The past few weeks have been good ones for work. The week after Brita left, I got to participate in two very special school-related activities. That Thursday, I stayed at Condren to eat lunch at la cantine (the cafeteria.) I think that the kids and teachers at Condren are especially sweet and wonderful, and my lunch there definitely reinforced that impression. French schools have a 2 hour break for lunch in the middle of the day, and most children go home to eat with their families. Some whose parents work during lunch, or who live too far away from school to go home midday, stay at school to eat at la cantine. While most cantines allow the kids free play time after the meal, Yolande, who is in charge of la catine at Condren, likes to organize projects and activities for the children when the meal is through. She invited me to eat at la cantine and to perform Little Red Riding Hood en anglais, with marionettes. We had a lovely meal-- pasta with meatballs, pork pâté, and clementines for dessert. The kids seemed to enjoy my rendition of La Petite Capuche Rouge, and then Yolande had them show me what they've been working on so far this year-- a musical/comedy/dance version of Little Red Riding Hood, that they'll perform for their parents when school ends in July! It was pretty adorable; all the kids, from the ages of 2-11, danced and sang and smiled along to various Smurf sing-a-long songs, French classics, and some American oldies. One thing that strikes me about Condren is how all of the children play so nicely with each other, no matter what age. The older kids seem to look out for the littlest ones at recess, and they all join in each others' games. A special place!
The next day, I was a chaperone on a field trip to see the Reims circus with l'école maternelle de Blériot. These were the five kids I had to keep an eye on on the hour bus ride, and during le spectacle :)
It was the first time I've ever been to a real circus, (at least that I can remember,) with acrobats and ballerinas and horses and monkeys and jugglers. The kids seemed to really enjoy it, except for Valentin, the boy in glasses above, who after every act would start putting on his coat and say, "OK, is it time to go now?" We brought bag lunches and ate together in a gym in Reims when the show was over, and sang songs while we were waiting for the bus. I had a nice chat with a particularly sweet boy named Lenny, who is fond of me and likes to strike up conversation by asking me how to say various words in English, and by reminding me that he is the tallest boy in his class (he's 4.)
Unicycling juggler w/ monkey accomplice
I had another treat last week, when we celebrated Chandeleur at Condren with the older kids. Chandeleur falls on February 2 every year-- it's a religious holiday (no idea what exactly is being celebrated) that French people fête by making & eating crêpes! This year Lucille, la Directrice, wanted to have an American Chandeleur, so I brought a recipe for pancakes, which the kids translated. We spent the morning converting cups to mL and teaspoons to grams, and made the pancakes during recess. If it looks like my job is mostly cooking sweet things with my students, it's true.
Later that week at another class at Condren, a boy named Rémi, who is very excited about learning English, came up to me and handed me a slip of paper, saying that he had written out a question "en anglais" for me. The paper read, "Éllo mise, oite colorizite?" It took me a couple seconds to realize that he had written out a question we have been working on for the last few weeks --> "Hello miss, what color is it?" I had to try extremely hard not to laugh.
Otherwise-- it's been cold here for the last 2 weeks! Like, actually cold-- below freezing, with a couple days of light snow. This was the view from our apartment window on first snowy night a couple weeks ago.
This past Saturday Tabea and I visited a nearby town called Noyon, where we met up with a couple of assistants who live there and saw the John Calvin museum (he was born in Noyon! Crazy!) and la cathédrale, obviously. It was a clear, cold day, and a fountain in a park beside the train station was frozen solid.
The John Calvin museum, on the site of his childhood home.
Cathedral pixxxxx
Looking forward to a quiet weekend, and planning many exciting things over the next few weeks, including basketball, karaoke, a cross-dressing carnavale in the far North, and in just 14 days, the beginning of an adventure into Spain and Morocco with my dear friend Claire from high school!
Me, Rachel & her roommate Kayla
A glimpse of the ball.......
I was extremely bummed that I had to leave in the early afternoon on Sunday, because later on there was a massive parade in Dunkerque center, and as I made my way to the train station I saw hundreds of dressed up people making their way to le centre ville. It was quite entertaining to see French people, reserved and dignified as ever, going about their daily business dressed in head to toe clown clothing.
In the train station :)
In a restaurant!! These guys were my favorite, when I passed by the window they were all leaning over their beers deep in what seemed like a very serious conversation. Had to ask for a picture :)
So, if ever you find yourself in Northern France in February/March, make SURE you head to Dunkerque.
And here's a picture from the corner where I spend a lot of my time at home, curled up in a big brown chair watching TV :) Don't know why I took it, but now you can see what I look at a lot of the time when I'm home.
I'll end with the itinerary for my next great adventure which starts TOMORROW (!!!!!!!!)
