i mean, really.
ugh.
basically, the lack of organization here never ceases to amaze me. sometimes i feel like i am practically begging the school to let me come into work, which lends me to ask, why did you ask for an english assistant in your school if you weren't interested in having me here? most of the time, i just feel like i am (or rather, they are) totally wasting my time. and of course it's not like i live in a town where there's tons to do for me to occupy my free time otherwise..
coming back from the states made me realize (again) one big difference, that being the lack of cafe-culture (or at least, the american version of it) here. don't get me wrong, they do love their cafes. i mean, it is a french word, after all, n'est-ce pas? but the i guess they just have different purposes here vs in the us. given that i have all this free time, but that i have outside work to do (lesson plans ugh, not to mention i'm back on the job application bandwagon.. it never ends!), i would love to plop myself for hours in a starbucks, library, sandwich place with free wifi (or anywhere on umd's campus.. i miss stamp!) but that is just not how things work here. wifi is hard to find anywhere, the library here is only open like 3 days a week (and, of course, closes for a two hour lunch and by 6 pm every night - it's no mckelden), and food places serve one purpose - it is a place where you eat food. french people do not multitask while eating, it is a big no-no here. that means no walking and eating (seriously have gotten some stares for that one before), no working and eating, just eating (and talking with your friends, of course). growing up in multi-task central (aka america) and slaving away at school for the majority of my life up to this point, i find the concept of one task at a time sort of frustrating, because it is just too slow. needless to say, i've gotten used to my extremely free schedule at this point, and find even the smallest task overwhelming (just when am i going to get this done in between my 10 hours of sleep and the three movies i have downloaded?!), but i still do prefer to have an activity while eating (reading, watching something, surfing the internet, etc esp if i have a 2 hour lunch break at school to fill). but again, the main point was, i do have things to do, but no where but my room (where i spend like all my time) to do it. which gets a little old.
but back to school life.. i'm having a really hard time getting one school to make me a schedule. like really, this was your only task for me, to sit down together with all the english teachers and decide at least a little in advance (no texts the night before anymore pleasee) when you want me to come in. to make it even simpler, despite having at least 6 english teachers at this school, only two are ever interested in having me in classes. that should make things pretty simple, right? you two figure out among your hours when you want me to come in. as requested i told you which classes i prefer, but here we are three weeks back from vacation and i have yet to come in. maybe i shouldn't complain, i am, after all, still getting paid for those 12 hours i just missed. but i am actually starting to feel sort of bad for like never being around. the email response from the teacher, though, was quite cryptic; something about if you "need hours" then you can come into my classes, as long as you let me know first. again.. why am i like begging you to come in here? all the other schools have fixed or rotating schedules where i come in and take the class and teach them whatever i want, and for this school i show up, have no idea what is going on, and am usually asked to take some students and talk about whatever they are talking about on the spot (um no.. i don't know anything about murder mysteries.. sorry). while this means less prep for me, it's more stressful when i get there and am standing in from of 15 little faces with nothing to say. i'm just so frustrated that here we are, 4 months in practically, and i am still having scheduling conflicts. and i am not just going to show up one morning. i have gone down that road before, and gotten up at 6 to be there at 8 only to be told to leave, so sorry, but that is not going to happen again.
today i was scheduled for 2 hours, 1 hr break then one last hour of class. two hours went fine, sat around reading/making copies during break and sat in the classroom waiting for the students for that last hour, only to have no one show.. when i asked the teacher she said that none of the teachers that hour wanted to give up their students. so i essentially sat around for an hour and a half at school (literally the most boring place on earth) just to be told i could leave later. another waste of time. again not as bad since i was happy about getting out earlier than expected, but i could have been working on my lesson plans on my computer at home during that time.
i just want people to be more on top of their stuff here pleasee. it's getting old.
in other new, just 36 days until my dad comes and 2 week break traveling around europe.. the light at the end of the tunnel. just 36 more days..
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