Doors

Going along with those old fashioned shutters, I love the doors on the houses in Boulogne.

A day in the life of an English assistant in France

Today was supposed to be my busy day, with 6 classes. Happily last night I got an email saying I wasn't needed at 8 am. So my day began at 9 am where I take just a few students from a brilliant euro class. These students choose to take an extra hour of English and are I believe the friendliest group of kids you could come across. Most of the kids consider it a dream to visit America and they all seem to have an intellectual curiosity and sense of humor, making it my favorite hour of the week. The teacher was concerned that one of the girls wouldn't speak up, but I decided to play a game, Alibi, where everyone has to speak English so it worked out easily. I somehow got last place. We also talked about their future plans, so I may have lost my Alibi game to a future journalist, editor, and diplomat.

The next two hours turned into just an hour of work, where I listened to students (who were just a couple years younger than me) talk about online shopping for groceries. Turns out everyone would prefer to shop in the supermarket. The main reason? They all said, you don't meet people if you shop online. In another class last week I learned about why Walmart and similar large stores wouldn't work in France while they'd work in neighboring countries like, say, Germany- "we care about what we eat."

My last two classes were also cancelled as the kids are on work placements, so my busy day quickly turned into a pretty relaxing one. This gave me a chance to make my almost daily trip to the market- no need to downsize on trips to the market when its just a matter of walking there, and I have plenty of time for that. At last, I picked up something that will work for hanging my Perpetual Paris calendar!! The nails and thumbtacks didn't work, but these little coat or towel hangers are perfect for the job. Thrilled to have the new addition to my little chambre.

France Part II

Global warming isn't in effect in Boulogne Sur Mer, where they say it rains all winter and rarely snows. It was odd enough that it snowed the day I left for my very merry Christmas in Cincinnati, but there was snow on the ground when I got back yesterday and started up again this afternoon. It is serious enough that staff members from La Vie Scolaire went to the classes this afternoon to say if you need to leave you can, because of the snow! At first this seemed funny to me, because it's not like it's a blizzard, but apparently the trains have issues or get shut down in the snow and lots of students use them to get to Boulogne for school. As it turns out, all the students needed to leave.

Its been a nice two days back in France so far. We assistants determined within the first kiss on the cheek from a teacher we don't know very well that the New Year must be highly regarded here... each and every teacher says Bonne Annee (Happy New Year) or Meilleur Voeux (Best wishes) along with their entry Bonjours now, and kiss all the other teachers and assistants on the cheek twice, just for the new year... So, bonne annee! Bisou bisou.