January 28, 2021

Thursday

Today feels like it’s been an eternity!

Mme Bodet drove me into school around 8am this morning. It was drizzling and a little chilly outside. Fog hung over all the fields. She volunteered to pick me up from the Meyzieu bus stop on Sunday when I get back from my trip, so I’m pretty happy about that! It makes things a lot easier for me and will let me stay in the city a bit longer.

I arrived at the school around 8:15 and went to meet Mr. Vittet in his classroom. He helped me secure some speakers for my lesson from another room. I think that he’s getting to know me pretty well. He told me I need to relax a bit and just “do whatever” with the kids. I have to laugh- I’m really just so high strung I’ve been told to relax in every language I speak. That’s on anxiety, folks! I decided to work on musical styles from the US with the kids. We listed to some jazz, country, and rock together. They really liked Dolly Parton and Ella Fitzgerald. I was happy because a lot of problem kids were absent. Though, now that I look back, I’m worried that they were absent because of COVID. We don’t get notified when a student is sick.

My second group of the day is with Noury. He decided to show the students “12 Years a Slave.” I think this movie is way too mature for the kids. They’re about 12 years old. I don’t think they’ve developed enough empathy or the reasoning capacity to really appreciate the content of the film. There is also a fair amount of violence and nudity in the movie. Students spent most of the class period goofing off. They laughed and joked at some of the more serious moments, obviously not appreciating what was going on even though we were watching in French. Noury asked afterward if they were a bit too young to be watching and I had to agree.

Catherine was still out with COVID, so I was done for the day around 10:30. I left the school and walked about 30 minutes over to Pont-Chéruy. I wanted to accomplish some of the errands I didn’t get to on Wednesday.

My first stop was the pharmacy. I needed to refill my birth control prescription, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to. I’ve heard mixed reviews as to whether or not you can refill American prescriptions without approval from a French doctor. I figured the worst they could tell me was no and if that was the case I could ask Mme Bodet for some assistance with a doctor’s appointment. I brought my empty pill packet with me and the Walgreen’s prescription sheet so they could see dosage and drug info. Of course, I ended up getting the only male pharmacist in the place haha. I explained the situation and handed over all the items I brought along for him to examine. I was shocked when he said they’d be able to fill everything without any doctor’s note! He brought over a colleague to make sure they got dosing right for me- I guess French birth control doesn’t necessarily have the fourth placebo week at the end of the month! Neat! Within about twenty minutes I walked out with a box of masks and my new 3 month supply of birth control for just 7 euros.

My next stop was the La Poste for some stamps. I got in line and waited for about five minutes before I was helped. I bought 12 stamps so I can do some writing over break. Sorry- no letters going out this week!

I went to my favorite boulangerie for lunch and got the exact same thing I did on Monday. Sadly, by this time it was raining pretty hard. It was difficult to enjoy a good meal while I was getting soaked from head to toe. It was just cold enough that the added rain made things absolutely miserable. My bus arrived at 12:25 to take me to Meyzieu, where I got on the 1980 to Anthon. When I finally got home, I was able to take a really long nap.

I spent the night doing chores and packing for my trip. I made sure to clean the entire kitchen as much as possible, put away all my books and paints, and tidied up my laundry. I’m worried that I’ve packed too much to carry, but there’s really nothing that I can unpack at the moment. I’m seeing that rain is predicted for much of the weekend, so I do want to pack an undershirt for some extra warmth.