what’s my motivation here?

we had a training meeting in clermont-ferrand yesterday and today.

no... let me rephrase.

“we” had a training meeting in clermont-ferrand yesterday and today. “we” being not me. don’t misunderstand... i was there. but it wasn’t a training meeting for me.

remember the training meeting that i went to at the start of the month in moulins? that was for me. apparently, i was supposed to get an email saying that i wasn’t supposed to attend the training in clermont. i never got that email. in fact, i never got a confirmation email for the clermont training, like i was supposed to (even though i wasn’t going, technically). no emails. anywhere.

i wasn’t the only elementary level assistant that was misinformed. kirsten -- the other elementary assistant in vichy -- also came. actually... we’d been told that we were supposed to be there. we were the only elementary assistants that were informed of the obligatory nature of the ordeal. all others were told not to go.

it was interesting. the first night (we had to come in on the 14th, because the training started the morning of the 15th...) we were all greeted by a nice chap from... well, no one was really sure where he was from. he had an english accent when he spoke french, and a french accent when he spoke english. come to find out he’s irish... living in france for the last 12 years. odd fellow. anywho... he greeted us, assigned us to our rooms, and told us how meals and so forth would work. “meet back down here at 9,” he said as we headed to our rooms. “we’ll be going to the place where the meetings are tomorrow.”

this is important, because he would not be there. i don’t think that was conveyed until we were halfway to the building. being that kirsten and i were up talking to him (trying to figure out where in the devil he was from...), he assigned us as the people in charge of remembering how to get there in the morning. i somehow knew something like that was going to happen. things always go that way. never fraternize with the knowledgeable... it’s dangerous. kirsten promptly decided that meant i was in charge of getting everyone there in the morning. these things always happen to me. always.

to complicate matters (it being already complicated because a] nobody really knew they were supposed to be paying attention to the way to get there and b] because nobody was if they did), we went to an irish pub on the way home. oy! very nice establishment... and i was surprised to find i wasn’t the only one in the group of 50 or so people not taking an alcoholic beverage. but for those that did... and a lot of them did (and a lot)... there was no way they’d recall the way come 9 am when we were heading out. i wasn’t sure there would be that many able to make it at 9 am when we were heading out. they managed alright, however.

the meetings were focused entirely on upper level education. no mention of elementary level. so all two of us there that were teaching elementary focused on the “collège” or jr. high aged kids. technically, that was our goal. get the kids to that level. so, maybe we’d learn something useful.

not really. a couple of websites, not much more. nice websites mind you... handy. but still, not as nice as it could have been. we’d hoped for something, since what we’d done in moulins was -ish at best.

we actually skipped out on one of the classes... because it was completely useless... and skipped out on the whole second day as well, for that matter. so, i guess you could say that i just went for the food. french cafeteria food... the US has got a long way to go.