Le "poor white trash" et l'escalade

I completely forgot to mention about Monday's SES (Sciences économiques et sociales) class. So yesterday just after class started, the principal entered the classroom. The moment he came into the room, everyone rose from their seat. In France, the students would rise every time that the professor entered and wait for the teacher to tell them to be seated. This is out of respect for the professor. However, rising from your seat for a professor is more a thing of the past (although sometimes still practiced). This being said, I assumed that people stopped doing this altogether. So when the principal entered I was totally unaware that we supposed to stand up. It was fine though, I caught on. Then,  principal proceeded up give us a 20 minute lecture about our post-Bac options. This lecture didn't apply to me as my post-Bac plans consist of returning the US. Also, in SES we began a new unit about analyzing different social classes of society. On the documents we had to analyze was about divisions within social classes. They used an example from the United States. Take a look at the document:
Oh Lordy...

As you can see, I took the courtesy of highlighting the phrase "le poor white trash" so you wouldn't have to search the entire text. My favorite part about this is that not only is it translated into English, but it also in italics as if "poor white trash" is a textbook term or something. I also wasn't sure how to react when my teacher asked me to explain the definition to the class. It was so hard to be stay perfectly serious when explaining the idea of people who are considered "poor white trash" in academic terms. (How are you supposed to explain "poor white trash" without being impolite?)
Although I'm making the situation out to be bigger than actually was I just honestly surprised when I saw "le poor white trash" in my textbook. Of course I know it's not meant to be offensive and only in an academic sense, but I couldn't help but wonder who looks up these English phrases for these textbooks.
Today, we began our rock climbing ("l'escalade" en français) unit for gym class. Nearly everyone had done rock climbing with the Lycée before, so it was a smooth transition into a new unit. I haven't done a ton of rock climbing in the US, but of the climbing I have done I was able to make a few observations about rock climbing in the US versus in France (well, at Lycée Berthelot). The biggest difference I noted was in security. In the US there is always a little dialogue between climber and belayer before they begin climbing. Here, it's pretty once the climber is ready they can climber. Of course, it's always nice to ask the belayer if he/she is ready, but otherwise the dialogue isn't much longer than this. Also, the harnesses here are simpler than in the US. There aren't any complicated knots that you have to learn or any loops (of which you have no idea their purposes). This being said, the unnecessarily complicated knots of the US do make me feel a little more secure. Finally, when someone isn't using a wall they just leave the ropes out here. In the US, people are so paranoid about keeping ropes tucked away and tidy and never leaving them out when not being used. In short, although the security levels for the rock climbing were a little questionable (but I still do have confidence in the Lycée), rock climbing pretty really fun. I'm definitely enjoying this new unit more than Badminton...
I finished school today at 15h00 (3:00 pm) and so I had some time to hang out with some friends after school. Otherwise, I didn't experience anything particularly life changing this afternoon. However, the night is still young! Which also means that I should be running off to handball practice soon. :)
À la prochaine fois,
Becca