Vignettes

Weekend

I'm really enjoying living with my family because this is a small town, and because they have a son my age it has been really nice to be able to meet his friends so that I have people to hang out with his friends. They are all boys, but hopefully I will meet some nice girls as well. I have started playing on a women's european handball team, so we will see!

Teaching… wow!

Well this has been my first couple days teaching, and let me tell you, it has been quite a mixed experience. In general, I haven’t had any flops yet. It is definitely hard to predict how students are going to act and it gives me sympathy for all the teachers I had in high school.

I had a rough start, because my first class had a scheduling conflict so there were only 3 students. I had a lesson plan that was for several more, so I had to improvise a little. Lucky for me, there was one boy in the class who liked to talk a lot in English, and so he was able to keep things rolling even though the other two students were looking at me like I was some sort of particularly odd looking alien that had just landed from Mars (they did answer the occasional question, but it felt a little like pulling teeth). It’s definitely going to take me a little while to figure out the rhythm and timing of a course.

I had a class today that went really well, but part of it was because it was a class that had chosen to take english and were therefore naturally interested in what I had to say. I think it was also because this week I have been giving a lesson on America high schools which is something that students seems to be naturally interested in. In this class, they were all raising their hands and asking questions... I felt like a real teacher!

My interesting talk with a French doctor about health care:

This weekend I am playing with the Paris club team in what I think are club regionals (this is a little unclear…). Anyhow, because it is France, I clearly need some form signed and stamped by someone professional before I can do anything. In this case, I need an official looking paper signed by a doctor saying that I can play. Today, I went to said doctor to get this paper signed, and we somehow got on the subject of health care. He was talking about how in France the healthcare is really restrictive of how doctors can operate their business—they are only allowed to charge certain amount for certain services. I then explained to him about how health care works in the US, and how there are many people who don’t have health care because they afford it and that these people often avoid seeing the doctor when they have a problem because it will cost them money and because they might establish a preexisting condition that will prevent them from getting health care in the future.

The doctor thought that this was odd, and admitted that although French people were spoiled, the alternative was much much worse. He also made an interesting point about the word equality. He said that “equality” is a word that allows the upper class to stay in power, because we can say that we are all born equal, but everything after that is based on merit. In other words, people can argue that people who aren’t well off deserve to be that way because they clearly didn’t use their opportunities as well as someone who does well. The doctor said that instead of equality, we should use the word solidarity, because this allowed us recognize that we are all human and that we should help each based on that fact, not try and show that some are innately better than other. I have to admit, it wasn’t what I expected from a country doctor, but it was an interesting and pleasant surprise.

Apparently I also have mild scoliosis that was never caught. Yay for healthcare!