can think of ways of expanding upon this, I will…

 

Oh yea…I’M AN UNCLE!!!

            I love my new nephew, Braden James Gellner, weighing in at 7 lbs, 5 oz, and 20 inches long! He was born on Sunday, October 21, 2007!

 

Bonne Soiree mes amis!

Michael

 

PS-so I kinda lied, it’s pretty much all here :-p …Talk about a novel to read…

So I've basically have been in my room the entire time, getting work done and taking it easy. Being sick definitely has its drawbacks, such as not having much energy, for starters. Its also gray and cold outside, so not exactly ideal weather for wanting to go out in anyways. I'm trying to get as much done as possible before I go out. I hope to even get my education stuff for EDT 509 done before heading out. If I do that, I won't feel like I've wasted my day. I'm also going to try to visit the pharmacy before going to Lion King tonight. The rest of the weekend, not sure what I'll be doing, but I do know this much; I won't be staying inside!

One more update: I will probably be upgrading this site so that I can actually start storing pictures here! So everyone will be able to see them finally! Talk to everyone soon! Au revoire!

OK,
Well found out a few random things. One, I found out that I can be reimbursed for taxes if I make over 175 euro purchases within the tax-free-tourist stores. There are taxes added onto certain items, however, if you go about finding "tax-free shopping France" reciepts, get them stamped at customs, and return the pink copies in pre-stamped envelopes, I can be reimbursed. So I might be taking advantage of that...

Next, I'm going to be seeing "The Lion King" tonight here in Paris. Been looking forward to doing something like this for quite some time. I'm still sick as a hound, though I plan on going out and walking around shortly. The rest of the people here in Paris with me are teaching today. I have Fridays off.

I'm more or less settled in now, though I'm still still getting stuff figured out in terms of where things are. This isn't easy since the Metro strike is on it's 2nd day. 1/3 of the services are up and running as is.

I'm really excited about the possibility of Caitlin to come see me in Paris during thanksgiving break! That would make this experience absolutely complete.

I'm going to go study vocab and grammar and then go and apply it in the real world (cool thing about learning a language when you're in the country of origin-you have no problems with practicing it!)

Hope everyone has a great day!

Well, with yesterday now behind me, and having more free time (the next 4 days to be exact), I can finally catch people up on my first day of school, and the strikes here in France (THERE ARE 2 GOING ON RIGHT NOW)

PART I
 My first day of being at my school...
-The minor details are insignificant about this day. Woke up at 7:30, was on the train by 8:45, and made it to my school area by 9:15. The first problem was here. I took a wrong turn getting out of the station, so I instead walked the complete opposite direction for 30 minutes. So its now 9:45, finally heading the right direction,after asking a newsstand and some police officer, running as fast I can, Make it to the school finally @ 10:15 when I was told to be there at 10. I'm thinking (Oh no, I've kept this person waiting for me). Well, when I got to main office (their equivalent), I introduced myself to them, and they had no idea of who I was or why I was there. I was understandably confused at this point, especially considering at the time that I had a limited amount of french under my belt to explain my situation. So, this taller gentleman wearing a scarf and suit walked me towards the right direction to this room, VH 150 (the school's divided into 2 sections, 1 for victor hugo, where I'll be teaching, the other, for someone else I cant remember right off hand,) So I start heading that way, and then realize that I didn't quite understand what he said until after the fact. So i'm walking around the first floor, looking lost, and then I asked one of the teachers who was walking around if he'd be able to help me. So i'm led back to the office, They write down the room number for me. This is when it gets bad. I knocked on the door and introduced myself out loud in this class, where they were in a European section (which is what I'm supposedly teaching), finding out that this was not the class I was supposed to be in!!! So, looking ridiculous already, I walked out after apologizing to this teacher, who's annoyed as hell with this bumbling American looking for a name, and feeling embarrassed as can be. So I make my way to the office again, and wanting to say that it was the wrong room, I can't even say what I want to say because I don't have enough vocab to say even that. So, this time however, someone in there did speak some English, and I explained my situation, that I was told by the IUFM to come that day at 10:00. So, I was led up to the main office where the adjointe principale (assistant principal) was at, and they did try finding out more about me, but then directed me to the assistant principal. This was initially awe inspiring because I was meeting of the leads of the second most prestigious school in all of France. It went downhill pretty quickly. and this was because of the infamous "barriere de la langue", she had no idea who I was, or why I was there, or for that matter, any familiarity with the program that I'm taking part in! She's asking me questions in French such as "do you have a contract," or ,"do you have doissiere," ,"How much training have you had," and so forth. Needless to say, I was at a loss, especially because I don't know nearly enough French to respond on the spot. I eventually gave her the number of my contact at the IUFM. So here I am, sick as a hound, almost on the verge of tears because I was so confused, stressed, and unable to get my point across, things were finally resolved. So I essentially have been given the next 4 days, including today, off.  I go back next week and start observing then, I'm supposed to be back there at 10 again, at the latest, because I don't want to have another repeat of what happened yesterday...

PART II
So the rest of the day...
Walking out of the school, I'm just trying to kill time, since it wasn't going to be until 3:30 that I had my tour at the Louvre! So I walked around a bit, and got harassed by someone for money, and kept and getting harassed because I was stuck at a red light for the crosswalk for what felt like an eternity. I wanted to yell at him, and should have yelled at him. I would have yelled some explicit stuff at him too, I was already on edge. But eventually I made it back to the train station, and made a few transfers to the Louvre station. I had lunch at the same little place that I had during my first week in Paris with the group. Had this huge gallete (think pastry like thing) with ham, cheese, egg, mushrooms, and a small salad on top.  Also had a glass of white wine and Origina (think carbonated orange juice). Afterwards, I ended up walking around for a little bit, looking for stuff to do because it was boring just sitting around. I explored the local shops, and bought myself a new keyboard (which I eventually found out last night needs a PS/2 USB adapter), and found some shoes I want to get tomorrow that were actually affordable (most mens shoes in this country are around oh... 110 Euros plus (so multiply 1.42, and you'll get the American dollar cost), and recharged my cell phone (i bought a prepaid cell for over here, though its strictly emergency use only). Eventually met the rest of the group, and  told them about my glorious day in Paris lol. Then we went on the tour of the Louvre! This was absolutely amazing! I was able to see so many of the inspirational and amazing pieces that have inspired many differing artists, including the Mona Lisa! I also saw the base of the original Louvre palace/fortress (it used to look different and had a moat around it). We looked around this area as well. Im at a loss of words for describing the beauty of this amazing place, so I'm just hoping to get some pictures from people soon.

PART III
The night...
So we're leaving the Louvre, and Britney (one of the 5 in Paris), suggested this place for hot chocolate because she said ,"it was like drinking  a melted Hershey bar!" While I was initially hesitant because I just wanted to go home, I went anyways. Best decision of the day thus far! I had this desert called "The Mont Blanc (Noir?)" which had meringue, whipped cream center, and coffee and chocolate frosting layering the top! This was absolutely decadent, and the hot chocolate, OMG! It was the best stuff I have ever had in my life! It literally was like drinking a melted chocolate bar! I had this huge, happy grin on my face (the first one of my day), and for the rest of the night as well. Got back at around 7:30, and walked around a lil bit. This place I'm living at is very beautiful, its very modern and artistic in the fullest sense, wrapping together commercial, business, and residential areas all in  one. It's  somewhat  like  Chicago, somewhat, with a modern European flair to it, Eventually made it back into the apartment, didn't have much else to eat that night (because the desert for dinner was enough!) and watched some TV. One thing I have to say though, is that the TV over here stinks, there isn't any real variety whatsoever.

PART IV
Today
 So being sick stuck inside isn't that great! LoL, however, I'm probably going to go out at some point, if nothing else, to go grocery shopping. It's absolutely beautiful outside as well, so i don't want to be stuck in the entire time. It's 6:37 AM in the states, but already 12H37 here (they tell time by saying "Il a 12 H* 37" (*H-this is the French word huere). I want to make the most of this day, and try to regain my health before my next outing to my school. Interestingly, I've been invited out by 2 French students from the IUFM in Paris, 1 for tomorrow, and 1 for Saturday. I hope everyone has a great day, and I look forward to hearing from you all in the near future! Bonne Journee (have a good day!)

Really excited! This is my first day in my school in Paris. Granted, I'm also sick, and getting progressively worse, so this could be interesting today. I finally have regular access onto here, so I'll be posting more often as well.  Well, time to run off to my first day!