St. Valentin

So today is Monday, thus the beginning of a new week. Today commemorates the beginning of a very fun week; for two reasons: 1.) It’s the week before Valentine’s Day and 2.) It’s the last week before Winter Break. (PS – I created a new page called “voyages” on the right side column, so if you want to know what I’ll be doing/where I’ll be going for break, check there.)

Today in my classes, we talked about l’amour! Despite teaching middle school, where talking about love can turn awkward really fast, all my kiddos acted very mature. Since I see my kids once a week (and knowing I wouldn’t see them next Monday – the day after Vday -due to vacation) I decided to start my American culture lesson on “Valentine’s Day”. My 4eme (8th graders) are currently learning about the beginning of the 20th century in history class, so trying to do a cross-curiculum lesson, we talked about the Titanic. They did well reciting facts back to me about what it was, when it happened, etc. We talked about the movie for a little while, and then dove into the song. Yes, THE song. The love song of all time: Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”. If you haven’t heard the song in a while, sit back, relax, and hit play. I’m such a cheese-ball, I know.

Well, in class we translated the lyrics and talked about the meaning behind the song. It was very interesting getting a 13 year old’s point of view and then remembered that the first time I’d seen the movie/heard the song/studied the RMS Titanic, I was just a little younger than them. It was a weird realization. We ended class with a Celine Dion sing-a-long – the boys were louder than the girls…go figure!

With my younger kids we talked about what American kids do on Valentine’s Day. They couldn’t believe kids actually made Valentines and passed them out with candy. France doesn’t do anything to celebrate the holiday. In fact, when I was researching ahead of time for this lesson (aka – yesterday while watching rugby with Guillaume), this is the only thing I found on St. Valentin in France: There’s a little town in Southern France that dresses up the Saturday nearest the 14th and goes around kissing everyone. Here’s the link if you want to read more: http://www.saintvalentin.org/ Well, back to my 6eme (6th graders)…We spent the class period writing “Roes are red, violets are blue” poems as well as hand-crafting our own Valentine’s Day cards (in English). I told the kids they had to hold onto them until Sunday and then give them to someone. We’ll see if they listen and follow through.

As for my Valentine’s Day (since this is the V-day blog), I’ll share with you the irony of my situation. Lesley (teacher friend) and I will be traveling to Bordeaux (city a few hours west of here) for the weekend before meeting up with other friends Monday in Barcelona for our two week vacay. She and I, though not realizing it when we booked our trip, will be staying together in France (the most romantic country in the world) more specifically in Bordeaux (wine region – making it even more romantic) on Valentine’s Day, just the two of us, single and alone. Kind of pathetic, huh? Guess it’s the good thing the French don’t do anything for this holiday! No one will know we’re without Valentines!

Sick = Sports?

This weekend I was sick. Well, it started Thursday, I suffered through teaching on Friday, and Friday night I decided to drug myself up on medecine and go to bed early. Saturday I woke up around noon, by a text message from Lesley inviting herself over (with Charlotte) to finalize vacation plans. I’m glad they did though because otherwise I would have done nothing all day Saturday. We hung out in the living room on our laptops, drinking tea (for my benefit), and enjoying watching Guillaume watch Rugby. It was quite comical. There was a big tournament going on this weekend called 6 Nations. I believe that’s what it was called. Anywho Saturday afternoon, we caught the majority of the Ireland/Italy game as well as the England/Wales game. Charlotte left at some point, have prior dinner obligations, but Lesley, being the super sweet friend that she is, not only brought me tea, and more medecine, but also dinner. Of course, she only had the ingredients so we still we had the adventure of making it ahead of us. My kitchen this year has had so many cooking adventures! Well, we made a tarte aux courgettes (Zucchini Quiche) and despite my hatred of eggs, I really liked the result of our quiche. (I just kept telling myself it was all cheese inside-no eggs. haha)

Cooking dinner in my PJs!

Finished result - just before going into the oven.

Ok, now onto Sunday. Like Saturday I slept till noon. I completely skipped church and felt so guilty about it. However, I thought that it was the responsible decision to rest and get better so that I wouldn’t return to school Monday spreading my germs and sickness onto my students. Despite trying to put my students first, I still felt guilty for not going to church. So, I watched a Newspring service online. (To find about more about NS – click on their link to the right.) Actually, I watched two. I couldn’t help myself – I just love that church. Watching NS online and seeing familar faces makes me miss SC so much. Anywho, after “church at home”, I took a shower and put on new PJs. HAHA – I stayed in PJs all weeked! I eventually joined Guillaume in the living room and watched the France/Scotland rugby match. I spent my time cutting out paper hearts for a Valentine’s Day lesson, and listening to Guillaume comment on the game. I figured that if I couldn’t watch the Super Bowl due to being in France, I could at least watch a tournament game of something resembling football, in which France was playing, to make up for it.

As the evening wore on, I hassled my friend Erikk (that came to Paris with me – go back a few blogs to see a pic of him) because he’s studying in Scotland and France had just beaten Scotland in the match. I also asked him if he knew of any way to stream the Super Bowl online. He gave me a couple websites to try and though they worked, they weren’t great quality. I showed Guillaume how I was watching American TV on my computer and he thought that was really cool. He said if I stay up (since it didn’t start here till midnight) to watch a little of the game, he’d join me, since I watched rugby with him all afternoon weekend.

When midnight rolled around and Queen Latifa started singing whichever song she sang (I can’t remember now) Guillaume asked if I was sure it wasn’t being broadcasted on French TV. I said I was 95% sure that it wasn’t but, because we have like hundreds of TV channels, he scanned them really fast just to double check. Well, as it turns out, there was one channel broadcasting it! We, rather I, couldn’t believe it. Thank you channel “W9!”

Yes, you're seeing things correctly - that is Super Bowl 2010 on our French TV!!!

We originally said we’d watch for an hour. Then, after an hour said we’d watch till halftime (to see if they’d show the commericals here – they didn’t). Then at halftime when the score was 17-16, we had to keep watching. We watched the entire game and did not go to bed until 4am! I had to get up at 8am for work! It was crazy. However it’s a once in a year thing, and it was so worth it to teach Guillaume the rules of football, like he had to do for me with rugby, and see him take a genuine interest in the game. Plus, it was nothing short of hysterical to watch the Super Bowl, live, in France, at midnight, with French commentators. The two men commentating the game were really funny – apparently one of the French men had played football in college (in the States) so he knew what he was talking about (and said things like “touchdown”, “unnecessary roughness”, “Drew Brees”, “Reggie Bush”, etc. with decent non-French-accented English). Whereas the other guy just gave a play-by-play of what he was seeing – not really adding his own comments. Nonetheless it was a night I’ll probably never forget! YAY for being sick and watching sports with my roomie all weekend!

Pass d’Education

I forgot to mention that while in Paris, I was granted free admission into everything, yes everything, because of my Pass d’Education. The Pass d’Education is the French national teacher ID card. It is so cool. There are so many perks. (i.e. entrance into all national museums for free). I’ve been told that you can get discounts on all sorts of crazy things like school supplies, admission into other educational places (aside from museums – i.e. parks, national monuments, etc.), performances (theatre, ballet, opera), and more! How cool, huh? I wish the US had a generalized teacher ID card that would work from state to state.

Too bad this thing won't work back in the States!

Paris

Here are the highlights of last weekend in Paris. Erikk, a friend of mine from home (Boston, not SC) is studying in Scotland. He had the week off school, so he came to visit me (well, really France). He had never been to France before. After spending 2 days in Lyon, we headed to Paris for the weekend. I skipped a day of work (SHH! don’t tell on me) and we stayed with the family I nannied for two summers ago. We had a very busy weekend. Despite having typical freezing January weather, it was a lot of fun touring Erikk around my favorite city in the world. It’s crazy to think I know my way around Paris better than I do Boston!

Thursday

- I taught all morning.
- Came home and had lunch with Erikk.
- Took a 3pm train to Paris.
- Arrived in Paris at 5pm.
- Got to Montmorency (suburb north of Paris where we were staying) 2 hours later. Don’t ask – we had some metro problems. haha.
- Caught up with David and Geraldine (the parents of the kids I used to nanny for) and hung out with the kids. The boys wanted us to play a board game with them, so to waste time before dinner, we did.
- Had a lovely raclette dinner (for Erikk’s sake) around 9pm. D&G even opened a bottle of champagne (as well as wine) to celebrate us being there. You can’t get much more French than a raclette dinner (something which Geraldine originally said wasn’t a grand chose (big deal)). But having a raclette dinner is a big deal – the cheese is pretty expensive. But it was nice of them to welcome Erikk that way knowing he’d never been to France before.
- After dinner Erikk and I mapped out what we planned on doing the following day and then went to bed.

Erikk on our TVG heading to Paris!

Friday

- Got up early, ate breakfast, stole snack from the house and hit the road.
- We visited so many things that day. Geographically, we went in a straight line horizontally across Paris -going west to east.
*Pont Neuf (Erikk really wanted to see this because it was in the Bourne Ultimatum movie.)
*Le Louvre (We spent a while inside the museum. We also listened to Rick Steve’s audioguide as to not miss any of the highlights in the museum.)
*Les Jardin des Tuleries (Despite how many times I said “Tuleries”, Erikk just couldn’t pronounce it!)
*Place de la Concorde
*Avenue des Champs Elysees
*Le Grand Palais
*Le Petit Palais
*Sacre Coeur (If you’re following all of this on a map – do not worry – we got on the metro to head here.)
*Montmartre (It was a rainy day (and very cold) so there were hardly any artists asking to paint our picture.)
*Le Moulin Rouge
*Hotel de Ville
*Centre Pompidou
- When we got home (after 8pm) the kids had already eaten and were winding down for bed. Geraldine reheated some frozen pizza for us and we had a delicious salad to go with it. (It was so nice to be able to stay with a family and have free meals! Erikk and I were very fortunate.)
- After eating we decided to watch The Bourne Identity (since Erikk told me it took place (some of it) in Paris) because I had never seen it. As soon as it ended we went to bed knowing we’d be up early again for another busy day.

Erikk outside the Louvre's pyramid.

Sacre Coeur

Hotel de Ville

Saturday

- We started the day with breakfast at the house again, packing some snacks, and then leaving. It wasn’t raining like the day before so we were happy. However, there was snow on the ground – but it was sunny – so we didn’t complain.
- Our first stop was “Roland Garros”. This is the tennis stadium where the French open is held every year. We practically had a private tour (there were only 5 people) in Franglais!! (Our guide spoke French and English for Erikk’ sake.) The tour was very interesting and we got to see everything (locker rooms, hall of fame, journalist’s area, press rooms, center court, etc.)!
* L’arc de Triomphe was next. That sucker has almost 300 stairs and because it’s a windy staircase your legs kill when you reach the top!
*Notre Dame followed. We also took a tour of it. Our tour guide was American (from Louisiana) and was very informed about the creation of the church (both structurally and Biblically). It was very interesting listening to her. The tour took almost two hours, but it was well worth it.
*La Tour Eiffel was our next stop. We got in line at 4:30ish and didn’t ge up the elevator until close to 6:30! It was freezing mind you, so Erikk and I tried to stay busy playing “21 Questions”. We made friends with the English tourists behind us, too. We made it up right as sunset was happening and it was gorgeous. My camera, that has some pretty cool settings, got some great pictures of it.
-When we finally descended the tower, it was dark, and we were frozen. We decided to call it an early day at 7pm and head home.
- Back at the house, no one was home. We made spaghetti and finished off the salad from the night before. I got to use their coffee maker (probably the thing I miss the most about living with that family) and then we watched the second “Bourne” movie. (I can’t remember the name of it.) Some parts in the second movie take place in Paris, so we thought it was only fitting.
- The family, who we think went to the movies, came home and some point, and we talked to them a little bit before going to bed.

If I were a famous tennis player, this is where I'd get interviewed!

At Roland Garros - so cool!

Erikk in front of L'arc de Triomphe.

In front of Notre Dame!

E and E on the E Tower!

Sunset seen from standing on the Eiffel Tower!

Sunday

- Our train back to Lyon was at 9pm, but knowing it would just be a hassle to backtrack to the suburbs to get our bags after of day of sightseeing, we decided to just take our bags with us that morning and keep them in lockers at the train station all day.
- After breakfast with the whole family, we said our thank yous and goodbyes and David drove us to the metro. I am so blessed to have nannied for such a great family that is so hospitable and still to this day finds value in keeping a relationship with this crazy American. (Though I know if they were to ever come to Boston, they would call me hoping for a free place to stay!)
- After bringing our things to the train station (roughly noon), Erikk and I headed off our last super-packed day in Paris.
* La Bastille (being so close to the train station) was our first stop. We took some pictures and walked around a nearby market.
*Musee de l’armee (also known as Musee des Invalides) was next. We didn’t stay very long knowing the museum that followed were more important. However, while there we saw Napoleon’s tomb. (That was a first for me.)
*Musee Rodin (my favorite museum) was right around the corner. We spent time inside perusing the sculptures and even outside in the gardens. Erikk was happy to say he’s now seen “Le Penseur” (The Thinker).
*Musee d’Orsay was our last museum. Sticking to my traveling tradition, we listened to the Rick Steve’s audioguide to make sure Erikk could see all the highlights in the amount of time we had.
* Le Pantheon was close to the museum, so we swung by to take some pictures of the outside.
- We had dinner in the Latin Quarter where I got to have real French Onion soup! Erikk and I both had steak au poivre. We headed to the train station, a little early, when we finished.
-At the train station, I ran into a friend. Yes, seriously. I’m really beginning to feel like a local here in France when crazy things like this happen. Haley was just as surprised as I was to see each other outside of Lyon.
- To waste the time before our train (and even the first hour of our train ride) Erikk and I watched “The Bourne Ultimatum” on his laptop. It was kind of fun to watch one of the movies in that trilogy each night.
- On the train ride home, Guillaume sent me a text message asking if we wanted him to pick us up. Knowing we got home at midnight he figured taking the car (instead of the bus) would be faster. Also knowing that I had to teach at 9am, he figured it would behoove me to get home as quick as possible. Do I not have the sweetest roommate in the world!?!

Right before saying goodbye - the kids are so big now!

Napoleon's tomb - it is HUGE!

Inside Musee d'Orsay

February 5th?…deja?

February 5th?…deja? (already?)

So a lot has happened since February started/I last wrote:
- A new month started
- Groundhog day
- A full week of school passed
- My weekend in Paris with Erikk
- and some other little things.

WOW – ok, where to begin? I’m not going to blog about Paris tonight – I’ll do it tomorrow, when I have more time to add pictures and such. So, tonight I just tell you about the other bullet points. Ok, so a new month started! I can’t beleive it. I feel like New Years was just yesterday. January flew! Aside from January flying, February’s off to a fast start, too. It’s already Friday. My first week in Feb flew. I counted today and officially have 12 weeks left till the end of my teaching contract. 8 weeks are actual teaching weeks, and the other 4 are vacation! Gosh, I love France and how much priority they give to “reposer”-ing. (resting/relaxing) I briefly mentioned Groundhog Day – I originally planned on doing a Groundhog Day lesson and teaching my classes about our crazy-cultural holiday and then decided against it. A lot of my students already think the US is crazy – I didn’t want to add fuel to the flame. But speaking of the holiday, did the little guy see his shadow this year, or no? I’ve been wondering since Tuesday. Ok, that’s all for now. I’ll blog about Paris tomorrow and then probably blog a second time catching you up on my future travels – we have our first spring break (yes, we have two in total) next week and I have a lot planned!!! A toute!

Voici paris!

Ok. So I just download the app for WordPress onto my BlackBerry so I can blog on the go…kind of like this (if this works). I’m currently sitting in window seat #47 in car #17 aboard a iDTGV train heading to Paris!!! My friend, Erikk, is sitting next to me enjoying his first ever visit en France! I’ve enjoyed showing him around Lyon the past 2 days, except it’s been freezing. It’s snowed everyday since Monday. Paris’ weather is supposed to be just as cold, but we’re determinded to layer up, suck it up, and enjoy the weekend! I might blog again later tonight once we arrive, but depending on how much the kids keep us occupied (we’re staying with the family I nannied for last summer), I might not blog. However, if I do, I’ll steal Erikk’s Mac so I can type a lot faster/ write a lot more. Alors, a plus! (So, until more!)

19 – 23 Janvier

Since returning to school after Christmas break, I’ve realized that my life is not far as exciting as it was back in the fall. Hence, why I haven’t been blogging daily – I just don’t have super interesting things to share. Sorry. To read the recap this past week, well from MLK day till now, read on.

Tuesday – This is going to sound really funny, if you don’t know me well, but it’s the truth. Over the summer I wrote a novel. Yes, really I did. It’s complete fiction about a American girl who ups and moves to France. It was kind of my way of dreaming up my future year abroad. (And, now that I’m here, it’s not at all panning out as I’d written. haha) My editior and I decided that it would behoove me to rework the entire book once having lived in Lyon for a little while. That way I could add more personal touches. So, Tuesday, I spent my day off adding specifics to my book. It was really tough, I’m not going to lie. I had to give specific street names, and restaurants, and metro stops, etc. Needless to say, I didn’t finish (because the novel’s a couple hundred pages), but I made a decent dent in the editing process. Tuesday night was Bible Study at Joelle’s house. It was really fun. We talked about wisdom, and seeking it before making big decisions. We have new people in the young adult group because it’s now a new semester so there’s new foreign exchange students (more Americans in fact) here for the next 6 months! Our group is growing and glory be to God! I love our BS group! It’s such a wonderful part of my week.

Wednesday – I worked the whole morning but my classes were wonderful. I also broke up my first fight in the hall. Three 9th graders were about to stomp on an 8th graders’ glasses. The poor boy without his glasses couldn’t see anything going on. I went into super-against-policy-teacher-mode and literally pulled kids away from the circle that was forming in the hallway. I also yelled, and pushed kids in the direction of their next class. I didn’t care if I was breaking rules I just didn’t want things to get any worse than what they already were. My all-girl’s class at 11am (last class of the day), like last week, once again made my day. We were working on “There used to be…”/”There didn’t use to be”. It was hard to explain why we conjugate the “used” the first time, but not the second. The English-language has so many exceptions to its rules and this really frustrated the girls. However, the activities I did were so fun. When the bell rang, the girls said “Ugh, already?” That MADE my day! I love that class. Wednesday afternoon I met Charotte and Lesley for tea at or “regular” place. (It’s kind of funny to have regular cafes in France that we frequent time and time again. Makes me feel like a local.) Charlotte informed us that over February break, when Lesley and I will be in the UK, we can stay at Charlotte’s parent’s house in London! We were so excited to have somewhere free to stay! It’s such a blessing!)

Thursday – My classes were good. I had to observe a detention hour that afternoon where the kids had to suffer with English busy-work. Surprisingly, the liked the busy-work. I had 9th graders and they worked on reading and summarizing an article. We did an article on “Bethany Hamilton”, the surfer who had her arm bit of by a shark, only to continue surfing once she had healed. The kids thought her biography was amazing – especially because they’re all the same age as her. Detention, known in French as l’heure d’attente (the waiting hour), was more successful than I had originally thought.

Friday – I taught my little ones – multiple hours with the 6th graders. They were great, though. We did a lesson on “The Gingebread Man” and it was so fun. They didn’t know the story, and I pretended I had never read it either, and made them, through pictures, describe to me what was going on. The did a really good job with such a foreign story. With the 9th graders Friday afternoon, we did role playing. Students got into groups of 3 and pretended that the child and his/her two parents were arguing over what s/he “must”/”musn’t” do. It was really funny the scenarios they came up with (do one’s chores, stay up late, eat dinner in one’s room, babysitt the younger sibling, etc.). We had an odd number of students so I had to play, as well as some groups had all boys/all girls – which often turned out very funny having two dads or two moms in a group. Friday night Anne invited me, Jamie, and Lesley over for dinner and a sleepover. Our sleepover consisted of a movie-marathon. It was so fun.

Saturday – I didn’t leave Anne’s till 2pm this afternoon. When arriving home at 3, I spent the afternoon planning next weeknd in Paris, (my friend Erikk is coming to visit and we’re doing a couple days in Lyon and the weekend in Paris!), reading, and just using Saturday to relax.

MLK Day in France!

Let’s rewind:
Friday night I had my English teacher dinner. It was a lot of fun. I felt very old and mature attending a dinner party among colleagues. We had delicious food prepared by Laurence. (Laurence is a girl’s name in France – Laurent is the male version.) She made really good pasta salad, a cheese quiche, egg rolls, ham and cheese tartiflettes, and a galette. Eating a galette (a bland French cake – more like a pie) around Christmas/New Years is a big French tradition. Inside the cake, the baker adds a little trinket. Whoever eats the piece of cake with the trinket becomes the roi or reine (king or queen) of the day and wears a paper crown.

Saturday I turned into a total dork with Lesley and Jaime and visited two museums in Lyon. We decided there’s still so much within our city that we’ve never experienced. We went to the museum of miniatures, and the museum of printing. The printing museum was cool. We got to see how newspapers and photograhs (among many other things) were made from the beginning of time until now. After the museums we went to Anne’s for dinner. We had a nice dinner and then watched a movie together. We ran into some of my students on the way heading home – it was a little awkward because none of the girls wanted to talk to me – but were polite enough to say hi. However, the boy we ran into talked up a storm (in English) not only to me, but also Lesley and Jaime once he realized they were American. I was so proud of him for wanting to practice/show off his English skills. Lesley said his English was better than some of her highschoolers! That made me feel good! (Not that I could take credit for it, because he has prior English teachers to thank as well.)

Sunday I went to church, then came home and lesson planned. I was planning on teaching about MLK because Monday was the holiday, and unlike American kids, the French kids actually had to go to school. I also did a couple Spanish lessons. I told myself I’d do one page a day in the book/workbook, but I’m finding Spanish to be really easy. I don’t mean to boast, but it’s a lot like French, so I’m focusing more of my time repeating the audio guide than studying vocab. I know quite a bit of the vocab! (This is making me feel much better about having to learn it in 15 months.

Monday I taught all my classes about MLK. My crap class, of course, didn’t really like it. Some of them did, others said “Why do we have to learn about this? He’s American. He’s dead. His life has nothing to do with mine.” It really bugged me that my 8th graders couldn’t see the importance of MLK’s life (especially when my 6th graders could). But then I remembered this is my horrible class that I swear is just out to make my Mondays miserable and let it drop. The rest of my day was fine and my other classes really liked learning about MLK. In fact, some classes asked so many questions that I didn’t even have answers for them. I need to brush up on my US history!! They wanted to know about Rosa Parks and Abe Lincoln (knowing they were important figures in trying to end American racism) and how they fit into the timeline I had created about MLK. I ballparked answers and put RP and AL where I thought they went. My kids couldn’t believe that MLK was assinated, as well as Abe Lincoln, for fighting for civil rights. They then asked if every American president had been killed knowing that JFK was also assinated. I told them no, but if the president fought for something the people didn’t agree with, then their chances of dying were higher. One little boy in class said, “Madame is President Obama trying to do anything right now that the USA doesn’t agree with?” I didn’t want to get into detail about health insurance, so I answered “No, not that I’m aware of.” You should have seen the look f relief on his little face. “Good,” he said “because I really like President Obama and I don’t want him to die.” (Bless his heart, huh? I have some of the sweetest students.)

Tuesday, today, I cleaned my room from top to bottom! I decide to edit some papers (ugh!) and read. I also did a little Spanish, and figured out all my lessons for tomorrow. It’s now a little before 7 and I have to run. I’ve got Bible Study tonight and then I’m coming home and heading straight to bed!

P.S. I have two little “God moments” to share, but I guess I’ll tell you about them tomorrow. I don’t have time right now. (1 = dealing with students. 2 = dealing with a friend)

Giggly girls…

So I have to tell you two funny things that happened yesterday and today with some of my girls. Yesterday, in one of my 3eme (9th grade) classes, three of the girls asked me if I could start referring to them with new names. (I already try to make an effort and pronounce my kids’ names with American accents, but apparently that wasn’t enough.) They said, “No Madame, we came up with new names and they’re not French names”. Reminiscing back to my highschoool French days when I was Emmeline instead of Erin because it was more “French”, I told the girls sure. They proceeed to tell me they wanted to be “Claudette”, “Georgette”, and “Janet”. I died laughing but acquiesced continuing to call them that the rest of the hour. When I would honor this wish and call them by their new names, they laughed, then quickly got serious (knowing I could just as easily go back to their real names) and did what was asked of them. Where on earth did they get those names? Are those charaters in a movie or book I don’t know about?

Then today, at my other school, in another 3eme class, some girls stayed after to inform me that I looked really pretty today. I smiled and thanked them, thinking that was all, but they continued: “Madame, do you know Kesha, the singer? She’s American.” I told them yes, having recently seen her music video on TV. “Well, you look like her.” I told them “No, I don’t. She’s blond.” They continued to tell me, its ok that I was “brown” and she’s blond, because I have the same hair as her.” Before saying thank you, I asked if that was a compliment or insult and they said “Non! Madame, c’est pas une insulte!” Then, we all laughed. HAHA – they made my day. Howver, I definitely do not look like this Kesha character. (see photo)

Ok, now I’m off to an English-teacher dinner. Five of us, at my second school, PEV, are getting together for no real reason. It’s not a meeting, or holiday party, just a time to get together and speak English. I hope in a few years when I start teaching French in the States my other colleagues and I will get together for French dinners!

My new journalism girls!

Ok, so I don’t have too much to write about par rapport (in regards to) the past 3 days. Monday was Monday. My classes were alright. My 11am class was their normal selves – tiring and pushing my buttons. I sent one kid out of class. I felt bad doing it, especially when he waited till everyone had left at the very end of class to come see me at the front and appologize, in English. It was sweet, and I could tell he was being sincere. My afternoon classes were cancelled due to “devoir commun” (pre-testing) for the end of the year tests. They were put into classrooms with the surveillants (hall monitors) so I got to go home!

Tuesday I didn’t work -rather spent the day reading and coming up with lessons for the rest of the week. I got a new French organizer for all my lessons for the rest of the year. It’s a pretty cool book. Also, I realized I’m down to 12 weeks of teaching. There’s more weeks than that till the end of the year, but 4 of the weeks are vacation! (But still, only 12 more Mondays!) Tuesday night, the teachers I’ll be traveling with over February break came over for dinner and discussion: Jaime, Katie, Sarah, and Lesley. We had a lovely dinner, and thanks to Lesley’s organization, we got everything planned and some things (hostels and trains) already booked.

Wednesday, today, my two earliest classes were cancelled due to more “devoir commun“. Only the 3emes (9th graders) have this test because they’re the only ones with an end-of-the-year exam before heading off to lycee (high school). Because of this I got to sleep in an extra two hours! Merci Dieu! After hostessing a dinner last night, I was content to be able to sleep in a little. The two classes that I did have today were awesome. My 10am-ers were all boys, and my 11am-ers were all girls. I’ve decide that my 11am girls are my new “journalism girls”.

Can you find me? I'm smack in the middle!

My journalism girls were one of my classes from student teaching last spring (see photo above). They were all juniors and seniors and they loved me. Mostly, because I was young, and shopped at the same stores as them. Also, because outside of class they would confide in me about boyfriends, prom, weekend plans, etc. I’ve decided my 11am girls on Wednesdays, though only being 8th graders, are the same way. They treat me as their teacher, with the respect that’s due, but also as someone they can talk to – be it in the hallway, at the bus stop, or in the grocery store. I’m glad my students know they can confide it me. It also makes me feel good because I know some of these kids don’t have very good home-lives. So, I’m glad to know God’s using me to be not only their educator, but a set of ears to hear whatever they have to tell me, thus giving them the attention they need/crave. Also, the one other thing I really like about this group of girls is that they teach me just like I teach them. I made that agreement with all my classes back in October, but these girls are the only class that seem to correct me in a helpful way – not a “Oh my gosh Madame, I can’t believe you don’t know this word in French.” After school, I came home and read my new Francine River’s book (I’m so addicted to this one, too) “A voice in the wind”, downloaded some French music onto my Itunes (yay! – ps check out the video below…this is my current French favorite!) and e-mailed my advisor at USC about next year. Apparently I have to take a test in a third language after my second semester. Problem is, I don’t know a third language!!! So, I’ve narrowed it to Italian and Spanish. What do you think I should teach myself in the next 12 months?!?! I’m leaning towards Italian, though I know Spanish is more practical…