December 29, 2020

Tuesday

I spent the morning cooking up some pancakes and listening to the news. I love listening to the PBS Newshour everyday and they finally uploaded the Monday night episode. I made extra so I could warm them up in the future with my new toaster oven!

Around 3:30, one of my coworkers from Pont Cheruy picked me up so we could go on a walk together. She’s originally from Italy and has been working in France for a few years now, teaching Italian to middle school students. It seems that she’s faced a lot of the same challenges that I have- students refusing to participate, low language levels, and exasperation with curricular expectations. We started our walk in Crémieu and went for about 3 miles before turning back. The walk was incredibly peaceful. We were surrounded my huge cliffs and were beside a swift stream. We agreed that we would start going on walks more frequently together and made plans to visit a larger city on Saturday.

I was curious to learn more about her perspective on French culture. She grew up in Italy and is very well-traveled, so I thought she would have unique insights. Of course, I had to know what she felt about laïcité. This version of secularism is unique to France and is much more extreme than the United States or that which exists in Italy. She admitted that she is often irritated by laïcité in French schools. Instead believing that the French should be more open in their discussions of race, religion, and cultural differences. It was so nice to talk to another outsider about these issues! Sometimes I feel like I’m crazy because the French see no hypocrisies in their system, or at least refuse to admit they exist.

As we went along, I shared that one of my goals is to start learning Italian and German in 2021. I thrilled when she offered to help teach me both languages! Apparently, she speaks five different languages. Just incredible! I’m really excited because I’m working on getting my Italian citizenship and it would be helpful to be able to read documents throughout the process.