Tuesday morning started with a series of ice breakers, during which the four of us did our best to try and get the kids talking and memorize as many names as we could. After some games in smaller groups and lunch we had a relay race for them during which they had a series of legs to perform, all while answering questions in English. They did surprisingly well with all of the events, which included a three-legged race, a sack race, an eating contest, and a relay with a ping pong ball and a spoon (not exactly sure what you'd call it, but yeah). After the relay race, one of the other native speakers Sara and I were in charge of an acting workshop. Students were asked to audition for a movie role in front of a panel of judges (one of whom was a student), telling us who they were and why they thought they were good for the part all before presenting a short dialogue. Some of the characters included Forrest Gump and Bubba, Jack Sparrow, Jack and Rose from Titanic, Catwoman, and Sherlock Holmes, just to name a few. Again, the kids did really well with it, and because we had so much time left I had to go help the other group finish up their mock job interviews before dinner. Everyone was drained after dinner and we all turned in early to rest up for Paris in the morning.
The silence on the bus to Paris the next day was surprising; they must have still been tired from the day before because there was no noise whatsoever. Our first stop was Beaubourg and the Centre Pompidou for a tour of the museum and of the pop art exhibition. It had to be related to America in some way, and we thought you'd be hard-pressed to find something much more American that Warhol and pop art in a museum. During our tours, honestly I felt bad for the kids because we had the WORST guide ever. He was so boring, I had to applaud them for staying awake, let alone feigning interest. If you can imagine an older, more monotone Ben Stein, whose English has been influenced by French pronunciation (even though he was American), you might be somewhere in the ballpark of this guy. Apparently the French guide wasn't much better, but they at least got to see more than four pieces of artwork in an hour and a half!
After a quick café stop with Eric and Atif, we met up with the students and the other staff and went to a nearby park for lunch before we headed on to the Bateaux Mouches. And yes, I was getting paid for all of this - to cruise along the Seine on a sunny afternoon in Paris. I'm glad I'd done this before, because a herd (no joke there were literally +100) of Chinese tourists swarmed in on us and were taking pictures non-stop. They weren't even paying attention to what it was they were looking at just snapping away and peace-signing galore.
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Thursday I did the first of my two cooking workshops with them, during which we made butter tarts and scones. Both turned out excellent in spite of some confusion with one group between, cup, tsp, and tbsp. Once everything was in the oven Atif and I took the groups to do a pop art workshop where they created pictures to be displayed later in the week. In the afternoon, Sara led a dance workshop where they learned Boot Scootin' Boogie, the Cupid Shuffle, and the Cha-cha slide. We had a good time jumping around to this classic while rearranging the classroom. After dinner and a couple more episodes of IASiP, we left the TV for the students so that they could have a dance party to celebrate their last night together. Rose, Sara, Atif and I however, headed into Rouen for some drinks with some of Roses' BTS students, Alvin, Maxime and Mathieu. The night at O'Kallagan's went too fast, and before I knew it I found myself feeling rough at getting out of bed Friday morning. We powered through like champs though; I had another cooking workshop where we tackled Gingerbread men and muffins, before doing another pop art workshop, finishing up a ping pong tournament and battling through a never-ending Jeopardy style quiz game.
Around four in the afternoon everyone got together for the goûter and an award ceremony. We gave out prizes to the team who won the relay race, scavenger hunt, and quiz (which just so happened to be the same team), but in the end everyone got a gift bag from the Académie in addition to some smaller prizes that the teachers had bought. It was sad watching them leave, several kids came up to us and thanked us and told us that they wished the week could have been longer. Once the hugs and bises were finished, I headed back to Louviers and passed out immediately.
In between then and now I've been lounging around. There was a music festival throughout France on the 21st, but thanks an inconvenient train schedule I wouldn't have been able to make it out of Rouen if I'd ventured in. I did, however, make it in yesterday for the Soldes, where I made some final purchases, convincing myself that it's now or never. La Fête du Cinéma starts this weekend and goes until the 1st, meaning that after you buy one ticket, every one afterwards is only 3 €, so I'll probably be seeing quite a few films in the next couple of days.
Session two of Région Langue starts on Monday here at Lycée les Fontenelles in Louviers, so I'll be busy with that. But after reading over some of my previous posts I realized that I’d forgotten to cover my trip to Roland Garros so I'll rehash it now. Better known to Americans as The French Open, I had a perfect day out at Paris’ famed tennis tournament, the only Grand Slam on the terre battu or the crushed red-brick clay. I got there as soon as the gates opened by way of following the tennis racquets on the sidewalk (otherwise I might have ended up in the Bois du Boulogne). After showing my e-ticket and passport at the gate, the attendant was surprised that I spoke to him in French, commenting to his colleague as I walked away, “Hum, il a un passeport américain mais il parle français.” He’s got an American passport, but he speaks French. I guess a lot of people just give up after botching hello. Even though I only had a ticket for Court 1 and the outside courts, I still saw some great tennis, and honestly was just excited to be there.
I also watched some junior matches that put me to shame, but the charged atmosphere as Nadal and Murray were playing in the nearby arenas was indescribable.
Less than two weeks to go here in France and a full spectrum of emotions has started to creep out. Part of me never wants to leave, but another part of me does because I realize that I'll never be able to recreate what was. In a strange way, I'm glad that's the case, and in a perfect world I would have been able to stay another year. Yet as we all know, we don't live in a perfect world, and student loans and the salaud Time are catching up to me. On a quick emo side note, I'd like to leave you with a quote from Dr. Seuss that pretty much sums up the sentiments perfectly, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."
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