Week 3: Start of school and getting to know new people

On Tuesday was my second day at the Lycee. I got to know new teachers and students, received my schedule, and had to do a lot of organizational tasks at the secretary's office: submit a copy of my ID, international birth certificate, and bank statement for insurance, fill out the reimbursement certificate for the train ticket, take a photo for the school website, and set up access to the school computers and the 'class book app'. The two teachers I was with are very different: Julia is a native speaker and I am in Abi-Bac classes with her, which are the classes that have chosen German as their main focus and are therefore very proficient! Romain is French and is having a harder time with the 'normal' German classes. In total, I work with 6 different teachers (at both schools). There are many different ideas about how I can be used: with two teachers, I take over half of the class and am responsible for letting the students speak as much as possible, because this part of foreign language teaching often gets cut short, especially in large classes. Here I am completely free in lesson planning, it should be a complement to the 'main' teaching. Currently, the classes are working on the topic of 'Degenerate Art' or 'Data Protection in Social Media.' With another teacher, it is not yet clear if I will even leave the room with a group or if I will always be present in the classroom as support and actively assist the students during individual and group tasks. With two other teachers, the plan is for me to always have a group of students in my own room, but to carry out the same lesson prepared by her. The advantage of this is that each student automatically gets more speaking time because the class size is reduced. With the last teacher, we have not yet decided completely how we will proceed, as I do not attend regularly there, but only every 2 weeks, for example. The classes are called 'Prépa' classes, which have already completed their high school diploma and are preparing for their studies (préparer). The classes are extremely small (4 & 8 students) and are mainly interested in the literary treatment of topics and debates. That sounds very exciting and I am looking forward to getting to know these classes next Tuesday.

In the evening, I met up with Noémie, my exchange student from 10 (!) years ago! Exactly 10 years ago (even the timeframe is correct), I spent two weeks in Auxerre with Noémie and her family, and in November 2010 she stayed with me in Idenheim for two weeks. It was my first meeting with a French conversation partner, and I'm not sure if our conversation pauses were due to it being a foreign language for me or if we wouldn't have known what to talk about even in German sometimes. It was still a relaxed evening, and we plan to meet again.

Starting today, stricter Covid-19 rules apply in Paris, and officially all bars and cafes are closed, only restaurants remain open. Therefore, all bars now offer something to eat, so they count as restaurants and basically nothing changes! Except that since today, you have to register your name and phone number in lists at the restaurant, just like in Germany. There is a large book at the entrance where everyone can sign in. Privacy seems to work well here!

In the evening, I withdrew money from an ATM, and so that I wouldn't have to pay too many fees, I wanted to take out a bit more at once. But unfortunately, the ATM told me:

On Wednesday, we had a preparation day in Créteil for all German foreign language teaching assistants from the Académie Créteil. With Lea, whom I already knew, there were a total of 7 of us, a really nice group! In the morning, there was a lot of information about the organization. I talked to our lecturer about not having received a single email from the Académie so far, and we sent some test emails. It turned out that my email program simply doesn't accept any emails from the Académie, neither in the spam folder nor in the regular inbox. This is highly unusual, and I have no idea why. They actually sent me the Arrêté de Nomination in mid-July, not just two weeks ago! We have now added my university email address to the distribution list because it worked with that. Hurray for technology! In the afternoon, things got a bit more practical: Mareike and Birgit, both native German speakers who are German teachers in France, tried out some games with us for teaching and clarified specific questions about the French school system. Laicité plays a major role here in France, which is the separation of state and religion. There is no religious education in school, religious symbols are not allowed to be worn, and even pictures of angels in the classroom should be avoided. In addition, the clothing of all students is checked when entering the school grounds: anyone who is dressed too scantily or inappropriately (e.g., ripped pants) has to go home and change. Since all schools are completely fenced in, the students have no choice.

Also, today I did laundry, and since we don't have a drying rack, all the clothes are simply dried on hangers in the room or throughout the apartment:

Thursdays are supposed to be my free days, but the teachers at the Lycée asked me if I would accompany them and some classes to the cinema, as it is the German Film Week. Of course, I gladly agreed, and we met at 12:30 pm at the cinema 'L'arlequin' to watch the film 'Zwischen uns die Mauer' (The Wall Between Us). Before the screening, I was able to meet some other teachers from the Lycée, which was cool!

Generally, the Académie recommends or requires opening a French bank account. However, there may be difficulties since we are only here for 6 months and various documents are required (such as a confirmation of residence, which I do not have). Therefore, I have decided to handle everything through my German account and simply get a credit card from there. I have also decided to keep my German phone number because, due to EU roaming regulations, I have no additional costs here compared to Germany.

On Friday, I had a stressful day. I was at the school until 5:15 pm, played a more passive role in the four classes, assisted with individual work, and admired the teaching of one teacher once again. I hope I can continue to observe here because I think I can learn a lot. At 6:15 pm, I was home briefly, put down my things, and left again at 6:20 pm because I wanted to go to a concert by a great artist: Suzane! Since I don't have a credit card yet, I couldn't buy a ticket online in advance, a reservation by phone was not possible, and I was told that I would simply have to arrive early to buy a ticket at the box office. However, the concert was in Champigny-sur-Marne, and I had to take a bus and a train for about 1 hour to get there. When I finally found the theater at 7:30 pm, I was actually the first person allowed to buy a ticket at the box office, and also the first person allowed to enter the hall. As a result, I was assigned a seat in the front row in the center! The concert took place in a theater, and a seat had to be left empty between each group of people who belonged together. Here is a photo of the hall, the ticket for Frau Mikolay, and a photo that captures my enthusiasm!

So, there was an empty seat to my left, and next to it was a man around 50 years old, wearing colorful leggings, a mullet, a scarf around his neck, and several cameras in front of him, so presumably an artist and concert photographer. This man then approached me and asked if I was from here. I said no and told him that I live in Paris and that I would have to check exactly how to get back home because there are different connections later in the evening than usual. Since he also comes from Paris, we decided to join forces and definitely ride back together. Already with his first sentence, I had a feeling of hearing a slight accent, but I wasn't completely convinced. After a bit of small talk, I asked him what his name was, and his answer was: 'Thomas.' And the emphasis was on the 'o', not on the 'a'! Then I laughed and asked if he wasn't French, and tadaaa, Thomas was indeed German! What a coincidence, right? So we chatted comfortably in German, he mainly works in genetics, but is a hobby concert photographer and has been living in Paris for 20 years. When another man passed by a few minutes later, whom he also knew and the two of them briefly talked, it was clear to me that he could give us a ride back to Paris by car! Really, crazy coincidences.

Then the concert started, first there was the singer Pauline as the opening act with two men on beats and bass, they call themselves P.R2B. That was really impressive! Great voice and great presence with very little show. And then Suzane came on stage, alone, with a microphone and a beat station, she stood on a stage part that was shaped like a T and had a screen in the background. That's all she needed because she delivered an incredible performance! The whole hall celebrated and danced (each person in their own place), just like Suzane herself. During the instrumental parts, she danced, which was synchronized with the video on the screen, or brought atmosphere to the hall. But there were also quiet moments where everything was black and she stood in a spotlight with a melodica (not to be confused with a sousaphone, right Sarah?) and sang. I only knew the artist because we might sing one of her songs with Vocal Journey, 'SLT', which addresses the sexual harassment of women. Behind me was definitely the biggest fan of the evening, a girl around 15 years old who knew EVERY lyric and shouted the instrumental melody after just 2 seconds of the intro, much to Suzane's amusement. I thought it was funny, but my neighbors to the right of me didn't quite share my sentiment. I was really happy to have been to a pop concert again (or is it more hip-hop? rap? I'm not good at classifying genres. Wikipedia says singer-songwriter?! and 'Chanson à texte', okay). To feel the bass under my feet, sing along loudly without bothering anyone (of course with a mask), and just dance somehow. A really, really beautiful evening. The stress beforehand was worth it for that.

On Saturday, there was another training session, this time organized by the Goethe-Institut, and it was for all German foreign language teaching assistants from the Académies Créteil, Paris, and Versailles. So I got to know even more cool people, but unfortunately, they were all Germans! The topic today was music and theater in German as a foreign language teaching. It was super interesting and I was able to take away some impulses. In the evening, I went to the movies with my roommate Gloria! I was really happy that it happened because from the beginning, I had wished to have a bit more shared apartment life and to have some common activities as well. We watched the film 'Un pays qui se tient sage' (A Country That Considers Itself Wise), which deals with police violence during the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) demonstrations. There were some pretty intense scenes and I was sometimes very shocked because although I was generally informed about the demonstrations, I hadn't watched any explicit videos about them. On the way back, we talked a bit about how she also experienced the demonstrations. In her opinion, the film was a bit too one-sided, as very many negative opinions about the police were shown, but that was also because the documentary filmmakers were unable to find enough interviewees from the ranks of the police and their superiors. She says that she finds the institution of the police very important and necessary, but that 80% of the police officers in France often just want to beat people up and exceed boundaries. After watching the film, I had a similar impression, but you can't form a sufficiently justified opinion based on just one documentary.

Sunday finally had nice weather! That automatically puts you in a good mood! Especially when you're meeting up with Lea so that she doesn't have to go to apartment viewings alone. The appointments were scheduled for 1 pm and 3 pm, more or less confirmed by email. But before that, of course, like every Sunday, I FaceTimed my parents and my grandma while having baguette, egg, croissant, and cheese!

At 1 pm, Lea and I were at the first apartment and were able to be let into the courtyard by a friendly resident, where we studied doorbells and mailbox labels. But the desired name was not on any of them, and there was no phone number. So we wrote an email, waited, and went to have some hot cocoa. Unfortunately, we didn't receive any feedback anymore and then drove to the second apartment. There, we also easily entered the courtyard and searched the letterboxes and name lists for the right apartment to ring. But here, too, we didn't find anything, and there was no phone number! But we knew that the apartment is on the first floor and a young woman named Antoinette lives there. From the courtyard, there were 5 different entrances, so we simply went into all 5 buildings and knocked on all the doors on the first floor and talked to the people. It may have been good for our language skills, but unfortunately, we still didn't find this apartment. So we just went to eat delicious crêpes instead.