November 24, 2020

Tuesday

Today was my first day taking the bus out of Anthon. Though I started work at 9, the last bus for the morning was at 7:30. I hopped on and my students were thrilled to see me. I sat in the back so I could listen to The Daily podcast.

Luckily, I had brought my book along. When I arrived at the school I got an hour or so of morning reading in and enjoyed some vanilla coffees.

As you may recall, Tuesday is my most difficult day. I have three classes that are absolutely wild. The task for the day was to teach about Thanksgiving. None of the students had any idea what it was! I told them about the help that Native Americans gave the Pilgrims that allowed the first Thanksgiving to transpire, but I also told them about the Pilgrims’ disrespect for Native land. We covered different dishes that are popular at Thanksgiving tables and voted on the most popular. Mashed potatoes, turkey, and rolls were their favorites.

Today was a battle. I discovered several of my students don’t speak French because they had immigrated with their families. I was shocked that none of the teachers had thought to share this information with me and that the students had no helper there to translate for them! I’m not sure how I’m supposed to teach them English if we share no common languages.

I was also really frustrated because I had a student making a show of not wearing his mask. Every time I see him, his mask droops below his nose. It is clearly meant for an adult and has never been washed. As with my other students, I quietly tapped my nose to remind him to pull it up. However, unlike others, he was defiant. He took the mask off and waved it around at his friend. The class was ending so I asked him to stay after and write down his name for me. Writing down your name for a teacher is a pretty big deal here. If a teacher writes down your name, you can get a note sent home in your “passport.” I asked him why he was misbehaving and he claimed that he was just too excited to see me. I told him that I was not excited to come to class because he was being so rude to me. I explained that he needed to be a lot more polite next time if he wanted to return to my class. He apologized and I sent him on his way.

Finally, it was time to take the big bus ride back to Anthon. In the middle of the day, there are no buses that make the 15 minute trek to Anthon from Pont Chéruy. Instead, there is a 20 minute ride to Meyzieu (outside Lyon to the west) and a 25 minute ride back east to Anthon. I was thrilled to find the right buses, but was really annoyed because my bus card didn’t work in Meyzieu. I discovered it was outside of the zone that I had paid for with the card. I’ll need to figure out how to add a zone so I can take the bus home everyday!

For dinner, Mme Bodet served one of her mom’s recipes. It was a lamb stew with carrots and gravy over white rice. I really liked it. The dish reminded me of something my grandma Jean used to make.

Tomorrow is my day off! Very excited to get some rest before I go back to my students.