I can't believe it's déjà Wednesday. The last time we spoke, I was basking in avocado greatness. I'm still pumped about that steal. Anyways, l'automne arrive in Lille! Leaves are changing and I love it. It does make me wish I could be at Leatherwood with the Senter fam. I bet it sure is gorgeous up in those North Carolina mountains. Alas. This will have to do.
I work half days on Mondays and one of my teachers at Victor Hugo asked me to prepare a lesson on Halloween. Easy enough. This was for two CM2 classes, which as far as I can tell is basically the equivalent of 5th grade, so the most advanced English speakers of the school - which still isn't saying much. But hey, I couldn't form a sentence in French until about the 10th grade, so they've got me beat.
Anyways. I searched long and hard for a cute, short song to play for them regarding Halloween. Turns out, there are none. QUOI? I guess I'd never thought about it, but besides Monster Mash, there are really no songs about Halloween. So I went with a classic - The Addams Family theme song. I was a bit unsure as to how well that was going to go over, but they loved it and really got into it. Especially the snapping part. Score one for Sarah the maîtresse (teacher).
Tuesdays and Thursdays are my long days where I work at both schools. Tuesdays are actually my favorite days of the week though because I get to go to the école maternelle (preschool) attached to Victor Hugo and work with 4-5 year olds for two 30-minute sessions. Oh man, y'all. Those kids are too cute. I can't even handle it. As soon as I walk into the room, I get a chorus of "Bonjour Sarah!!" For these kids, it's basically the first taste of English they've ever had, so we don't really do anything super substantial. In the first class we just worked on saying "my name is..." (which was still a STRUG), and then we started the "one, two, buckle my shoe" song. Although the latter was not very successful.
The second 30-minute class is memorizing a French poem and the teacher thought it'd be fun if I translated it in English and read it to them. The title of the poem is "The Squirrel and the Leaf". After I read it, we proceeded to go around the room and see if they could say the word squirrel. Oh the hilarity. That was such a struggle. I don't think a single one of them could say it, but they sure did have fun trying.
I'm currently babysitting the 7 year old that I spoke about a couple posts back. His name is Duke and he's super chill. I met up with them around 12:30 and I'm leaving around 8:15. That's a long time, but it's really not horrible. We rode bikes from his house to where he has rugby practice. Now that was pretty comical. His mom didn't want us riding on the streets (thank GOODNESS), so we were just riding along the sidewalks on the bikes, which I think is a bit taboo here in France, but whatever.
I hung out there for about 2 hours, reading my Mary Higgins Clark book, and now I'm just chilling. We worked on his English homework and now he's just watching tv. In a couple hours, I'll make dinner, eat some, and then head home. Not too shabby of a day! I'll hang with him on Mondays for a couple hours and then all afternoon on Wednesdays.
Also, the French are ALL about holidays and vacation. The French have an average of 37 paid vacation days per year. So insane. Fortunately, I get to tap into a lot of that. Starting Monday, I am off of work for two whole weeks! I just got here, how am I already on break? C'est la vie. At least in France.
Sunday, I'm going to Paris to meet up with my grandlittle in Phi Mu, Bonnie. She's studying in Rome this semester and is on fall break. It'll be a really short trip, as I'll come back to Lille on Monday. Just long enough to spend some time with her and then explore my old stomping grounds. Plus, I'll get to see another Wake friend, Russell, who's getting his master's right now from the Sorbonne! It'll be great to see some faces from home.
Then! Wednesday, another one of my sorority sisters, Jenn, who's studying in Germany this semester, is coming to Lille. The next day, we're going to take a bus to Amsterdam to stay for 4 days with one of her friends from home. I've never been to Amsterdam, so I'm super excited about that.
Then I'll come back to home sweet Lille and have a solid week to work on grad school applications for fall 2013. Should be riveting.
Anyways, hope all is well at home. I hope the family get together at Leatherwood goes well. Missin' y'all crazy.
And I almost forgot. GO DEACS! BEAT CLEMSON!
Luv,
Sarah
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