Yesterday, the other assistants and I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to take the train into Besançon to arrive in time for the introductory day for foreign language assistants. It was held at a huge high school in the northwest quarter of Besançon, and almost all of the assistants from across Franche-Comté were there, so about 55-60. The point of the day was to help us out with our numerous papers and forms, and also to explain our duties and what it really means to be an assistant in a French school.
I was put in a group with all the non-EU english-language assistants, most of which are from the States. There was also a girl from India, which I thought was pretty cool. We spent the morning watching presentations about our rights and responsibilities as assistants, as well as information about Social Security, Health and Property Insurance. It was a bit long, and it didn't help that I'd been awake for about 7 hours by the time lunch rolled around! However, it was informative, because I found out that it's really important to have health and property insurance in France, and that there are insurance companies that serve only teachers. The presenters gave us all a bunch of paperwork to fill out and send in once we have our banking info, which I thought was pretty convenient.
After lunch, we did a speed-dating style game with a group of EU assistants that involved them presenting their dream vacation spot to us and then interviewing us to see if we'd be a good travel companion, based on common interests, etc. It was a good way to get to know a large amount of people in a short amount of time, and the French teachers leading the activity also made us speak to each other in French, which I thought was a great idea. We're here to learn, after all! At the end of the activity, I discovered that the entire thing had been a sort of exercise to help us learn how to make a lesson plan. It was like being in an Education Lab course at Fac all over again. I'm glad that they did this with us, because I'm sure that there are many assistants who don't have a background in education like I do and lesson plans are super important. Another thing that reminded me of the Education program at Fac was the head teachers' talk of authenticity. As assistants, we are authentic examples of our respective languages, and we need to make sure that we give the students that authenticity. We have to ensure that our communication is genuine and create organic moments of language expression. To translate the ed-speak, what I mean is that when we're deciding the activities that we want to do with the students, they can't just be rote exercises. They need to be original, interesting, appeal to their interests, and sometimes include aspects of our own culture.
When we got off the train in Morteau last night, a woman who'd been sitting a couple of seats down from us with her bicycle came up to us and said hello. It turned out that she was American, formerly from Mississippi, but now living in Morteau with her husband. She gave us her digits in case we wanted to hang out one day. This trip is definitely teaching me how small the world can be. When I first heard about Franche-Comté, it seemed to me like a cozy, small-town sort of place, but I'm finding out that it's a lot more international than I thought. It's a border area that has access to Switzerland, Germany and Italy, and many international students study at the Université de Franche-Comté in Besançon. I like how my perceptions of the world are being challenged all the time: it's one of the reasons why I decided to do this.
To completely change the subject, at the end of the day yesterday, Felipe, Greg and I went to the Centre ville and to the SFR store to organise our internet. In exactly one week, we're getting a box installed that will have cable, telephone and internet! This morning I finally opened a bank account, which took about an hour, but the conseiller was super nice and I'm happy with the bank I chose. This allowed me to finally order a cell phone this afternoon that will arrive in a matter of days. It's such a relief to have those things figured out. Finally, I will no longer be incommunicado!
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