I haven't given you an update in quite some time because I have been keeping SO busy here with many exciting things to do and see. I will give you a few highlights of the past couple of weeks.
1. I have finally started my teaching internship! It took a few weeks to get my placement (I was the last student in my class to get one) but I am very happy with the teachers and classes that I get to work with. I'm working with 3 differnet English teachers at a high school for students going into labratory/ compouters/ engineer sort of professions. The students are almost all boys (in the 5 classes I work with, there are only 2 girls!) It's sometimes tricky to think of topics for lessons that would be interesting to them, but in general they're a good bunch and are fairly motivatied. While I am teaching them about my culture, I am also learning more about French things.. it's a great exchange! There have been many entertainining comments/ questions in my classes. Example: In a lesson about Wisconsin, I had just finished explaining all of the professional WI sports teams (writing the sports and team names on the board, attempting to explain "Packers," "brewers" etc) when a boy asked me "so you play on these teams?" haha
2. Traveling! With my program IES I have gone on two "filed trips" in the past few weekends.
The first one was up north to Mont St. Michel (a very old, gorgeous abbey) and St. Malo (a lovely coastal town with very cool ramparts that you can walk around)
This past weekend I visited 5 castles in the Loire river valley. It had been chilly and rainy the week before, but the weather ended up being upper 70s and sunny. Add in the fall colors and some leaves starting to fall and it was absolutley gorgeous (not to mention the castles were great too.) I was blown away by the detail in all of the architecture, tapestires, and so many aspects of the castles. It is truly incredible that they are so old and that it must have taken people forever to make these things.
Travel plans for the next few weekends: Paris, London, Geneva (ufdah!) I'm envisioning it may be a bit crazy traveling so much but I'm nonetheless looking forward to it all.
3. General reflections: Today at my school (IES) we had a meeting to review goals we wrote for ourselves the first week we arrived here. It's hard to believe that it's already been over a month. This meeting got me thinking about what I've accomplished so far and what I would still like to work on over the next few months that I still have here. First of all I think my French has definitlly been improving, via speaking it of course, watching French tv and films, reading los of French lit (particularly for my classes) and asking questions. It took me a few weeks to figure out and become more confident in this one- asking questions (took awhile for me to figure this one out.) I have been meeting French people (goal #2) and have many acquaintances but have found it a bit difficult to get to know them better because I only see them once or twice a week; mainly in class, conversation club, AGAPE (christian program for students and young workers) and church. Many more goals on the list, but in general, I'm meeting them and trying the best I can to profit from my time here in France.
4. Other random information:
*Friends from Winona were here a few weeks ago. I didn't get to see them too long but it was fun to show them a bit of Nantes and hear about their extraordinary travels throughout Europe.
*I've been Ice skating twice now at a rink here in Nantes. Disco lghts. Rockin' music. It's basically like going to the roller rink back in middle school. super fun!
*I ate cow tounge the other night. eek! Absolutley disgusting when you think about it or look at it, but when all cut up and mixed in with stew not too bad.
*My family roasts chestnuts in the fireplace! I sang them the christmas song that talks about chestnuts roasting on an open fire : )
*I just got a library card yesterday for the Nantes public library and am particularily taking advantage of the music section.. have already found some new French musicians to check out!
*Another goal: Try a new pastry each week. This week's: chausson aux pommes (flaky half circle-shaped pastry with apple sauce-like filling) Delicieuse!
My host dad just finished painting (he paints every night) and on his way to bed proposed a deal: he won't tell my host mom how late I was up if I don't say how late he was up. hehe
No comments:
Post a Comment