Monday was just another day in Dax as an English assistant. I went to school, taught, and came home and j’ai glandé toute la reste de la soirée (basically, lazed about). Yesterday was a very very long day and was soo exhausting. I feel that my Tuesdays are always so exhausting! I got up at 6:30 got ready, took the bus at 7:22, got to school around 8:15, taught, took the bus for my other school at 9:54, waited for thirty minutes in town for another bus at 10:29, arrived at school at around 10:45 taught at 11:00, spent 12:00 to 2:30 in the teachers lounge doing nothing, taught at 2:30 and then again at 3:45.

I’ve been getting a ride from one of the teachers that I teach for. His name is Nicholas. He is a really really nice guy and I work with his wife who works at one of my other schools. He is a pretty good looking guy and relatively young and so everyday at the end of the day when we try to leave it takes us like 10-20 minutes as ALL the single (or maybe even the not-so-single) moms are like “Oh! Hello Nicholas!”. They stop him and give him “des bises” (air kisses) and talk and flirt with him. Some of the women are so pathetic. I think they may put make-up and dress themselves up just to see him. It makes me laugh secretly because I can see that he notices it but he has never once mentioned how it annoys him and I personally don’t think it is appropriate to bring it up.

David, the Scottish assistant left today to return home because of medical complications with his dad. All the assistants had planned on meeting at 7:30 at the Australian bar, Byron Bay. I knew that if I went home I would have passed out and not made it so I decided to go to Byron Bay and take advantage of the free wifi since I had my computer with me. David was there waiting on one of the teachers he worked with who speaks like PERFECT English. I hung out with him and Will and when Valérie left we ended up going across teh street and getting ourselves some pizza from this place called Pizza Maïté! It was soo good! I got blue cheese on my pizza…mmmmmm! The rest of the assistants arrived and we watched a football (soccer) match on television. Alissa had made David a card that we all signed that we gave to him and we all signed a U.S. Dax Rugby Team rugby ball and gave that too him. It was really sad to say goodbye to David. He stayed over at Will’s house so that he wasn’t so far from the station. Isabel, Fernando, and Dasia ended up taking him to the Gare (train station) in Fernando’s car at like 5:30 in the morning!!

David, if you are reading this, WE MISS YOU!!!!! Seriously! Thank you so much for the Scottish Flag! It’s definitely going up in my room so we can always be reminded of our trollied little scotsman! Ok, so you weren’t that trollied too often but I had to use some Scot slang!

Today, I got up at 11 to get ready and catch the bus to go to this city called Mont de Marsan where the Préfecture is located. I went with Georgia and Dasia. Georgia and my bus was of course running late and we thought we weren’t going to make it to Place St. Pierre on time to get the bus to Mont de Marsan. We arrived just in time and took the 1 hour and 42 minute bus ride throught the hills of the department of Les Landes. If Jeremy (my brother-in-law) or David Sours (family friend) had been on the bus they would have been puking their guts out. The driver drove so crazily through the hills and valleys and was going so fast. It was a bit scary!

When we go to Mont de Marsan we weren’t dropped off where I thought we would be dropped off and had to make our way down to the center of town to find the Préfecture. We were under the impression that the last bus to return to Dax was at 4:00 pm so we hurried and walked at a fast pace to the Préfecture. After asking a few people and stopping in at the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) we finally made it. We took a number and waited. When my number was called I went up to the window and told the lady I was there to get my Carte de Séjour. She told me that I didn’t get it there and that I would have to go and ask this guy at the “Welcome Counter”. We went back to the counter where there was no one to welcome us and waited. We saw him in an office talking to someone. This is typical of France. They have no concept of customer service. You will go in somewhere and the workers will be talking among themselves as people gather and keep gathering around waiting to be helped. It is ridiculous! Finally when he came back I told him what we needed and he pointed us to a office that had a sign “Etrangers” (foreigners).

We went into the office and a lady came and helped us. She was extremely nice! I was worried my birth certificate wouldn’t suffice but it was all ok! In total, to get my Carte de Séjour I had to of course have a VISA, my passport (with the visa inside), a copy of the visa and the passport, a proof of residence, a paper that stated that I had been to see the national medical association, a copy of my arrêté de nomination, and four identity cards (which they are VERY VERY particular about here).

The lady talked to us as she processed our paper work. It was nice that we could sit there and let her process all of ours, one right after the other. She asked if my last day was the 30th of June like it stated on my Arrêté, which I responded yes but I told her I planned on staying some days after that (as I have to teach on the 30th). She told me she couldn’t give me any more days than 15 and I’m set to leave on July 15th. I need to start looking for a plane ticket! I asked her if I could stay longer (not that I was planning to) if I wanted on my American Passport as Americans can travel to the “Shengen” countries on their passports for up to 3 months without having a visa. She told me that this rule didn’t apply if he had been here for longer than three months on a visa already so that I would have problems if I stayed much longer after the carte de séjour was up. I don’t plan on staying much past the 14th anyway but we’ll see.

After we got our passports processed we made our way back to the train station where we found out that the online schedule for the Dax-Mont de Marsan bus is wrong. The last bus wasn’t until 6:25, so we went to a cafe to keep warm and waited for a good 3 hours.

Another thing good came from this day, I was paid my last paycheck by Voicebox for a considerable amount, which makes me VERY VERY VERY VERY happy!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone back at home in the US! I plan on going to my friend Diana’s house on Friday in Bergerac (like Cyrano de Bergerac), France to have Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday! It should be awesome!

Btw- I had to pull the coat, scarf, and gloves out yesterday and (should have) today as it got close to 30 (0˚C) here! BRRRR I never thought I’d need it here!

This post is stored in the category of Made in France, Personal Post and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Byron Bay, Cartes de Séjour, Dasia Martinez, David Bell, Dax, Diana Barger, English Assistants, Georgia Irving, Isabel and Fernando, Les Bises, Les Landes, Mont-de-Marsan, Pizza Maïté, Préfecture, Rugby, Scottish, U.S. Dax, Will Stingon

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Right now it is pouring rain outside! It’s about 50˚/53˚. I just got back from celebrating Will’s birthday at Isabel and Fernando’s apartment. It was nice b/c Fernando came and got us from the residence hall and brought us back since it was raining so hard. This is the strongest I have seen the wind and the rain since being in France. I’m really not used to it. Tonight we had spaghetti with a white sauce with mushrooms, onions, peppers, and bacon bits. It was delicious. We finished it off with a raspberry cake that was amazing.

Last night we went out to eat a this place called the l’Atrium. I got onion soup as an entrée (entrée means “entrance” in French so it makes sense that it means appetizer), duck with a salad and fries as my main course and this chocolate cake with ice cream for dessert. It was absolutely amazing. After we went to this café called the Sax y Rock where this band was playing. It was absolutely ridiculous and it reminded me of how much I really missed the US and confirmed how I could never live in France forever. We met some Spanish students who were doing internships at the local thermal baths. Georgia and I ended up walking home relatively early like 3:00am as the others went out to a dance club.

Friday I struggled getting out of bed to go to class but I of course went and my first school was great as usual but the second was absolutely terrible. The kids in this school are just rotten. I cannot believe they act the way they do and show so much disrespect to me and the other teachers. I was getting fed up with them and I may have a nervous break down if they don’t calm themselves down!

I’m not looking forward to this week! But I guess I could say that every week!

This post is stored in the category of Made in France, Personal Post and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: French, Georgia Irving, Isabel and Fernando, L'Atrium, Onion Soupe, Rain, Sax y Rock, Spaniards, Will Stinton

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I started feeling really ill yesterday and I went to bed feeling like crap and woke up today at around 2:30 in the afternoon feeling even worse. I have sort of cold/sinus infection and it is really annoying. I hate feeling ill and nothing is worse than waking up in the morning feeling like complete crap.

I didn’t do anything today except work on my new website, which is where you are reading this. This one works out a lot better than the old one and it isn’t as tacky and more aesthetic I believe.

Tomorrow there is a national grève (strike) for all educators who would like to participate. That is right, a teacher has the choice tomorrow of not showing up to school to teach. I’m not sure why they are striking as I didn’t get the detailed memo. Unfortunately only 2 of the 5 teachers for whom I teach are striking tomorrow so I have to go in and work. We assistants don’t get a choice of striking unless the whole school closes down for the strike. I don’t want to go in tomorrow, but bof…c’est la vie!

This post is stored in the category of Made in France, Personal Post and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Cold, Grève, Sick, Sinus Infection, Strike

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I’m exhausted today! Today was a long day. I got up at 6:30, which was hard considering I was up until 2:00am talking to dad on gmail chat about my plans after this year. I had to catch a bus at 7:22am to get to my first school, which is the furthest from where I live. I take two buses for about a total of 45 mins and then I walk 15 mins to the school for one simple 45 minute class. In all my classes today we played Bingo. The kids absolutely loved playing it. For my first class it was review as this was the first time having them since vacation. For my other three classes it was review for the test I gave them today. As a prize for winning a round of Bingo, I handed out tiny little smiley face erasers. You would think I gave them gold they way they reacted. After class they came up and hugged me and thanked me. Some of those who had not won were hugging me trying to get an eraser out of me! I’m strong when it comes to these kids. They are really great kids and I feel the French system is sometimes unfair and very hard on them. I feel myself being sucked into the system but I’m trying to keep a even balance of discipline and yet compassion for these children who are pushed harder than any American child could dream of being pushed. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the results of the tests. In my one class there was 100% As except on child failed but he has aspergers so I don’t really count that as failing as he got 6 out of 18 correct.

Today and last Thursday, one of the teachers at my school offered to drive me back to Dax and drop me off in the center of town so I didn’t have to wait for the bus. He is really really nice! He has been the one teacher of all of the teachers I work with who has tried to get to know me. It is really hard forming relationships with the teachers when I’m at 4 schools and at 3 of those schools I’m only there about 2-3 hours a week.

I think I’m coming down with a mild cold or a sinus infection as I’m getting drainage and a sore throat. It could be because of the heating system here in the residence hall (and in most of Europe). Since all of Europe still uses cinder blocks to frame their houses (meaning no wood) everyone still uses steam heat and radiators. First of all, the heat wasn’t even turned on before I left for vacation and it got down in the 30s a few times at night. I’ve noticed that my room is a lot chillier in the evenings and at night than in the morning. It could be that I just get used to the temperature and I can’t get it to go any higher or it might be because they turn off the water heaters at night. Usually before 6:30am you can’t get a really good hot shower as I think the water heaters here are on a timer.

I didn’t feel like eating dinner and I started to cook spaghetti but stopped it and decided I’ll eat it tomorrow. I took some tylenol PM and passed out until the other assistants woke me up. Now I can’t go back to sleep and I feel drowsy. I’m pretty sure Diana gave me her cold now that I’m thinking about it. I have the day off tomorrow thank God! I’m going to relax, try to stay warm and work on rebuilding my website that I deleted last night. I’ll work on adding more photos and put up the links to the albums ASAP! Please comment and let me know how you are all doing!!!!

This post is stored in the category of Made in France, Personal Post and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Bingo, Cold, Diana Barger, Sick, Sinus Infection, Teaching

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Well, it has been over a month since I have last written and I don’t think I’m even capable of telling everything that has happened but I will try to cram everything in.

The monday after my grandfather passed way we had our orientation with all the other assistants. There are a few Spanish assistants and one German assistant and of course many English assistants. The orientation was for all assistants teaching every level.

At the orientation they introduce our region and the way the French education system works. They helped us fill out many important forms and we started learning a little about what we should be teaching. On Thursday of that week we had a little training session where we talked only about what we should be teaching to the primary aged kids. That Friday night Alyssa made fajitas for all the assistants in Dax. There is Isabel (Spain), her boyfriend Fernando (Spain), Dasia (Mexico), Wil (Hawaii/Washington State), Georgia (Jamaica), Alissa (Canada), and David (Scotland). We drank like 7 bottles of wine between the eight of us! OH France!

The following week we started school. My schedule was like this:

Mondays- 3:30 to 4:30 at Ecole (School) Henri Lavielle (two classes for 30 mins each)

Tuesdays- 8:45: to 9:30 at Ecole Marie-Curie
11:00 to 4:30 at Ecole Barrouillet (three classes for 45 mins each)

Wednesdays- Off (French primary/maternelle aged kids do not go to school on Wednesdays)

Thursdays- 9:00 to 10:00 at Ecole Henri Lavielle (two classes for 30 mins each)
11:00 to 4:30 at Ecole Barrouillet (three classes for 45 mins each)

Fridays- 8:45: to 9:30 at Ecole Marie-Curie

I started off with all my classes by teaching them the common commands that they would need to know and understand to make the class function like: stand up, sit down, listen, be quiet, look, point, raise your hand, walk, come here, i know, i don’t know, stop, color, draw, repeat, show me, pick one, etc.

It has been pretty exhausting teaching and having to take the bus for more than 5 hours a week gets old as well as my schools are the furthest away than anybody else’s.

We only taught for two full weeks before having vacation. The first session I taught the commands. The second session I reviewed and taught on the Pumpkin Show. The third session we reviewed the commands and the fourth session I taught about Halloween. Those weeks went by fast but they felt long. The weekend between those first two teaching weeks Dasia invited us over to eat at her place. We ate out on her huge balcony and then played games and went out after. Here in France they don’t go out until really late and when I say really late I mean that just this past Saturday we went to a club and showed up at midnight and it was dead. By 2:00am people started coming and it was hopping! The night before we stayed out until 5:00am! Our choices of places to sortir (go out) aren’t that great as Dax is a spa town with TONS of old people.

We started a school break for Toussaint (All Saints Day even though the break was like 10 days) on the 25th of October. I had planned on going to see my host families in Belgium and visiting Amsterdam. My first mom told me I could find flights pretty cheap from this city near me called Pau to Charleroi, Belgium. I got on and saw there were flights for about 24€ and 9€ for aller-retour (return trip) but I waited to get my plans all settled and waited too long as I ended up having to take a train there and getting a reasonably cheap flight for 40€ back to France. On the 20th I took the train from Dax to Paris Montparnasse and then took the Paris Metro to Paris Nord where I then took another TGV to Lille. From Lille I took a train to Tournai and then at Tournai I bought a go-pass (10 on way trips for €46) and took the train to Charleroi. From Charleroi I was taking the train to Couvin which is where the line ends and where i was going to have my host mom meet me at 20h49 (8:49pm).

Half way through the hour trip the train’s horn blasted and we came to an abrubt stop. We all sat around looking out the windows wondering why we had stopped for a good 30-40 minutes. Finally the “contôleur” came and informed us that we had hit a man who had been working on the tracks and had killed him. He told us to sit where we were and that it would be a good one to two hours before we would be leaving. I started to freak out as I didn’t have my host family’s number in my phone (first mistake). It was horrible I tried getting other people to try and call their parents and have them look up my host family’s number in the phone book but the only thing other people would do was text and I never got a response from anyone. Finally a bus arrived near where we were. They guided us off the train right past the blood and gore smeared on the front and side of the train and made us walk about a kilometer on the train tracks and then led us down a hill to the bus. The bus drove us to the nearest bus station called Walcourt. I explained my plight with two girls on the bus and the one told me she was from Chimay and that her dad had come to Walcourt to pick her up and she could drive me and this other girl to Couvin. Upon arriving in Couvin, my host mom was nowhere to be found. I told the other girl that had gotten a ride with us that my host family was not there and she told me her friend could take me to their house despite it being 23km away and in the middle of nowhere. When I arrived at my host family’s house my host brother and host dad said my host sister and mom had moved to a different train station to intercept me earlier as they were freezing. I would say they weren’t too happy. We ate dinner (at like 11:30 at night) and I finally ended up going to bed as I was exhausted from being on trains for more than 10 hours. The next day they invited my host grandparents over for dinner and my host dad’s son came and it was nice.

They drove me to Nismes to visit my third host family. Everyone was there except my host brother. My host mom had to call my host sister Virginie (the one who came to the US) and tell her to come home as she had just left to return to Brussels when I arrived. It was great seeing them again! Really great! The next day I hung out by myself at my host family’s house as my host brother had returned to Charleroi to school, my host dad worked and my host mom and sister went to visit my host mom’s family. That night my host dad took me to my second host family’s house.

It was great to see my second host family even though it is still difficult for them after losing their daughter. They took me to the European Space Center and to this town that is full of book stores. I bought some books (as they are my weakness). It was a nice trip. The next day I hung out with them and went on a walk and saw the giant windmill they had installed in Couvin. Overall the experience of going back “home” to Belgium was nice. Nothing really has changed and I really really had a good time.

I went to Amsterdam on the 29th and stayed until the 1st. It was a good time although traveling by yourself isn’t fun at all and most of my pictures from that part of my trip are gone.

On the first I returned to Belgium and made a stop in Antwerp and then continued on to Brussels. I had made plans to meet up with two friends of my friend Elizabeth Lemons in Brussels, Melanie and Britta. Dumb me, I forgot to put Melanie’s phone number in my cell phone and I had no way of contacting her to meet up with her. I called Liz over skype to see if she could get me the number. While I waited in the cyber cafe I was in to call Liz back I suddenly hear my name and look up and it is Melanie with Britta! It was unreal! We had a good time. I took them to my fav restaurant in Brussels “The Cheesecake Cafe” and then we went to the Mannekin Pis bar and I made them taste amazing Belgian beer.

I had made plans to stay with my Belgian friend Olivier who was an exchange student in Logan, Ohio the year before I did my exchange. We were going to go out to a club but I didn’t have any chic clothes so we ended up going home and chilled. It was SO great to see him again, wow! I had a really good time the three days I was at his house. That Sunday I met up with Paola who was an exchange student in Belgium when I was. She is from Ecuador and is going to school in Belgium and dating a Belge. It was such a fun day acting like tourists in Brussels. She cried when she saw me and it made me feel really good. The only crappy part is I got my camera pickpocketed. I was pretty angry that I didn’t have it secured better. It was sad saying goodbye to Paola and we had a great time. I returned to Olivier’s that night and the next day just chilled in a cafe all day in Brussels. The next morning I got a plane at 11:20 and flew from Charleroi to Pau. I got a taxi to the train station and took the train to Dax where I then took two buses to finally be HOME!

It was great being home but I was not ready to teach on Thursday and I ended up having stomach problems/24hr bug on Thursday and not going to school. Friday I went to my first class but forgot about my second class. Before we left on vacation, Madme Dubroca, the foreign language coordinator assigned me, Georgia, and Alissa to another school. This added 10:45-11:30 for me on Mondays and Fridays. That weekend we were invited to Isabel and Fernando’s for dinner. It was a great way to catch up with everyone about their breaks. David’s girlfriend was visting from Scotland.

On Tuesday it was Armistice day (Veterans day) so I only had to teach Monday, Thursday, and Friday. David’s brother came on Wenesday and we all went out on Friday until 5:00am on Saturday morning. We David, his brother Stuart, Alyssa, Dasia, and I went to another Dax rugby game at 2:00pm on Saturday and Diana, my best friend from Belgium who is doing this program and who lives in Bergerac came to town that night. We ended up going out again to what we had heard was the best place to go out to in Dax. It was pretty lame with almost everyone being over the age of 40. It was fun having Diana around and catching up with her. We had Indian for lunch yesterday and then had a coffee before we split up to walk our separate ways.

Today I had my new class of CE2s (8 and 9 yr old) and my CPs (6-7 yr olds). We played “classroom command” bingo. Tomorrow I’m giving a test to my one school and playing bingo with my one class at the other school.

I’m really going to try hard and update this as much as possible! I promise!

This post is stored in the category of Made in France, Personal Post and was written by Derron Borders

Tags: Alissa Morano, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Assistants, Belgium, Brussels, CE2, Charleroi, Couvin, CP, Dasia Martinez, David Bell, Dax, Diana Barger, Elizabeth Lemons, English Assistants, European Space Center, French Education System, Georgia Irving, German Assistants, Henri Lavielle, Jules Barrouillet, Les Pins, Mannekin Pis, Marie-Curie, Nismes, Olivier, Orientation, Paris, Pau, Pumpkin Show, Redu, Spanish Assistants, Toussaint, Train, Train Accident, Walcourt, Will Stinton

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