J'ai mal à la gorge

Wow, it has really been quite some time since I’ve last written! I have two more days of teaching before Christmas vacation, and it couldn’t come soon enough. I am still enjoying teaching very much; it’s just that time of the year when you desire life to slow down, when all you want to do is just sit inside and drink hot coca and watch t.v. and think about nothing in particular. I am looking forward to doing that (in moderation for sanity’s sake) this Christmas break. It’s been a bit of an emotional roller coaster as the break approaches because most all of the assistants are going home for Christmas, but I have decided to stay. Claire (whom I live with) and her family have graciously invited me to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with them, so I will at least be with a family and will get to experience a new set of traditions and family banter, even if I can’t be with my own. I think the idea has started to warm up to me a bit more now, seeing as I will probably never have the opportunity to do this again. It’s obviously difficult to think about being away from my family for Christmas, but I’m sure that I will look back and be happy that I got the chance to see Christmas in a totally different way. I think its common to value the comfort and tradition you grow up with, but more out of a normalization to what it always looks like rather than a deliberate choice you make after having experienced many different versions of what something could look like. Hopefully seeing how a French family celebrates Christmas will give me both a new appreciation for my own family’s traditions as well as a desire to integrate what I got to see this year into future Christmases back home. I am already really enjoying how France celebrates the Christmas season. Lots of cities have "marchés de Noël” where lots of venders sell gifts, food, and traditional items from the area. It feels a bit less commercially driven in that sense, though I am very quickly reminded upon entry into any big store or mall that mad shopping for Christmas is not just an American thing. Another lovely part of the anticipation toward Christmas is the lights all along the main streets of Aix. In fact, every city I have been to this month has had lights out on the street lamps, trees, and main buildings, which makes walking in the gloom of December’s short days much more pleasant. Sometimes when I’m walking home I catch myself thinking about how I love turning all the lights off in the house and just sitting in front of the lit up Christmas tree and thinking about how there is still loveliness in the world. Sadly, this year there is no Christmas tree in my house, but I still think about it anyway. Last weekend I went to Lyon for the “fete de lumières” and it was spectacular. I was just as impressed with the lights as I was by the number of people that came to see them. It was insanely busy, but nonetheless a beautiful city with great food, lots of shopping, and the romantic allure of any classy French town. I’ll definitely have to go back to visit again soon.
In other news, school seems to be going fine, though I am just feeling a bit tired of it. I went to a reunion for some of the primary assistants in the area last night, and it was encouraging and consoling to hear that many of the other assistants were having the same difficulties as me. I am grateful to get the chance to work with so many kids and teachers, but 19 classes is just too many to really make a significant amount of progress when you only work with one class for 30 to 45 minutes a week. I think that I am being stretched rather thin in that aspect (as are the students for that matter), but I also saw from some of the other assistants’ comments last night that I am pretty well supported by the teachers I am working with which makes it less miserable to have so many different lessons. Overall, I feel like the more I hear from others and the more I get to know the teachers I am working with, I am very blessed. This opportunity has taught me that being creative and resourceful with limited access to teaching materials is a reality to some extent, for all teachers, and that your attitude and desire to anticipate challenges is as equally important to the equation of success as the material that you teach. I am grateful for all of the teachers in my life, whether they have been in the classroom or beyond. You really do have to be thoughtful, patient, and attentive to effectively educate others as well as yourself, both formally and relationally.
To end, one new adventure I partook of today was a visit to the doctor’s office. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and incredibly swollen glands and didn’t really think too much of it, but then it persisted all day and again when I woke up this morning, so I told Claire about it and she urged me to go see a doctor. I have only recently received my “numéro de sécurité sociale” which allows me to be partially reimbursed for medical costs and medications, so I was not sure how the whole thing would go, not to mention that the language barrier in medical terminology and symptom descriptions was a bit of a troublemaker to say the least. Thankfully, Claire was able to come back from some errands in the middle of my visit and help me out. The doctor’s visit was a grand total of 23€ most of which I will get reimbursed for, and the medicine at the pharmacy after my benefits was 5,65€. I’d say that’s a pretty doable in comparison to my normal co-pays and expenses back home. I find the conversations and interactions with other Europeans regarding health care to be so fascinating, partially because my dad has worked in health care my whole life and partly because I studied how health care works in many parts of the world as a component of my anthropology degree, but to actually experience some of the differences for yourself is another thing entirely. I definitely hated the feeling of not fully being able to communicate or understand what was going on, but it was also so interesting to see how much less technical my visit was. No blood tests, no actually checking my temperature with a thermometer (he just touched my forehead), and very basic questions. When it was time to write the prescriptions, he looked at me and just thought about which antibiotic I might like, almost as if he was picking out my preferred ice-cream flavor. Then I had to pay right there at his desk, but when I presented my bank card and asked if I could use it, he swiftly refused it, telling me that this wasn’t America (at least I think he said something about that). Luckily for me, Claire had made it back for that part of the visit and had some cash on her. I literally don’t know what I would have done otherwise. Needless to say, I am so grateful for her support and help, she really is like my mom away from home. She even went to the grocery store later that day and bought me lemons and gave me a jar of her sister-in-law’s homemade honey. What a sweetheart.
Well, no other big news here, just looking forward to some down time, day trips, and hopefully a ski outing soon! Love and miss you all!
A bientôt,
Amy