Livre sur place

This past weekend a couple of us went to a book fair in town called Livre sur place. Fall is the season of publishing in France, so it was only fitting! The huge tents (if they can be called that--they had wooden floors and windows...) were jam-packed  with people browsing the selections. Probably around 100 authors from around the country and surrounding countries came to represent their books at various tables and booths and to answer questions/sign their work. The selections included every genre, from history to politics to science fiction. It was an interesting experience and one of many cultural events that are coming to Nancy this year.

Out and about in Nancy (area)

Friday night the English lecteurs decided to meet at an Irish pub in town to do a little "research" for finding a good place to invite our students to meet us to practice speaking English outside the classroom. Some of us have already asked our students if they'd be interested in having a night to meet up at a bar for this "extracurricular activity," and we've all had very positive feedback. Before going to Le Phénix bar, I met Jacklyn (another English teacher) and Jonathan (a French person) at a French/Italian restaurant in the Old Town. I'd passed by it numerous times, so it was good to try it out. Later that night Jacklyn, Jonathan, and I went to nearby Toul to go to one of his favorite bars with live music. The group was called La Roulette Rustre (Rusty Roulette) and featured 10+ members playing a wide range of instruments, including guitars, the flute, violin, and tuba. One song was about how Americans love war...a little awkward for Jacklyn and I... Other than that, it was great music. Hopefully we'll have our place and time for "bar night" finalized by the end of the week.

New classes

Since an English lectrice decided not to stay in Nancy this year, the rest of us are taking on some of her reallocated classes. By working primarily in the distance learning center, I have had a really flexible schedule. I'm glad to be teaching these additional classes, though, so that I also have a more traditional experience as a lecteur. Accordingly, on Wednesday I co-taught an English listening and conversation class for graduate students in European Studies with a lectrice from Pennsylvania. We were teaching two sections of the course at the same time across the hall from each other, so we decided to combine them into one class for now. The students are a very international crowd, coming from countries including Romania, Italy, China, the Czech Republic, Morocco, Turkey, Spain, Ukraine, and of course France. I'm looking forward to learning more about the backgrounds of the students as we have discussions throughout the semester. I will also begin teaching a couple applied professional English courses soon.

I finnnnalllly have all of my furniture put together. Since I needed some pretty specific tools for a couple pieces, I couldn't make everything at once. I'll post pictures of the apartment soon!

World of coffee

I now officially have Internet access at the Univeristé! In other news...

I've only had coffee a couple of times in my life, but I'm starting to see why people are hooked. My first taste of coffee (besides ice cream) doesn't really count--it was instant cold coffee that was in a big cooler at a picnic. Needless to say, it wasn't very good. A few weeks ago I tried hot (read: real) coffee at Joe and Bayley's apartment and I was pleasantly surprised by what it really tastes like. I wasn't used to the caffeine high associated with it and got a little shaky after just one glass. I just tried my second cup of real coffee, here at a café in France. Even though it was just a little expresso, it had the same effect. I guess it's like alcohol tolerance and once you get used to coffee the caffeine becomes less strong? Otherwise I don't know how so many people drink so many cups a day... I can see myself starting to drink coffee more regularly when I get up early to teach, though...

Arrival!

It has been a busy week and a half already! The trip over to Nancy went pretty well... Northwest Airlines had definitely one of the best international flights that I'd taken, with a huge selection of movies/tv/music/games to use on relatively large personal screens. They also, amazingly, didn't lose any of our luggage!

Nancy surprised me by being both more urban and more French than I expected it would be. Since the city is so close to the eastern border I thought that there would have been more German influences. But, because this area was just far enough away to never actually have been part of Germany, it remains, besides a few German names here and there, very French. It took a few days to become familiar with the different areas of nancy and where to best look for an apartment. While the Old Town is right in the heart of the city and is arguable the most scenic area, the apartments there are what you'd expect: tiny, expensive, and old. After broadening my search just a little, I found the perfect apartment by the end of my first week here. It's only a couple of blocks to the heart of Old Town and about 5 blocks to Université Nancy 2, where I work. It's facing the largest park in town, le Parc de la Pépinière, and it's about 2 blocks from the canal. With numerous paths in the Parc and a trail along the canal, it should be perfect for running. The apartment itself is large with lots of windows, definitely with room for guests. Right now I'm in the process of assembling my furniture and will post pictures of it as soon as I'm done putting everything together.

First week of school

This past week marked the beginning of the semester at Université Nancy 2. Well, technically speaking, the beginning of the semester for law students. This semester I'm beginning by teaching three classes of English Conversation and Phonetics to first year law students. It was a lot of fun being the teacher and not the student for once! The students here seemed pretty focused, though I got a few blank stares after speaking in English for a while. Hopefully that's just temporary as everyone gets back into the swing of things. I really want to explain in French some of the more confusing aspects of what we're discussing, but a goal of the course is to keep the classroom immersive in English during the hour of each class. I have to catch myself from speaking French...in France!! Most of you probably know how hard it is for me to not speak French (or a little German even) in the U.S...imagine here! I'm also working in the distance-learning center, where I'll help with meetings, class prep, exams, and practice exams throughout the semester. I've just recently been asked to probably take on a couple more classes this semester, one at the business school and the other at the graduate-level law school (law school starts during the undergrad years in France). It'll be interesting to see how it all works out! Here are a couple pics of campus...