I hope I continue to like my work…

Filed under Teaching Assistantship by on October 8, 2007 at 8:20 pm {14 comments}

Tomorrow is my first full day at work. I’m going to arrive at 8 am and leave at 6 pm and I work 9-11am, 2-4pm, & 5-6pm. I’m really going to hate Tuesdays soon… I also work 2-5pm on Thursdays at the middle school and 10-11am & 2-4pm on Fridays at the high school. It’s actually a decent work schedule (compared to working 5 days a week like last year), but the problem is the train schedule. I have to arrive at 11:40am on Thursdays, and I cannot leave until 5:43pm on Friday. I won’t get home until 7 pm all three days.

David started teaching me how to drive a manual car this weekend. I hate it so much. I’m mad at the fact that these cars still exist and automatic cars are so expensive here. By the time I feel comfortable driving the car, it will be winter and I won’t want to drive in snow. ::sigh::

Time for bed already since I have to leave at 6:30 am tomorrow morning!

Rugby World Cup

Filed under French Culture by on October 6, 2007 at 8:47 pm {10 comments}

David has been watching the France vs. New Zealand (which I’m told is the best team, or is it South Africa?) rugby game for the past two hours. Apparently they just won. I have no idea what this means. But David says they are now in the semi-finals. I tried watching the last few minutes, [...]

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Success! Again!

Filed under Carte de Séjour by on October 5, 2007 at 11:39 am {12 comments}

I would just like to say I’m sorry to everyone else in France who is having problems with their préfecture and getting/renewing their cartes de séjour. I went to pick up my new carte today, and it was very easy and painless. It expires when I thought it would, and I was also able to [...]

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A little taste of Michigan

Filed under Michigan, North American Culture by on October 4, 2007 at 1:57 pm {14 comments}

On Monday, the British English speaking teacher at my school asked if I could write or find a menu for a restaurant serving “typical American food.” I said sure, no problem… but then realized two seconds later that there is no typical American food. In the following class, I had a hard time answering the [...]

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Nouvelle carte de séjour

Filed under Carte de Séjour by on October 3, 2007 at 11:28 am {2 comments}

I received notice from the préfecture that my new CDS is there! Except they’re closed on Wednesdays, so I can’t get it today. Of course. It should be a CDS visiteur that expires at the end of March. But we’ll see if they screwed that up… However, I need to do another changement du statut [...]

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Sapeurs-Pompiers de Genève

Filed under Uncategorized by on October 2, 2007 at 7:47 pm {4 comments}

The 118 Project. Swiss pompiers got fed up with so many people confusing their number (118) with the number for information (18something). They’ve been receiving about 20 calls a day for information instead of for fires. So they recorded a rap song and shot a music video to remind the Swiss that 118 is for [...]

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The good and the bad.

Filed under Driving in France by on September 26, 2007 at 6:20 pm {10 comments}

I received my French driver’s license! David is going to start teaching me how to drive a manual car this weekend. I still need to learn French road signs and all that too. What is up with the weird priorité à droite with little side streets? Why don’t cars on the main road have the [...]

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La Poste

Filed under Driving in France, French Culture by on September 25, 2007 at 2:45 pm {8 comments}

I have a love/hate relationship with the post office in France. On the one hand, their trucks are a cute yellow color and the new cow stamps are so adorable. Seriously, there’s one cow singing “Ne meuuh quitte pas…” and another says “Oh, mais quel joli timbre!” (Ne me quitte pas means don’t leave me; [...]

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Not a bad day(s)

Filed under Uncategorized by on September 22, 2007 at 9:30 pm {4 comments}

After the relief of being “hired” as an assistant again, I suddenly got a stroke of ambition and started planning out the entire year’s worth of lessons. Since I’m teaching at a different school this year, I can use the same lessons as last year, but I want to improve them a little and add [...]

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E-mail from the rectorat of Grenoble

Filed under Teaching Assistantship by on September 21, 2007 at 8:48 am {36 comments}

Nous avons le plaisir de vous proposer un poste en tant qu’assistante de langue anglaise dans l’académie de Grenoble. That’s right, I got renewed!!!!!! Yay for having an income again! The only sucky thing is that it’s an hour from here by train. Plus my two schools are not close together, so I can’t walk [...]

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Why is Jennie no longer in France?

I created this blog in September 2006 when I moved to France from Michigan to teach English. Many of the earlier posts are about my personal life in France, dealing with culture shock, traveling in Europe and becoming fluent in French. In January 2010, I started focusing more on teaching and learning languages in general. In July 2011, I relocated to Australia to start my PhD in Applied Linguistics. Although I am no longer living in France, my research is on foreign language pedagogy and I teach French at the university so these themes appear most often on the blog. I also continue to post about traveling (though now my trips are usually in Australia) and being an American abroad.

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