personality

Mary convinced me to take the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) test. When we finished, I found a shorter version of the Myers-Briggs test. Here are my results.

KTS (I did not receive the four letters that describe my personality, only my personality type and four possible roles.)

Idealists, as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. Idealists strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self — always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey. Idealists are naturally drawn to working with people, and whether in education or counseling, in social services or personnel work, in journalism or the ministry, they are gifted at helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potentials.

Idealists are sure that friendly cooperation is the best way for people to achieve their goals. Conflict and confrontation upset them because they seem to put up angry barriers between people. Idealists dream of creating harmonious, even caring personal relations, and they have a unique talent for helping people get along with each other and work together for the good of all. Such interpersonal harmony might be a romantic ideal, but then Idealists are incurable romantics who prefer to focus on what might be, rather than what is. The real, practical world is only a starting place for Idealists; they believe that life is filled with possibilities waiting to be realized, rich with meanings calling out to be understood. This idea of a mystical or spiritual dimension to life, the “not visible” or the “not yet” that can only be known through intuition or by a leap of faith, is far more important to Idealists than the world of material things.

Highly ethical in their actions, Idealists hold themselves to a strict standard of personal integrity. They must be true to themselves and to others, and they can be quite hard on themselves when they are dishonest, or when they are false or insincere. More often, however, Idealists are the very soul of kindness. Particularly in their personal relationships, Idealists are without question filled with love and good will. They believe in giving of themselves to help others; they cherish a few warm, sensitive friendships; they strive for a special rapport with their children; and in marriage they wish to find a “soulmate,” someone with whom they can bond emotionally and spiritually, sharing their deepest feelings and their complex inner worlds.

Idealists are relatively rare, making up no more than 15 to 20 percent of the population. But their ability to inspire people with their enthusiasm and their idealism has given them influence far beyond their numbers.

Idealists at Work
Idealists, as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. They are naturally drawn to working with people and are gifted with helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potential both on, and off, the job.

Your attention is naturally drawn to the individual and collective needs, desires, and experiences of people in your environment. In your ideal job, you would be able to use your inner beliefs as a guide for empowering others. Though you are comfortable with leadership, you don’t like arbitrary hierarchies. You care deeply about people as people, and often feel that maintaining official role boundaries interferes unnecessarily with both communication and progress.

Four types of Idealists are Champion (ENFP), Healer (INFP), Teacher (ENFJ), Counselor (INFJ).

 

Myers-Briggs (46 question adapted test)

Extroverted (E) 62.5% Introverted (I) 37.5% Intuitive (N) 53.13% Sensing (S) 46.88% Feeling (F) 52.94% Thinking (T) 47.06% Judging (J) 58.33% Perceiving (P) 41.67%

Your type is: ENFJ

ENFJ - “Persuader”. Outstanding leader of groups. Can be aggressive at helping others to be the best that they can be. 2.5% of total population.

interesting.

Wednesdays are the best.

Especially if you get sick on Tuesday, like I did. Another cold. Thank goodness I still have medicine from last time.

It won’t stop raining in Beauvais. I don’t understand. Cold rain is the worst. To top it all off, the radiator in my room isn’t functioning like it should, so it’s cold both in and outside my room. This means I sport sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt to bed, and I sleep with three blankets. I’m hoping they fix it soon.

Thanks to Melinda, I am now obsessed with Airbnb.com, a website for people to post their rooms, and sometimes entire apartment, for rent. We (are three) found an entire apartment to rent while in Rome, and it’ll only cost us about 200€ for four nights.

Finding Christmas presents for friends and family is both fun and annoying. I do enjoy going out to search for them, but it can take a while if you’ve got loads to buy for. And really, I prefer those “oh! that’s perfect” moments, meaning I’ll see something in a window or online and think “that’s perfect for [insert name].” Too bad it doesn’t always happen like that. I hope to find a few things in Rome, but maybe that’s not a great idea considering Ryanair weight limits? We’ll see.

I have an English lesson in the morning. I should sleep. Goodnight!

Sat in my room listening to Christmas songs and drinking cidre. Mmmmm…

Christmas break is two and half weeks away, and after today, I am ready for it. Today was difficult. I am trying to prepare my students for a small exam I will be giving in the next two weeks. I want all of them do well! I want to them to properly write sentences and correctly spell and recognize colors, numbers, weather terms, prepositions, etc… . FINGERS CROSSED.

The night before break officially starts, the 16th, Jeff and I will leave for a week in Rome. I am so excited, especially considering it will be my first trip to Italy. We decided we’d like to do some couchsurfing while there, so we messages a few people who live in and near the city center. I hope they get back to us because it will make for both a cheap and more interesting way of getting to know the city.

Until then, I have my lessons, both in and out of school, to keep me busy. My private English lessons have been going well. The man I work with is adamant about learning more for his trip to Florida in January. Today, I received another email, this time for lessons with a CM2 student who, thankfully, lives just down the street. The family wants him to have a taste of the language, leading me to assume he does not attend a school with an English assistant, which is unfortunate. I assumed the assistants covered all the primary schools in Beauvais, but maybe there are too many? Anywho, I will meet the family tomorrow and see how it goes.

I will leave you with this. It’s wonderful, especially because Zelda: Ocarina of Time is my favorite game.

Les ateliers de la bergerette …

IS THE BEST THRIFT SHOP IN THE WORLD. I kid you not. As Mary said, if you need something and can imagine it being there, it’ll be.

I first heard about Les Ateliers de la Bergerette when an employee came to the girls’ foyer last year to talk about the importance of recycling and donating. She had organized a fashion show in the foyer with donated clothes she then remade into new items. They were really lovely, and the models, residents of the foyer, had a great time with it. Later on, I finally visited the place, and I fell in love! It has everything you could possibly need. I have purchased lots, mostly cooking things, but also a cork board, a radio, a bike!, and other little knickknacks for my room. Another lovely thing is that at the end of the assistantship, you can donate everything you don’t want or can’t take back with you to the store. Really convenient. 

So, if you’re ever in the area, definitely stop by the shop. You’re sure to find something.  

almost two months …

and I am craving peanut butter like nobody’s business. wanna send me some?

For the most part, classes have gone smoothly. Well, as smoothly as it can when you spend almost half your class time trying to shush everyone. But really, that’s normal, and I don’t mind it most of the time. I have levels CE1 through CM2 in both of my schools, and CP at one. Most of my classes have had English already, but two haven’t, which is surprising. I thought all the little ones start with it in CP, but maybe that depends on your region, city, and/or school.

I visit Louis Aragon first every week, and I absolutely love the ladies there. Beauvais is divided into quartiers, and Louis Aragon is in the southern quartier, Saint-Jean. Nice doesn’t even begin to describe how the staff there is. The teachers have been very helpful, making sure I have everything I need, that their requests for my schedule were alright with me. Basically, that everything works for me. And the kids there are CRAZY enthusiastic, which can be very reassuring. English class, ouais! Teaching English means instant celebrity status at school. That means every single student says “Hello, Shiana!” as I walk up to school, that some of my students reach out to give me bisous and hugs, and everyone wants to tell me any and everything they have done that is English-related. I love it so much! 

The kids at Jean-Macé, my school in centre-ville, are more or less the same. You have to pass through the courtyard/playground to get to the main school building, which means you get at least twenty hello’s before you make it to the door. The classes here are the same, though, in retrospect, I assumed more control of each class here than I did at Louis Aragon. Does that make sense? I mean to say that the teachers here are more likely to not take control of the students if they are noisy vs. those at Louis Aragon. This can be both helpful and not. Sometimes I am able to quiet the students while speaking in English, but the majority of the time, I have to speak in French, which feels counter-productive. Overall, my classes here are similar to those at LA.

As usual, there are good and bad days as an assistant. But there are also days like today, not necessarily bad, but ones that leave you lacking confidence. My kids (CM2) seemed really bored, which had me wondering if I was moving too slow. I didn’t have enough material with me to switch up the lesson plan, so I had to stick with what I had, weather. It is hard to find a medium with classes like this one. If I move to fast, half the class won’t understand, and I will wonder why a handful have failed a simple activity. If I move too slow, I might have days like today, when I lose their interest with 20 mins. left of class. AHHH.  

The most I can do with days like this is, as Mary said, not take it personally. Instead, revise future lesson plans to accommodate what we’ve done so far, the level of comprehension I observe in class, etc., etc. And maybe drown my sorrows in a baguette … avec de la confiture … peut être avec du buerre. Just kidding. I always know what to do, but I can’t help feeling like I let them down by not doing enough. Oh, teaching.

Tomorrow, I will visit Jean-Macé. My schedule is the same everyday. One class in the morning, three in the afternoon. Mondays and Thursdays at Louis Aragon, Tuesdays and Fridays at Jean-Macé, Wednesdays off. Nice, huh? 

Four and half weeks until Christmas break. Four and half weeks until ROME. Guess who’s excited?  

 

and here we go again.

Back in France for my second year as an assistant, and I am off to a good, though slow, start. I finally know where I am teaching, Ecoles Louis Aragon and Jean Macé in Beauvais. My new advisor, Thierry, was nice enough to drive me and two other assistants to visit schools today. For Aragon, I will need the bus, but Jean Macé will probably be a fifteen minute walk into town. Hooray!

This year, I have decided to live in the co-ed foyer (des jeunes travailleurs). It is just outside of centre-ville, which means at least a short walk for anything, but I am much happier living in a co-ed environment, so I do not mind. Four other assistants, two boys and two girls, also live here, which has been lovely. I would hate to be the only one.

I should probably talk some about my summer considering my last post is entirely about it. Three weeks after I left France, I started working as a server at TGI Friday’s. It was definitely a job I loved and hated. Most of the servers I worked with were really nice. The cooks were THE BEST. (Hey, Beth, Brandon, Mike B!) Getting a new routine consisting only of walking around, asking the same three questions, “Can I get you anything?”, “How is everything?”, “Would you like your check?”, and running food was very overwhelming at first, but I got a hold of it quicker than I thought. Shannon bartends there, so I lived with her all summer to make the commute easier. It was the first time I had ever been home without living in my mom’s house.

As for hating it, that was entirely because of how poorly customers tipped me. I expected at least 15% from tables, even 20% when I knew I had done a fantastic job. People tipped 10% and less, which is not the standard at all, no matter what anyone says. Aside from the obvious, this job is about creating a rapport with your table in order that they have a great time. It is quite sad when you succeed at that and still only end up with a tip of 15% or less. Dear South Mississippians, TIP YOUR TABLES BETTER.

So I worked, worked, worked all summer, took a road trip to NC with friends, successfully applied for my French work visa, got two tattoos, and of course, met some new, wonderful people. Definitely one of my favorite summers.

And now I am in Beauvais again, waiting to start work .. again. Lots of agains. Some of my plans for the year include being more active in town, see more of the sights, finding some tutoring opportunities, make a final decision about an online TEFL course, and applying for another teaching job for next year. I am really excited about it all. Wish me luck!

On a completely random note,

Dear, Florence Welch,

You must come to Paris. I need to hear you sing. And if you happen to come across Adele while on your way here, drag her along, too.

Love,

shi

never too far behind

The end of May will make eight months I’ve been here, and I am homesick like never before. This has made working in the garden ROUGH. Don’t get me wrong. I was, am still, excited about wwoofing, couldn’t stop thinking or talking about it, knew it would be a great chance to do and learn things I have never done before. But after three days in Epernay, I was ready to change my flight to an earlier date and go home. To add to that, I felt a bit lonely despite having been surrounded by a lovely family. I do take advantage of the time Matthieu, Lady, and their family and friends give while here, but I guess I want my own even more. 

I guess knowing that I will go home in a few weeks does not at all. No matter what I am doing, digging, planting, watering the plants, fixing whatever, I am constantly thinking about what I’ll do when I get off the plane (after the obvious, sleeping a lot), what jobs I will be able to find, what it’ll be like actually living at home for longer than three weeks after the last four years, what my new, renovated house looks like, WHAT MY ROOM LOOKS LIKE?!?….. basically, a million thoughts running through my head at the same time. I am not handling it well here. Gotta do better.