Anyhow, what really turned my day around (since I woke up late, had to walk to the metro station in flats and got blisters, and was 6 minutes late for class) was observing the class I'm going to be teaching.
The professor who is my boss (well, I'm her assistant so I don't know what exactly she is) is very nice and very, very thorough. When she speaks English it is ADORABLE because she sounds slightly British. Also she says funny things like, "I'm sick of this," "I'm fed up with you," and "What's your problem?" on a regular basis...I don't think she realizes how harsh it sounds though.
After the observation she helped me (aka basically did the whole thing for me) fill out a packet that I have to do for my pedagogy class.
It's funny, though, because I understand everything she says but I have more trouble speaking so I don't think she realizes that I have a pretty good level of written French (when I'm not in a hurry, that is).
I'm going to be doing more than expected for this, though, because Madame Ollivier wants me to meet with her every Monday for an hour or so to prepare for the class that I'll teach the Thursday of that same week. I'm fine with that though; she doesn't act like a boss to me, she acts like an actual teacher so I'm very grateful for that :)
One thing I've noticed about myself that I'd like to improve: social interactions are...not quite my thing. I'm sure this comes as no surprise to you. However, one I get back from Rome there is a lot I'm going to start working on.
Professionally speaking: I need to learn how to introduce myself properly, say a formal goodbye, express gratitude/politesse, and keep a good conversation going without constantly pausing to properly formulate my thoughts.
Nobody has ever told me these are things I need to work on, they're just my weak points.
Personally speaking: I'm going to REALLY start listening to French songs/watching French TV/listening to French radio far more often. And speaking French, of course.
But you may be wondering what made me think of all of this, so:
I was riding the bus home from my observation, all happy and on cloud-nine because I love being in school environments, and I was thinking about how this is my first internship, my first real venture into the professional world.
Then I realized it's the first of many...since I'll be in this world for the rest of my life (let's face it, I'll never have enough money to retire!). I'm happy, though, because this marks the end of one phase of my life and the beginning of another. Gone are the days of focusing on...nothing really, and in come the days on developing into a real-life ADULT.
And I'm actually starting to do things, at the age of 20 (earlier than most of my friends here since they're all juniors) to pursue my future in education! So hopefully that's what I actually will end up doing. I feel like it is, but I guess we'll see at the end of May. I can already see how strenuous the job is; I could tell that my teacher had to make an effort to reign in the 9th graders since it was their last course of the day, but she seems to really be passionate about her work, especially since she's taking the extra time to teach me. She's basically taking on another job, but she must know it's worth it for both her class and for me.
I feel bad/weird because she can't really get to know me well very quickly because it's impossible to express myself in French, but the next time I teach I'm going to be answering students questions with a powerpoint that I make so hopefully she and the students will get to know me better that way. (Warning: YOU may be featured in it. I have a feeling they'll be asking about my friends/family...so I hope that's okay :p)
Overall I'm very excited to introduce the kids to a real live American who does real American things like prom and yearbooks and silly things like that. The first thing I'm going to teach them about is stereotypes, I feel like that's a good leeway into the whole differences in culture thing.
Oh and also something to laugh at myself about: today I went into the teacher's lounge before class, where I meet my prof, and I was early. (By the way how COOL is it that I get to use the teacher's lounge?! Because it isn't the teacher's lounge, it's MY LOUNGE! CAUSE I'M A TEACHER! Sort of. But it is AWESOME!!!) And anyway, eventually the prof got there and I was sitting on a couch with other teacher's reviewing my notes/writing stuff down while they talked (I was nervous too, as I'm sure they could tell) and once I finished that I caught the prof peek back into the room and smile at me because I guess she knew I was nervous. When she sat back down she said "Sorry to leave you all alone," and I was all, "Oh no, it's fine!" because really it was, I'm just awkward. But then they were talking about how some students make fun of this one professor and she started to explain their conversation to me but then she realized I understood it all so she stopped. Oh and also before she got there I lent my pen to a teacher. So my pen has now been touched and used by a Frenchman. That's cool, people, I swear.
Anyway, I'm gonna go start packing for ROME now!
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