Le français parlé

Ok, this next post might seem a bit...égoïste but I'm going to write it anyway just because we all like to toot our own horns from time to time. I cannot believe how well I've done with speaking french since I've gotten here. Its so strange, I was curious before I left if I would just slip back into the culture in language and not experience much culture shock since I've already spent 3 months in France at a time before. Well there is still a bit of shock as far as the culture itself, but I think thats because Moulins is a much more French town than Montpellier was. Montpellier was a university town situated on the coast of the Mediterrenean with a lot of foreigners and students of my same age group, so the town has less of a french feeling, and its easier for foreigners to cope with the difference because one doesn't have to search very far to find someone who speaks your language, or even from the United States. But as far as Moulins is concerned, I haven't met any foreigners other than the other English assistant from El Paso. But concerning the language, I have ever surprised myself. Even on the flight from Atlanta - Paris, I sat next to a young french guy and we spoke a lot on the way here, and he couldn't believe an American could speak french so well. And in the taxi from Clermont-Ferrand airport to the train station, the driver thought I was from Québec. He thought I was a native french speaker! Here in Moulins too I have had several people comment on me not having a strong english accent, and some of them will even talk to me for 2 or 3 minutes before asking me where I'm from as if they just realized I wasn't French. And even those that do notice keep asking me what part of Great Britain I'm from. Apparantly its usually quite obvious when an American speaks french, I assume its because the vowels in Great Britain are closer to the vowels in French, and not so open and rounded and dipthongized as they are in most American dialects. I had dinner with Madme Lecole and her daughter sunday night, and her parents came over for a while to visit. Her father told me I was a liar and I wasn't an American, lol. He called me "un français qui comoufle comme un américain" which means a Frenchman in American camouflage lol. As far as the French accent itself here in Moulins, I like it a lot. It is a very very general accent, and to me it really sounds like basic french. It might have the smallest tinge of the bizarre nasal vowels that there was in Montpellier, but only in certain speakers, and in certain words. These speakers are probably native to southern France anyway. All in all, its an accent I would much rather adapt as my own than the accent in Montpellier, which makes me sound like a plouc (redneck).

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Today was an interesting day. I had my first meeting at l'inspection académique which is like the board of education that administers all the primary schools here in Moulins and the surrounding areas. (I must not that when I say primary school, it refers more to the english elementary school. The school system here is as follows; école maternelle [maternal school] is free but not obligatory from ages 2-5, and is required at age 6. School is compulsory in France from ages 6-16. École primaire [primary school] starts at age 6 and goes to age 11. Then the collège [middle school] begins which is age 11 to 15. Then begins the lycée which is like high school though age 18. Students are required to complete at least one year of Lycée to age 16.) Whew! Just thought I'd get that out of the way! Anyway at the meeting this morning I met with several professors of English and German from the area who were mostly older French women or English or German men or women; of course I was the only American present. But they all seemed very nice and willing to help me with how to prepare lessons and what not. As far as the job itself I am somewhat scared because there was a lot of talk concerning discipline and keeping the kids attention. I also learned that I will not be allowed to speak any French while teaching, which I think is actually going to make the job harder rather than easier. But alas, on verra! We will see! Anyway It's midnight and although I don't have anything extremely pressing tomorrow to do, I would like to get up in time to eat breakfast which ends at 7h45! I think I'll put a movie on and crawl into bed. Thursday morning I go to visit the schools I will be teaching in...I'm pretty excited to have any opportunity to meet more people here in Moulins. The fact that it is a smaller town and most people here already know each other is making it a bit more difficult to meet people at first, but I think after some time, it will make it easier to meet more people as my social network grows more. I mean, it hasn't even been a week yet; I shouldn't expect to know everyone in the city yet. It just gets lonely in this little room sometimes, and especially when I'm out walking and everyone else is walking in a group and I'm alone. Anyway, Good night everyone and you will hear from me again soon! Bonne nuit à tous!

I Love getting shafted...

So today I went the the Préfecture to start the process of getting my carte de sejour. Everything went very smoothly, I had all the necessary documents except for 4 photos d'identité; which was a problem easily solved by walking to Monoprix and taking four pictures in a photo booth. Then I turned everything in and recieved my récipasse which is basically a reciept valid for 3 months showing that I've applied for the carte de longue sejour. When I was leaving the guichet (booth) I saw that Lizette from El Paso was waiting to apply for her carte as well. So I waited on her to finish and we walked downtown and ate at a nice chinese resaturant which was delicious except it cost me €11... She is an American citizen but of Mexican decent, so we spoke Spanish at lunch. I am happy about this because I was very worried I was going to forget all my Spanish while i was here, and since she is the only other American assistant in Moulins, I imagine we will probably hang out a good bit. After that since I had my récipasse for the carte de longue sejour, it was now possible for me to open a bank account. This is where the shafting begins. Actually I got a great deal on the account itself. I opened an account at Crédit Agricole Centre-France which is a widely used popular bank throughout France, and my debit card will be valid all over France and most of Europe. There are CA atm's all over France. Normally it costs money to maintain a bank account in France, anywhere between €2-4 a month. Also it usually costs €15 for the carte bancaire but I opened a Compte Mozaïc which is only for those between 18 and 25 years old, where I get my checks and bank card for free, and the account is free for the first 3 months and only €1.80 per month after that. How I got shafted was in the exchange rate for my travelers' checks. This morning I looked up the exchange rate online and it was €1 = 1.279...well at the bank the best they could give me was 1.349...Its not a massive difference but I would prefer to keep my money rather than watching it fall into the void of nothingness, lol. Not to mention a 6 euro fee just for accepting the travelers' cheques...thanks american embassy for telling me that travellers' cheques would be the best way to avoid fees... I should have just taken cash from an ATM with my American debit card and given them that to start the account, i would have gotten away with a better exchange rate probably, but only time will tell, when my reciepts start rolling in from my debit card transactions and I can calculate the exchange rate on those... anyway enough financial talk. Now I have to go and deal with more paper work and apply for the CAF (Caisse d'Allocations Familiales Which is the government program for subsidizing my rent. I now have to pay 262 euros a month, but I should be able to get about 156 back thus only owing a little over €100 a month which will help greatly seeing as my monthly income after taxes is only going to be €760. kbye. Will update more later, New pictures of my walk downtown and downtown Moulins here.

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Bienvenue à Moulins!

Ok everyone, it's me again...finally. It's been four days and things are actually going better than i expected them to! I sit now in my room in the Viltaïs foyer de jeunes travailleurs which is a residence for students and young workers (which is the translation of jeunes travailleurs). It took me a looong time to get here though, and there were some initial problems at the airport but everything went smoothly after that. First of all when I tried to check in at the airport in Atlanta, the man behind the counter told me I couldn't leave for France without a return flight, and my ticket was only a one-way. After arguing for a while, I explained to him that no one ever told me that I would need proof of return, and I asked him if the US was so scared that I wouldnt come back, and he said that it was actually France that wanted proof of this. Basicaly he told me I couldn't leave the airport without a ticket, and according to him the cheapest one he could find was $3600! I was like, "I don't have $3600 dude, but I am getting on that plane today!" Finally he asked a man at another counter and he told that guy "Oh I wouldn't worry about that...they won't care, the guy in passport control will probably be asleep!" And alas, he was right, they barely even glanced at my passport, they didn't even look at my visa! So anyway, 9 hours and a couple of drinks later I landed in Paris at 6:20am (inflight movie = X-Men the last stand, good call Delta...) So I had two hours in Paris, well the Charles de Gaulle airport is under massive renovation and construction, so i had to ride a bus like 30 minutes from my plane to the terminal, then walk probably a mile in the airport to the gate for my flight to Clermont-Ferrand, where we didnt get on the plane...we got on another bus which took me almost to the same spot where i left the first plane! anyway After the flight to Clermont, I took a taxi to the train station where i bought a ticket for Moulins that left like 3 minutes after i bought it, so i had to run to the train with all my heavy luggage, but I made it! I arrived in Moulins, and called my contact Madame Lecole, who came immediately to pick me up. I must say that though she never answered my emails, she is a very nice lady and very helpful, she took me to her house for a cup of coffee, then took me straight to the residence where i am currently living. Luckily they let me go straight to my room and sleep without bothering me with paperwork at the time. I did eat something in the cafeteria there first (cous cous) which serves awesome food! The next day we had steak! I was so tired and delirious that i could barely eat however. Then I slept 9 hours in my room from 2pm to 11pm... When i woke up, I couldn't sleep anymore so I walked downtown to check out the city for a couple of hourse. Unfortunately the residence is on the south side of moulins, it takes about 30-40 minutes to walk into town. But there is a commercial center not far south of me, you can see it on this pic i will post at the end on the main road south out of moulins, where there is a Carrefour (like a super wal-mart but probably bigger) and one thing really cool about carrefour, all the price tags are electric, so anytime a price changes they dont have to physically go change it...also there is a pretty big best-buy like store but I can't remember the name. I found a cool bar downtown called l'Apostrophe with a dance club called le Triptic right next door. I hung out for a while friday night at l'Apostrophe where these 40-something businessmen kept buying me drinks and telling me how much they love America, I couldn't believe it. One guy was like "I have so much respect for americans, y'all saved us back in '45" My jaw hit the floor, i never thought I would hear that. I told him not to thank me but my grandfather. But I got to talking a lot with the bartender, Jean-Marc for a while, and there was this HUGE ripped arabic guy, Sahid, in there too talking to the bartender, and i later found out he was the bouncer at the Triptic. When I went to leave l'Apostrophe, Jean-Marc was like "come walk with me" and he took me over there and told them I was English and to take care of me(i guess he didnt want to say I was american lol) but they let me in for free and everyone was talking to me which was cool. This town is very interesting because everyone seems to already know each other. For instance, Sahid greeted everyone coming into the Triptic en faisant la bise (the cheek kisses) and they all seem to know each other already, which i feel might make it difficult to meet people. Also, there weren't many people there my age, they were either younger high-school students, or like 30 or 40 somethings. I have never seen so many forty-year-olds throwing down in a dance club before! But anyway saturday I went shopping for stuff for my room at Carrefour, and then I walked back to the Apostrophe and Triptic that night, but i found this place, the Solex Cafe first, which was pretty cool, but mostly younger high-schoolers, not really my scene. I met a bunch of kids at the Solex, who wanted to go to the Triptic, so I walked there with them, and the bouncer was going to make them pay, and I was standing behind them all, and he waved me on in, it was awesome lol! I got invited to a little party/gathering for tomorrow (monday) night by the people who work at the Triptic. There is only the bouncer, and another guy Sébastian, and his girlfriend Catie is the bartender. Its a pretty small place. So far there isn't much else to say. I am still just trying to get settled and learn the city, it has been raining almost the whole time I have been here, which sucks. They tell me it rains a lot here so, blah. I'm ready for the cold so it will just snow instead. Earlier today I met Lizette, the english assistant for the high schools who is from El Paso, TX. She seemed nice but she has been here a week already and she seems to be struggling a bit. Tonight I went to have dinner with Madame Lecole, and I met her parents and her 12 year-old daughter and her dog, Zaza :) Dinner was great, and that brings me here! Sitting in front of my computer at 12:25am on a sunday night! Tomorrow I have to go to the Prefecture to start the process of getting my carte de longue séjour (long stay card) which will let me stay in france until the end of July, if I decide to stay a month after my contract ends. I also need to find a cell phone company that suits my needs though i might wait until I actually make some friends to pay for a phone, lol. I also have to find a bank that suits my needs and go ahead and open an account...which is gonna kill me because the exchange rate sucks so bad right now. 1 eur is almost $1.28... so when i put my money into the account i will only get 78 euro centimes per US dollar...blah... I will write again soon with more info. I'm enjoying my time here, but im still trying to get settled in, and I'm still a bit jet-lagged (décalage horaire). I also want to go take some pictures of the city, but I want to wait until a sunny day to do so!



You can click on this picture for the Full size version. I took this a little too late but I didn't even think to take a picture when I realized I was flying over Moulins! I have marked my Residence which is a pretty tall round tower. I will post a pic of it from the ground later.

Just wanted to add a quick link showing exactly where Moulins is! I just noticed i forgot to even mention the location. Its situated about 310km from Paris, 100km from Clermont-Ferrand, and 190km from Lyon. Anyway here is a quick link to google earth showing the location.

T- 2 days...

Hi everyone... Patrick here. Never thought I would buy into all this "blogging" business, but alas, here i am. I figured this would be the best way for people to keep up with my adventures in France during my year as an Enlish teaching assistant. So the basics i guess will be a good place to start. I will be in the town of Moulins, France (moulins = windmills) which including the surrounding areas has a population of about 40,000. Pretty small, right, but I'm hoping the small-town atmosphere will help me in meeting a lot of people and also in avoiding english-speaking tourists. I will be living in a foyer d'étudiants which doesn't really translate into English very well. I guess you could describe it as a dormitory that isn't really associated with any specific school. Hopefully I will be living in close proximity with the other language assistants for Moulins which means people my age from Spain, England, Portugal, Germany, etc. etc. This should be pretty cool because we will all speak French amongst ourselves as a common language. As of right now I don't really know anything! My contact in France, Madame Lecole (ironic name, since L'école means school!) refuses to answer my e-mails with anything more than a 4 or 5 word answer. I know I will be teaching in up to 4 different primary schools with children ranging from age 9 to 11. Should be interesting since I have no formal training in teaching! And as the assistants from last year in Moulins have told me, I will not be a teaching assistant as my job description implies, but rather the full-blown English professor. They told me I would most likely be the only person in any of the schools who even speaks English! I'm working on packing my suitcase right now and trying to decide what on Earth I need to take with me while minimizing the amount of crap I'm gonna have to lug around two airports, a cab ride, and a train station. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to take up lodging immediately in the foyer d'étudiants or if I will need to stay in a hotel/hostel the first few nights! Tout va se montrer en deux jours... All will reveal it self in two days! I will post again upon my arrival where I am sure I will have adventures to tell from the 20 hour process of getting from Dudley, Georgia to Moulins, France.

2.5 hours Dudley - Atlanta
3 hours International check-in, security, etc.
9 hours Atlanta - Paris
2 hours layover in Paris
1 hour Paris - Clermont-Ferrand
1 hour layover in Clermont, cab-ride to train station
1 hour train from Clermont-Ferrand to Moulins