That one time the metro doors closed on me.

hey y'all,

Yep. You read that right. This morning the metro doors closed on me while I was trying to get on the train. I was running late and didn't want to wait for the next train, so even though I heard the dinging sound of the doors closing (while I was about 10 ft away...), I took off and jetted to the door. I took a big step onto the metro and thought I was in the clear. That feeling of relief went away very quickly as I felt the doors close around my shoulders. Oops. I made an awkward "OOOF" sound and squeezed my way into the train. All the while, the people around me were just sort of staring at me. No worries though. I made it onto the train and made it to work on time -- albeit with a large dose of embarrassment. Oh well. C'est la vie.

I did observations at both of my schools today from about 8:30-4:30. It was a long day, but it was pretty entertaining. In one of the classes, I stood at the front of the class and the students were allowed to ask me any questions they wanted. Here were the top questions:

1. How is America? -- But really, what kind of question is that? My response: Uhhh. Big?
2. Is it hot in America? -- That depends on the region.
3. Does it snow a lot in America? -- ...That depends on the region.
4. So does it rain a lot in America? -- ...Oddly enough, that depends on the region as well.
Sidenote: I think it's really hard for them to grasp how big the US and how much it varies from region to region.
5. How long did it take you to get here? -- When I said about 7 hours on a plane, the whole class gasped. Pretty comical.
6. Is there a time difference? -- They asked me this question around 3pm, so I told them that it was currently 9am in America. Again, more gasps. Followed by this question:
7. Is it the same year in America as in France? -- Yes...
8. (My personal favorite) - So do you go home to the United States every single night? -- If only.

Oh what a day. Kids are too funny. And they sure do love to stare. It's like I'm some rare species that they've never encountered before. I enjoy the attention, but at times it's really awkward. Such as when I'm sitting in the back of the class and 5 of the 20 students are turned around just staring at me. Haven't figured out a good reaction to that yet. I'm brainstorming though.

Tomorrow I have a few things I need to accomplish. Fortunately I'm off on Fridays so I've got plenty of time.

1. Run.
2. Go to the lavomatique (laundromat). This will for sure be an adventure. Fingers crossed that I don't read something wrong and shrink all my clothing. But seriously, it's a legitimate concern.
3. Wait around for a package from my parents that will include but may not be limited to a warm jacket, rain boots, KASHI, and PEANUT BUTTER. Oh, America.
4. Buy more minutes for my French phone.
5. Fill out some more paperwork. Honestly, I feel like the paperwork never ends.

Also. I never gave a proper shoutout to the WASHINGTON NATIONALS for being the NL East Champs! Oh heyyyy. Sorry, Bravos. #NATITUDE

Hope all is well at home.


Luv,
Sarah

"T'es trop belle"

Hey y'all.

Today has been quite the day. I'm absolutely exhausted, but very happy with how things went.

So I started off my day at école Desbordes Valmore, the school where Sarah works. As soon as I got there at 8:30, I was directed to the teacher's lounge where there was some much needed free coffee. Oh thank goodness. Then the bell rang and all the teachers headed out to the courtyard where all the classes were lined up. I went to the head of Sarah's line and walked with her and her students up to class. As far as languages go, students can decide between English, German, and Spanish. There's some sort of rotation that I don't quite understand yet, but in the morning, I was in two 45-minute English classes with Sarah. Again, I was a celeb. And I loved it. This was there first language class of the year and so we did some reviewing. They asked me questions like "Where are you from?", "How old are you?", What's your name?" and then we practiced responses to these questions. It was actually a really enjoyable time. These students were between the ages of 9 and 11.

I then went across the courtyard to Virginie's class (she's the girl in the Brazilian drum group from 4-5 posts back.) She's really friendly and I like her a lot. Her class is younger than the other two classes I was in. I think these kids were 8-9 years old. But oh my goodness were they rowdy. There were a lot of disrespectful kids in this class (not necessarily directly at me), but they just didn't pay a lot of attention and thought that acting out in class was the funny thing to do. I was the most timid student possible in elementary school and on into middle school, so I've never really understood this. Hopefully it was just because this was the first English class they've had all year.

After this class, I started my 20 minute walk to my other school, Victor Hugo. I had about an hour downtime, so I stopped at a little café near my school and drank a café. Maybe I'll stop there every tuesday/thursday and they'll start to recognize me. Who knows.

Victor Hugo really is a pretty school. It's at the end of a road and is really picturesque.

This is my main school and I really like it. The director is a really friendly man. I'm the first English assistant they've ever had so he's really enthusiastic and pumped for me to be there. This school respects my "two weeks of observation" more than the other school which sort of threw me into things. Every primary school has an "école maternelle" attached to it, which is for kids from about 3-5 years old. It's basically a preschool. The director really wants me to help teach a couple classes in this school per week, which I'm really excited about. I'm only supposed to spend an hour and a half at Victor Hugo on Tuesdays, and since I'm doing observations right now, the director suggested that I just spend an hour and a half in one class today (instead of the normal 3.) So I spent an hour and a half hanging out with French 4-year olds. Their English courses won't start for another couple weeks and so I just helped out in their regular class today.

I'm not going to lie. They loved me. I can't think of any older girl that I didn't love when I was 4 years old, but that's beside the point. They were SUCH sweet kids. They were split up into different stations, so I chilled in the playdough station. Any time I would look at any of them, they'd just grin. Too presh. This one girl who I had said hi to earlier came up and randomly kissed me on the cheek. Like I said, they loved me.

Definitely the highlight of my day was when I was sitting at the playdough station and another girl came up to me and said, "Sarah, tu es tellement belle" (Sarah, you're very pretty.) Too sweet. Then another girl sitting at my table said "Oui, c'est vrai que t'es trop belle! (Yes, it's true, you're so pretty!) I was obviously dying with happiness at this point, when a little boy sitting next to me named Vincenzo (!) added "Je pense que t'es belle aussi!) (I think you're pretty too!) Regardless of them being 4 years old, I was flattered. Can't wait to hang out with these little nuggets this year. They'll definitely provide some more fun stories, je suis certaine.

Primary schools don't have classes on Wednesdays, but all the teaching assistants in the Lille region have an orientation tomorrow. I'm excited to meet more assistants! Should be fun.

AND. I bought my bus ticket for belgium. quoi quoi.

Luv,
Sarah

Lazy weekend

hey y'all.

I had the most chill weekend possible. I really didn't do a whole lot except for sleep and walk around. It was much needed though. I had been so tired of running around from place to place. The highlight of my weekend included a beautiful ten-miler around la Citadelle and then an amazing dinner at the French equivalent of a Moe's/Chipotle, called Taco Memo. No idea what "memo" means, but it was delicious. It wasn't quite as good as Moe's, but for it to be in France, it was fantastic. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and will probably make our way back there sometime. It was only about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, so it's perfect. Also. Great news. I found reasonably priced guacamole in the grocery store here. Doesn't get much better than that.

We had dinner Friday night with the two girls from downstairs and they were so friendly. They made us dinner and dessert which were both really good. For dinner we had some kind of pasta and then dessert was a brownie with apple compote. Yum. I think French dinners are supposed to last really long because we got there at 8:15 and didn't leave until about 11pm. It was fun just chatting with them about life, especially the differences in America and France. They were enamored with the idea of high school prom (apparently they don't have that here) and were shocked by how much we had spent on private education. Apparently in France, the most expensive private university is 10,000 euro per year.  Whattttt? That's insane. We really did enjoy our time with them though. They're 21 and both in intensive Masters programs at one of the universities in Lille, so I think they spend a ton of time doing work and studying. They gave us some tips on where to go to eat and such.We hope to invite them up to our apartment for dinner sometime in the near future.

I decided to bite the bullet and make the day trip to Brussels next weekend to run in a half marathon. I'm so so excited. I couldn't find a free place to stay on Saturday night, so my plan is to take a 5am bus (OUCH) to Brussels on Sunday morning. I emailed the race admins and they said that the race participant number wouldn't be capped, so people could still register the day of. The race doesn't start until 10:30am, so I'll have plenty of time. The race begins at the Parc du Cinquantenaire (we get to run through the arches!):

The finish line will be in the Grand Place of Brussels which will also be really neat.

I've read that it's a pretty hilly race, but I'm so excited. Emily is going to go with me and we're going to sightsee after the race! I've been to Brussels before, but she hasn't. Should definitely be a fun experience.

Tomorrow I head to my schools for observations and Wednesday we have an orientation for all of the teachers in the Lille region. Should be a busy but exciting next few days!

Luv,
Sarah

La Sécu

Hey yall,

Today has been quite the eventful day.

First I got up, ran, and then went to visit my second school, école Victor Hugo. This one is right outside of Lille in Lambersart, but it's only one metro stop from my other school, so it's not bad at all. The school is beautiful and super French. It doesn't look anything like the other school. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures, but will for sure take some next week. The director was extremely nice, but very chatty. He took me to about 5 or 6 classes and introduced me to the kids, which was pretty fun. I never thought I'd be intimidated by twenty 7-year old kids, but it definitely happened.

He finalized my schedule with my other schools, and I'm working full days on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Primary schools don't have classes on Wednesdays, and they gave me Fridays off! I'm pretty excited about that. It should be a really good work schedule.

I came back from that and then went to the bank with Emily to drop off our lease. Then we went to enroll in Sécurité Sociale Française (or la Sécu)! Socialism for the win. We were expecting that to take a really long time, but it really only took 10 minutes once we got into the office. I had pictured it to be something like what an immigration office would be like in the US, but there was only one other person in there besides us. So facile. I'm supposed to get my new social security number and card by Tuesday in the mail. Can't wait. Although hopefully I won't be needing it too much this year.

Last night we knocked on the door of the girls that live below us just to say hey. We were a bit worried that this was a super American thing to do (saying howdy neighbor), and that they wouldn't like it, but they were super nice. We talked to them about wifi and we're going to split wifi for the two apartments, so everyone gets to save money. They're both actually 21 and in Master's programs here in Lille. We really liked them and they even invited us to dinner tonight! At least that's what we think happened. It was unclear as to whether or not we'd be eating at their apartment or going out. So many things get lost in translation here, it's not even funny. Just kidding, it's actually hilarious. Regardless, we're looking forward to whatever this evening/dinner entails.

Speaking of things getting lost in translation. We went to a touristy shop today, and I bought a couple things, and when I was checking out, the cashier asked me something, and I thought he had asked me if I wanted to buy any "cartes postales" (postcards). I thought about it for a sec, and then decided against it, saying "ummm, non merci". He looked at me really funny, which I just attributed to him really wanting to sell me some postcards. We left the store, and I commented to Emily about how weird that was and she cleared up the confusion. Apparently, he had asked for my "code postale" (zip code), and I   had simply responded, "ummm, non merci". Oh life.

Anyways, I hope all is well at home.

Miss yall.

Luv,
Sarah

legit

Hey y'all.

This is about to be a rather long post. I won't be offended if you don't read everything.

So the last time I left off, I was going to the kayaking club at school. Oh goodness, the children are a bit wild. I was completely at celeb status though. As soon as Sarah told them I was an American and would be in their class until April/May, everyone wanted to chat me up. One student asked Sarah how to say "bonjour" in English and then came up to me and said "HALLO!" Super precious. I ended up not kayaking, because apparently you get really wet and I was very unprepared for that. Anyways, it was fun watching the kids. They seemed to really enjoy it. They did it at the kayak club of Lille which was about a ten minute walk from the school. There were a ton of school groups out there. Very neat.

I've gotten into a running routine and found a really great place to run. My watch works now so I can track my mileage. It feels good to be out running again. Plus, unlike in Paris, no one looks at me funny when they see me out running. That's definitely a perk of living in a college town. There was a race there yesterday that I stood and took creepy pictures of. 

Yesterday (Wednesday), Emily and I were fretting because the money wire was taking so long to go through for our apartment and we really didn't know what to do. Our only option was to wait, which we obviously hated doing. Anyways, at about 3pm yesterday, we got an email from the agency saying that the money had gone through and that we could come sign the lease at 5:30! So so exciting. We made our way over to the agency, had some down time and so we drank a celebratory coffee. I took an artsy picture. Just call me Ansel.

The signing of the lease was quite the ordeal. I've never signed a lease in the US, so I didn't have anything to compare it to, but it was definitely interesting. It was just me, Emily and the notary of the agency and he went through all the terms of the contract and we signed about 20 papers. He was really nice and spoke slow just to make sure we knew all the terms, which we both really appreciated. It was funny, apparently in France, when signing a lease, it's required by law that the company informs you of all possible natural disasters that could occur. Apparently there's a very small risk that it could flood. They also had to inform us that there's some type of factory, I didn't catch what kind, outside of Lille, and there's always the risk of explosion. Fortunately, we're not in the explosion radius, so we'd be safe, but they had to inform us anyways. The notary said the French want to have a plan for anything that could possibly ever happen. He even told us how our area measured on the seismic scale. Pretty interesting. All in all, we're safe. There won't be any issues. Just protocol.

So, we signed the lease and we are all set! We have keys and everything. We're going to move in later this afternoon. I took some pictures earlier today.

This is the front door. There are three locks on the door, so it seems almost impossible that someone could break in. I don't hate it.

We live on the 3rd floor. There are two college kids that live below us. Our landlord says that they're "très sérieuses", so that's good. No wild kids in the apartment.

These are the doors going into our apartment.

Here's the view of the doors from the inside. Really pretty. Apparently she had them repainted this summer. They look really nice.

Here's a picture of the kitchen with our little table and two chairs.

More kitchen

The bathroom/shower comes off of the kitchen. There's a shower to the right that you can't see in the picture.

Here's Emily's room. Very purple.

Here's the living room. A bit sparse, but it'll be fine. 

Here's my bedroom. Smaller than Emily's, but I like it because I can see out onto the street.

This is a 19th century armoire in my room. 

Here's the view from my bedroom window.

On a side note, last night we went to see a band that was playing near where we're staying. They're called "Chapel Hill". Apparently they're from North Carolina and are doing a French tour. Emily saw this advertisement in the newspaper so we decided to go.

I'd never heard of them, so I don't think they're very famous. It was pretty neat though. It was just two men. One on guitar and the other on drums/bass guitar. Pretty entertaining. Plus it was free, and you know I'm all about free things. There were about ten of us at the concert. Fortunately it was a small venue so it wasn't awkward. We were for sure the only Americans there. The other people there seemed to love it though. 

Anyways, I'm going to my other school tomorrow. Ecole Victor Hugo. Will report back. 

Luv,
Sarah

Active day

Hey y'all.

So yesterday was a good day. We met our landlord who was super friendly, albeit extremely chatty - I didn't think we'd ever get away. Phew. She seems a tad OCD, and she took us through the whole apartment, showing us every single piece of furniture, lighting fixture, armoire, etc. It was called an "État des lieux", a paper that details the state of the apartment, although I assume she went into much more detail than most landlords. The apartment is beautiful though. It's part of a house built in the 1870s! Super neat, and a lot of the furniture is really old.

Emily and I decided who's going to be in which room. I picked the smaller room on the street and she has the one facing the courtyard. As soon as the wire goes through, we'll get our keys. Just waiting on that. Hopefully that'll happen tomorrow at the latest. Emily's mom left yesterday, so she's crashing at Sarah's with me. Sarah's so great and accommodating, I really think we'll be good friends.

Also, for the record, it is COLD here. Yesterday was really windy and rainy and I just about froze. Eek. This quick café was much needed.

 So this morning, I got up and went for my first run in Lille! I got lost, but fortunately carried a map with me. I was eventually able to get over to La Citadelle which is the remains of an old fortification of the city. It's really neat and there were a ton of runners and walkers out at 8am, so that was comforting. My watch froze so I don't know the distance. I'll get it working asap. Hopefully that'll be my new running spot.

There's a half marathon in Brussels on October 7 that I'm DYING to go run - 14 euro train ticket one way! I don't have anywhere to stay, so if you know if anyone living in Brussels, please please please let me know. I want to knock that one off of my bucket list - international half marathon, which is right before international marathon.

Sarah invited me to go supervise the kayaking club at school today. There's a canal next to the school and apparently the club goes kayaking out there every Tuesday. This will for sure be an adventure. I'm currently googling kayaking vocabulary. Oh boy.

Luv,
Sarah

School visit

So the highlight of Saturday was that I got to go visit one of my schools. Ecole Desbordes Valmore. It's the one Sarah works at, so she went over there with me. The commute was about 15-20 minutes. Probably a ten minute metro ride and a five minute walk from there. Not bad at all. The neighborhood is good, but nothing special. The school, however, is so pretty.

There are 15 classrooms and about 300 students. Sarah said it's considered to be a really big school. I also got to meet one of the other French English teachers, Virginie, who invited us back to her apartment for lunch. She was super friendly and she and her boyfriend cooked lunch for us. They were really nice and wanted to practice their English, so we spoke in English. Apparently, it's very French to put honey on chèvre (goat cheese), so they got me to try that and it was actually pretty good. We also had some kind of sweet potato purée which was delicious.

Virginie was performing in the center of the city with her Brazilian drum group and invited me to go watch. I was a little unsure as to what it was going to be like, but it was actually really cool. They did it in one of the big squares in the center of Lille and tons of people stood and watched them. They were sponsored by a local music store, so after the show in the square, they did a smaller show in front of the store. Virginie is the blonde in the middle.

For dinner, Sarah and I went to the bar next door, where her good friend, the owner, was making couscous. He apparently does it once a month for free and feeds anyone who's there. He's Algerian so he for real knows how to make couscous, and it was absolutely delicious. I hadn't had couscous since I visited Laura in Morocco. So great.

I'm really ready to be in our apartment. I'm excited to be able to cook my own food and to be able to get into a routine. Hopefully we'll be in on wednesday at the latest! 

No real plans for today. There's a market outside so I'll probably go walk around that for a bit.

Luv,

Sarah