first day of school.

after a much anticipated commencement, i finally got the chance to be in a classroom and meet some of my students. today, i had my first three (out of 12 total) classes and met with two (of my seven) profs. while i didn't get the chance to really "teach," i did get to at least go to work, so that was an improvement from last week. everything went relatively smoothly, despite my lack of a definitive lesson plan and the students' curiosity (or for some of them, quite the opposite... to be expected). i found out that (with these classes at least), my classes will be broken down into more manageable groups, and since the classes only meet once per week, i'll be rotating between groups as the weeks go by. some students i'll meet with every other week, while others i'll meet with less frequently... sort of disappointing since i won't get the chance to get to know my students, but i knew that was a possibility. oh well.

class basically consisted of a brief introduction of myself to the students, and then an hour question-and-answer forum, where they were given the opportunity to ask about my personal life, my reasons for being in france, anything at all american, and what i think about the french. a few of my favorites:

"why you choose to study french?"
"do you watch the program "dr. house" in america?"
"how do you feel about the bad temps (weather) here in brittany?" ...umm, that it's bad, perhaps??
"have you any children?" ...in which the teacher responded, "she's 24, remember?"
"what is your favorite typical french food?"
"how are your feelings of french president nico sarkozy?" ...a man i know hardly anything about, though i know he's not the most popular among the french at the moment.
"do you practice any sport?"
"are you going to vote for obama or the other one?" ...let's just say 'not the "other one"' ...and am i even allowed to answer this?

believe it or not, getting drilled like this (and trying to formulate appropriate answers the students would be able to understand), was actually a tad overwhelming... but nothing i couldn't take. the students were mostly polite, though not always attentive, not too far from the ones at home. thursday, on the other hand, will be comprised of the same, only i have six instead of three classes, and as far as i know, i'll be performing the same question-and-answer task. i've already labeled it as "hell day"... hopefully my students will be little angels & prove me wrong. there's just something about being functional at eight in the morning.