Chicken Soup

Yesterday was a long day, despite only having 3 classes (I only see my 1er class every other week, this was an off-week). I was 80% thrilled, and 20% disappointed with my TGRH1 classes. First of all, half the students showed up late or not at all. Just as well, since the ones who were on time are the generally well-behaved ones. Plus, like other assistants have pointed out, once those 2 or 3 chatty ones are MIA the others behave much better. I had an article about life in Britain, what it means to "be British," that I copied from one of the ESL magazines in the CDI (the school library). I had them take turns reading, then gave them the exercise. First it was a fill-in-the-blanks, stuff like, "The U.S. is governed by a _____, Britain is governed by a ______" (president, queen). They were, dare I say it, EAGER to shout out the answers they knew as I wrote them on the board. Next we briefly discussed stereotypes, and then I had them fill in the blanks in a chart I had made. 3 columns: French, British, American, with words filled into 2/3 of the spaces. For instance, under "French," I wrote, "vacances," left the British box blank, and under American wrote, "vacation." "HOLIDAY!!!" they shouted out. One of the more chatty/less motivated students even said to me after class, "This was a good lesson. It was... I understood. Clear." Looks like the essays & grammar from hell will have to wait ;)

My ESLV4s had it rough too. They are a fun group of jokers. But last night their prof came in and said to me, "You will give them this photo. They have 30 minutes to prep, and then they present. Write down EVERYTHING that they say, then give me your notes." I could see where this would go.... I write, "Student A had difficulty pronouncing WORD." She tells them, "Student A, the assistant said your pronounciation is terrible." That's how French teaching is. No wonder the poor kids were terrified (or, desparate-- a couple kept trying to bribe me!). So all I wrote for each individual student were their high points-- "Student A justified his reasoning by pointing out X, which was good." All criticisms were written under the "General Notes" section. I don't want to be the bad guy. These kids need praise from SOMEONE, a concept foreign to most French educators. Sigh...

I came home exhausted and had just started thinking about dinner when Rich & Laura invited me over for dinner. Chicken risotto, mmmm... props to chef Laura! Mike was over too, and we hung out til around 10. As usual, I took the chicken carcass home to make soup.

Today was OK. I finished my music lesson with my TL1s. It was the second group (I see one half one week, the second half the next week), and they are hands-down my favorite class. Fun, eager, excellent English. They enjoyed listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers and filling in the missing words to the lyrics. A couple of the guys even got into drumming along to the beat on the desks. I always leave that class with a smile. Next was another small group of terminales with their image from a hypothetical bac exam. I think I got 5 words total from the whole group, despite reminding them that they NEED to SPEAK to pass the exam. Ugh. At first I thought maybe their English is just weak, but even after trying to explain in my not-so-great French, their faces were still blank. Can't win 'em all....

And then, my BTS classes today & tomorrow are cancelled. Free day for me tomorrow (yay!). So I started the soup-making process. My cupboard of an apartment is all steamy (France doesn't believe in good ventilation systems), but smells of yummy chicken soup-- perfect for a cold, windy day like today. Since I couldn't make my hunny homemade soup when he was sick last week, I can give him some when he visits on FRIDAY (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), plus I will have enough to give to Rich & Laura as a thank-you-for-the-chicken-bones gift. Who doesn't like homemade chicken soup?!

Tomorrow I plan to be productive. Gonna finally call Neuf and see what all I have to do to officially end my contract. Gonna go in to the EDF office to ask the same thing (why spend money on a phone call, which I HATE doing in French, when the office is 5 min away?). And I am going to mail off my letter to my landlord saying I am moving out in April. In France, the law says 3 months notice, but from what I gather in the lease, he only needs 1 month notice. So I am compromising with 2 months.

Jess will be here on Friday! I am so excited. Friday night: hang out, meet a French friend of mine for a drink, then see what the other assistants are up to. The fair is in town, so we may go to that. We went last weekend, but want to see it all lit up at night. Saturday will be an adventure-- we have reserved a minivan, and Jess is going to drive me & 5 other assistants to Epernay for some champagne tasting. Miam miam! Then Saturday and Sunday night, Jess reserved us a room at the nicest hotel in Troyes, saving us from 2 nights of my child-sized bed and hot water deficient shower.

When there's chicken soup involved, life is good.