Discourses Francais

I'm tired because I've only been sleeping 5 hours a night. I've had two cups of tea already and I'm still exhausted.

I was at the middle school today, and usually I have a lot of fun with the kids there, but today was kind of lame. I took a class of 8th or 9th graders, and they were HORRIBLE. The teacher totally can't control them; paper airplanes everywhere, wads of paper flying through the air, kids passing notes, reading comics. A couple of the kids were even verbally disrespectful to the teacher, swearing at her, calling her a "putain" (whore)--- I couldn't believe it. Acting like these little shits, with all this attitude, when really they're from JONZAC, middle of nowhere, farmville, France. The other classes were very well behaved, but not particularly interested in the lame Christmas activity the teacher had me do. They had to invent questions about Christmas in the USA and then we recorded ourselves asking and responding to the questions. Which was basically me saying "Yes I like Christmas," or "Yes, I like presents!" 89032 times. Some of them were a little more spontaneous though, and asked stuff like "Do you like to do zee ski?" I think my (least)favorite was " 'ow do you do zee MERRY CHRISTMAS?"

I didn't know how to answer that one.

We wrote some Christmas stories too, most of which just involved Santa Claus and reindeer, but I got one story about a man named Dan, recruited by Santa himself to be the elf manager in the North Pole. Dan, a family man, was sad to leave his wife and kids, but presented them with a pine tree before leaving, thus starting the tradition of Christmas trees.

The French love to talk. Once you get them started on something political (and for them, everything is political) they don't shut up until they've explained exactly how they feel about an issue (or non-issue, really) and all relating issues.

For example, a question such as "Where does one get this alleged Swine Flu vaccine?" immediately turns into a discourse on how pharmaceutical countries run the country, how they control Sarkozy who then uses his power of the media to bring fear into the hearts of the French, and finally how Sarkozy is attempting to change the public school system. And of course I have nothing to contribute, because when I think of the French government I generally just imagine paperwork and the occasional beheading. Plus I find the things they complain about ridiculous, like how now they have to pay a whopping 4 euro to go to the doctor, but 20 years ago it was completely free.

Really, guys? That's your biggest problem with your country? Try living in a place where if you get sick with no insurance, you're either dead or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

I went to Bordeaux this weekend, it was fun and involved some wandering at Christmas markets, Chinese food, and vodka. The other assistants are all headed to Paris this weekend, but since I'm saving for Spain, I decided to pass on that opportunity. Anyway, I'll be there next month. But not going with them means I'll be the only person around this weekend, which is actually a 4-day weekend for me.

Last night I saw a play in Cognac about Mary Stuart. Possibly the most boring 2 hours of my life. There was no set, first of all, which was not fun. Then, there was no action. Nothing really HAPPENED in the play except a lot of talking in rapid, old French, which was difficult to understand. The most interesting thing in the whole show, in fact was that the stage lights were used to make the floor look like an ocean. For about 20 seconds. And also a lady whom I thought had been wearing a bustle underneath her skirt, got naked, and I realized it wasn't a bustle but a massive butt.

I know it wasn't just me that found the play boring either; a lady in the front row started snoring halfway through.

Today is Wednesday, which is not my usual day to go to the library, but I'm going to go anyway. I keep telling myself to read more in French, but I get distracted by English books or the television.

Finally, I applied to 4 schools and might apply to a 5th. Four of them are in England, one is in N. Ireland. The Irish one is my last choice, because the Museum Studies program focuses less on museums and more on Irish heritage/history which, although interesting, is not particularly relevant to an American (or...err...to anyone, really. Sorry guys :( )