Chapter 15: Off Your Top

nerd blog post #16

An eventful few days.. This will either be very long, or very compact with info. Probably the first.. Standart.

Okay. So Saturday night was fine.. The lecteurs and I (keep in mind Cynthia is still in the US for med school interviews) went to Thirsty Street and then I did my best to drag them dancing. Some petered out, but three of us (the three who live in the projects) went. It was okay. We were home pretty early. The highlights included:
1. Meeting a teen who worked at a summer camp near TO (Hollows Camp) and who was obsessed with Canada. He said, in English, with the thickest accent you can imagine, "My large dream in this life is to be a fireman ... in Canada!" Go for it, tiger.
2. There was a man beside our table who had a pet rat with him. Loanne would have passed out. Deeks would have shot it. It was this giant white rat that was running around the inside of this clothes - up and down his arms, his pants, his head.. Hilarious. Then the rat came on our table and was licking the sides of our glasses. I thought it was so funny and took a thousand photos. I'll put them on here latron.

Yesterday I had a great day to myself. I did laundry and very inventfully hung it to dry in my room. (I would like to talk about the environment later on, FYI.) Then I took off on an adventure walk down the river. I saw yet another fisherman and chatted with him for awhile. He does catch fish, but throws them back. He had three rods going, but hadn't caught anything yet. He also had a nice dog named Lion (yes, it was 'L' year) and I told him I had a friend named Lion (kind of..) and then we talked about Africa. I also read some of my book and wrote out what I would do in the next few classes.

In the evening, I did some writing on my compy and then met P-A and Thelma for some field and forest discovery. We poked around for hours, getting lost in the backwoods of Rennes, watching Thelma swim in the river, crossing small foot bridges, walking through tall grasses... This city has everything, and I'm in love with it.

This morning I had to get up very early for my medical examination. It was kind of far away, so I bought a day pass on the metro. For about $3.25, you can ride all day. It was a very efficient examination, but took a long time. First, I had a kind of interview with a nurse, who asked me a ton of questions. Allergies, family history, vaccination history, what my brothers do for a living, how people die in my family, etc.. That went on for over twenty minutes and some of the questions were very bizarre. Then I went into a very small closet with doors on both sides. No, not Narnia, but close. The instructions were written on the wall in French and English. The English ones read as follows:
1. Please Off Your Top
2. Wait for Doctor to Take You
Hmm... Sounds a little sketchy to me. So I offed my top and waited a few minutes for the doctor to take me. After a few minutes, the doctor opens the opposite door and leads me into this hallway. I'm told to leave my stuff in the Narnia closet, along with all my stuff.. I care more about leaving my passport than my clothes, so put it in my back pocket. Then I walk, offed top, down the hall, passing other doctors who bonjour me, and into this little room. Then I have to get into this thing that looks like a Time Machine and press my offed top onto what feels like a block of ice. I have to put my head through this guillotine hole and breathe in and hold my breath. I thought they were going to kill me, half naked, but it was over quickly. Then I get out and have to walk back to the Narnia closet alone, passing more peeps, and re-dress. Weirdest thing of my life. Then I have to sit on a chair for a minute, until the doctor comes and gives me my lung x-ray. I take it into this other room, where a different doctor makes me take a vision test. Then another doctor, in another room, looks in my mouth and touches my teeth. Then yet another one makes me off top (again!) and takes my heart rate, pulse, etc etc. Finally, I sign a thousand pieces of paper and am finished. I asked if I could keep my x-ray and they said yes. So now I have a very large x-ray of my insides. And an experience I will never, ever forget.

After that extremely overwhelming and foreign experience, I had to bust a move to campus to get to my first class. Most of my classes are quite different from each other, so perhaps it will be easiest, and shortest, to explain each day that I have a new class, how it went.

First of all, the university system is (obviously) quite different here. A degree is only three years. My university (and most) are public, which means that they cost very little ($500 or so) and if you passed high school, you can be admitted. This means that in first year at least, there may be a huge difference between the best and the worst students. It also means that in a department like English, where the students did not have to write a test or even get good marks to get in, the levels will be all over the place.

So today I taught a first-year class. This was there first day of university ever, and since it was in the morning, it was also all of their first class! How this class works, is that I have the students (there are 21) for the first six weeks, and then a legit prof has them for the second six weeks, at which point I'll take the students he has right now. At the end of the semester, we'll conference together to give them each a mark. It will likely be the average of my mark for a particular student, and his, although since he is a professor, he'll have more say. I don't, however, link up with the prof until the end of the semester.

None of my classes are linked with another class, so it is not like being a TA who has the lab or tutorial part of a larger course. This is a class they have selected and the mark is entirely based on the time with me, and then with the prof. What happens in the class is really up to me, though there are some general guidelines. By the end of the first six weeks, they need to know how to do a certain number of things before going to the other guy. This is mostly an oral class, as there are other classes for writing, though I can give them whatever homeworks I want.

The overarching plan is mostly to either bring everyone to the same level, or to filter out those students who maybe shouldn't be in the program.. So for this class, by the end of the first six weeks, some of the goals include:
-being able to interpret and describe images, graphs, paintings, etc.
-good pronunciation, analysis and interpretation of texts
-discussion and debate of a political issue
Stuff like that.

Other than that, it's up to me what we do on a weekly basis so they reach those goals. They have a reading list, and I know what they'll be doing in some of their other classes, so I can integrate that if I want. And I'll assign weekly homework.

I was a bit nervous going in, as can be expected, but very excited. I started by drawing a big Canadian leaf on the board and writing my name in it. When I said good morning, I got a very enthusiastic, "Good morning, Mlle. Ank!" I told them to call me Emily. The botching of Hincks is too much to bear. Then I told them about myself and went around the room and got them to tell me about themselves, to see how their English was. Most of the students are 18-20, but I have some older ones, too. Most are from in and around Rennes, with one woman in her thirties from Kenya, and a youngster from Madagascar. Very cool.

Many people warned me about first years - that they are misbehaved and disrespectful. I thought they were wonderful. They all filed in and sat in the back. I made them all come to the front. I told them about Canada and Toronto and set some rules for the class. I also dressed like a grade 1 teacher and even carried a briefcase! It was so fun. I absolutely loved it. I told them that I was happy to help them with anything or answer any questions. More than half of them stuck around after class with various questions, which was nice.

I have a budget for the year, which I plan on spending on treats for the end of six week party. A theme party, no doubt.

At the end of the class, when I asked if there were any questions, one young man asked me to speak French so he could hear how a Canadian sounds. I did, and they all laughed a bit. But I didn't mind.

After class, I went to my office and got ready for the rest of the week. Then I met Cynthia at the train station. I was happy to see her. We went to the .. place where the mayor works, because we heard there was a welcome package for new Rennais! We went, showed some proof, and got a huge presie from the city - free stuff galore. And an invitation to a party! It's an historic tour of Rennes, followed by a reception at City Hall with the mayor, and then hearing the Opera. What fun. Thanks, Rennes. I already RSVPed. I love parties.

Gah! I have so much more I want to write, but I fear this is getting too long.....

I should sign off before I lose valued subscribers...

Thinking of you all. Much love sent to the true North, strong, and free.

Hincks.