They showed up EARLY? Déguelasse...

Thursday, January 21, 2010
Wow, where to start. Today there was a teacher strike in France, and when that happens, the teachers all submit a paper a few days in advance saying whether they will choose to work or not. I found out about the strike Monday because the teachers at my Monday school were signing their papers (they did not choose to strike). I called my Thursday school to see if my teachers were going to be there, and it turns out three of the six teachers I work with were striking today, so I only taught three of my six classes. The strike was a protest against some changes taking place within the French education system- from what I could gather only 1 out of every 2 teachers who retire will be replaced and there is a new student teaching system being installed that costs the government less money to train new teachers, and puts more work on the current teachers. As it turns out, today was the perfect day for me to only have to teach half my classes because I was pretty tired- I went out with Leah last night to celebrate my birthday a few days early. We went to a bar in the Marais (the area used to be marshland 900 years ago, thus Marais=marsh). Today the area is located slightly east of the center of Paris and is a pretty cool place to go out and get coffee or grab a glass of wine. Leah and I ‘grabbed’ a full bottle of wine in a café that we both have wanted to go to for a while, but usually it’s too busy during the day to find a place to sit. We followed the customary tradition of arriving at 10pm and not leaving until 12:30am when the wine was gone and cheesecake was finished. We went out for my birthday yesterday because she will be out of town this weekend when my big birthday bash is scheduled. Another assistant turns 25 on Saturday, and I turn 24 on Sunday (yay for my Golden Birthday!), so we’re going to stay out all night Saturday at a club in true Parisian style. So far there aren’t too many of us that are gung-ho about making it the entire night, so we’ll see how long it actually lasts. In Paris the métro shuts down between 1:30am and 5:30am, so one of the reasons people stay out all night is they cannot take public transportation home- you leave the club when the métro starts running again in the morning :)
I was luckily able to take a quick nap after getting home from work- the two classes I usually finish with on Thursdays were two of the three that didn’t meet today due to the strike. I got home an hour earlier than normal and took a quick nap before picking up Antoine from school. He is a hoot and I love spending time with him- he literally cracks me up at least 3 times a day. We’ve been playing the game of Life ever since I gave it to the family for Christmas, and this has resulted in many quotes revealing his true, humorous personality and intelligence beyond his age. One time he landed on the space “Pay $50,000 per child to send them to college.” Well, Antoine had 4 kids that game, so when I told him how much he owed he said, “Oh no, my kids aren’t going to college! Are you crazy? No school for them!” Hahahaha. Today he landed on two different spaces for winning money- the first said “Won TV Idol show, earn $100,000.” The second space he hit that game said, “Win Dancing Reality Show, earn $100,000.” So after I explained to him that he had won money based on his singing and dancing skills, he said, “Wow, I’m the next Michael Jackson!” Maybe these particular quotes aren’t as funny if you weren’t there, and you have to remember he’s talking with a really strong French accent, but these comments coming from a 10 year old just get me. I’m laughing just writing about them now!
Dorothée had asked me a few days ago if I could give her some extra help today because she was hosting a dinner party for 18 people as a surprise 50th birthday party for a friend. I agreed- usually when she asks me to help it means I just set the table and get out the good silverware to make sure it’s clean and I can find matching sets (that is a whole different blog, but suffice it to say, she doesn’t have a very orderly kitchen or storage system…) Whoa, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into for tonight! First off, her table only seats 8 people max, and instead of being able to put a leaf in it, she has these plywood squares she lays on top to expand the table. So, I vacuumed the wood because it was dusty after sitting in storage, set the table up (and these sheets of wood hang off at least a foot in any direction, I was scared someone would press down too hard and flip an entire board off the table! Luckily, didn’t happen). Then I found enough plates, silverware, champagne glasses, wine glasses, and water glasses to serve 18 people, but none of it really matched because she doesn’t have 18 plates of the same pattern, 18 of the same wine glasses or champagne glasses, or 18 settings that match in her good silverware (you’d have to host a lot of really huge events to have at least 18 place settings that all match in my opinion). But, I was impressed that she even HAD 18 champagne glasses. Then I helped her: fold the table cloth correctly (took way longer than you’d think it would, this table was really big), iron said tablecloth, put all the appetizers in serving dishes, clean all her artsy glass pieces so they could be on display, arrange the appetizers and candles on the table in a nice array, quickly dumped an entire hot batch of rice into the trash can (literally in about 10 seconds, yes, it was messy) because she had a second batch of rice to pour into the colander- we had to dump the first batch because she didn’t like how it turned out, etc, and then I continued to refill appetizers and finish up the cooking throughout the appetizer portion of the party. I understood she asked me to help her because 1- Antoine could NEVER focus on a task for that long at 10 years old (she tried to get him to do a few things, didn’t happen), 2- Thibault and Pauline were in their guitar lessons when she started preparing, and 3- Thibault and Pauline then have homework to finish before school tomorrow. But, I know for a fact neither one was actually DOING homework in their room during the mad rush of preparation… In a very humble way, I would like to say I really was a lifesaver, I don’t know how Dorothée would have pulled it off without someone helping. In the end I was rewarded with an AMAZING French meal and both Dorothée and Bertrand really showed their appreciation that I stayed throughout the dinner party to help out. I was invited to have champagne, dine at their table, and the guests were all very nice. I literally didn’t even have time to run up one flight of stairs to my apartment to change out of jeans because we were so busy, but I had luckily worn a nice shirt and nice jeans to work today, so I wasn’t sloppy either.

And now some comments on their French dinner party-
-Two of the guests showed up at 8:20pm, but the party was supposed to start at 8:30pm. BAD MOVE, MAJOR FAUX PAS! Dorothée was ranting about, “How dare someone show up ten minutes early for a dinner party, they should know it’s not actually supposed to start until 8:45pm at the earliest!” So, of course nothing was finished and the kitchen and apartment were still hazard zones when the first couple entered.
-Most people brought something- wine, flowers, dessert. I think we probably do that in the US too, but it was still something I noticed.
-Dorothy and Bertrand are definitely in a pretty high social class. All of their friends are well-off businessmen or women with high-paying jobs. All 16 of the guests spoke English fluently, which I believe is not only a sign of intelligence but prosperity here, and they all spoke English to me until I replied back in French. Then when they realized I understood, they were not necessarily impressed, but more accepting of me.
-The man I sat next to at dinner is an extremely famous architect, didn’t catch his name, but he travels to New York monthly from Paris because that is where most of his business is located. (As a side note, Bertrand’s brother-in-law won the French national version of the Nobel Peace prize for science, so this family has some major connections).
-I learned (from the famous architect) that “Bon Appétit” isn’t really proper to say before eating dinner together. It is only said by ‘les peuples’, which roughly translates to peasants/lower class in the connotation he used, surely not anyone wealthy. The one acceptable time to say it is when someone who is not partaking in the meal but passes by offers a “Bon Appétit,” then it is not considered in poor taste.

Whew, long day. Glad tomorrow is Friday!

PS- Dégeulasse in the title of this blog post is not a good word. It’s not a swear word per se, but it literally translates to ‘that makes me want to throw up,’ so it’s a somewhat harsh slang word to express you don’t like something.