It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, there are multiple reasons why I haven't been able to post in a while. The first is that my new laptop actually died last Tuesday, and it refuses to turn back on, which has been a bit of a hassle.
The second is an even less fun reason: exams are upon us in France, and it's been a bit crazy. My first exam was on Saturday and it lasted FOUR FULL HOURS. That was not a good time. Honestly, who wants an exam from 8 a.m. through noon on a Saturday? Absolutely no one, least of all me, but at least it is over with. My second exam was actually yesterday, and I have no idea how that went. It was for my Sociology and Ethnology class, which itself was quite interesting, yet very disconnected: I had three different professors for this class, all teaching different material. One professor focused on colonization in Oceania, one focused on Brazil, and the third focused on Africa. Anyway, that exam only lasted two hours, and I'm sure my grammar and spelling was absolutely atrocious... I realized walking out of the exam that I used the verb "être" about 60 times, and since repeating words is seen as a punishable crime in French writing, I'm not at all confident about that grade.
Of course, that final exam is the only grade for that class. This is something that I don't really like about french grading systems, especially on a university level: there usually won't be any "busy work"--no homework or essays or quizzes or even readings to do outside the class: no textbooks!--but when it comes exam time, it's all or nothing. For me, who is admittedly often a procrastinator, that is a terrible system.
Another strange thing is that all the grades are out of 20 points. Not 100 or even 50, but 20. That doesn't give anyone room for error, since missing two points could drop you down a whole letter grade, right? However, no one in France ever gets 20/20 or even 19/20. Getting an 18/20 means you are a genius. For my history of Alsace grade, I had to do a presentation on Jean Rapp (in french, in front of the class, of course) and my grade was 15/20... You would think that would be a 75% (C) grade, but in the french grading system, I actually think it is more like an 87% (B). Oh, France.
A third reason as to why I have not posted in a while is that my mom was here! She arrived last Wednesday morning, and she just left yesterday morning. These past few days, I was spending all my time hanging out with her and showing her my new home, and I absolutely loved having her here! I'll probably write a separate post about all the things that happened while she was here in Strasbourg, along with a lot of Christmas market pictures!
Finally, the last reason is that, in between studying for exams and taking my mom all around Strasbourg, I have been working. For the past month, I have been an official English conversation TEACHER at an actual school! Of course, I'm not the most qualified person on earth for the job, but I'm a native English speaker with a good accent and a cheerful personality, and that is all that was required. I am teaching at EPITECH, a technology college in center-city Strasbourg. Honestly, it's a little intimidating, since I am teaching guys who are my age or slightly older. Plus, I have to come up with my own lesson plans and grade the students at the end of every class: so it is a lot of work. Coming up with fun and engaging English lesson plans has been a bit of a struggle for me... I need the guys to speak English when all they want to do is speak French, and many of the ESL activity ideas that I have found online are targeted towards beginners or children, whereas my students are all ages 19 through 21 and they can string some English sentences together when they feel like it. Additionally, the lessons that I teach must last 2 hours, which is a lot of time to fill! I teach two classes a week, and planning for each class takes a while, so working at EPITECH has taken up a good portion of my time! I find teaching really interesting, though, and even though it is still a little nerve-wracking to stand in front of a class with all eyes on you, I am learning quite a bit and I am having a lot of fun, as well.
So this has been a fairly long (perhaps a bit boring?) update. If you were looking for more about the fantastic Christmas markets, you won't have to wait too much longer... I should be posting about them soon, with lots and lots of pictures! That's all for now though!
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