"T'es trop belle"

Hey y'all.

Today has been quite the day. I'm absolutely exhausted, but very happy with how things went.

So I started off my day at école Desbordes Valmore, the school where Sarah works. As soon as I got there at 8:30, I was directed to the teacher's lounge where there was some much needed free coffee. Oh thank goodness. Then the bell rang and all the teachers headed out to the courtyard where all the classes were lined up. I went to the head of Sarah's line and walked with her and her students up to class. As far as languages go, students can decide between English, German, and Spanish. There's some sort of rotation that I don't quite understand yet, but in the morning, I was in two 45-minute English classes with Sarah. Again, I was a celeb. And I loved it. This was there first language class of the year and so we did some reviewing. They asked me questions like "Where are you from?", "How old are you?", What's your name?" and then we practiced responses to these questions. It was actually a really enjoyable time. These students were between the ages of 9 and 11.

I then went across the courtyard to Virginie's class (she's the girl in the Brazilian drum group from 4-5 posts back.) She's really friendly and I like her a lot. Her class is younger than the other two classes I was in. I think these kids were 8-9 years old. But oh my goodness were they rowdy. There were a lot of disrespectful kids in this class (not necessarily directly at me), but they just didn't pay a lot of attention and thought that acting out in class was the funny thing to do. I was the most timid student possible in elementary school and on into middle school, so I've never really understood this. Hopefully it was just because this was the first English class they've had all year.

After this class, I started my 20 minute walk to my other school, Victor Hugo. I had about an hour downtime, so I stopped at a little café near my school and drank a café. Maybe I'll stop there every tuesday/thursday and they'll start to recognize me. Who knows.

Victor Hugo really is a pretty school. It's at the end of a road and is really picturesque.

This is my main school and I really like it. The director is a really friendly man. I'm the first English assistant they've ever had so he's really enthusiastic and pumped for me to be there. This school respects my "two weeks of observation" more than the other school which sort of threw me into things. Every primary school has an "école maternelle" attached to it, which is for kids from about 3-5 years old. It's basically a preschool. The director really wants me to help teach a couple classes in this school per week, which I'm really excited about. I'm only supposed to spend an hour and a half at Victor Hugo on Tuesdays, and since I'm doing observations right now, the director suggested that I just spend an hour and a half in one class today (instead of the normal 3.) So I spent an hour and a half hanging out with French 4-year olds. Their English courses won't start for another couple weeks and so I just helped out in their regular class today.

I'm not going to lie. They loved me. I can't think of any older girl that I didn't love when I was 4 years old, but that's beside the point. They were SUCH sweet kids. They were split up into different stations, so I chilled in the playdough station. Any time I would look at any of them, they'd just grin. Too presh. This one girl who I had said hi to earlier came up and randomly kissed me on the cheek. Like I said, they loved me.

Definitely the highlight of my day was when I was sitting at the playdough station and another girl came up to me and said, "Sarah, tu es tellement belle" (Sarah, you're very pretty.) Too sweet. Then another girl sitting at my table said "Oui, c'est vrai que t'es trop belle! (Yes, it's true, you're so pretty!) I was obviously dying with happiness at this point, when a little boy sitting next to me named Vincenzo (!) added "Je pense que t'es belle aussi!) (I think you're pretty too!) Regardless of them being 4 years old, I was flattered. Can't wait to hang out with these little nuggets this year. They'll definitely provide some more fun stories, je suis certaine.

Primary schools don't have classes on Wednesdays, but all the teaching assistants in the Lille region have an orientation tomorrow. I'm excited to meet more assistants! Should be fun.

AND. I bought my bus ticket for belgium. quoi quoi.

Luv,
Sarah