Gavarnie

I wouldn't say that winter is my favorite season, especially because it's simply four months of rain here in Bordeaux, but it is slightly more bearable when there are fun wintery activities to do nearby. 2014 was all about Andorra but this year, we checked out Gavarnie, a small town in the heart of the Hautes-Pyrénées. Just like last year, we conned Rick into coming with us and our Kiwi friend Laura tagged along, too. What else were you planning to do with your Valentine's Day weekend?

Much like many of the other small towns in the area, there is about one road that runs through with a few restaurant/bar/hotels next to a bunch of souvenir/ski rental shops. The towns have what you need, but don't expect anything fancy. We stayed at Hotel L'Astazou, and the only thing worth mentioning about it is the owner: a small, raspy-voiced woman who smokes like a chimney (although she has "cut back") and would happily hold you up all day, talking your ear off about everything that's wrong with the world. She was nice enough but if you choose to stay there, expect 20 minutes of chatting upon entering or exiting the hotel.

Friday night was fairly low-key in preparation for a day on the slopes on Saturday. Everyone but Rick had to rent gear and the process went very smoothly and quickly. The ski station is about a 15-minute drive from the town of Gavarnie, straight up a fairly windy road. There is a bus that leaves from town but it only has a few departures and returns each day. In sharp contrast to Andorra, we got our boards, drove up to the station to buy our passes and we were on the lifts in less than an hour, and for about half the price. There are "only" 28 pistes in Gavarnie in comparison to literally the entire country of Andorra being one giant ski slope, but with our limited snowboarding abilities, we were perfectly happy with the offerings.

We couldn't have asked for a better day weather-wise. It was cold and windy, sure, but that's any mountaintop in February. We had some sun and some clouds, and while our faces got a little shredded with icy snow on the lifts, every time we got off, it cleared up so we could actually see where we were going.

I was eager to check out all the slopes, but after Jason's near-concussion (or full-blown concussion, apparently???) last year, I was extra vigilant and made sure he was comfortable on the board before leaving him. It was also nice having Laura around since they are at about the same level and could look out for each other a bit. She seemed to be picking things up a little quicker, but confidence is a dangerous thing, and her boldness resulted in a pretty nasty wipe-out that had her holed up in the lodge for the rest of the day. Jason probably could have done a bit more but his boots were bugging him and he declared his retirement from snowboarding.

Rick and I stayed out until our legs felt like jello, which, to be honest, wasn't much longer. It is incredible how tiring it can be to slide down a mountain on a piece of fiberglass. We hit a few other runs and still didn't even come close to seeing the whole place. I am still a fairly cautious snowboarder so the blue slopes in the Pyrenees are perfect for me: long, gently curving routes that allow you to pick up just enough speed to feel like a bad ass but not enough to actually hurt yourself too badly. It was a great day.

Back in town, there was some random ice band that was playing. Can't say the music was really my thing but there was hot wine and fire logs so I was happy.

We were certainly not up for another day of snowboarding but it seemed like a waste to just go straight back to Bordeaux. We had a few hours to kill, so we got some snowshoes and took a little walk in the woods. In the spring, you can hike up to the Cirque de Gavarnie, this beautiful rock formation with waterfalls and such, but those routes were all closed for the season. We will definitely have to make a return trip. Gavarnie is great!

How many engineers does it take to build a snowman?

On the way back to the slightly warmer, significantly wetter climes of Bordeaux, we were all pretty tired but happy. So maybe it's not the traditional way to spend Valentine's Day, but I think we did all right.

Napoleon Bridge. So high!!

See you in the summer, Pyrenees!

Teacher Appreciation Week: Chapter 4

Chapter 4: When It's Gone, It's Gone

In my fourth year, there was a very tangible shift. It started with the staff. We had a lot of our core members move on to bigger and better things, mostly for personal reasons. No hard feelings, of course, but it was never quite the same after they left. Despite growing student enrollment, we didn't take on many new staff members. For the ones we did, we never really took the time to get them on board with the mission or the model of the school, so some of the elements of what was once a very strict code of conduct started to loosen up and fall away due simply to a lack of consistent enforcement.

At the same time, there most recent AYP numbers were not looking good and someone was going to have to answer for them. There were a lot of finger-pointing policies that came down from the superintendent and since no one was interested in taking the blame for the failing district, it was placed squarely on the shoulders of the teachers. We were the easiest scapegoat, of course, because if the children aren't passing the tests and graduating, then it must be because the teachers aren't teaching them well enough! It couldn't possibly be any of these things that are COMPLETELY out of a teacher's control:
-student absenteeism
-malnutrition
-trauma (abuse, neglect, exposure to/participation in violence)
-poorly crafted district-mandated curricula
-malaligned standardized tests
-devalued diplomas
-ineffective school/district leaders
-allure of gang lifestyle
-lack of discipline at home (absent parents, lack of parenting skills)
-lack of prerequisite skills for high school achievement
-lack of resources (for students to complete assigned tasks)
-lack of resources (for teachers to give effective instruction)
-lack of faith in the education system in general

Yet, sadly, these were all of the things that were somehow my fault and if I just taught my classes better, it would solve everything! Kids would leave the gangs, come in off the streets, quit the jobs that they needed to support their younger siblings/junkie parents/children of their own, and come join me in Spanish 1 because that seems like something that is going to have an immediate positive effect on their lives!

And when the attendance police pick the students up and dump them in a chair in my classroom, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to be ready to learn, bright eyed from that night they spent sleeping on a park bench because they got evicted. They will certainly be prepared to participate after missing the first 75% of the course while they were busy selling drugs on the corner. On test day, I'm sure they had a balanced breakfast of Hot Cheetos and grape soda at 10:30am when they finally decided to roll into the school with no uniform, no books, nothing to write with, nothing to write on, and a chip on their shoulder because somebody looked at them funny on their way in the building.

Around this same time when teachers were being blamed for all of the fallout of Baltimore's societal ills, our administration also sold our collective souls for a little extra cash. Since having special education students gets you more district funding, we decided to take on the PRIDE Program for students with emotional disabilities. I can't even begin to explain how completely unprepared we were to admit this group of students. We didn't have the staff, we didn't have the training, we didn't have the resources or the structure or anything that was required to give these students the services they needed so they really could get an education. We just saw dollar signs for each kid who was on the list. Shame on us for our selfishness and greed. We certainly paid for it later.

When you have students with emotional disabilities, a simple request like, "Please take a seat" becomes a personal attack. "You don't own me, bitch! Shut the fuck up! I do what I want. Can't nobody tell me nothing. Niggas think they run this shit. I run this shit!"

What do you do in a situation like that? Do you start screaming obscenities right back at them? Do you raise your fists and prepare to fight? Do you throw something? Or do you see that behind all that rage is a 14 year old child that has seen more hurt and pain that you will ever see in your privileged life? Do you know that his reaction has NOTHING to do with you and everything to do with a life of frustration and disappointment and struggle? Do you know that this is the only way he's been taught to speak to authority figures?

So you say, "I need you to step outside and come back to class when you are calm enough to learn. I'll be here when you're ready." Sometimes they never come back. Sometimes they are forced to come back and they sit in the corner with their heads down, listening to their iPods, refusing to even try. Sometimes they come back and apologize. You never know. But what you can guarantee will happen is that your general ed students will take note that this kid just punked you and nothing was done about it. They see that he doesn't have to wear a uniform like everyone else. They see that there are new limits and they are going to try to find just how far they can push those limits before everything snaps.

He said "I run this shit," and he was right. Control slipped away from the teachers into the waiting hands of the students and there was no coming back from it. The little details like having your shirt tucked in or wearing the right color shoes were completely forgotten because it was a victory just getting kids into a classroom, regardless of what they looked like or how they acted.

The district decided that suspensions were no longer an option for disciplining students except in "extreme circumstances" (read: bloodshed) so we had no option for students who were way out of line (throwing/kicking desks, cursing at teachers, making violent threats, sexual harassment, etc.) but didn't, say, stab anyone. I don't think kids should be wantonly kicked out of school either, but then you need better "in house" consequences and behavior management tactics so that you don't need to even think about suspension. We had none of those and a whole lot of situations got unnecessarily bad, but not quite bad enough, so there was nothing we could do about it.

How do you run a school where "just show up" is the standard and the expectation? Our principal must have asked himself the same question and was at a loss for a solution so he gave up, too. What was clearly a school culture issue was branded as teachers just not working hard enough. Instead of supporting us and trusting our expertise to create engaging lessons, we were scrutinized and docked points on our evaluations for inconsequential omissions like not having enough words on our Word Walls.

Trust and love were replaced with blame and bitterness. The once quiet, orderly hallways were now 24-hour party zones. The focus used to be on student achievement and now it was simply on covering your ass so they couldn't find a reason to fire you. There was no collaborative spirit anymore, no sense of family. It was us, the teachers, versus them, the administration, the district, the students and the parents and no one was going down without a fight.

Our school motto was "Excellence is the expectation," and when I first arrived at the school, the students repeated this slogan to each other, to themselves, to their parents... They believed it. I believed it. At the end of my tenure there, it was virtually forgotten, or worse, dripping with sarcasm and disdain. The only expectation was that you would end up a nobody going nowhere, just like all your friends, and all your relatives and everyone you've ever known because that's the only thing this city is really good at.

There were some positive moments in those last two years: I had another great semester with some of my students in the class of 2011. They were always such a pleasure to teach and it helped that I had their class last period because they could erase an entire day's worth of frustration with 90 minutes of awesome. They were the reason I came to work everyday.

I also go to teach AP psychology in my 5th year. Our principal had been "teaching it"for two years but more often than not, that meant leaving the kids in a room by themselves (which happened to be my room during my planning period) to read their textbooks and answer sample exam questions. Finally, I got fed up and offered to take the class over myself. It was wonderful getting to try something different and to push the students to the next level but the fact of the matter is that none of them were quite ready to make that leap yet. Due to scheduling conflicts, I only got a semester where the principal had the class all year and I feel like I could have done so much more with a little more time.

One of the best experiences was participating in the Chill program, sponsored by Burton. My friend Heather had been the coordinator for the three years she was at the school and I picked up the slack when she left. It's a program that teaches life lessons such as patience, persistence, courage and pride, through snowboarding. Six weeks, one night a week, everything paid for and in the end, you come out a better person who also knows how to snowboard. If you work with underserved or at-risk youth, see if there is a Chill program near you. It's the only thing that got me through my last year.

That year was filled with disappointment and when it was over, I tried to be happy for the seniors but I mostly felt angry that so few of them even deserved to be on that stage. I was angry about how many had cheated and lied and complained their way to a 60% and had the nerve to be proud of it. I was angry that my principal had sold us out. I was angry that my friends had left when things were still good. Most of all I was angry at myself for being so defeated.

When I think back to what my school was and what it became, it breaks my heart. I was so proud of my school, of my students, of my fellow staff members. Maybe it was being young and maybe it was being optimistic but I really believed we were something special. I truly believed that teachers could make a difference, despite all the odds working against us. In five years, that faith was stripped away and a cold sense of helplessness was all that remained. I thought I could change the world but I turned out to be just another teacher who got eaten by the system.

Andorra, the Land of Waiting

Andorra: The name alone conjures visions of an enchanted land from some fantasy novel featuring wizards and dragons and creatures that are half man-half something with hooves. When you you say it, it's always in hushed tones, as if being whispered from the depths of a mystical forest. And, if you're anything like me, it might as well be a fictional place because you have no idea where it is.

It's here, and I promise it's a real country! Well, technically it's a tax-free principality, but who cares?

Jason suffers from crippling wanderlust, and is constantly on the hunt for his next fix, which is how we ended up booking a weekend of snowboarding in a country we knew literally nothing about. I didn't even know what the official language was until we got there and everything was written in this strange mash-up of all Romance languages. But with my fluency in French and Spanish (once upon a time), we knew we could figure it out.

We rented a car and dragged our buddy Rick out of bed on Friday morning so we could get an early start. It's about a four-hour drive and the last hour is straight up a mountain. Certainly not a problem for Jason after our epic adventure driving through the Alps in August, but we were a little concerned about the conditions in winter. Lucky for us, people who live in the mountains know how to deal with snow and the roads were pretty clear.

As per the usual, Jason had meticulously researched everything in advance and decided the best town for us to stay in was Pas de la Casa: Close proximity to lifts, good variety of slopes, lots of places to eat and drink, and cheap accommodations. For someone who isn't much of a life planner, he sure does a good job planning vacations.

When we arrived in town, our first task was to find parking. No easy feat as the small city roads were a bit less plowed and, more precarious still, jammed with people ambling about in their ski suits. Sidewalks? Who needs them! Moving out of the way as cars are skidding down the hill? No, thanks! We parked the car and didn't even think about moving it for the next three days.

Next step: Check in to the hotel. It was a little after 4pm (we stopped in Toulouse for lunch) but we couldn't pick up the keys until after 5. No problem. We'll have a drink and come back. A round of 2€ pints later, we went back to the office, which was now packed with other guests trying to check in. It would seem that in 2014, when we have access to things like the internet and computers, getting people checked in to a hotel would be a relatively quick and easy process.

FALSE!

Check in was a 50-minute ordeal, not only because there was a lot of unnecessary filling out of forms by hand, but because the people working at the desk didn't actually know how to do their jobs. They couldn't take our payment for the balance of the room because they didn't know how to operate the credit card machine. They didn't know which key to give us because they didn't know how to read the registry. They took countless phone calls in the middle of handling our reservation and then forgot what we were doing when they finally got back to us. Ça me fait chier but at least we had a great view from our room.

After getting settled, we grabbed some dinner, watched the opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games and ended up back at Paddy's Irish Bar (not to be confused with Paddy's Irish Pub) for drinks/pool/darts with all the other English-speaking people in town. We didn't get too cranked up, though, because we had an epic day of snowboarding in our very near future!

Bazooka-sized pepper grinder

Paddy's Irish Bar

We got up at 9 and started suiting up for our day on the slopes. Rick already had his own gear but Jason and I were renting from a place up the street. Again, this was a long and annoying process. Better than checking in to the hotel but it still took a lot more time that we anticipated. It was already 10:30 and we were wasting precious snow time! Time to get lift tickets. Holy shit, there's an endless line for this too? Couldn't you install some kiosks and get these things dispensed on the quick?

It was after 11 by the time we got to the slopes and, I'm sure you saw it coming, there was a massive line to get on the lifts. That's not even true. There was no line, just an insane mass of people clamboring all over each other, trying to get through the metro-like turnstiles to get on the lift. Who thought it was a good idea to make people on skis and snowboards to go through turnstiles?!?!?

It was pushing noon by the time we got to the top of the mountain, and we were so eager to just get a run in, that we (I?) kind of forgot that Jason didn't really know how to snowboard. We had been one other time in Virginia about two years ago and he spent most of the day falling down the mountain on his ass and nearly gave up. He had figured it out by the end but I suppose it's not really one of those "just like riding a bike" activities. Oops.

Moments before a face full of snow

He took a real hard fall on the very first run down the mountain, shattering his sunglasses and maybe even giving him a shade of a concussion. The teacher in me kicked in and I offered to stay with him on his next run and remind him how this whole thing works. We had to grab lunch in the middle of it since we forgot to eat breakfast in our haste to get on the mountain and Jason was getting hangry.

A couple more coaching runs before I left Jason to practice a bit and joined Rick on some of the tougher slopes. Suddenly the rage from waiting in long lines and Andorran inefficiency melted away. It's hard to be angry when you feel like you're ascending into heaven. The views could not have been more spectacular. I didn't bring a camera, because I don't really have one, so you'll just have to trust me. It was breathtaking. (All photo credits to Rick)

The lines started thinning out as they were able to open more lifts and we had four solid hours of uninterrupted snowboarding on longest, most beautiful runs I have ever seen. And, though the hoards of people everywhere would suggest otherwise, it wasn't even that crowded. I could carve all the way across the mountain and back without worrying about cutting someone off. GLORIOUS.

There are no lights on the slopes in Andorra so the lifts shut down at 5, which was about as long as our muscles could hold out anyway. Just like last time, Jason was really starting to get good toward the end but we were all too tired and too sore to go out again on Sunday. Now that we know what to expect, we can do things smarter next time.

We considered checking out some of the other towns in Andorra on our way out but traffic was miserable and we decided to just head back to Bordeaux. We wanted to swing through Toulouse for lunch again but the GPS took us on some crazy route up and over this mountain and the turn we were supposed to make would have had us driving through a snowbank. Technology fail. It was very pretty but no one really likes driving up and down icy mountain roads, especially when you haven't eaten. We ended up stopping in some random tiny town called Chioula ("Je suis où là?") to get some food, and even though we had just taken a 90-minute detour, it was hard to complain about the view.

Peace out, Pyrenees. See you when I can walk again.

Patience is a virtue, especially in Andorra.