Nakeisha and I left early Sunday morning to catch the train into Amiens. We had just gotten aboard when we met another assistant on her way to Amiens, Molly, from Missouri. She overheard us speaking in English and came over and sat next to us. She will be teaching at a middle school in Villers-Cotterets but living in Soissons, a nearby town. She was extremely cool and helpful. She changed onto the same train as us in Paris, and she knew much more about French train system; we probably would have gotten lost without her. We arrived in Amiens around three in the afternoon. Molly had reserved a room in a different hotel than Nakeisha and me, but they were only a block apart. After we all checked in, we met back up to find the center was the meeting was going to be held.
Molly had a map of Amiens and the address of the center, which we were able to find pretty easily. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Amiens, which was fantastic. The Somme River runs through Amiens, and so do several of its tribunaries, so there were bridges, canals, and rivers everywhere, which made it very picturesque. It was a lot like I imagine Venice to be like. We also saw the massive Notre Dame Cathedral. We walked all around it, but we didn't go inside. (I've never felt comfortable in houses of worship – my Catholic education is probably to blame – and I think there was some sort of service going on, anyway.) But the cathedral! There was so much sculpture with so much detail that I could have stared at it for hours.
We also visited the park in Amiens, which was beautiful. The Somme ran through it, and there was also a lake, with a snake sculpture in its center, full of ducks and geese and a little babbling stream where some French kids actually managed to catch a few fish. I used up the rest of the film on one of my disposable cameras taking pictures there. As we were leaving back to our hotels, I got an incredible view of the cathedral from a distance, set against the clouds. In short, the afternoon was exactly why I came to France.
That night in my hotel room wasn't so great. My room was nice and comfortable, but the sore throat that I had been fighting all day had gotten worse. It felt like it was on fire, but it also hurt to swallow, so drinking didn't really make it better. I had a lot of trouble sleeping. We woke up early the next day because the meeting started at nine and lasted all day. It was helpful but involved a lot of boring paperwork and Power Point presentations, so I'll spare you the details.
Molly was also taking the same trains back to Villers-Cotterets as Nakeisha and me, so we all travelled back together. They managed to sleep on the train, but I didn't. We finally back around nine Monday night. Nakeisha and I walked to the school from the train station, and as soon as I got in my room again, I found a box from Mom waiting for me. My iPod, my CDs, two Shirley Temple DVDs, candy – it was like Christmas!
Today I finally started observing classes. I was nervous, but I think it went well. The teacher had me introduce myself to her class, so I told them my name and where I was from. A few of them seemed interested when they heard that my city in Louisiana had a French name, and I tried to explain to them why it was called Baton Rouge, but I think I spoke too fast for them to follow. The teacher had to draw a red stick on the board with chalk, which was rather phallic-looking. They spent the rest of the class going over phonetics; French pronounces all syllables the same, so they had to learn how to stress syllables.
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