After class, I went to la loge to find that I had a surprise package from back home! Two of my best friends, Chris and Marissa, had decided to send me a package of Christmas goodies and letters. This really touched my heart, as I have been trying to get some holiday cheer going on around here lately and now there is plenty of it. I will have to hang up some of the coloring pages to get some Christmas spirit flowing in the apartment. Thanks so much guys and can't wait to see you soon for Christmas!
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| Pure happiness. |
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| There were even letters inside! |
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| Filled with candy canes, peanut butter m&ms, hello kitty stuff (floss, puzzle, stickers, plate/dish thing, christmas ornament and COLORING BOOK), peppermint hot chocolate mix, gold sparkle OPI nail polish and a CHOCOLATE ADVENT CALENDAR. Seriously guys, best surprise ever! |
This afternoon was a new experience for me: it was my first day teaching English at a business! I was told that these would mostly be conversation classes, to get the business associates used to speaking to people and meeting people at conferences. Because of this, and because it was the first day, I decided to do introductions and talking about their lives. I figured that this would be a good place to start and came ready with sheets full of vocabulary and pictures to help with verbs they may not know. However, I was surprised to see that during my first lesson with the computer engineer and electrical engineer, they already knew all of this information and more! We got through my lesson in about 10 minutes and then I just had to wing the conversation for the next hour. At one point, I even asked them what they want to know in English, as it seemed like they had a good understanding of grammar but I wanted to know what topics interested them, and of course what could I teach them. They said that they want to know how to say things specific to their field, as that technical vocabulary is confusing to them. Of course! I had thought of this before, but as their boss told me to focus on conversational English, I didn't think to look any of this up. For next time though, I will definitely focus on a more advanced level of English - definitely the most advanced class I have had to teach here which should be a challenge. The two of them were incredibly nice though, which made our conversation for the hour to be quite enjoyable.
The second group I taught is the boss who hired me and his wife the receptionist. They are at a lower level, though the difference between their levels is going to be a challenge in itself. He can carry on a conversation with me, although pronunciation and tenses can always be improved, while his wife doesn't know any of the numbers past 10. Nonetheless, it was a good change of pace, as I feel like I had something to teach them and the second hour flew by quickly. After getting paid and trying to say goodbye to his dog*, Alain drove me back to the Cité Scolaire in Apt. Even though it is my job to teach him English, I feel like he knows that I want to learn some French - a few times during the lesson and during this car ride, he pointed out words that I probably wouldn't know in French. Although I would love to continually speak with him in French, I know that it is not what I am there for, but during our car rides it seems that he is trying to get me to practice too, which I could not be more thrilled about. We marveled at les illuminations d'Apt together and he told me the difference between illuminations and une fête de lumières. Either way, he likes the Christmas spirit too, and I cannot wait to give more English lessons next week.
*So me and this dog, we really hit it off last week. And this week whenever I tried to pet him, he barked and backed away! This is not the end though, we WILL be friends. It is my new goal.
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