Lejneff,+Dominique



First off, let me say that I have only marvelous meories of my year in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Everything was perfect: the faculty, my four house mates, the Amity House, my friends. . . the snow. It was great, sothat you, Barbara, and all the "team" of the Department of Foreign Languages at the university who made this possible. Extend my warmest greetings to the professors and to Michelle when you see her.

Now some news about what I've been doing since 1993. When I came back from the United States I wanted to continue my studies at the university to validate my new level of English ability. I enrolled for courses at the University of Paris, Jussieu, in the master's program. I was happy that they accepted for this degree, but in fact, very honestly, I wasn't really prepared. I had never studied phonetics, or translation, and I didn't know English/American literature well enough. But this wasn't too disappointing, because this led me to decide to take the exam to become a primary school teacher. The politically correct term now is "school professor" (professuer des ecoles). The year after my return wasn't really very good. Life was pretty precarious. I didn't have a job, I was on unemployment, I was still living with my parents and my father was ill. . . it was all very difficult. Fortunately I passed the exam to become a teacher.

On September 16, 1994, I left for La Rochelle, a city where I knew absolutely no one, but at least it's on the sea coast. On September 19, three days letter, I was in frontn of a class of pre-schoolers (CM1), without having had any training and without ever really having taught. It seems unbelievable that a class would be entrusted to me which I didn't have any certification, but that's what happened. And, in fact, things went very well. The next year, I took the required courses and I was a real elementary teacher.

I still am. . . I teach in a village about 8 kilometers from La Rochelle. I teach first grade now and the pupils are 6 years old and learn how to read, write, and count. I really love what I do. I'm also teach my students a little English. I live in an apartment in La Rochelle with Patrick, who is a second hand dealer. I've been trying to sell the apartment since the first of the year, but the economic crisis has even come to La Rochelle. At least I'm not in too big of a hyrry, but I really would love to have a house and a garden. I'm being patient.

As far as coming for the Amity Reunion, I would love to, but I can't. My heart will be there. Give Jana a big hug for me---you can share my news with everyone and give them my contact information. They are invited to contact me, or come and see me in La Rochelle. I would love to hear about the others from my year, but it appears you weren't able to contact them either. That's too bad. I'd love to know how they are doing and what they are doing.

Dominique