On fait grève!

Let's face it:  You can't spend more than a few weeks in France without experiencing a strike.  Just thinking back through my four months spent in Rennes my junior year, I can recall at least one postal strike, a planned SNCF (national train system) strike that miraculously didn't wreck my weekend trip to Paris, a library workers strike that closed the school library and left me with nowhere to study, and a teachers strike that closed the elementary school where I was an English intern.  The French penchant for la grève can be difficult to grasp for the American mind that prizes efficiency and customer service, but I guess that's kind of the point:  it's SUPPOSED to be inconvenient, dang it!

I had barely been on French soil 3 weeks when I experienced une grève firsthand.  I had noticed signs left by various teachers at Breney informing their students' parents that there would be no lessons on Thursday the 23rd because the teachers were going to be grévistes.  At the time I had no idea what was at issue, but it was going to affect me all the same:  When schoolteachers go on strike, many parents decide to keep their children at home.  For those who work, however, the schools are required to provide les service minimales--essentially, day care.  No lessons can be taught during this time, since it would be like bringing in scabs to replace the strikers, but clearly someone has to be there to watch over the little darlings.  That's where I came in on Thursday.  The teachers for both of my Thursday morning classes were striking, so I helped one of the aides watch a GS (kindergarten) class.  About half the students had stayed home, so we only had 1o kids, and frankly, it was a ton of fun.  The students spent a lot of time coloring and playing with blocks and legos, and between helping them build an airplane, complimenting them on their beautiful artwork, and taking them to their 4 recesses, the day passed very quickly.  I also enjoyed having the opportunity to get to know the aides and the non-striking teachers better since I ate lunch (Breney has AMAZING food, by the way) and spent the whole day there.  The only negative thing was that I wasn't able to teach my afternoon CP classes at Fracasse because I was still needed at Breney.  That seemed a bit unfair to me, but I am definitely the lowest person on the totem pole (side note:  French people are OBSESSED with Indians.  As in Native Americans.  It's bizarre.) so I couldn't protest.  

And what was the strike about, you ask?  At recess I heard the aides and teachers discussing pensions and retirement, and that proved to be the issue.  This New York Times article  states it better than I ever could, but essentially Sarkozy wants to raise the retirement and pension-receiving ages, and the French workers aren't pleased.  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/world/europe/24france.html?_r=2&hpw

The strike only lasted one day, and as far as I know there aren't any more on the horizon.  Still, this is France.  La grève, c'est attendue. 

Un de ces quatre jeudis...

The dock between Deauville and Trouville

For those of you who might not be familiar with this expression (and don't be ashamed to admit it--I hadn't heard it until last Wednesday), un de ces quatre jeudis is a French expression that literally translates to "one of these four Thursdays"...kind of a "one of these days" sort of situation.  Things have been so busy since my arrival in Deauville that, even before I knew the expression, it's been the theme of my house-mates, Katherine and Cathya, and my first three weeks.  Un de ces quatre jeudis we'll feel confident driving our stick-shift car (check!)...Un de ces quatre jeudis we'll be able to understand what the kids are saying to us over lunch in the cafeteria (sort of...they talk fast and any conversation we have is in competition with the dull roar of elementary lunchtime frivolity)...Un de ces quatre jeudis our students will have a communal epiphany and understand that the reason that we're talking to them in English is that we're in *gasp* ENGLISH CLASS (not yet, though we're hoping this day will come soon)...Un de ces quatre jeudis we'll have a functional  internet and phone line here at 28bis (this week, fingers crossed)...Un de ces quatre jeudis I will start a blog to keep all you good folks back home apprised of what it is, exactly, that a French major does with her degree (DING DING DING!!!  WE HAVE A WINNER!!!).

In case you haven't heard, I got this teaching gig through the Lexington Sister Cities and UK and am working with two other May graduates (Katherine from UK and Cathya from Vanderbilt).  About halfway through our first week, after many hours spent observing the different classrooms in Deauville and its neighboring towns and much time spent discussing the different posts with our excellent coordinateur, Ivan, we picked our teaching positions for the next 10 months. Katherine is teaching all ages (MS to CM2, or Pre-K 4 through 5th grade) at Tourg éville, St. Arnoult, and Fracasse (the main elementary school in Deauville), Cathya is teaching CE1, CE2, and CLIS (2nd and 3rd grades and a special ed class) at Fracasse, and I got exactly the job I wanted: teaching MS, GS, CP, and CE1 (Pre-K 4 and Kindergarten at Breney, and 1st and 2nd grades at Fracasse).  I got some good practice with kids around this age this summer in Montr éal, and thus far it has served me well.  Even though there are times when I wish I could teach a concept for more than 5 minutes without my 4 year olds getting distracted and antsy, I take a look at how cute my students are and remember how fun it is to be paid to sing "If you're happy and you know it" and read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Very few complaints so far.

Even outside of the actual teaching situation, I feel very lucky to be here in a place that, thus far, has proved very welcoming.  Between the older students at Fracasse who I've gotten to know through garderie (after school care, which we help with) and the lunchtime English activities, the teachers at Breney who chat with me during recess, and even the nice man at SFR who patiently answered all of our questions and sold us our cell phones (it turns out that I have his cute daughter Lucie in one of my GS classes), I have not found the stereotype of French snobbery to be true at all.  Maybe it's because we're pitching our proverbial tents in the Deauville rain alongside them, but whatever the case may be, I'm not complaining.

Well, I'd say that's enough for now.  I have some good stories and pictures saved up, but I don't want to scare anyone away on their first visit.  Welcome to my life in Deauville.  I hope you will enjoy it vicariously (or in person--our house is officially open for visitors!) as much as I have loved experiencing it.