Orientation in Amiens

On Wednesday, I took a train to Amiens, the largest city in Picardie. Orientation for language assistants (all language assistants, not just English) was in Amiens on Thursday. Amiens is about an hour from Tergnier by train, and the trains here are beautiful! They are clean, fast, on time, and they go almost everywhere in France. Rules about missing trains/deciding when you want to come and go are also very flexible. I was supposed to catch a train at 8am on Wednesday, but then decided I needed to sleep, and went to the station around noon expecting that I would have to buy another ticket; instead the ticket taker said I could get on the next train no problem! (Amtrak eat your heart out.) Also, Tabea and I bought discount cards for the SNCF (that's France's trains) last week (Carte 12-25), which give us 25%-50% discounts on all train travel. I love France's trains!

I amused myself on the train watching the passing scenery- fields of mustard and beets, peppered with wind turbines- and photographing some ambiguous signs on the train, like this one:
"If you have no arms and a big gut, or are pregnant, you should probably lean back. If you are in good shape and have arms, feel free to lean forward."

Once I arrived in Amiens, I met up with one of the girls I shared a hotel room with that night, and we went to check out the CATHEDRAL.

La cathèdrale de Notre Dame d'Amiens is the largest gothic cathedral in France, built between 1220-1270. The cathedral was built to house the (alleged) head of John the Baptist, brought to Amiens during the 4th Crusade. I've never in my life seen anything that grand and big and detailed and OLD- I played über tourist and rented an audio tour and took about 367 picutres. It's a breath-taking building, and mind-boggling to imagine people building something like that almost 1000 years ago!
The main entrance:

The nave:

The pulpit! (How'd you like to thunder from that pulpit, eh dad?)

Beautiful stained glass partout (most of it isn't original- the cathedral was damaged in a fire in the 13th century, and during the World Wars):





This is a statue of a weeping angel over a tomb behind the high altar. It's one of the most famous sculptures in the cathedral, depicting a cherub leaning on a skull and an hourglass- my audioguide told me that he is contemplating the inevitability of the passage of time, and of death. Postcards of this optimistic little guy were really popular amongst soldiers stationed in Amiens during WWI.

The head of John the Baptist!! (My favorite Neko Case song kept running through my head while I was looking at this thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peHVjXcdzc4 I felt a little weird taking pictures of it, but ... how could I resist?? I felt a little less skeezy than the guys taking multiple photos of it on their iPhones, anyway.)


The founders' stone and center of the labyrinth in the nave:



Thursday was orientation. It wasn't too terribly interesting; it was basically a string of people explaining in rapid French the mountains of paperwork we all have to fill out to get paid, open a bank account, enroll in Social Security, get health insurance, walk down the street, etc. I did learn that there are 158 language assistants in l'académie d'Amiens, and got to meet some really nice ones who live nearby- a couple assistants from England and Trinidad, one Spanish assistant from Bolivia, and several American assistants.

Thursday night I stayed with Mme Brutus' (my contact person, the lady who helps me with paperwork and is arranging my work in French schools,) children Cécile and Guihome. The are 18 and 20 years old, and are both studying law at the university in Amiens. We went out for a drink with two of their friends, and I struggled to keep up with their conversation. My only really embarrassing moment was when Guihome was trying to tell me something about l'Austriche, as in Austria the country, and I said "oh yes! an ostrich!" and did a pretty lame impression of a bird. Like I said, my French is a little rusty!

Friday morning I intended to return to Tergnier by train, but something very French threw a monkey wrench in my plans- LA GRÈVE! For those of you who don't know, the French are notorious for striking all the time, for any reason. On Thursday, a SNCF train conductor was assaulted in Strasbourg, France, and in solidarity (? or something?) all SNCF conductors went on strike, and 80% of trains were canceled for 2 days. We actually encountered two strikes that day: all the language assistants were supposed to have a free lunch at the University cantine, but the cantine workers were also on strike! In the end la grève didn't throw off my plans too badly, I was able to take two buses and made it back to Tergnier later in the afternoon.

Besides orientation, the past week was mostly filling out paperwork (bleh) and applying for a bank account for Marie-Ange Brutus, who is nice and patient in explaining all that is going on. One other cool thing that happened was that I played basketball on Friday night! There is a very nice secretary who works in the office with Mme. Brutus whose name is Stéfanie. For whatever reason I tower over most people in this town, and the first thing she said to me was, "You're very tall! Do you play basketball?" She was excited to learn that I did in fact play basketball, and invited me to watch her husband coach a group of 7-9 year olds play in a town called Gauchy, (I might help coach them every Friday,) and told me that I could also practice with a group of women who play in the same town. France has a neat network of regional basketball teams for adults- the team from Gauchy has regular practice twice a week and plays games every weekend against teams from all over the region. I definitely felt out of shape/practice playing with the womens' team on Friday, and was having trouble understanding French basketball lingo, but I'm definitely going to try it again next.

One final observation: somehow French people know that I'm American on sight, before I utter one word, and I'm curious to know how! For example, on Friday on my walk back from the train station, an older man stopped me in the street and shouted "YOU SPEAK EENGLISH?! 2 year ago, I go to Philadelphia!!" and then told me in broken English about his career as a barber on a military base, and his sister who lives in PA, and his visit to Philly. Stéfanie told me that I have "an American face," but I'm determined to trick most people into thinking I'm French. At least until I start speaking.

That's all for now! Tomorrow morning I'll be observing classes at a primary school nearby called Condren. Marie-Ange has yet to find out where I'll be teaching the other half of the week, but hopefully that will get sorted out this week. (Or at least before our first vacation, which is already fast approaching. :)

Bisous!