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.