I figured that I'd write a post before I head out tonight to begin the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. I will be starting in Leon, Spain and going all the way to Santiago, about 312 km I believe. I'm pretty excited for this, I just finished packing my bag and I still think it's too heavy and full, but I'm not sure what else I can leave behind. Maybe on the way I'll be able to get rid of things :P My goal is to not take anything for "just in case." It's also sort of interesting since my attitude towards this "trip" is very different. Usually when I travel for two weeks I would bring a lot thinking, I'm going for two weeks that's quite a while so I might need this and this, or this might come in handy. However, this time my attitude is, "I'm only going for two weeks, I can do without this, and this, etc. and if I do happen to need something I'll get it on the way." This "trip" (trip in quotation marks as it is really a pilgrimage) is also different because of how little preparation I did for it. Really I feel completely clueless about what I'm about to embark on and at the same time I really don't know how to prepare myself more. Usually when you're going somewhere you know where you're going to sleep, where you're going to be when, etc. For this I have a guide book that I'll read on the way there and along the way that has some maps (it claims all the ones that I need) and I don't know where I'll stop when because I'll just have to see how I'm feeling day by day and if I want to keep walking or not. I think this will be a great growing experience in terms of flexibility. It's also very different because it's the first time I've traveled alone. So, I hope it all works out and that it doesn't rain too much.
This past week of work went well. The more I work the more I feel like I'm getting better at this whole teaching English thing, although I'm still having a hard time adjusting between different classes and remembering the level of the students in each class. I've definitely rediscovered my love for children. It's just great how they come up to you and tell you random things about their lives and ask you about yourself and to top it off they're adorable. I think that after the break I am going to start some volunteering or something, because I really don't work very much and feel like having a little less free time would actually help me spend my time better. (I have already gotten involved in youth group activities.)
I'm sure I mentioned in previous posts that I joined ultimate frisbee here, but what I haven't mentioned is that I decided to play "competitively" here. (It's like the least good rank of the competitive part. Great sentence eh?) So it's two weekends, but I think it'll be good and hopefully help me get to know some people better.
Also this past Wednesday my roommates and I had to go to Toulouse for our medical appointments so that we can legally reside in France for the duration of our visas. So basically all it involves is getting an x-ray of your lungs to make sure that you don't have TB (although really you'd think you would have to do this beforehand since we'd all been in France a month already). We got to keep our x-rays so I shall hang mine up on my wall if I find something to hang it with. A plus for me is that I got the doctor to write me a medical certificate so I can play frisbee (yeah, you have to go to the doctor here to be able to play sports competitively and get a note saying that you can), he was just being super nice since that really isn't what he's supposed to do there. It's good for me since it saved me the hassle of going to a doctor, paying for it, submitting the payment to get part of it reimbursed. This medical thing was quite fun too since there was a bunch of assistant(e)s from all over with the same appointment time so while we waited we got to chat. It's kind of cool how there's so much switching between languages it seems like everyone speaks English, French, and Spanish. Then I did get to see a bit of Toulouse, but I am glad that I'll get to go back since I didn't feel like I got to really see very much or spend time in any place.
Lastly, a note on cheese: the French seem to be very much about bread, cheese, and wine. So I've been trying different kinds of cheeses, and last week at market I bought some which I thought was mild-ish tasting (have to start small). I brought it home and decided that it tastes like mold :). Yeah, I think I still need to get used to the gastronomy here.
Well thanks to everyone reading this! God bless you all and please do keep me in your prayers as I start this pilgrimage.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Teaching English
Well as my roommate pointed out to me today, only 6 more months :P
I guess I'll start with school. It's been going well... it's challenging. So we had our formation day this past Tuesday, a week and a half after we had started and I think there were pros and cons to having it then. Pros: we got to tell the lady in charge all the problems we're having so she can try and fix them. Cons: we didn't know what we were doing for the week and a half before (and as it turns out for me, I was doing a lot wrong). (For example showing up at a school with nothing prepared and the teacher saying here's the class, 45 minutes lesson go.) It was a really helpful day and I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this whole teaching English thing. Starting that is... In general, I really enjoy the kids, but it's so hard to know the level of the students. Some look completely bored out of their minds and some have no idea what's going on. I think part of this might be that there's almost always two grades in the same class. So today for example the first school I went to was great. The first teacher plans everything and then I take everything she does and use it in other classes :) My second class at that school I really like, they're older and it's a small group so you can get them talking more without chaos erupting, I have to plan for that class, but the principal gives me materials and offers to help prepare things. Then I have a bunch of young kids and I use what the first teacher did. I'm finding I have to improvise a lot since sometimes it takes the whole 45 minutes to do what I planned on doing in 10 and sometimes what I thought would take longer doesn't and I have to come up with something else. I think I have a lot of growing to do in giving directions too...
Anyways I'll skip the second school I was at today to move onto the third. Basically my lesson was on the four seasons, which I had already introduced to them last week. So after 45 minutes of trying in different ways to get them to know the seasons, they didn't. In fact I'm not convinced anyone in the class did, except for maybe the Portuguese student who's just learning French too hehe oh dear. It's tough too because I'm only supposed to speak in English and not to translate what I'm saying. So I try... and very rarely succeed. I mean when no one's listening to you or paying attention, it's much easier to speak the language they understand.
So to sum up, it's good, I like all the spare time I have, that's for sure, and really basically I get to play games with kids for my job 12 hours a week.
In other news, I went to the laundromat. Yes, I'm sure that all of you reading this are very interested in my laundry situation :P IT'S RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE! It was interesting since, believe it or not, I've never had to do laundry in a laundromat. Luckily there was a guy there who I asked for help. So I thought that I would dry my clothes since I thought if I'm spending all this money washing these clothes I want them to dry and not smell. Well I don't know how long you had to put them in for, but in the end I carried my just-as-wet clothes home and hung them to dry, but the drying situation is going better this time since I hung them in the hallway.
To finish up, I will be doing the Camino from Leon to Santiago de Compostella starting next Sunday for "les vacances de Toussaint" (I have two weeks off). I'm pretty excited for it. So if you're reading this, say a prayer for me during that time.
I guess I'll start with school. It's been going well... it's challenging. So we had our formation day this past Tuesday, a week and a half after we had started and I think there were pros and cons to having it then. Pros: we got to tell the lady in charge all the problems we're having so she can try and fix them. Cons: we didn't know what we were doing for the week and a half before (and as it turns out for me, I was doing a lot wrong). (For example showing up at a school with nothing prepared and the teacher saying here's the class, 45 minutes lesson go.) It was a really helpful day and I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this whole teaching English thing. Starting that is... In general, I really enjoy the kids, but it's so hard to know the level of the students. Some look completely bored out of their minds and some have no idea what's going on. I think part of this might be that there's almost always two grades in the same class. So today for example the first school I went to was great. The first teacher plans everything and then I take everything she does and use it in other classes :) My second class at that school I really like, they're older and it's a small group so you can get them talking more without chaos erupting, I have to plan for that class, but the principal gives me materials and offers to help prepare things. Then I have a bunch of young kids and I use what the first teacher did. I'm finding I have to improvise a lot since sometimes it takes the whole 45 minutes to do what I planned on doing in 10 and sometimes what I thought would take longer doesn't and I have to come up with something else. I think I have a lot of growing to do in giving directions too...
Anyways I'll skip the second school I was at today to move onto the third. Basically my lesson was on the four seasons, which I had already introduced to them last week. So after 45 minutes of trying in different ways to get them to know the seasons, they didn't. In fact I'm not convinced anyone in the class did, except for maybe the Portuguese student who's just learning French too hehe oh dear. It's tough too because I'm only supposed to speak in English and not to translate what I'm saying. So I try... and very rarely succeed. I mean when no one's listening to you or paying attention, it's much easier to speak the language they understand.
So to sum up, it's good, I like all the spare time I have, that's for sure, and really basically I get to play games with kids for my job 12 hours a week.
In other news, I went to the laundromat. Yes, I'm sure that all of you reading this are very interested in my laundry situation :P IT'S RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE! It was interesting since, believe it or not, I've never had to do laundry in a laundromat. Luckily there was a guy there who I asked for help. So I thought that I would dry my clothes since I thought if I'm spending all this money washing these clothes I want them to dry and not smell. Well I don't know how long you had to put them in for, but in the end I carried my just-as-wet clothes home and hung them to dry, but the drying situation is going better this time since I hung them in the hallway.
To finish up, I will be doing the Camino from Leon to Santiago de Compostella starting next Sunday for "les vacances de Toussaint" (I have two weeks off). I'm pretty excited for it. So if you're reading this, say a prayer for me during that time.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Our Lady
I thought I'd share a bit about how Our Lady has, as always, been taking care of me. So, the cathedral here is called Notre Dame de l'Assomption which translates Our Lady of the Assumption. I was born on the feast day of Our Lady of the Assumption and have been blessed with a strong devotion to her since I was little. So when I found out the name of the cathedral, I was filled with joy and just remembered once again how Our Mother continually cares for us and watches over us.
Then, when I was visiting the Franciscan sisters on Wednesday (there's so many religious communities here, it's great) one of the sisters showed me the chapel. When we were in the chapel she turned to me and asked if I'd like to consecrate my stay in Rodez to Our Lady and so I agreed and we prayed together. It was really simple just a Hail Mary with a bit about me being in France, but I felt so blessed. It was such a special moment. Once again Mary showed up in my life this time through a sister.
Then, when I was visiting the Franciscan sisters on Wednesday (there's so many religious communities here, it's great) one of the sisters showed me the chapel. When we were in the chapel she turned to me and asked if I'd like to consecrate my stay in Rodez to Our Lady and so I agreed and we prayed together. It was really simple just a Hail Mary with a bit about me being in France, but I felt so blessed. It was such a special moment. Once again Mary showed up in my life this time through a sister.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Simon says...
Well I think I was rather confused about what my responsibilities as an assistante are. So today I went to this school and the first teacher had it all organized what we were going to do that day, which was great and then I just did it. This teacher has also been great since she actually let me observe her class the first time I was there. We made name tags and I went around and got kids to introduce themselves to me in English then we had a puppet named Simon and we played Simon says. It was great, these kids were young, like 6 and 7 I think so I taught them a few things in English and stuck with those.
The next class I went into the teacher had nothing prepared so I did exactly the same thing as with the previous class, except made Simon says slightly harder and again the same thing in the next class. This afternoon at a different school, do you know what I did? That's right made name tags and played Simon says. It's a great game appropriate for any age group and some of these kids are really good I just couldn't seem to stump them. This next school I'm going to I'm thinking the teacher will have something for me, or I hope. Playing Simon says with 4 different classes gets tiring. In future, I guess I'll prepare something. Not sure what level these kids are at or what the objectives I'm supposed to teach are, but I really don't mind just making up lessons of what I think I should teach.
I've also been teaching my students the song- I'm a Little Teapot... so at this point about 70 French children are being introduced to this gem of Canadian culture :P I have no idea if it's even Canadian or where it's from, but it's proved to be a good filler when I'm not sure what else to do.
Other than that I've decided to bite the bullet (is that the right expression) and go to a laundromat to wash my clothes. It's ridiculously expensive (3.60 euros a load, that doesn't include drying) so I decided to hand wash some clothes. So I did and then hung them to dry in my room, turns out my room has very poor ventilation. Four days later the clothes were finally dry, but everything smells like dirty socks, including my room. Well it was a good learning experience.
The next class I went into the teacher had nothing prepared so I did exactly the same thing as with the previous class, except made Simon says slightly harder and again the same thing in the next class. This afternoon at a different school, do you know what I did? That's right made name tags and played Simon says. It's a great game appropriate for any age group and some of these kids are really good I just couldn't seem to stump them. This next school I'm going to I'm thinking the teacher will have something for me, or I hope. Playing Simon says with 4 different classes gets tiring. In future, I guess I'll prepare something. Not sure what level these kids are at or what the objectives I'm supposed to teach are, but I really don't mind just making up lessons of what I think I should teach.
I've also been teaching my students the song- I'm a Little Teapot... so at this point about 70 French children are being introduced to this gem of Canadian culture :P I have no idea if it's even Canadian or where it's from, but it's proved to be a good filler when I'm not sure what else to do.
Other than that I've decided to bite the bullet (is that the right expression) and go to a laundromat to wash my clothes. It's ridiculously expensive (3.60 euros a load, that doesn't include drying) so I decided to hand wash some clothes. So I did and then hung them to dry in my room, turns out my room has very poor ventilation. Four days later the clothes were finally dry, but everything smells like dirty socks, including my room. Well it was a good learning experience.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
My Saturday Adventure and Others
Saturday I had the excellent idea of exploring outside of Rodez a bit. From a viewpoint in Rodez I had seen the fortified church of Ste. Radegonde and decided to walk there. So I packed a lunch and set out. First I found this beautiful park in Rodez along a river. It made me so happy since one thing I was worried about was being in this town with no open nature area. Then I set out to this town. For future adventures, I will google directions before I set out because as it turned out I got lost. Not very lost, I just went the wrong way for about 20 minutes, but when you're walking that seems like a long time. In the end, I found Ste. Radegonde and checked out this little church. I guess the fortified part has 40 rooms and they had provisions so that if the town was attacked everyone could take shelter in the Church, so it was pretty cool. Plus I learned about Ste. Radegonde whom I had never heard about before. At the beginning of this walk I was planning on checking out some other places, but I ended up being tired and just going straight home.
I've also been in all my schools now. I think this experience is re-confirming to me that I should not be a teacher :P I am enjoying myself here though. In fact, I already think that I will miss being here when I leave. I'm just really enjoying being able to attend daily Mass and having so much time to pray and reflect. Also when I run into someone I can talk to them for however long because I just have that much time. Like today I went to the Carmel and ended up talking to the lady who receives people there for an hour and it was great. So I think I'm learning to just be and enjoy.
In other news, the weather here has been fabulous. Today it was 20 and sunny. I heard that it's been cold and snowy in some places there.
Until next time!
I've also been in all my schools now. I think this experience is re-confirming to me that I should not be a teacher :P I am enjoying myself here though. In fact, I already think that I will miss being here when I leave. I'm just really enjoying being able to attend daily Mass and having so much time to pray and reflect. Also when I run into someone I can talk to them for however long because I just have that much time. Like today I went to the Carmel and ended up talking to the lady who receives people there for an hour and it was great. So I think I'm learning to just be and enjoy.
In other news, the weather here has been fabulous. Today it was 20 and sunny. I heard that it's been cold and snowy in some places there.
Until next time!
Friday, October 5, 2012
My First Week in France
Well where to start. I guess one of the first amusing things that happened to me was having to read at Church last Saturday. I was sitting in a pew praying my Rosary and a man comes up and asks if I want to do collection, I explain that it's my first time here so no. Later on he comes up to me again and asks me to read. Since I've done much more reading in Church before I felt more comfortable and agreed to do it. I guess Father had a bit of a start when he heard me read hehe apparently I don't quite have a French accent :P. It was great though. I wasn't expecting to get involved in the parish the second day of being in France, so I felt like it was a great blessing. That also seemed to open the door to meeting other people so that after Mass I met Father and some of the other parishioners more involved in the ministries. One of the ladies I met that night showed me around Rodez on Sunday and took me out to her country home.
The Church here seems great. There's so many beautiful churches and although for the most part the priests are older there's seven of them here in Rodez and two of them are younger. I've had the opportunity to attend daily Mass everyday since being here, since there's 3 different times to go and I've heard that the Franciscan sisters have yet another time. I'm currently working on getting involved in a Catholic community. I've met some of the younger group 15-17 year olds, but I have a lead on an older group.
Where I live (one of the lycees) is really conveniently located really close to Old Rodez and easy to walk pretty much everywhere I've needed/wanted to go so far. The Lycée in France has students aged 15-22 (although generally just 15-17) and many students live here during the week and go home during the weekend. So I guess this Lycee is a technical school... I share an apartment with three other girls. Two of them are also doing the same program as me.
I started my "job" yesterday. I will be working in four different elementary schools all within walking distance, the furthest schools are probably a 15-20 minute walk. I think I will learn a lot about teaching a second language. I'm not used to being around kids who don't know English.
I'm really enjoying life here. The weather has been beautiful. I am currently sitting in the kitchen with the windows wide open and the sun streaming in (I heard Calgary already got some snow). The nights are cold though and I guess they'll only turn on the heat once it gets cold for a while. One of my roommates and I went to get extra blankets from the "lingerie." The ladies there laughed at us for already thinking it was cold. Now with four wool blankets I'm quite comfortable at night though.
Well that is enough from me for today.
The Trip and How Nothing Went as Planned
My trip began by leaving my home at 7am on Wednesday morning. Mom dropped me off at the airport in Edmonton and I flew to Calgary where I had a nine hour lay over, yeah it was long, but it was good since I got to have lunch with Allie and hang out with Adam. Then the adventure began, the flight from Calgary to London was delayed three hours in Calgary. We were all boarded and then they saw that a panel was missing from the plane so they had to call London to see if they could fly without it, long story short they couldn't so it took more time attaching a different panel on.
Finally got to London and had a four hour lay over there where I was trying to contact the lady in France to tell her I had been delayed and couldn't get a hold of her. In future it's a good idea to look up how to call foreign numbers before you get to the place and don't have internet access...
I got to Toulouse at eleven at night and tried sleeping in the airport since I figured I might as well since it was only 8 hours until my train was leaving. A guy cleaning floors came and asked me if I was staying all night and showed me better place to sleep, which I thought was very kind. You know a couple years back I would've felt very uncomfortable doing this, but now I was totally fine.
At like 4 in the morning I was done with trying to sleep (turns out that although luggage full of clothes looks like it would make a fine bed, it really doesn't) so I decided to figure out how the shuttle to the train station worked. It said that it only started at 7:30am which was frustrating since I thought it started at 5 and at this point I had barely slept two nights in a row and was done with travelling. So I decided to call a taxi, while trying to do this I talked to a lady who offered to drive me, which was very kind. However, on our way out we ended up passing the shuttle and I was the only one on it. The bus driver was very kind and we chatted all the way to the station.
But it all worked out and I feel more confident in my travelling abilities :)
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