I'm famous!

I've been here for exactly 7 days and I'm already in the paper. I know, you're all wondering what crime I could have possibly committed already. Maybe she left some uncouth graffiti on the side of a church, maybe she stole some bread from the local boulangerie, perhaps she went cow-tipping in all the many fields surrounding this town...

No, I got interviewed! I knew it was coming because the principal told me last week but I forgot. So today when I came to the teacher's lounge, I was surprised when a confused faculty member told me that a reporter was looking for me. Nicole Vallé (left) from the newspaper Ouest France wanted to talk to me about where I'm from, what brought me to France, how I discovered this particular opportunity, where I'm living while in France, etc... When it prints, I'll be sure to send copies home.

This was the initial setup for the welcome gathering. It was quite nice. Monsieur Duval, the principal, made a nice little speech and told us not to hesitate to ask for anything that we need and he hopes we find a welcoming environment here and he has no doubt that we will fit in well. Then we posed for some pictures for the newspaper and mingled, which offered me an opportunity to get to know Andrea.

If you're trilingual, you speak 3 languages. If you're bilingual, you speak 2 languages. If you're monolingual, you're...AMERICAN.
Meet Andrea (right). She is 22 years old and in her last year of university studies. She's the German assistant, teaching half of her hours here in Condé, and the other half in Flers, about 20 minutes away. She speaks German, her native language, French and English. The fatal flaw of the American education system is the lack of emphasis it places on foreign language education. In other countries, language studies are compulsory. In the U.S., you're lucky if you take Spanish. Anyway, I didn't get to speak with Andrea for very long, but we did exchange contact information and we're going to hang out after work on Monday and Wednesday because those are the days that our schedules are essentially identical.

Since I had all five of them in the same location for the first time since my arrival, I took a picture. This is the English faculty here at Lycée Charles Tellier.

Julie, Vanessa, Joceline, Dominic and Corine

All of my scheduled hours are with Vanessa, Julie and Joceline in the general high school, but I will also put in some time with Dominic and Corine in the vocational school. Today, Julie showed me what I will be working on with her and Joceline starting next week. It involves some acting and creativity on my part...

After watching for 4 consecutive days, I have concluded that French news is terribly depressing. Why? Because it's American news. The government, the economy, the upcoming election...It's all there. From my conversations with people, this is all French President Nicolas Sarkozy's fault because he is a liar who blames all French problems on the United States. I'm sure this claim warrants further investigation on my part, but that's what I got from three different people.

I'm staying with Corine's family somewhere in the French countryside this weekend. I'll have to get back to you on the name and all that. Anyway, it's about an hour and a half from Condé-sur-Noireau. On the drive, we were listening to the radio and there was some French rap song playing. Next thing I know, Foxy Brown is rapping on the track. The extent of the American influence over here...

That's all for now. I'll have details about my weekend and photos up as soon as possible.


Tout à l'heure,

Mlle. Alicia