It’s officially 2021, and I’m struggling to comprehend that another month has passed. I know that people say that time has no meaning now (in our Covid world), but I genuinely believe it to be true a lot of days. Proof of that is that I didn’t start writing this post until the last week of the month because somehow, it hadn’t clicked in my brain that it was the end of the month. My brain did click though, so fear not, as I am here with my monthly update of all things going on in the life of Miriam in Dijon! I thought I’d go back to my “the good, the bad, and the pandemic,” format for this month given that in the final category (at least), I have a lot to say. I’m afraid this isn’t my most interesting month, but I hope it’s not too dull to read about.

The Good of January 2021

Although this wasn’t a year of massive New Year’s celebrations, France did have an online ringing in DJ sesh, which I watched as the clock struck midnight. I had a couple of days off before I resumed teaching on January 4th. It was very much straight back into it, and the adjustment from having two weeks off to being back on a “normal” schedule is always a fun one. Nevertheless, I did it, and January has been a pretty good month for teaching! I’ve started up with a new class at the lycée, and since they’re working on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, I’m getting to infuse some theatre into their class by having them act out certain scenes (given that I found the script online). It’s not a theatre class by any means, but it’s nice to get to use theatre as a teaching tool, and also partake in it (by osmosis), given that theatres will be closed for the foreseeable future. My middle school classes are also going fairly well, and it’ll be interesting to see what other fun lessons I get to cook up in the coming weeks.

In December, I wrote about my struggles with sécu, and I’m happy to announce that I was able to tie a bow around my problems with them! When school started back up, and I was able to get access to my mail (one negative of living at the school during breaks is not having access to any mail), I was THRILLED to see a letter from sécu. I finally received my permanent social security number!! After essentially two years (granted that part of that time I was out of the country), I am finally legit. Of course they sent me a letter asking for a photocopy of my visa, which is not something I have (France seems to have issues with dual citizens when the place of birth is in the US but you’re applying as an EU citizen), but I was able to get that sorted. I had to call sécu but I got a very lovely human on the other end who was very understanding, and helped me gain access to my Ameli account. From there, I was able to order my Carte Vitale, and two weeks later, I had the beautiful green card that means I’m official and can easily do anything medical related. Absolute elation when I saw that envelope – it was such a hassle to get this flimsy card, but I have it now. Who says you never have victories with French bureaucracy? (Probably me, but at least not today).

Another exciting thing this month is that it’s snowed not once, but three times! Granted, it’s not been enough snow to cancel school, or to really allow for much fun in the snow, but it’s been enough to have a slight winter wonderland feel! I particularly enjoyed the Sunday where I woke up to snow and could observe it from my window. I wasn’t so much a fan of having to walk back from my middle school on a Thursday while it came down, though! The irony is that so many of my teachers and students told me that it rarely, if ever, snows in Dijon and here we are with four days of snow in my time here. I’m glad it happened though because there was a two week period where the temperature barely even got above freezing! If it’s going to be that cold and NOT snow – what’s the point??

Another good thing of this month? My discovery of the app “Too Good to Go.” It’s an app to help reduce food waste, and you can reserve “magic bags” in different eateries around town for reduced prices! You never know entirely what you’re going to get – and my kitchen set up limits me to essentially boulangeries and small eateries – but it’s a fun culinary adventure nonetheless. I’ve gotten some very good pastries out of it.

Finally, because I decided I wanted to make this year even more different than the first time I did TAPIF (ignoring the obvious massive difference), I applied to be an assistant ambassador. This wasn’t a position that existed the last time I was an assistant, but it seemed in line with my international educational goals, so I gave it a go. I was selected, and now partake in monthly meetings with the other 20 ambassadors to discuss ways to share the program through social media (both the official pages and our own personal pages), as well as ways to promote the assistant program to people in France, and our home countries. It’s certainly a new experience, and I’m excited to see how it plays out over the next couple of months!

The Bad of January 2021

I’ll admit there haven’t been loads of “bad” things this month, but no period of time is complete without its ups and downs. Unfortunately, for all the joy I might have had entering 2021, I promptly had some issues when the morning of January 1, I broke my retainer that I’ve had for eight years. Cue instant stress. Not only was I now having to deal with orthodonture in France, but of course I broke my retainer during a holiday weekend so I had to wait three days before I could call places. Logically I knew that nothing bad would befall my teeth in those three days, but sometimes, logic does not prevail. Needless to say, I was able to eventually sort it out (check out my blog post about visiting the orthodontist here), and I emerged on the other side with a fixed retainer. Hopefully, I won’t have to endure that stress again anytime soon.

The Pandemic in January 2021

As much as we all wished for it, the pandemic didn’t disappear the second the clocks struck midnight. Throughout the month of January, case numbers in France have been steadily increasing, and when the month started, the country was on curfew from 20H-6H. Within a week or so, my department reached a high enough level of incidence to be moved to a 18H curfew, about which I have very mixed feelings. Ultimately, the entire country moved to a 18H curfew, so now we all can’t be outside the house, except for very specific reasons, from 18H-6H. On paper, it seems like a fine idea, but in reality, it means that everyone is on public transport and out running errands right until the curfew, since grocery and other stores must close at 18H. I think it’s honestly counterintuitive to the purpose of curfews, but I guess the numbers will ultimately provide any clarity on it all. It seems (to me at least) that another confinement is around the corner, especially with the new variants. While the prospect of that isn’t thrilling, I’d actually prefer confinement to the curfew, if only because of the stress of only having 12 hours to do everything you need to do in a day. My favorite theory currently is that in following Disney Paris announcements, you’ll know the dates of the next confinement… they’re not set to open until April. Not sure if this is good or bad, but take that for what you will.

If there is another confinement, the question becomes whether schools will remain open. France has been adamant on keeping schools open despite confinements, but it’s unclear if that will remain the case if faced with another confinement. With the February breaks coming up, it’s possible that a confinement would attempt to line up with those dates, but given that the breaks are staggered between three zones in France, schools would only be closed for two weeks of however long a confinement would last. My issue with schools remaining open is that the French government continues to insist that education is a priority, but refuses to acknowledge teachers or education personnel as priorities. This is super evident in France’s vaccination program. While they’ve gotten the ball rolling a bit better than initially, the minister for education has explicitly stated that teachers will not be vaccinated sooner than the spring, which is when the general public is eligible to be vaccinated. I don’t understand the logic in saying that education must remain in person, but refusing to help teachers remain safe.

I also will never understand the blatant ignoring of middle schools when the government discusses protocols for schools. There’s the hybrid model in high schools, and timed lunches for primary students, but time and time again, middle schools are forgotten. Invariably, this means that middle schools will have Covid cases. The hallways during passing periods at my middle school are as crowded as if there weren’t a pandemic going on right now. Classrooms are full, and there’s no way to distance students when there are 35 students and 35 desks. I won’t pretend to be a virus expert, but it makes no sense to me to implement essentially no sanitary protocols in middle schools and then go all *surprised Pikachu* when kids are constantly testing positive or cas contacts. The government has implemented an attempt to give teachers/students better accessibility to tests, though as part of an initiative to test around 300,000 students and teachers a week. The nurse at my high school was supposed to administer tests every Friday afternoon (from 12:30-16:00), via appointment only. I signed up for one as a precaution for the Friday before break, only to find out a week before that it was cancelled due to lack of sign ups. Turns out my lycée has now cancelled their slots for testing. My guess is that was due to the fact that tests weren’t at convenient times for teachers, and therefore they couldn’t actually take advantage of it. Feels very hand wavy to seemingly have this available but then cancel it. I could still go to another school somewhere else in the city, but at that point, it’s more convenient for me to just go to a lab nearby.

The French government has also now recommended not using cloth masks anymore, which I know is now being recommended in other countries, but comes right on the heels of schools distributing new “regulated” single layer cloth masks to all teachers. It’s frustrating from an environmental (and financial) perspective as well since surgical masks, or N95s, aren’t reusable. That being said, I do recognize why they’re being recommended, and will always follow recommendations for mask wearing, and anything else related to the pandemic.

As a final restriction implemented this month, France has closed its borders to all inbound and outbound travel outside the EU except for “motif impérieux.” This, along with closures of non essential stores, will go into effect at midnight on Sunday, January 31. It’s the government’s quasi last ditch attempt (in my opinion), to not have another confinement, but I’m not really sure that these two restrictions are going to actually help lower numbers. They’ve explicitly stated that the curfew is no longer helping in the same way that it was, and therefore is no longer efficient. I’m unsure what they think closing borders, but still allowing travel within France and the EU is going to do, especially given the new variants and the impending holidays associated with schools. It’s frustrating that so many governments around the world still seem to have not learned much from the last almost 12 months. I feel that if they do implement another confinement at some point that it will be too little too late at this point.

I’m afraid that’s really been my month… not terribly exciting really, but as the French say, c’est la vie! The February break for my zone is right around the corner (it starts the sixth of February), so in that regard, this month feels very stop and go considering the students (and I) only have six weeks of school before yet another break. I also wouldn’t say I’m looking forward to it since it’s not like I’ll really be able to do much during it! Either way, we continue on day by day, and we’ll see what the next weeks have in store – a plus!