On the eve of vacation

(1) An Update on the Future Plans:

As much as I would have loved to go to Middlebury this summer, it won't be happening again, at least, not at the French School. The director of the French School told me that my full funding for this summer will be slashed due to my new status as "non-degree." It's somewhat disappointing, since I wanted to go back to see many of the profs I've enjoyed working with.

On the other hand, it's actually not that disappointing. Last year, I remember being so tired and frustrated of the experience that I was ready to get out of Vermont as soon as it was over. I got tired of being around certain people in the program, and to be honest, I had a much better time the first time I was there. I think to do an MA there is long, tiring, and a little frustrating, because many people do the program in Paris and disappear after the first summer. There are many reasons to enjoy coming back, however. It's a summer graduate program that permits high school teachers or even university professors to come back and do it over the course of several summers. It's perfect for those people. For those who don't have a job in teaching, it proves more difficult. That's the position I'm in and it's part of the reasons why I chose to pursue a PhD in French from Brown.

This is not to say I don't like Middlebury as an experience. I would be happy to come back for another language like German or Russian. I will consider going back maybe even next summer for German as I need another language for Brown.

With a Middlebury-less summer, I will have some time to work (probably retail or in a restaurant) to earn money for Brown and have a little gap time between France and Brown to rest and get ready for grad school.

(2) School this week:

I've been showing my high schoolers episodes from "The Cosby Show." They love them and enjoy laughing at interesting universally recognized jokes. It was something easy for a week after testing. It also gave me permission to sit back and relax after 7 weeks straight of teaching and, did I mention, no long weekends, no snow days, no holidays.

The middle schoolers, on the other hand, have totally defied me when I tried to talk about Hollywood and movies. They almost went on strike, putting their heads down on the table. I was thinking "what on earth are you doing, totally walking out on my authority?!" (Didn't say it quite like that but I was on the verge of yelling in French telling them to listen to me.) It was so frustrating and stressful. Many of the teachers have commented on how bad the misbehavior has escalated this week on the eve of the vacation. What these little gamins (or aka: rugrats) were wanting was for me to talk about Valentine's Day (last week's lesson) and show them the video of "Love Today,"by MIKA. Well, the kids went CRAZY after I put on the video! They were slamming their desks on the floor, attempting to sing along, and some were jumping up and down. I just had to watch and hear the cacophony of their back-up vocals. At least, I half-succeeded, right?

Tomorrow, I get to work with a young man at a private lycee in Laval, something I'm looking forward to. At least I get to spend two hours in the morning tutoring in English to a person that has the maturity level of an adult and not some silly middle-schooler. After that, another class with the middle schoolers (just going to force it into a Valentine's Day lesson) and more Cosby Show fun with the high schoolers. Can you tell I'm ready for a vacation? Phew...