Monday 9/27: First visit to the school and meeting my host family!

It was lovely (and much needed) getting to sleep in late today. When I headed downstairs around 10am, Florence (the wife of Bruno, the director) had breakfast all set out for me. We chatted a little before she had to leave for work and she told me to make myself at home. I spent the 30 minutes I had before Bruno got home checking my email and battling the French keyboard (some of the letters are switched, but not all. Very confusing!).

Photo: View from my bedroom window at Bruno's house

After eating lunch with Bruno, I accompanied him to the school for the afternoon. When I arrived it was still lunchtime, so many of the teachers (all female!) were in the staffroom. What a great group of people! They are super relaxed and very friendly and welcoming! Several gave me their numbers immediately in case I wanted to go out for a drink, have a ride to the ocean, or just needed any help. When the bell rang, they all disappeared to their classrooms and Bruno gave me a tour of the school. I was introduced to some of the classes (some of the students promptly yell out “Hello! Hello!”) and all of the teachers. Turns out I will only be helping in the classes from 7 yrs old – 11 yrs old, not the 5-6 yr olds.

I got to sit in on Claude’s class (she is one of the English teachers, but she is also a normal teacher for one class of 10-11 yr olds) while she finished the Geography lesson. Then it was time for English! I got to help out a little—mostly just answering over and over: “Where are you from?” “I am from Oregon.” “Where do you live? “I live in Corvallis” “How old are you?” “I am 22.” They are still at the point where they are practicing the alphabet…and they are the highest class! So, I am interested to see what the youngest ones are learning in English… As soon as the bell rang (they had a 15-min recess after English), a crowd of little girls rushed up to pepper me with questions in French. Yup, it’s not so easy to understand 5 little voices all talking at once in a foreign language… The most important question was: “Who is your favorite (girl) singer?????” Which, of course, I had no real answer as I don’t listen to popular music. Luckily they followed that question with “Do you have a pet?” and they were interested to discover that I had owned a goat. Of course they all (at the same time) proceeded to tell me what sorts of pets they had. I’m getting really good at smiling and nodding.

At the end of the school day, I was picked up by Catherine—my host mother. She (and her husband, Ralf) live about 4 houses from the school and they have three kids: Hugo and Lucas, who are twin 15-yr-old boys, and Margot, who is a 10-yr-old girl.

Photo: The house where I'm living! The room with the balcony is mine!!

Catherine and Ralf both speak French, German (Ralf is from Germany) and English. Catherine walked me back to the house and showed me my (lovely!) bedroom and also her collection of over 300 books in English! She prefers to read in English, so she has read a lot of books! I forgot to say that they have a really cute dog and a cat, who isn’t super friendly. And an in-ground swimming pool!

Photo: The very sweet dog

I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking tea and chatting with Ralf and Catherine (in mostly French, but a little English so they could practice). Catherine teaches English to adults, so she loves having someone to speak English with. I explained how my last host family was more like renting a room and they assured me that I should hang out with them and help out when I can. It’s so much more comfortable here because I am a part of the family! Oh, and—unlike my last host family—I am allowed to go barefoot! :)

Normally the twins go to a boarding school during the week, but they came home this evening because there is a teachers’ strike going on tomorrow. Even though their school is private (an typically private schools don’t go on strike) they are going on strike. So, we had dinner with the whole family, outside on the patio. I kept up pretty well with the conversation and dinner was delicious (vegetarian quiche, salad with tomatoes and vinaigrette, with a piece of traditional cake and vanilla ice cream—and some of the marionberry jam I brought from Oregon).

I sat outside to chat for a while after dinner, but around 10:30pm I headed upstairs to my room. Even though I am getting a lot better at speaking French, it does get tiring and by late evening I’m ready for a break! I know that it’ll get easier—I can already tell that I am improving!

School Schedule:

Classes are Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 8:30am-11:30am, 1:30pm-4:30pm

Talk about an awesome schedule! Only 4 days of class/wk and a 2-hour lunch break! Some of the kids go home to eat, but most stay and eat in the cafeteria.