Woche 11, 12 and 13: December

So, halfway done. Please what?

It's December 19th and I'm currently sitting on the TGV towards Saarbrücken and yes, half of my time here in Paris is already over. Mixed feelings. Right now, I'm just looking forward to being home soon, but I've had really nice experiences here in the past 3 weeks and I've slowly started to settle in, so I'm a bit sad that I've already reached the halfway point.

The reason why I haven't written an entry for three weeks is the following: On December 1st, a man in Trier went on a rampage in the city. I didn't know how to write about it in one paragraph and then continue in the next paragraph talking about how well I'm doing here. But in the end, that's exactly what it will come down to. Besides the fact that the act itself is already terrible enough, there were more outrage on the internet. In Facebook comment sections, for example, some people found it important to know where the perpetrator's grandparents come from. So, what the fuck, how can that be the most important question for you right now?! Also, conspiracy theorists like Wendler and Hildmann made speculations in their serious Telegram groups that the whole thing was just a fake and according to an eyewitness, "people just fell down".

Okay, thanks, enough internet for today. And even though - or maybe because - I was so far away from Trier, it really affected me and occupied my mind for a long time. But then it was good to be distracted a bit at work in school. There were some really interesting topics that I prepared and worked on with the classes. For example, the second hour of "Music in the Third Reich" with a creative work on the song "Lili Marleen" was really great. And then I did something with almost all the classes about Advent and Christmas time and the traditions associated with it in Germany. Most of them knew about Advent calendars, and Gewürzwein (or "vin chaud") at the Christmas market was familiar to some, but a big celebration for St. Nicholas? Advent wreath? Cookies? Little doors? "You light a candle every Sunday." "But Madame, why?"

In Idenheim, St. Nicholas Day is traditionally celebrated in a room in our village pub, my recorder plays songs that all the children sing, a group of children from the village performs a dance or a small play, St. Nicholas reads a story and at the end, everyone gets a Stutenkerl. It was clear that this would not be possible this year, so the village community came up with something very special: St. Nicholas (aka my dad) rode through the village on a carriage pulled by a horse, surrounded by a car with a trailer on which members of the music association sat and played Christmas carols, and a car with members of the fundraising association who distributed small gift bags to the children in the village. I received loads of photos and videos of it and shared them eagerly with my students. We all thought it was really nice!

Of course, I also brought a little St. Nicholas present to my flatmates, with chocolate and mandarins, unfortunately not in their boots but rather during the night. On St. Nicholas Day, I went out with Luca, we drank the first mulled wine and sang some Christmas carols together by the canal. I arrived back in the apartment freezing cold in the evening and, as always on Sunday evenings, I met my tandem partner Philippe on Zoom.

I also started baking cookies during Advent: walnut macaroons, vanilla crescents, speculoos, burnt almonds, and chocolate crossies. I filled the cookies in small bags and put them in the mailboxes of my German colleagues at the schools with a little card. It was a successful surprise for everyone!

Apart from that, it's getting more Christmassy everywhere. There are Christmas trees (with lots of tinsel! ) in various places in Paris, and in our apartment, we made oranges with cloves, which is a very calming activity and it smells really good afterwards.

Something I've been thinking about for a long time is the time of my journey home. First, I booked the train for Friday evening, December 18th, then my flatmates suggested having a pre-Christmas breakfast on December 19th. Awesome! So, I changed my train to Saturday evening. Then I found out that about 15 more people should be invited, and that made me hesitate. If I meet so many completely strangers on December 19th, eating in a room with them for several hours, I can't reconcile that with my conscience to celebrate Christmas with my grandma, for example, five days later. Although I also have contacts in the teacher's room... but those are all contacts I already have during my working hours, and not 15 additional ones. So, I decided to leave on Saturday morning instead, so that I can possibly participate in a farewell event at school on Friday evening but avoid the risk of the big Christmas breakfast at my apartment.

On Friday, December 4th, I was already looking forward to the "apéro" after school, which has become almost a tradition by now, and went happily to buy wine and sweets, only to realize that the event had to be canceled this and next week due to class conferences. I was a bit sad because at the moment it's just something special to spend time with other people.

A week later, Anne-Lou and I did Secret Santa with a class at the Collège. It wasn't person-specific, but we drew lots for the Secret Santa, and I would say: I won!

And then on Saturday, December 12th, my last week here began, which was really nice! It started with a meeting with Caroline, Magalie, and Jonathan, when we went to the demonstration against the new police law together again. This time there weren't as many protesters as last time, but there were even more police. Roughly estimated, there were two protesters for every police officer, it was crazy. But we didn't stay for very long and wanted to go to Magalie's place afterwards to drink mulled wine, but everything around it was closed off, all subway stations were closed, the streets were full of police, and we ended up walking 8 km from all directions to her apartment, even though it's only 2.3 km by the shortest route! Then we really deserved the mulled wine. Magalie's apartment is super nice, she is a graphic designer and has a good taste in furnishing. More friends joined us, who are all in creative professions: graphic designers, directors, and sculptors (is that the correct word?). It was a really nice group and I felt very comfortable.

Right on Sunday, I had my next highlight: now that you are allowed to "travel" 20km again, I finally met up with Chloée, the colleague I met during my apartment search. She lives in a shared flat in Le Raincy with Laurane and another girl. If I had moved in there, it would have been instead of the third girl, which would have been really good for Chloée and Laurane because they don't get along at all. Their roommate is very dirty and has, at times when the two of them weren't there, slept in their beds, worn their clothes, and smoked in their rooms. Absolutely horrific! Laurane is also a teacher at the Lycee, and other than me, there was also Pauline, also a teacher at the Lycee, invited for brunch. Even though all three of them are almost done with their teaching internship (quasi concours), I was the oldest! It's unbelievable how in France, they simply go through with their studies and BAM, they are finished teachers at 23. From a small brunch, starting with "pain perdu", croissants, and white bread, to samosas, tea, mandarins, and cocoa, it turned into a whole day with card games (of course, I taught them Shithead), lots of conversations, and lots of laughter. The apartment was also nice, simple but cozy. We made a plan to meet again for sure, when everyone is back from the Christmas holidays.

In school, Romain approached me and asked if I would be interested in participating in a project with his Terminale AbiBac class, where they write a magazine on the topic of feminism. Of course, I immediately agreed! The homework for the students for that class was to choose a topic and do some research on it. It ranged from sexism in advertising to women in music and body positivity, and all the groups were very engaged and already knew a lot. I have the feeling that feminism here in France is not as negatively stigmatized as in parts of Germany, but that may also depend on the fact that I'm still in the capital here at this school, and overall, the class is a very good class. Additionally, France is historically more feminist rooted, right? It's just half-knowledge, I need to research it more. My task was to help the groups specify their topics, give them new food for thought, and ask critical questions. It was really fun and very productive. Julia's daughter, my German colleague, is also in this class, and the next day, she came to me and gave me the nicest compliment. Her daughter told her in the evening that "Anna always knew an additional connection to every topic, or what to pay attention to, or how someone else might see it, just like a real teacher!" That made me sooo happy!

The day before yesterday, on Thursday, I got a COVID test done to at least rule out the possibility of being infected last weekend. But currently, the numbers here in France and also in Paris are rather low, around 12,000 cases per day. In contrast, in Germany, there are currently more than double the number of new cases every day! In France, the lockdown (or confinement) is definitely over since December 15th and you can be outside without any restrictions. There is only a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., but that's completely okay. Unfortunately, I chose the worst time to travel home: in France, the lockdown is just over, shops are opening again, and you can stroll around a bit - and in Germany, everything is closing, shops are closing, schools are suspending compulsory attendance, and so on. From one lockdown to the next - yay! By the way, the test center, in a hospital right by Notre Dame, was incredibly well organized, I didn't wait for even two minutes and even received my (negative) test result on Thursday evening.

There is a bakery called 'Huré - le plaisir partagé,' which translates to 'the shared pleasure.' I'll just leave it at that :D

Because the stores are open again, and I don't work on Thursdays, I used the day to stroll through the city and maybe buy a few more presents for myself or my family. Yesterday, I already went out with Florence and took care of gifts for my mom and dad. My destination on Thursday was various secondhand stores near the Centre Pompidou, where I saw some really nice things, but there were simply no fitting rooms! When I asked where I could try on the clothes, the answer was "partout!" which means "everywhere." Huh? I'm not trying on a skirt in the middle of the store :D And buying clothes without knowing if they fit or if I like them is not really my thing. Well, never mind! As I walked a bit further, I saw some fairy lights and the top of a carousel from a distance and of course, I wanted to see what was going on. And then I discovered a small Christmas market!! I was so happy to see it. There were 6 stalls, two carousels, some Christmas music, decorated Christmas trees, and very few people (Thursday 11:30 a.m.). I thoroughly checked out all the stalls, and at one stall, there were beautiful soaps. Somehow, I got into a conversation with the stall owner, and he told me that the soap maker used to be a pastry chef and that's why the soaps look particularly beautiful. Then we chatted a bit, and besides the soap, there was also honey, which was his self-made honey. He used to work as a banker and earned a lot of money, but he realized at some point that he didn't want to work just to do something fulfilling in retirement, but rather wanted to start right away. And that's why he decided to become a beekeeper and he is very happy and successful with his honey from Paris (citybzz). I wanted to buy a piece of soap and a jar of honey, and he told me that he would like to give me the honey as a gift because we had such a nice conversation. I was really moved! That made my day even better than it already was.

In the afternoon, I baked another batch of cookies to bring to school and leave for my flatmates. I also went to Florence's music school because she can lend me a guitar from there! I can use it to play a little at home and also for the kindergarten project in February. Instead of zooming with my tandem partner Philippe, I just wrote that evening, which is always a funny mix of German, French, and English.

While shopping for baking, I noticed something very strange: powdered sugar is called 'sucre glace' here, while 'normal' sugar is called 'sucre poudre'. I was a bit confused by that.

And yesterday, on Friday, was absolutely the most beautiful year-end celebration you could imagine. As always, I arrived at school shortly after 10 a.m., my classes start at 10:40 a.m., and I wanted to put my headphones and handbag in my mailbox. But when I opened it, there was no more space for that!

My mailbox was beautifully decorated with little gifts and Christmas decorations, lovely cards, chocolate, and golden stars, I couldn't believe it. The rest of the teacher's room was also very interested in my mailbox, and everyone wanted to take a look or see a photo. Background: We are currently playing the game of the "guardian angel" (ange gardien), where you are supposed to secretly give a gift to the person you drew. And apparently, my guardian angel did a good job! I was so happy! One card had a recipe for a cocktail that we had already drunk in the first apero evenings, so I had an idea who it could be, and after comparing the handwriting on the card and on a leaflet, I knew for sure! We had to write our guess on a list, and if you guess correctly, your guardian angel has to invite you to dinner. If you are wrong, you have to invite your guardian angel AND the person you guessed to dinner. That's why this list was highly debated and everyone wanted to be sure to guess correctly.

Anne-Lou and I shared the only (because it was the last day of school) class hour, first she continued working on the topic for half an hour, then I also did something about the Advent season at the collège, and in the end, we finished with a Kahoot quiz, which the students always love because they can play it on their phones or computers and it's super interactive. A beautiful last school hour.

Afterwards, the teaching staff planned a farewell apero. During the time when there were still students in the cafeteria and some still had classes, we played charades with terms from "Times Up" in the teacher's room, which was really funny, and I also had to participate, even though I didn't know all the terms. I have the most contact here at the collège with Anne-Lou (obviously), but also with other colleagues: Remi & Remy, Lea, Mathilde, Jodie, Faiza, Geoffrey, Gazem, Alexandrine, Adrian, and Laurence. When the cafeteria was free, we moved there and prepared the tables. Everyone brought something, something sweet or savory to eat or something to drink. The cafeteria was decorated a bit, and then we (with masks) spent the whole afternoon in the cafeteria! There was also a Secret Santa in the teacher's staff, but I didn't participate because I only know a few people and hardly anyone knows me. There was also a competition for the most beautiful/ugliest/funniest Christmas sweater, and then FINALLY the game about the guardian angel was resolved! The result: I will be invited to dinner twice and I have to invite once. Alexandrine made the right guess and revealed me as her guardian angel. I had put roasted almonds, a beautiful candle, and a marron glacé as small gifts in her mailbox, but it was always on Fridays, so she knew it must have been me. Madame Duval, an administrative staff member of the collège, guessed that I was her guardian angel, but because she was wrong, she has to invite me to dinner. And I was right with my guess that Adrien was my guardian angel! That's why he also has to invite me to dinner. It was a nice game to encourage interaction among the teaching staff 😊 During the afternoon, we listened to a lot of bad music (more like summer in Spain), I ate macarons and Carambar Caramel for the first time, photos were taken with a Polaroid camera, and Mathilde beat everyone in the blind-test (guess the music). It was truly a beautiful afternoon, and when I had to leave early (6:30 p.m.) because of the curfew at 8 p.m., I was a bit sad when I realized that half of my time here is already over. But that's also a good sign.