May 14

Monday, May 14, 2007

It rained and rained and rained today. The storm from last night definitely did not go away! It just about stopped raining, but I don’t have high hopes for tomorrow…
I spent today at the Lysée St Joseph – and let’s just say school hasn’t really changed much here over the past six years…and my feelings towards school here haven’t really hanged much either. Last night as I was falling asleep I realized I was still scared to go to school here…totally forgetting the fact that I am at least 3 years older than all those kids!!! I must have been really “scarred” by my France experience before to still be worried about it now…
Anyway…as I was saying…things were pretty much the same. Sylvie (the ‘mom’) drove me and Charles (the son) to school for classes at 8:00. I had French class first (all with the ‘Terminal’ class = Grade 12) and it was pretty cool and I didn’t have any trouble understanding. We had to find words that corresponded with every letter of the alphabet for things that had to do with theatre. It was a really good way to work on my vocab!! (And I even answered for 2 letters…M = Molière and S = Shakespeare…I was quite proud!!)
Then, I was supposed to have another 2 hours of French, but the teacher cancelled the second class leaving me high and dry. That is pretty much where I felt a lot like I was back in grade 9 here again!! I couldn’t find anyone that would help me (they are really not great with that here at all…in fact, that is one of the things we talk to the parents about in the OSEF meetings) so I walked outside in the POURING rain. I had my raincoat, but it really did no good because it was raining so hard. Fortunately, Dijon is full of churches. They are on practically every corner. And the wonderful thing about churches in France is that they are practically never locked! So, I was walking around in the pouring rain at 9:15 on a Monday and I found a church…And I spent the next hour and a half reading my book (always prepared) in the church. It worked out quite well, actually.
Except for when I got lost on the way back to the school and was late for the next French class. By that point there was nothing dry on my entire body, so I wasn’t about to go walking about in the rain again – and there was no way that I was going to be walking into a class here late! I found the office and asked to find the library and went and wrote e-mails and read there until lunch.
Gerard (the ‘dad’) found me in the library for lunch with the profs in the cafeteria. The food was a lot better than the stuff they served us for the OSEF meeting yesterday, which was really nice. The teachers were great to talk to too…except that at the time I wasn’t able to remember who the Prime Minister of Canada was. Yep…went quite well. I know that Nicolas Sarkosy is the President of France though. That I do know.
For two hours after lunch I went and sat in on a philosophy class. It was more or less boring and the continual talking of the entire class while the prof was attempting to give his lecture was tiring…but it was good exposure to French in any case, so it was all beneficial! And now I know something about the philosophy of Liberty. Who knows where that may come in handy some day! J
I went home with Sylvie at about 4pm, because I really did not feel like staying at school until 6pm when “normal” people finish school here. Sylvie teaches German at all levels and has the ability to change her schedule around a bit, which is why she finishes at 4:30 instead. We stopped at the bakery and I got a petit pan and had it with hot chocolate – an ideal thing to have as an after-school snack when its been raining all day!!
-Allison