Week 3: Every day is a mix of mini struggles and mini triumphs

Salut ! I am currently cozy in bed, exhausted in the best way and still full from an amazing meal I had earlier today. This week, I finally started feeling the way I had imagined I would feel while living in France! I have my route to and from both schools figured out, feel comfortable enough with my surroundings to explore a bit more, and continue to make more friends all the time.

Best: -I was invited to dinner in Urbès by a teacher from Deck where we had tarte flambée galore and I got to practice my French quite a bit with her husband and friend while talking about the US election and comparing French and American lifestyles a bit -biking alongside the mountains in the rain on the way to Mass, guided by the church bells -attending a Bach performance in a 14th century church -being able to use either a student or teacher discount pretty much everywhere I go-student because I’m under 26 and teacher because I…am…kind of and am working for the education department of the government -visiting the Ecomusée, a recreated Alsatian village from the 20th century -lunch today with another of the English teachers at Deck with choucroute and lots of yummy wine, followed by a walk home through vineyards on the mountain

Worst: -honestly, nothing really sticks out here! Each day has its little trials but there were no major mishaps this week

Funniest: -none of my students know the premise of why a random American stranger is suddenly standing in front of them trying to get them to participate, thus, they don’t know that I speak French…this equates to me cracking up when either a. they ask if I speak French and I respond en français b. one student translates what I’m asking to the rest of the class and I say, “Excuse me, English only, please!” in French and the response from the class is wide eyes and a look of shock like I just grew a set of tentacles

Truly French: -forever “la bise”, I never know which way to go first or when to do it, so I just wait for the other person to initiate and follow along -looks of horror when I explain how much college costs in the US (university here is only 800€ for a year and they say it’s expensive!)

What I miss from home:  -Target! There are no stores here with pretty much everything you could need for normal everyday life, I mostly miss being able to easily run to Target and get random small things like scissors or leggings or floss Last Saturday, I was picked up by a friend of a teacher (Christine) to be driven to Christine’s house in Urbès, which is about an hour away and on the other side of the Vosges, for dinner. I totally misunderstood where we were supposed to meet, and then got a call from Christine like, “My friend is waiting for you….are you coming????” and then I realized my error and RAN from my house to the mairie, which was where I was actually supposed to be. Off to a great start, hahaaa. But once we arrived, the evening was wonderful! Christine has a three year-old who is so darling and stared at me like I was an alien the entire night because he had never met an American before and was so intrigued when I spoke English. We had three different kinds of tarte flambée—the traditional ham and onions, then mushrooms and ham, then munster and some other kind of cheese—all of which were delicious and paired with some kind of salad of which I couldn’t get enough. For dessert, apple tarte flambée covered in an alcohol called calvados that they lit on fire when they served it. The thing about French meals is that the food and drink seem to never stop, and there are so many steps—aperitif, salad, main course, dessert, coffee/tea—that so far have been followed in every meal I’ve had while being here and it’s just the best thing ever to take your time during meals and enjoy your company. This night was also lots of French practice for me!

Monday was successful because Mrs. A found a backpack in her basement that I can use while riding my bike around town. This is soooo much better than dealing with my purse and makes life way easier. I’ve been lucky to not have to buy a lot of daily items because of my living situation—fully stocked kitchen, bike, bedding, free laundry, space heater, and now a backpack! It's not necessarily the most ideal because I'm sharing my space with other people and can't be quite as independent as I'd imagined, but it's like I'm living with long lost French grandparents.

French high school student observations: 99% of French students wear bomber jackets, scarves, skinny jeans, and sneakers. It’s seriously a uniform! Even the majority of male students wear skinny pants and leather jackets. Students are pretty open with PDA on and off campus, also. It’s normal and allowed (it seems?) to say sh!t and flip each other off in class…which is odd and I never know if I should say something when I have students under my own supervision. Also, more people than I would have ever expected ride Razor scooters in France??? And people pop wheelies on bikes like it’s their job.

One of the teachers from Storck took me and the other assistant to the Ecomusée on Wednesday. It's about a 15 min drive from Issenheim and is a huge recreated Alsatian village with 70 buildings! There’s just something about pastel buildings with flower boxes that is SO cute and I’ll never get over it—so this was however many hectares of me wandering around like OMG IT’S JUST ALL SO CUTE at every moment. They do a great job of making it a rounded experience with farm animals, demonstrations like plowing fields or turning milk into cheese, people working like they did in those times (almost ran into a smith wielding a glowing hot iron, so…), music playing, and authentic food. The Alsatian dialect isn’t really learned anymore, it’s something people’s grandparents can speak but younger generations don’t know it at all, so museums like this are important in preserving that heritage.

I ventured to Mulhouse on Saturday to get a new phone plan and to get internet for my house. Getting around in this area is tricky and requires lots of planning ahead of time to make sure all of the public transportation lines up. I rode my bike from my house to a park in Guebwiller, locked my bike to a tree, and hopped on a bus to Mulhouse. I thought I was on a bus that would end at the train station, which was a close walk to the phone store, but it ended somewhere else and I had to take the tram further into town. I accidentally took the tram for free and then walked to the store. I managed to get my phone sorted out easily enough but left without a plan for wifi because my landlords already use the phone line with a different carrier. I had a heck of a time trying to find the right bus stop to get back to Guebwiller, they're not clearly marked for the charter buses that go between towns sometimes. But I did find it eventually and made it back to Guebwiller and rode my bike home. Long story short, my landlords figured out they're paying way more for their phone line than they need to be because their package is really outdated (outdated as in they don't have unlimited calls on a landline...that exists???). So, the plan is to change over to a new plan that will also include internet, so now I don't have to pay for it! It should hopefully be up and running by early next week, but of course it's way more complicated than it should be.

Still can't upload photos because the McDonald's connection is too slow :( Hopefully I can post them soon!