The weekend promised sleep and rest as well as opportunities to pursue my reading projects. I decided to start Stendhal this week after having read "Tresor d'amour," a 21st century novel by Philippe Sollers, which just hit the book-stands several weeks ago. The book centers around the nineteenth century novelist Stendhal who wrote "Le rouge et le noir," a novel that painted a vivid picture of France in 1830, a time of great political upheaval. This week, I decided to read another of Stendhal's works, "Chartreuse de Palme," which was the novel that made the author famous. It was referred to numerous times in Philippe Sollers' novel (an ode to Stendhal), so I thought it logical to read it next.
Sunday was thoroughly enjoyable as I integrated well into a new church family, small but close-knit. Christian P. from Mayenne picked me up to take me to Laval at 9:55am and we had a nice time chatting about our family, country, background, etc. We arrived at the church, which is, in fact, the rez-de-chaussee, or the ground floor of a building. It was very small but cozy, all the same. The order of worship was structured and in a bulletin! Worship at the other church was rather spontaneous and disorganized in some spots. It seemed to have the structure of a Catholic mass and was deliberate and well-planned. The music was simple with a keyboard, but included a prelude and interlude by J.S. Bach. It was traditional but comfortable. The most remarkable thing about it was the fact that a young woman led the preaching of the Word. Eleanore is a young pastor who just began preaching recently. She is well-posed and interprets the Scriptures well and with ease. She discussed Luke 10, the passage about the sending of the 72 disciples, a passage that I had read for my daily Bible reading. It was good to revisit this section, which, I think, is often overlooked, but merits great importance, for it is a passage that points directly to evangelism, which was the main topic of the sermon. After the worship service (which was only one hour, in lieu of two hours at the Assembly of God church), we had the aperitif, which consisted of cider or orange juice, crackers, and pretzels. I got to mingle with some of the parishioners, including a violinist who played for Volubilis at the concert. The people at the church are kind and welcoming and I feel at ease with them. One of them planned on putting me into contact with a young American woman and PhD, who studied 18th century French literature for her dissertation. Score. I can tell I'm going to enjoy coming to this church every other week. I have a solution for the ride-sharing problem, having the option of either riding with Christian or a family that lives in Mayenne. I can definitely say that this was an answer to prayer, and for that, I am thankful.
The week started fairly well. I had a long day yesterday (Monday) at school and was extremely exhausted by the end. A Summary of Monday: "Stay the Night," went pretty well with the 1eres. They did not really interpret the song at all, but at least they listened some to my thoughts on the matter. They seemed a bit more engaged than usual, which is, at least, progress on their part. Still, by the end, they literally walk out on me without caring about what comes next on my agenda. I have to say that perhaps the worst part of this is that my course comes right before lunch. I simply have to let them go, because many of the students haven't much time to eat before heading back to class. An inconvenience? Yes. But this group is probably one of the worst when it comes to getting and keeping their attention for fifty minutes. It's a constant challenge. After lunch, I had a good time talking about "Imagine" with my terminale students that I see once every three weeks. Directly after, however, my lesson with the TLA completely fell through. I had intended to talk about slavery because this month is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month. That all fell through as I tried to start a discussion on the issue by recounting the Transatlantic Slave Trade with images and even a video that was sobering on the issue. Then, I handed out an article with a quiz at the end, thinking it would be appropriate for these students who are studying literature. Not exactly. The kids did not even respond to my questions and I was left there naked without any interlocutor in the room. Tough stuff. And then I asked if the kids thought it was boring, and they said "don't teach us history again." So, an embarrassing situation but at least, it told me what NOT to teach ever again. Next week, we will talk about music and I will bring in my violin which was requested at the beginning of the year. My last group at the end of the day watched the rest of "The Prestige," and was quite impressed with the film. The discussion that followed was not the most meaningful unfortunately.
At the end of the day, Monday, I was terribly exhausted, and it showed in rehearsal with Volubilis. We spent almost the entire time reading (and for me, sight-reading) in German, Brahms' Zigeunerlieder (a collection of 11 lieder or German gypsy-songs). I struggled through nearly the entire thing just because I had the hardest time grappling with the pronunciation. Fortunately, we sang some of the songs on "la," but combining the words with the music was the most difficult part of this intellectually demanding exercise. And at the end of the day, mind you. Fortunately, I had the company of some enjoyable people from the choir who were part of the ride-share from Mayenne. That made the evening worth it in the end.
Today was not bad. I slept in to make up for the exhaustion from yesterday. This evening's discussion was fairly decent with the Secondes. But then the kids did not want to talk about the song, at which point, I had to go to the point of desperation, in taking song requests from the students so that we could listen to anything with English lyrics. Another embarrassing moment, to be sure. What can you do though when the kids will not engage in discussion with the questions and exercises given? Frustrating, but whatever. I said "au revoir" to this group of Secondes in the rotational cycle. Some of them were sad to see me go. One group of girls came up to me and asked me where I was from in the US. I said to them, "Georgia." And they said, "Trop cool. Tu as de la chance!" (So cool. You are so lucky!) At this point, I can safely say things will be okay for the last three classes I must teach this week. And then, Lyon for the weekend.
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