Every so often, something completely unexpected happens and knocks you off your feet. Today, I had this experience while leading a Halloween BINGO game with a bunch of 6 year olds. While instructing the children to draw a cross on their wipeoff boards to create 4 different squares in which they would place pictures of Halloween words, a small, slight girl of 6 simply saying no. Taken aback, I looked at her and instructed her again to make a cross on her board and again, she replied, "no Jesus." Completely disoriented and caught off guard, I clumsily muttered for her to make an x on the board up and down and drew a cross in the air and she, more indignantly this time and with more force replied, "no cross, no Jesus" and proceeded to draw an X instead. I, feeling a bit awkward and a bit defeated from being humiliated by a 6 year old, scurried along in fear of being accused of Christian indoctrination from forcing a child to draw a cross, ignoring that she was unable to completely participate in the game due to this blind and passionate refusal to draw two intersecting lines in the middle of her whiteboard.
It's at least mentioned let alone taught in almost every French class that I have ever been in that France is a "laïc" nation. The fact that France is secular is one that has been ingrained into my head every step of my academic life but today was the first time that I saw that firsthand. Hours later, I am still completely overwhelmed by my feelings from earlier, both confusion and raw anger, that stemmed from the request to draw a shape. While a cross is one of the most powerful and symbolic Christian images known to mankind, it also happens to be a shape that is used commonly in school that before today, I had never really associated with Jesus.
The separation between church and state is so vast here that one would believe that it is almost unpatriotic to be religious in this country. The "curious" wonderings of various Europeans who want to know more about the lack of separation of church and state in the US is both patronizing and an exhausting topic that I have come to dread. Upon further thinking on the topic, I've come to realize that in the US, the church is separate from the state but the state isn't wholly separated from the church. There are various examples strew throughout the fibers of the American way of life from mottos on currency to prayers from the President during times of grief and turmoil of core Christian values that are a part of the nation. There will never be any laws created that directly inhibit the freedom of religion but the elected officials all bring various backgrounds of spirituality into the backbone of the nation.
This brief yet powerful encounter with my student today is one that I will not easily forget. It has caused me to be extremely uneasy in my thoughts today and, I imagine, will be an experience that I will look back on and perpetually be perplexed by.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
I would love to play field hockey...
This weekend, I had the glorious opportunity to discover a new sport, field hockey. My roommate plays in a club 3 times a week and while out with her, the other 2 roommates, her friend and the hockey club at a bar Friday night, I mentioned that I had never played before. Not only had I never played before, but in my shelter of rural Northeastern Ohio, I didn't have any inkling to what field hockey consisted of. In that moment, the plans for the next morning were set in motion. The guys, appalled yet intrigued by my lack of knowledge of the sport, invited us to join them the next morning. An eager yes by me was followed by groans and protests of the girls surrounding me but, much to their avail, our fates had been sealed; we would be playing field hockey bright and early the next morning.
After a night of dancing and all around fun, sometimes an early morning is difficult. For me on Saturday morning, this couldn't have been further from the truth. I couldn't sleep because I was so excited for the practice! The other Americans were also excited. We were beside ourselves with the prospect of expanding our vast collection of cultural experiences with both a roommate bonding time and an athletic adventure. The English on the other hand couldn't have been more disgruntled. Waking only 10 minutes before the ride was due, choruses of "Jen! How could you do this to us? Hockey?!? Now? We hate you!" rang throughout the apartment as they drug themselves out of the bed that they had only fallen into a few hours earlier. I, on the other hand, couldn't stop bouncing around the apartment with the anticipation of the coming adventure. Sitting with my alpha chi ball cap and t-shirt, pair of athletic shorts and tennis shoes, I couldn't look more American if I had wanted to. Finally, it was time to leave. Somehow, we all made it to the car in one piece and set off.
On the way to the gymnasium, our friend that was driving pulled off suddenly and parked his car on the side of the road. A little confused, we looked around to see the cause of the sudden stop but all we could see in front of us was the boulangère. Leave it to the French to stop off at the bakery to get some pain au chocolat before a sports practice.
At hockey practice, we were a motley crew; 3 Americans that had never played hockey before, 2 English girls who had danced a little too hard the night before and 1 French boy who was there to hone his hockey skills but instead got his own cultural experience in watching us anglophones try and make sense of the chaos that follows us in all that we do. After regaining my composure at the confusion that is the shape of a field hockey stick (unfortunately, in my embarrassingly uneducated mind, I was imaging a lacrosse stick instead of the wooden curved stick that was put in my hands), we worked on basic drills to become more familiar with the sticks. Eventually, we honed what little we knew into basic skills that allowed us to play something that resembled a match (or is it a game?). After almost an hour and a half, we put an end to our hockey education for the day with a round of high fives and feelings of pride and accomplishment that we were able to play a sort of haphazard game (or is it match?) and derive such enjoyment out of it.
The ache that is omnipresent throughout my lower body today proves that yesterday was both successful and taxing. Unable to straighten my legs without the muscles tightening as one is a reminder of how alive France makes me feel. The constant growth in the relationships that I have with the other assistants is so assuring and makes being in France a constant adventure where I don't know what tomorrow will bring. While here, I am trying to say no to nothing, which is how in the middle of a bar, the roommates and I got signed up for hockey in the morning in the first place. By always saying yes, I am constantly trying to broaden my horizons and experiences. So far, I think it's working!
After a night of dancing and all around fun, sometimes an early morning is difficult. For me on Saturday morning, this couldn't have been further from the truth. I couldn't sleep because I was so excited for the practice! The other Americans were also excited. We were beside ourselves with the prospect of expanding our vast collection of cultural experiences with both a roommate bonding time and an athletic adventure. The English on the other hand couldn't have been more disgruntled. Waking only 10 minutes before the ride was due, choruses of "Jen! How could you do this to us? Hockey?!? Now? We hate you!" rang throughout the apartment as they drug themselves out of the bed that they had only fallen into a few hours earlier. I, on the other hand, couldn't stop bouncing around the apartment with the anticipation of the coming adventure. Sitting with my alpha chi ball cap and t-shirt, pair of athletic shorts and tennis shoes, I couldn't look more American if I had wanted to. Finally, it was time to leave. Somehow, we all made it to the car in one piece and set off.
On the way to the gymnasium, our friend that was driving pulled off suddenly and parked his car on the side of the road. A little confused, we looked around to see the cause of the sudden stop but all we could see in front of us was the boulangère. Leave it to the French to stop off at the bakery to get some pain au chocolat before a sports practice.
At hockey practice, we were a motley crew; 3 Americans that had never played hockey before, 2 English girls who had danced a little too hard the night before and 1 French boy who was there to hone his hockey skills but instead got his own cultural experience in watching us anglophones try and make sense of the chaos that follows us in all that we do. After regaining my composure at the confusion that is the shape of a field hockey stick (unfortunately, in my embarrassingly uneducated mind, I was imaging a lacrosse stick instead of the wooden curved stick that was put in my hands), we worked on basic drills to become more familiar with the sticks. Eventually, we honed what little we knew into basic skills that allowed us to play something that resembled a match (or is it a game?). After almost an hour and a half, we put an end to our hockey education for the day with a round of high fives and feelings of pride and accomplishment that we were able to play a sort of haphazard game (or is it match?) and derive such enjoyment out of it.
The ache that is omnipresent throughout my lower body today proves that yesterday was both successful and taxing. Unable to straighten my legs without the muscles tightening as one is a reminder of how alive France makes me feel. The constant growth in the relationships that I have with the other assistants is so assuring and makes being in France a constant adventure where I don't know what tomorrow will bring. While here, I am trying to say no to nothing, which is how in the middle of a bar, the roommates and I got signed up for hockey in the morning in the first place. By always saying yes, I am constantly trying to broaden my horizons and experiences. So far, I think it's working!
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