Es ist sehr windig!

October 5, 2004

I have discovered that I am not alone in my corridor. I thought that I was the only person living here. I actually waited three days before coming to this conclusion. I was pretty happy about it because it meant that I had the shower and toilet all to myself and that I could play my music louder.

Alas, this was not to be. I met one of the other inhabitants last night. She was wandering the corridor, waiting for the shower to warm up (it takes a really long time. This morning, for example, I turned on the water then went back to my room to brush my teeth and change into my robe. When I got back, the water was still frigid.) She seems nice, and she said that there is another person who lives in the corridor.

There seem to be students who live here every week. Perhaps they live further away from the school. Last night, all of a sudden, the place was crawling with French high-schoolers. I was walking back to my room in the dark and there were French kids tucked into every nook and cranny. There doesn’t seem to be much by way of adult supervision here. I can imagine American parents having one collective heart attack if their kids were here. Still, I haven’t been shot at yet, so I guess its pretty safe here.

I met with the two of the IUFM English teachers yesterday. Wow, the system is really complicated. I can’t even begin to explain it in English (nor in any other language). I have to meet one-on-one with all the students who have a focus in English. Then I have to arrange small groups of two to three and small debates of seven to eight. I have to keep track of the time everyone spends with me because those with an English focus must have a minimum of ten hours with me. I also have to research and prepare the topics. And I promised the third English teacher that I would help out in her class. Meanwhile, the girl from Argentina is complaining that she has more work than me at the IUFM. Though, to be fair, she got a real bum deal. There are no Spanish students there so she has to spend six hours each week recording cassettes in Spanish. She has my sympathy. I would rather have an organizational challenge than have to sit in a little cubicle droning into a machine.
Valence seems to be really windy. I don’t remember how to say windy in French so I’ve been going around saying Es ist sehr windig. Someone was telling me that Avignon (south of us) is so windy that people have gone mad there. Might explain some of the Popes.