Keeping fit in France

... and no, I don't mean the British "fit."

Since I only work 12 hours a week, I've trying to get into a good biking and running routine.  I'm finding more and more biking/running paths near me, which is great.  The big Parc de la Colombiere is also nearby.

Some of the paths I've biked so far:

• Around Lake Kir and on toward Plombières-lès-Dijon, which I mentioned in this post.
• Parc de la Colombière (these are the main paths, though I've biked more than this)
• Along the Canal de Bourgogne past Longvic (this is a vast shortening and simplification of where I biked, because I didn't know where I was going for a while and wandered around neighborhoods in Longvic)
• Another path toward Plobières-lès-Dijon

Paths I've run:

• Parc de la Colombière
• Cours de Charles de Gaulle and Cours du Parc, the wide and pleasant sidewalk connecting Place Wilson and the Parc de la Colombière
• Cours entre Place Wilson and le Parc de la Colombière (obviously, the Parc is an ideal place to go running)
• To the petite village of "Ahuy," which I still don't quite know how to pronounce in French.  Annie and I biked this, just sort of picking a direction and going.  It was lovely, and the first time I've biked hills since I've been in France (7/11/10).

When I went out running for the first time and put on my running shorts, t-shirt and sneakers, I felt so American.  It was weird.  Now that it's colder and I'm wearing leggings to go running, I fit in a little better.  Leggings are common running garb here, and few people in general wear shorts, it seems.  Unless they're really short running shorts, and it's usually men who you see wearing them.

One thing that I've noticed around France, and find really interesting, is that plenty of people go running in parcs, but it's not socially okay if you go running outside of a park.  So when I jog or walk to Place Wilson, I always feel self conscious.  But, I mean, how are you supposed to get to the parc to go jogging?  Drive?  If I were to take the bus in running clothes, I would almost be stared out of the bus.  It's just not done.

So far I've tried to pick non-peak times, bike to the park, or just ignore what looks I get.  In France it's socially acceptable to watch or look at someone for a period of time that would be considered rude in the States, so it could be partially that difference.  However, I've also noticed that men (generally older men) stare at me as I pass them, running, in the parc.  I'm not a fan at all of that behavior, but am not sure what to do about it besides ignore it.  Maybe it's my hair?  Something else to get used to, I guess.  Since I literally lived on the park trail in Nantes, I've never dealt with this issue before.

Deuxième stage

Today was a very enjoyable and informative day, even though I slept through my alarm.  As Elaine can confirm, this happens very rarely.  However, it tends to coincide with days when I really need the extra sleep - with the recent drop in temperatures in Dijon, my throat's been feeling a little unhappy.  I'm drinking lots of tea, but extra sleep is the best medicine.

Anyway, I woke up when Kirsty texted me to ask why I wasn't at the bus stop 10 minutes ago.  Oops.  The morning was sunny, though, after days of clouds, so I was very cheerful despite my lateness.

Fortunately I had not missed a class; today was my second stage (orientation) as an assistant.  My original expectations for la stage were not quite correct, as it was small - only English assistants, and only English assistants from Cote D'or.  The smaller number of assistants made it nicer, though.  I got to remeet a few English assistants, and meet a few more.  In particular, I (re?)met Annie from California, who works in Beaune but has just moved to Dijon... two blocks from me!  She, Kirsty and I all live in the same coin or quartier (area/quarter), which is great.  She has a bike too, and we are both excited at the prospect of a biking partner.

So today we had our questions answered (administrative, pedagogic, scheduling...) and learned more about the resources available to us.  Very useful, but around 4PM we were all getting fidgety.

Heading to Centre-ville, our group shrank somewhat as people went home or to the train station (for those not in Dijon), but 12 of us went to a brasserie (E) to get drinks and dinner.  We ate quite early for French standards - 6:15 PM - but we were catching a movie at 7:25PM so it was necessary.  The cafeteria lunch at the orientation wasn't very good, either, so we were hungry.

Place de la Libération as I walked to dinner

Our group shrank again after dinner.  Nine English assistants headed to Cinéma Desvosges to see The Social Network in VO (vérsion originale, aka English with French subtitles).  I don't know how much of the plot is fictional and how much of the plot is real, but it was a really well made movie.  The script and characters drew you in and held on until just the last moment - right before the credits rolled I realised the film was ending, and at the same time it occurred to me that I wasn't in the US anymore.  "Anymore" meaning as soon as the film ended, because the immersion in American culture in this movie is comprensive!  We all enjoyed it greatly.  I recommend it!

Something I've remarked repeatedly is that Dijon has a surprising mix of anglophones.  The program as a whole has the most Americans, I think, followed by the British.  However, in Dijon, the Brits outnumber the Americans greatly.  It's fantastic, because I'm exposed to British accents that I haven't heard, and I'm learning a lot about England, particularly her geography.

Side question: Did you study English geography in school?  Because I remember briefly covering Canadian geography in lower school, but that's it besides American geography and general European/world geography.

Annie, living in Dijon now, adds to the American assistants at our soirées.  For example, at the movie theatre, there were 5 Brits, 1 Canadian and 3 Americans.  It's a nice mix, and leads to many amusing "well what do you call this/how do you pronounce ___?" discussions.  Before the movie began, we discovered that there are three (+, I'm sure) distinct ways to say the word "pasta."  Who knew, right?  It's all in the way the "a" is pronounced.

Before the movie, still in Place de la Libération.  The building on the left is part of the Palais de Ducs (on the right of the previous picture), and you can see a banner of a ligne 1 bus.

An average day, if a long one

Nothing terribly adventurous or exciting happened today, it was a normal day.  I observed courses starting at 8AM, went for a run, watched Friends in French (the very American episode with Brad Pitt over for Thanksgiving).

However, I did see the sunrise, so I'll leave you with this picture:

Clarification on my work so far

Chatting with Mallory, I realized that I may not have been terribly clear about my work here in Dijon.  Here's more information on what I know so far!

So you're an "English Assistant," what does that mean?

I will be assisting English teachers in two high schools in Dijon, France.  In this program, run by the French government, there are also Spanish, German and Italian assistants, as well as a few other languages as well.  The majority of assistants are anglophones, with the next largest percentage being hispanophones.  Our goal as language assistants is to get our students to practice their oral/spoken skills.  Technically, we are only allowed to speak to the students in our teaching language.  Assistants are assigned to both primaire (elementary) and sécondaire (middle and high) school.

Wow, is that as much responsibility as it sounds like?

Sort of - we are responsible for our students' learning, and how well we prepare for our classes can significantly affect their improvement.  However, since assistants are native speakers of our teaching language (close to 100% of the time...), whatever interactions we have are legitimate and we don't have to be perfect.  For example, whatever English I speak is "proper" American conversational English for someone from my region.  It would therefore be theoretically possible to wing a class and come out fine, because the goal is for the students to be immersed in fluent, natural communication.

Wow, you've had to get into the swing of things really fast, yes?

The first two weeks of work, which started on October 5th, are supposed to be for observation only, which helps.  Observation includes taking notes on teaching styles and activities as well as helping out with class.  I've currently completed one week of observation, and I think some of my actual teaching will start during this upcoming week.

How are the kids so far?

Shy, in a word.  Sure, there are jokers - and French students speak a lot amongst themselves during class, which is especially distracting in an English class - but they are hesitant to speak English.  Which is, of course, why I'm here: to get them used to speaking English so they will improve.  You can't improve without making mistakes - I learned that first hand while studying in Nantes in 2008 (E) - and I know I'm going to have to urge them repeatedly to speak in English, to speak louder, and to participate.

Why two schools?
At each school I'm the 2nd English assistant, and I work half time at each.  Both schools have 1.5 English assistants, essentially and I'm the second half.  Why?  Because it was determined that these schools could benefit from/needed more than one English assistant, but apparently they didn't need two.  Also, cleverly, both Katie and Kirsty are British so I provide a representative of another Anglophone culture to the students' experience.

Are the two schools you teach at different?
From what I've seen so far and what people keep telling me, yes.  My "primary" school is Lycée Carnot (where I work with Kirsty) and my "secondary" school is Lycée Hippolyte Fontaine (where I work with Katie).  Both of those links are French wikipedia, but you can change the language to English if you need.  Henceforth I will refer to my two schools as C and HF.

The organization at C is being done by one teacher, Alain, who is coordinating our schedules and pretty much telling the other profs what's happening (at least that's the impression I get).  So far almost all professor interaction that Kirsty and I have had is either through or thanks to Alain.  For most of my classes at C, multiple teachers will send me 3 students each, so that I'll have 6 to 9 students each session.  Meaning if there are three English classes of the same level going on simultaneously, I'll have 3 students from each class, all together in a classroom with me for an hour.  C is supposed to be one of the top schools in Dijon - second only to Lycée Charles de Gaulle in languages, apparently - and it's relatively bourgeois.  That means that the student population is not terribly diverse, and everyone is relatively well-off.

The organization at HF is doing done primarily by one teacher, Danielle, who also happens to be the responsable (main teaching contact) for all of the language assistants in the Burgundy region.  Danielle is receiving significant help and cooperation from the other four English teachers at HF, and so Katie and I have a bit of contact with the other staff.  At HF I'm going to be assisting the teachers more individually with their classes, meaning I will only see one teacher's class at a time.  From what they've talked about so far, I believe they will want me to be in the classroom with them often, switching off who is teaching what half of the class within one hour.  HF is also renowned for being one of the "rougher" schools in Dijon, with lower-performing and more minority students/cultural diversity.  It is also a technical school, which means that there are some older students - Katie's and my age, actually - who are pursuing their technical degree to become, for example, mechanics.


Okay, I think that's a decent summary.  If you have any more questions, feel free to ask in the comments and I'll answer them!

Lake Kir and an organ concert at Saint Bénigne de Dijon

Last night (Saturday night) Isabelle hosted a big party for her friends who helped her move in to the apartment in June.  There were probably close to 25 people there, and the event lasted from 20h30 until 1h45 (8:30PM until 1:45AM).  I was impressed that everyone stayed so late!  It was very enjoyable, though I was nervous at the beginning about meeting so many French people.  Man, did the introductions (walking around the circle of chairs and giving bises and shaking hands) go on forever!  I grabbed a seat early, so I mostly had to stand and receive bises.

Since it was a late night, I felt validated taking a grosse matinee (lazy/late morning).  After lunch I went for a bike ride, though - to Lake Kir and beyond!  There is a very nice bike path along there, and it was a pleasant ride when I wasn't dodging strollers and families.  The weather recently has been amazing, and today was no exception - qu'il fasse beau aujourd'hui!  The lake is apparently artificial, with a sandy beach of maybe 75 feet deep and a few hundred feet long.  It looked like you could have gone swimming, if the high was above 66 °F (18.9 °C).  Mainly, though, there are lots of paths for strolling and biking.  It's far enough away from Dijon that some small hills (les collines) surrounded the lake and its path.  Very beautiful!  I kept on biking for a ways more past the lake, going through what appeared to be community gardens and up into another town.  I had to turn back once I got to the town, however, because I was going to a concert at 17h!  I hope to explore more of the biking path in that direction another day.

Kirsty and I had already visited the Cathédrale Saint Bénigne last week, and we'd picked up information about some music concerts.  Since one of the concerts was coming up, we decided to go.  Will, another British assistant who is working at two middle schools, also attended.  The concert we chose was an organ performance.  We sat facing the back of the auditorium; as appears to be a trend in European churches with organs (maybe just Catholic cathedrals?  I'm no expert...), the organ was at the back of the sanctuary.  It was amusing to see half of the chairs turned backward.

Five pieces were played (F); Bach, Mozart, Alain, Werner, and Dupre.  The Dupre and the middle movement of the Alain were probably my favorite pieces, followed by the Mozart.  Surprisingly, I enjoyed the Bach ricercar the least!  I found it cacophonous, actually - while I normally love to hear the complex interweaving melodies of Bach pieces (this was a six-voice piece), the acoustics of this organ made it too much for me.  It was difficult to distinguish the voices from the loud reverberations.

I did think ahead, though, and brought my recorder to the concert!  I started recording partially through the introduction of the Mozart, so here are the four files I have:

1. Wolfgang-Amadeus MOZART, Adagio et Rondo en Ut mineur, K617
2. Jehan ALAIN, Suite pour orgue
1. Introduction
2. Variation Scherzo
3. Variation Choral
3. Jean-Jacques WERNER, Le Cantique de Siméon
4. Marcel DUPRE, Carillon (extrait des sept pièces)

If someone has a suggestion of how to better incorporate the files, I'm all ears.  Listening will not be as streamlined as I originally had hoped.

Tomorrow I have class observations starting at 8AM, yay... also, none of the assistants seem to know what's happening Tuesday, because we've heard there is going to be a big grève (strike) in the transportation and education sectors.  Since we were told the first two weeks are supposed to be observation only, most people have not yet received their final schedules and are playing things by ear.  While I understand that figuring out the details of an assistant's schedule (temporary and for the full year) can be complicated, we're being kept on our toes a bit more than hoped.

In France, grapes are crunchy

Tonight my host mother Isabelle and I dined together after she got home from her oil painting class.  Annabelle and Paul are often out of the house at dinnertime and later, which is not what I originally expected.

For dessert we had some of the grapes she had recently bought; Burgundy is famous for its wine, so its grapes are pretty well known too.

However, grapes in France are different from what you buy in the states; not only are the varieties different (no, you don't eat the varieties that are used in wine making), but they have seeds.  I'm not sure seedless grapes exist here, and don't expect them to become popular anytime in the near future.  Understandably, there's a great deal of pride associated with France's grapes/wine, and also the French are very against engineered and manipulated foods, which in this case they might extend to grapes bred to not have seeds.  But I disgress.

When I first tried a grape and made a face when I crunched down on the seeds (les pépins) because I wasn't expecting the crunch.  Grapes aren't supposed to be crunchy... plus, the seeds are bitter.  Isabelle thought my expression was funny, as well as the fact that I spat the seeds of the next few grapes I ate into my hand.  "Tu manges les raisins comme les enfants," she amusedly told me (you eat grapes like little kids, spitting out the seeds).

I figured that I should make an effort to act like an adult French person, so I tried to eat grapes "normally," swallowing the seeds. I wish I could have seen my expression the first few grapes, because I'm sure it would have been very pitiful and funny.  The trick, I found out, is to swallow the seeds as soon as possible so the bitterness is masked by the sweet grape.  I also tried not to crunch the seeds, but that was awkward because I felt like I was eating mochi and not grapes.  Swallowing the seeds quickly - which is kind of like learning to swallow pills - still isn't great, in my opinion, because you have very little time to enjoy the grape unless you want a bitter aftertaste.

Anyway, I can successfully eat grapes like a Frenchperson.  I did notice, though, that at the next meal where we ate grapes, Paul spat the seeds out into his hand.  I couldn't think of the words fast enough to mention it, so I just chuckled to myself.

A list of interesting links about Dijon

This list will grow as I find more interesting links.  Language of the site listed after the hyperlink; if both English and French are available, the E and F will host the hyperlinks.

• Good 'ol Wikipedia. E/F
• Dijon's tourist website. E/F
• My break schedule this year. F