This weekend went by pretty fast. And thankfully, I made it through the snowstorm that had everyone worried.
On Thursday afternoon as I was preparing some lesson plans in the staff computer room, Denise, an English teacher who was sitting next to me using another computer, starts speaking out loud announcing to everyone in the room that she had just received an email informing everyone that there would be no school buses in all of the Rhone department due to the expected snow fall. No one believed her at first, but then as everyone logged in to check and read their emails, they realized she was right.
Some students are not from Villefranche and live at the school in the “dorms”. Since there would be no buses on Friday, they would have to leave that day in order to be able to make it home.
The bell rang and I went to my first afternoon class. By the time I got there, all the students and the teachers who were in class had already heard the news. I could hear the students laughing, cheering, and thanking God for what was happening. All the teachers were a little frustrated and didn’t know what to do since apparently all of them had some assignment due or a test to give them that following day. They had no choice but to postpone the tests since they knew that maybe only half of the students would show on Friday.
After class was over, I made my way back to the staff lounge to check the weather forecast. I was a little worried and scared since I am not used to snow at all. After seeing the precautions that were being taken, I thought that I would impossible for me to know how to handle the situation. I was also scared because I had to go to the language assistant orientation the next day in Lyon.
I look up the weather and I see a map of France pop up – in bright yellow and orange. Yellow meant that there was a level 2 warning and orange was a level 3 (out of a 4 level scale). Guess what color covered the Rhone department? – Orange. It freaked me out a little, but I knew I would be ok.
The next day, Friday, I woke up at 6:30am and the first thing I did as I got out of bed was look out the window to see all the snow. I look outside and everything looks just like it did when I went to sleep. It did not snow at all.
I got to the train station and met up with the other assistants from Villefranche. We took the train to Lyon and then made out way to the Croix-Rousse district of Lyon for the orientation. After the first half of the orientation, which was useless, we were split up into the same groups from last time. We went to our assigned classroom, and I sat facing the window. We were all given a chance to speak of our experiences so far and what we would have liked to be different, which was nice to do. The program is good, but there are a lot of ups and downs. After giving my update and suggestions (which I did in French!!! I was proud of myself), I look out the window and see that there is snow falling all over. The blizzard had started.
I pointed it out to Maggie, another Californian, and we both gave each other the same scared/WTF?! look. Maggie and I became Megan’s laugh for the day. Megan is from Toronto, Canada, so she is used to snow. She made fun of us for the rest of the day.
After getting some Subway sandwiches and going to their apartment, I looked up the next train back home. I left their apartment and started the journey home. The snow was still falling. I get to the train station and notice right away that there is a screen announcing that the weather was starting to cause delays.
I get on the train to Villefranche, which was already 10 minutes late, only to hear an announcement telling everyone that they were not sure when they would be able to depart. This train was supposed to leave at 3:40pm. I knew there was another one at 4:10pm so I went to that train. I get on, get a seat, and then notice that everyone was following behind me. Turned out that they cancelled the 3:40pm train and everyone came to the next one.
Long story short, the only problem I had with the weather was getting home. What usually would have taken me 40 minutes took almost 2 hours.
But, as I am working on this in my apartment, there is a blizzard going on outside right now, so I have no idea how it will be tomorrow.
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