It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

The month of December has arrived, and with it come all the fun things that Christmas in France entails. All throughout Clermont-Ferrand, once can see workers busily setting up lights galore, a pretty Christmas tree, a Ferris Wheel, a Christmas Market near the Place de la Victoire... the season officially starts on 3 December, so there'll probably be some pictures then. Also, over in Lyon, the Fête des Lumières will be next weekend (note to self: avoid Lyon on those days. Go earlier in the week, maybe next Wednesday, or right before I head up to Paris). Students are getting eager and anxious to go on vacation.

And I'm getting ready to head back to the US for the break... which means I have a few more things to do. Like book my return ticket to France... oh, wait, I have! I fly back to France on the 31st of December and back to North Carolina on the 1st of May, but plans are subject to change. At the very least, though, my stay in the US has the added benefit of allowing me to go on a bit of a shopping spree and acquire some things both the teachers and the students might like. So that's definitely a bonus.

However, today also marks the day when I'm now a French resident! Or at least until 1 May. After 56 days of headaches, waiting around, teeth gnashing, and lots of phone calls, I was able to run to the OFII (Office Français de l'Intégration et de l'Immigration) here in Clermont-Ferrand, give them my medical certificate and a few other papers, and walk out of the préfecture building with a nice, shiny sticker to validate my visa and allow me to stay in France until the 1st of May. I might be able to get permission to stay a bit longer, but, right now, that's the date I'm working with.

In all, work is generally going very well here. Other than the one class I have who doesn't seem to talk, either out of fear, volition, or a dislike for the assistant (hopefully not the last of them), all of my classes are great. Of course, there are always the students who don't seem to want to talk, but one group seems to be opening up a lot more and I'm now getting everyone to talk, whether it be in French mixed with English, English mixed with French, or English outright. That makes me really happy. And, of course, the teachers are also great, especially the ones at the collège: there are fewer of them, but they're almost all very friendly and very willing to put up with me butchering the French language.

So, with that, have a good rest of your week and a good start to your Christmas/holiday season.

The outsider looking in

Being taught in schools in one country definitely gives one an interesting framework through which one views the system in another country. And, having worked here for two weeks now, I've been paying a lot of attention to how the schools here work, some of the aspects of the system here in France stand out more prominently than others.

• Bell rings for a game of musical rooms- at least in the US, with most primary and secondary schools that I've seen, the usual is that the teacher remains in the same room while the students move from one room to another as needed. There are some teachers who were "nomadic", at least at my high school, who changed rooms, but those were infrequent and the rule was that teachers had their own rooms.
  Here, not so. None of the rooms are permanent, so it's a bit more like university in the US and UK: both the students and the teachers switch rooms frequently. Therefore, the "room" for the teachers is the salle des professeurs, analogous to the teacher's lounge in the US. And at both my collège and lycée, it's a rather nice little room: coffee/beverage vending machines, some snacks, computers, and the mailboxes. So, naturally, most of the teachers are in here when they don't otherwise have classes. (Or if they're not smoking a cigarette.)
• University-like scheduling- Unlike the standard in the US, where one meets for fixed periods at fixed times throughout the week, that's not what happens here. Most students will see a teacher for two to three hours per week for a total of about 30 hours of classes per week, and the teachers, accordingly, are assigned to work not the same hours. Not to mention there's a nice two-hour lunch break and several pauses de récréation throughout the day, so the students, unlike in US middle and high schools, aren't running from 8:30 to 3:30 with only a 30 minute break. In a way, it's also nice for the teachers.
• Wine for the teachers- How else would they get through the day? Okay, I know, not all of them drink it, but teachers can have wine with their meals here at the lycée. As I explained to one of the teachers I'm working with, that'd be a huge no-no in the States. Part of it, of course, comes in that most teachers drive to and from work, and the other part is that people in the US are very strict about enforcing the drinking age and prohibiting access to alcohol by people under 21, so it's slightly illegal (at least) to bring alcohol to a high school.
• Stuck together like glue- In the States, the same group of students doesn't take the same classes after elementary school: you pick your schedule and you move around. Here in France, though, it seems like the same groups of students, all chosen based on the classes they take and their degree program, move together throughout the school day for their classes.

As the year progresses, I'll have more observations to add. Probably.

What's great is that the teachers here are very friendly, and it makes me want to spend more time with them. Especially at the collège, since I'm only there for one day each week... and not at all this upcoming week, as it's vacation time! Oh, yeah, and the French are serious about vacations: the normal rhythm here is 6 weeks on and 2 weeks off, it feels, with two months instead for the vacances d'été. Next week are the vacances de Toussaint, and they last until the 3rd of November (well, in any event, I go back to work on the 4th).

So, yeah, have a good week/weekend, and more stuff will probably materialize over break.