I keep a small notebook on my person at all times for the purpose of writing down any strange, new, or interesting thing I learn or see. This post is a compilation of many little notes I've taken since I got here. French people not only know about Emily in Paris, they have seen it … Continue reading Little thoughts →

Last night, I received an email from one of my teachers, asking me to meet her in the library of our school at noon the next day to have a one-on-one talk. At first I was perturbed -- in any English-speaking setting, a refusal to say what a one-on-one meeting will be about usually means … Continue reading Dancing squarely →

One of my classes took a couple days to write out as many questions as they could think of to ask me. They are mostly interested in high school in America - makes sense, since they are high schoolers. Here is an abbreviated list of their questions, edited slightly for clarification. If you are a … Continue reading French students ask questions →

Here are some more pictures from the past few days. I went to a Roman festival in an ancient amphitheater, so several photos are from that event. A poster for a general protest held in the main city square, posted in the teacher's lounge of my school. "For low salaries, disappearing jobs, continued lies, and … Continue reading More photos →

These are the other English teachers at my school, plus some other folks: Marie-Pierre: The most patient woman in the whole of Europe, my reference professor, or prof ref. Marie-Pierre had cooked dinner for me, taken me to the bank, helped me fill out paperwork, and just generally been at my side since I arrived. … Continue reading Meet the colleagues →

I teach twelve classes over the course of twelve hours from Tuesday to Friday. The schedule changes every other week and all the courses are in different classrooms with different teachers and students. I'm sure I'll get the hang of this immediately. My kids are equivalent to sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I have Remedial English, … Continue reading Meet the students →

Today I had my first day of work preparation. No contact with kids yet, just getting a lay of the land. I was not supposed to show up to the school until noon, so I went to the biggest cathedral in the city and sorta just walked around for a while. There's an ancient Roman … Continue reading Orienting →

The Roman amphitheater of Lyon, at one point completely buried by pasture, dug out by the man after which my school is named. A little amuse-bouche at a museum. One of the main squares. Here is good food, an art museum, a government building, and a handy meeting place. The view from my apartment. You … Continue reading Photo dump →

Well, this is overwhelming. I have never lived in a city this large before, nor have I had to go through so much bureaucracy and red tape on my own before. But "overwhelmed" does not mean "bad"; this feels like a good overwhelm. A kind I can sift through to find the good stuff. Part … Continue reading One week in →

I have traveled these many vast miles, knowing not my enemy's face, nor its intentions, nor precisely the path before me save hesitant reflection of that behind, suffering little sleep and protein -- and yet one luminescence in the cave propels my corpus forward, and that is that the Vols beat Florida on Saturday. I … Continue reading Made it to Lyon →