a bedtime story

Yesterday, my 3eme (around 8th grade, 13-14 years old) kids wrote a stories. Each student wrote a sentence per story, and after each student wrote their sentence, we folded the paper. They were only able to see one preceding sentence. This is one of their stories. It's a classic, or something.
There was man named Marty. He used to play the guitar. He has played since 2000. He used to make spectacle. Two months ago, he won the concert the music. So, he has drunk champagne every day since 3 years. He used to go to night club! :) (yes, they did write in a sideways smile) He has smoked for 5 years. He has taked a photo with nude girl. Now, he has an car accident and he died.

Another story included the word goodating. They were pronouncing it good-at-ing. Although I am not sure what they were trying to say, I like that word. I think the English language could really benefit from such a seemingly versatile word. I am going to write the folks at Webster about including it in their 2009 edition.

are these words on le bac? (sorry for the profanities!)

We spent a lot of time in college learning about what is and isn't acceptable material/behavior/student-teacher relationships regarding our high schoolers. But here, no one really seems too concerned with boundaries. I have had teachers call kids stupid pigs, worthless, waste of time, etc. They show kids any movie, regardless of ratings. They ask the Muslim students to tell stories about their favorite Christmas memory. And at our first stage back in September, one of the male teachers told all the female assistants "not to let your strings show when you bend over." I am still scarred as a result of that conversation.
I got to school Friday morning, and one of my teachers said he was working on typing out the lyrics for a rap song. He said he was having some trouble figuring out some of the words, and asked if I would take a listen and help him out. If I were in America, I would have directed the teacher to the internet. While France is worlds ahead of America in some regards (wine, bicycle baskets, having goat cheese flavored everything), France is not exactly at the forefront of technology. Most French computers look something like this,

and I am pretty sure the internet here is powered by two hamsters and a wheel.
So I agreed to help the teacher with the lyrics. I stupidly assumed that since this rap song would be used with 14 year olds, it would be pretty PG rated, maybe about getting caught passing notes in study hall, or staying up late on a school night. But no, these are the lyrics to the song. I also included for your viewing pleasure (courtesy of Youtube) the video for the song, so you can listen to it in all its glory.
I also had to explain to my teacher the meaning of certain words-diss, gear, cold, and caper, just to name a few. It is a good thing I am so hood and am down with the lingo.


Ya know that's why man I be telling you all the time man you know
LOVE
that word love is a very serious thing and if you don't watch out I
tell ya that (Love's gonna get you) because a lot of people out here say "i
love my car" or "i love my chain" or or "i'm i'm just in love with that girl
over there" so far all the people out there that fall in love with material
items we gonna bump the beat a lil' something like this
im in junior high with a b plus grade,
at the end of the day i don't hit the arcade,
I walk from school to my moms apartment,
I got to tell the sucaks everyday "don't start it",
cause where I'm at if your soft your lost,
to say on course means to roll with force,
a boy named Rob is chillin in a Benz,
in front of my building with the rest of his friends,
I give him a pound, oh i mean i shake his hand,
he's the neighborhood drug dealer, my man,
i go upstair and hug my mother,
kiss my sister, and punch my brother,
i sit down on my bed to watch some tv,
(machine gun fire) do my ears decieve me,
Nope, thats the fourth time this week,
another fast brother shot dead in the street,
the very next day while im off to class,
my moms goes to work cold busting her ass,
my sisters cute but she got no gear,
i got three pairs of pants and with my brother i share,
see there in school see i'm made a fool,
with one and a half pair of pant you aint cool,
but there's no dollars for nothing else,
i got beans, rice, and bread on my shelf,
every day i see my mother struggling,
now its time i've got to do something,
i look for work i get dissed like a jerk,
i do odd jobs and come home like a slob,
so here comes Rob hes cold and shivery,
he gives me two hundred for a quick delivery,
i do it once, i do it twice,
now theres steak with the beans and rice,
my mother's nervous but she knows the deal,
my sister's gear now has sex appeal,
my brothers my partner and we're getting paper,
three months later we run our own caper,
my family's happy everything is new,
now tell me what the fuck am i supposed to do,
CHORUS
thats why, (loves gonna get you)
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
you fall in love with your chain,
you fall in love with your car,
loves gonna sneak right up and snuff you from behind,
so i want you to check the story out as we go down the line,
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
money's flowing, everything is fine,
got myself an uzi and my brother a nine,
buisness is boomin' everything is cool,
i pull about a g a week fuck school,
a year goes by and i begin to grow,
not in height but juice and cash flow,
i pick up my feet and begin to watch tv,
cause now i got other people working for me,
i got a 55 inch television you know,
and every once in awhile i hear just say no,
or the other commercial i love,
is when they say, this is your brain on drugs,
i pick up my remote control and just turn,
cause with that bullshit im not concerned,
see me and my brother jump in the BM,
driving around our territory again,
i stop at the light like a superstar,
and automatic weapons cold sprayed my car,
i hit the accelerator scared as fuck,
and drove one block to find my brother was hit,
he wasn't dead but the blood was pouring,
and all i could think about was war and,
later i found that it was Rob and his crew,
now tell me what the fuck am i supposed to do,
ya know thats why, (loves gonna get you)
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(love loves gonna get you)
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
(love loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
that word love is very very serious(loves gonna get you)
very addictive
my brothers out of it, but i'm still in it,
on top of that im in it to win it,
i can't believe that Rob would diss me,
that faggot, that punk, he's soft a sissy,
i'm driving around now with three of my guys,
the war is on and i'm on the rise,
we rolled right up to his favorite hang out,
said hello and then the bullets rang out,
some fired back so we took cover,
and all i could think about was my brother,
Rob jumped up and began to run,
busting shots hoping to hit someone,
so I just stopped, and let off three shots,
two hit him and one hit a cop,
I threw the gun down and began to shout,
come on I got him it's time to break out,
but as we ran there were the boys in blue,
pointing their guns at my four man crew,
they shot down one, they shot down two,
now tell me what the fuck am i supposed to do,
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
(love loves gonna get you)
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
(love loves gonna get you)
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you),
(loves gonna get you)
(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)(loves gonna get you)
(love loves gonna get you)
ya know a lot of people believe that that word Love is real soft, but
when you use it in your vocabulary like your addicted to it it sneaks right
up and takes you right out. out. out. out. out.
So, for future reference remember it's alright to like or want a
material item, but when you fall in love with it and you start scheming and
carrying on for it, just remember, it's gonna get'cha

Bordeaux has exploded Christmas

Thursday was frustrating. There was a mandatory stage for all the secondary English assistants. About half of the secondary English assistants are American, so you can imagine our disdain about having a stage on Thanksgiving. I am not exactly sure what the stage was about, since I spent the morning thinking about the word stage. Is there an American English equivalent? Meeting? Not exactly. Training session? Kind of. A giant waste of a day and way for the French powers that be to ensure that since the French fail to see the fantasticness that is Thanksgiving, the Americans’ holiday celebrations are lame as well? Precisely. I spent the afternoon making a list of what I need to bring home with me, what I want to bring back here, and thinking about what kind of wine I should bring home. Aside from being held on Thanksgiving, one of the most annoying things about the stage was that it was conducted by 3 English teachers- a French woman who refused to speak to us in English, a French woman who only spoke to us in English, and an English man who spoke to us in English. It is really difficult to switch back and forth between languages, especially when the French speaking woman kept interrupting her colleagues to throw in her two, usually worthless, cents, and ended every one of her sentences with the word “what”, like she was 13. We had to write an evaluation at the end of the stage. One of the other assistants wrote her review in French and English, every other sentence. It was passive aggressive, but hopefully got the point across.

Thursday evening my friend had a Thanksgiving potluck at her apartment. No one really had time to cook anything special, since most of us were at the stage all day. However, we had the 4 basic French food groups covered-wine, baguette, cheese, and nutella.



I made an interesting observation on Friday. For over a month now I have been watching as Bordeaux put up beaucoup de Christmas decorations, and I have been eagerly anticipating the lights being turned on. For many Americans, myself not included given that I carve my jack-o-lantern while enjoying the Now That’s What I Call Christmas CD, the Christmas season official starts the day after Thanksgiving. Since the French do not celebrate Thanksgiving, I have been curious as to when their Christmas season official begins. I now have my answer. Despite the forth Thursday in November being just another day to the French, the fourth Friday in November is used as their official start to the Christmas season as well. I was sitting in a cafe late afternoon on Friday, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flicker of light. I got up and looked out the window, and much to my delight, saw the lights had been turned on.




On Friday evening, there was a fete outside the big cathedral in Bordeaux. From my understanding, there is a big competition among French cities to see who can have the biggest Buche de Noel. Currently, Bordeaux holds the record. In addition to the Buche de Noel, they had free vin chaud, a band dressed up in Santa suits, and ice skating.




Yesterday, another assistant had a Thanksgiving dinner at her house. She had found some turkey breasts at the grocery store. The food we had was a little more traditional Thanksgiving fare, despite the turkey not tasting at all like turkey. I provided the pumpkin pie, although that would have not been possible, had it not been for my fantastic mom, who gave me the gifts of canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, and pumpkin pie seasonings when she was here last month.


Our little family chez Maryse has grown. We got another housemate yesterday. His name is Robert. Robert is an interesting fellow. He is British, here for 2 months doing an internship. He is here through the same program that Catherine (my former housemate) was in. Catherine was 22, and just out of university. All of her colleagues were 22, just out of university, or 18 and here on their gap year. Robert is 39. I hope to befriend him, at least well enough to learn why he is 39 and just now doing an internship. He is 10 kinds of socially awkward though, so I may never know.