L'enfer dans l'enfer

I've been awful so far about posting.. and there will be a spam of posts soon. I'm working on one about my experiences so far at the school and another on things I'm involved in.

Tonight I was fortunate enough to go listen to a holocaust survivor. It was interesting to hear a perspective from someone who stayed in Europe.

This incredible woman made many striking remarks, but one thing in particular stuck with me. She continuously referred to being in the camps as "l'enfer de l'enfer" (hell of hell).

I found myself immediately thinking about everything I've been reading over the past few years about incarceration in the United States, and how thousands suffer from inhumane conditions.

I highly recommend reading Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman (not the Netflix TV series). And this article on juvenile detention.

A la prochaine...

Government Shutdown = No Snacks

Avignon has quickly stolen my heart away from Toulouse. It's been such a different experience. In Toulouse I didn't want to waste any time and wanted to see everything as soon as possible. In Avignon there is so much I have yet to see and I've been here for 10 days, but it quickly became home. I was actually a little bummed to go stay in a hotel in Marseille for training because I was enjoying settling in to my new place.

A large information session for all of the language assistants in the Aix-Marseille Academy was held this past Thursday. Many of the assistants were put up in a hotel the night before by the program, and even reimbursed for a meal for that night for up to 15 euros. A couple of the people I've met in Avignon wanted to go early that Wednesday so we could explore Marseille – we walked all around for hours. I've so thankful I wasn't placed in Marseille, it is a huge city compared to Toulouse and while it's extremely beautiful it's definitely somewhere where you need to be on your guard even more than usual.

Marseille is incredible. Right on the coast on the Mediterranean, with several forts to climb around to get a breathtaking view of both the city and the water. After several hours of walking, we settled into a dinner right by the water. We were ready to eat around 6:30pm, but most places don't even open for dinner until 8pm. We talked and ate for hours before returning to the hotel. This has been so different from studying abroad. I did, of course, meet an incredible group of people when I studied abroad. But I've found my new collection of friends in Avignon to be a little different. For one reason or another, we all felt compelled to take another sejour abroad, despite leaving friends, family, school, and other job offers behind. I'm so thankful to meet individuals that are so different from myself but that I feel connected to in our mutual desire to throw ourselves into an uncomfortable situation.

Training in Marseille was less than exciting, although I feel really bad saying that because the guy who ran it was so enthusiastic and had been an assistant back in 2002. We were told that it would start at 8:30am, so naturally we arrived around 8:15am, just to immediately hand in paperwork at have coffee and wait until after 10am for the actual meeting to start. In a run-down amphitheater at a university in Marseille, we listened to a mountain of instructions about how to get through all the paperwork in the coming months before a lunch at the university cafeteria. The afternoon was filled with more waiting. We had an hour and a half for lunch, a thrilling change from the 20 minutes I had while I was teaching. Then a visit at a cultural center before waiting around to go to the American Consulate at 3:30. It took almost 45 minutes for our group of thirty American assistants to get through security, where we proceeded into a small courtyard with about a dozen seats. The government shutdown finally hit me – no snacks or drinks at this reception!!! Just a couple hours of milling about waiting for the Consular General to show up. The best part was that I got to talk to a Foreign Server Office who had previously been stationed in Haiti and went to law school. It was worth all of the waiting around to meet this dynamic woman. I could definitely picture myself where she is in 15 years.

Unfortunately, because everything at the consulate took longer than expected, we got to the train station in Marseille right at rush hour and had to wait 45 minutes in line to buy train tickets to Avignon since none of us have bank cards with the chips in them yet. We sat and talked and lost track of time and almost missed our train and hopped on with a few seconds to spare, and accidentally got onto the first class section. For some reason the train cars weren't all connected on this one so we couldn't just walk through to second class so we figured we'd just hang out in the dining car and have some wine. The SNCF people sniffed us out and told us we'd have to get back in second class at the next stop. Now, TGV trains give you about a minute and thirty seconds to get on/off at stops along the way. We need to get pretty far down, with our glasses of wine! I can't even imagine what we must have looked like sprinting down the platform with our wine, but we just about made it, and got back to Avignon to enjoy a night in.

Next up was some actual training. In Marseille it had been every assistant, about 250 of us working with about a dozen languages. In Avignon I was just with English assistants working at high schools and middle schools in the area, so there were only about 12-14 of us – only two of which were males. The morning session wasn't very exciting, but in the afternoon we played games. I made the mistake of continuously making eye contact with the professors so I kept getting called out. There were a few moments throughout the day where I had to remind myself that I was in France because I felt more like I was in a Harry Potter movie between the British, Scottish, and Irish accents at the table. The session was primarily in English but both of the professors spoke with a British accent. It was a fun experience to meet other assistants but I'm really ready to just settle into my role at my school.

I feel pretty guilty that I haven't taken in a lot of sights to see in Avignon yet, especially because it's already October, but I'm working hard to settle in!

This place in Avignon - I laugh every time I see it.

A man climbing statutes - Patrick would go nuts over all the parkour opps here.

Marseille

We take pictures of ourselves taking pictures :)

Training classroom in Marseille

US Consulate - Marseille

No longer living in the hostel!

Wading through the French bureaucracy has been quite the adventure. The first day was spent hunting for apartments. Then it was onto to visiting the school where I'll be working. Opened a bank account. Signed a lease. Found someone to do an official translation of my birth certificate. Bought a pass for the bus/bike share. Tried to get a phone, but for the plan I want you need your bank card and I'm still waiting for that. Got a library card. Still working on paperwork for getting paid and social security. My health care here is the bomb dot com, I am thrilled to pieces.

I was a little nervous arriving to visit the lycee (high school) where I'll be working this year, but that went away quick as the secretaries and the principal were beyond welcoming. Better still, the head English professor is American! The school had everything completely organized even though I don't start really until October 7^th, I already had my schedule set and a mailbox with my name on it. I have a great schedule, and once I get fully settled in and past all of this paperwork I can hopefully find an internship/volunteer thing while I'm here.

Going completely against my original plan, I am living with two other American assistants. However, the huge 3 bedroom apartment in a prime location with a killer price tag was just more than I could turn down.

A few things I forgot about from when I was last in France:

• All of the SDF's (sans domicile fixe – without a fixed address – homeless-ish people) with their dogs.
• Most places are closed on Sundays and Mondays.
• 3 euro bottles of wine are delicious.
• You need a bank card with a chip to do anything useful.
• Kebabs are one of the most delicious things ever.
• There's no such thing as “scoop your poop” in southern France.

As a sidenote of the assumed rudeness of French people (mostly a northern thing I feel) I have to say I've had more positive experiences than negative:

• My French principal gave me a personal tour and introductions to all sorts of people I really didn't need to know.
• The bus lady remembered me with a smile.
• The librarian signed me up as a student with a wink even though I said I was working.
• The agent that set us up with the apartment let us keep our luggage in his office and offered to let us use his internet and photocopier.

The worst thing so far is the embarrassing amount of money I've spent at McDonald's so far just to use their .. we aren't getting any at the apartment until later next week. So hopefully I'll be able to update with some pictures soon!  

This is the extent of my sight-seeing thus far.. le pont!

wifi

Same hiatus.. different location

So I never exactly finished my Haiti blog. I just have to end with, it was a tough experience, and I left feeling more overwhelmed and powerless than I've ever felt in my life. I'm not sure what the solution is, I'm just more confused then ever about aid in Haiti.

Now I'm in a hostel in Avignon, France. Google it if you aren't familiar, it's absolutely gorgeous.

My journey here has taken about seven weeks, since I've been back from Haiti. Since then I've seen a friend get married, the Jersey shore, a Thai restaurant in Philly, plenty of Ocean City, Maryland, the French Embassy in DC, a hipster garden concert in Pittsburgh, numerous classrooms in Frederick County, and then a whole week in Ireland to celebrate the birthday of the best partner in crime I could ever ask for. We laid on the edge of the Cliffs of Moher, tasted whiskey, and played off being 3^rd year students at Trinity College crashing a dance group wine reception for 1^st years. And then said goodbye, but only for a couple months.

My trip to Avignon from Shannon, Ireland, took almost as long as my trek from Washington to Shannon. After a two hour delay in leaving Shannon, with the place packed with American soldiers, I finally made it to Heathrow and almost missed my flight because I'm ridiculous and took the 15 minute bus ride to the wrong terminal. Got to Marseille and managed to get on the shuttle to the train station despite the laughs from passers-by because one of my suitcases was broken so I was basically dragging it along the sidewalk. Had to walk in line for 45 minutes to buy a train ticket so I missed the speedy TGV train to Avignon (34 minutes) so I had to take the regional train which took almost 2 hours. Walked the half mile to my hostel, which is amazing by the way. Checked in and went and bought some juice. I love juice in France.

Today I spent almost ten hours walking around what was most likely within a 1km radius in the center of Avignon (I didn't even make it to the Palais des Papes – Google it.) looking at apartments, figuring out banks, trying to find someone to translate my birth certificate, and just talking with these other two people in my program.

The best part of the day was coming back to my hostel. Last night I was wrecked and anti-social. Tonight I met an 18 year old au pair from New Zealand working in Lyon, an early-thirties French engineer taking a break from life, and a 26 year old Ohio girl who studied anthropology and works for a bank in DC, also taking a break from life. I'm glad to have company.