An end is just another beginning

I never thought this day would come so quickly. Today, I taught my last classes, which means my contract as an English Teaching Assistant in France is completed. I am feeling so many emotions right, but if I had to put it in just one word: bittersweet.

This entire week has been a whirlwind of goodbye classes, giving goodbye gifts, and the never ending process of trying to close accounts down. I am happy to say that everything is now in the process of being closed* which brings the stress of the end of this experience way down. Now, I can enjoy my last few days here, before traveling all around Europe.

Monday, I had my last lessons at the business where I gave conversation lessons. I wrote each of the adults a nice card and brought chocolate to celebrate. When they came in and saw this, they said "Good, we got something for you too!" and presented me with hand-crafted lavender oil from here in Provence. They said it was a souvenir to remember this region and them - surely I will never forget their kindness! As I said goodbye to my boss's wife and dog, while all of us had a little bit of tears in our eyes, I finally realized how amazing that opportunity was. To teach at such a small business which made me feel like a part of their family was an unforgettable experience. As I exchanged les bises with my boss at the end of our last car ride together, I continued to thank him for everything he has done for me and promised to contact him when I return to Provence after my travels, so that we could maybe get together for a lunch or something. Even though I realize this might not happen, the invitation is just another example of the quality of people I have met here: they are some of the friendliest and welcoming people I know.

Tuesday brought a large surprise: an organized goûter in one of my favorite classes! As we sat around eating sweets that all the students had prepared and talked about my future and their futures, I realize how much I have made an impact on some of my students. They presented me with a sheet of paper with lovely goodbye messages, some so touching that I again was holding back tears. For my second class of the afternoon, we saw my house on Google Earth, which was weird and somewhat comforting to realize that I will be going back there soon. As I said goodbye to this class, another favorite, I couldn't help but well up yet again, saying that maybe we may see each other again, yet knowing in my heart that it won't happen. That is when Marc turned to me and said something I will never forget, "An end is just another beginning."  At this point, I was about to boil over as he had tears in eyes too.

After class, Cathy took me somewhere that we have tried again and again to go to together: Rustrel, also known as le Colorado Provençal. It was finally a perfect day to go so we set off with her dog Fluffy in tow. We wandered around the red rock formations of this wonderful site, which also included a small waterfall and a desert area nicknamed le Sahara. Although it was no Grand Canyon, I could see why everyone said I needed to visit this site before I left - it was absolutely incredible to take in. It was such a nice way to spend a beautiful afternoon, speaking in French with my coordinating teacher, reflecting on this entire experience together. At the end, I gave her the card and gift for her and her husband and tried to get out a simple "merci" without crying. When I explained that it is difficult for me to think about leaving, she said, "But you can always come back! You will always have a place to stay with us!" Again, the overwhelming kindness of the people here never ceases to amaze me - I will be back.

Wednesday brought more goodbye classes but one was special in particular: my private lesson with a student in Seconde. As we have been having guided conversations in these lessons, I thought I would try something different and just see if we could carry on a conversation for two hours with no prompts. We can and did, which goes to show how much better this student's English has become. As I gave her a card with my contact information and chocolate, I said that she could come and visit me whenever she wanted, so she could experience America, or write to me. As I went to hug her goodbye, she decided to give les bises and said to me "Here in Provence, we do three [kisses]!" I replied, "I know, I was giving you an American goodbye: a hug!"

Thursday included my last three classes. As none of these classes were my favorite ones, I hate to say my last day of teaching was less than climactic. However, there were 2 more organized parties with more nice goodbye notes - one class even wrote completely in English! After one more private lesson after school, Amy and I got a ride from Cathy and Marc to a soirée that was hosted in our honor at Veronique's house. It was wonderful to have one last time together, with my teachers as well as Amy, to celebrate an amazing seven months together. There was a moment of stress, as Amy and I were prompted to give an impromptu speech: a description of positives and negatives of our experience in Apt in French to a room full of native speaking teachers AND administrators staring at us. If I didn't mention it before, I am kind of terrified of public speaking. Nevertheless, after we spoke they all said how impressed they were with how well we speak and our accent, so I guess we have improved from being here! We spent the rest of the night drinking wine and champagne while munching on pizza, quiche, veggies, tartes and cakes. My teachers even surprised me with two other amazing keepsakes: a book about the Luberon (filled with amazing pictures of this region) and a French novel that is a thriller and written by a man who is from this region and places the story here as well. I cannot explain how grateful I am to have had such welcoming and friendly teachers to work with, and I plan to keep in contact with them after I return to the states. Ils vont me manquer!** As we all exchanged les bises and said goodbye, it was pretty hard to leave, knowing that the assistantship is officially over.

Amy and I and all the English teachers I worked with! From left to right: Amy, Veronique, Marc, Cathy, Isabelle and Me.

As I sit here on this late Thursday night contemplating all that was, I can't help but have tears welling up in my eyes. I have not fully gotten upset yet***, as it still doesn't feel like the end - I am sure that I will not realize it until later. Amy leaves for Annecy in the morning, meaning that this is our last time in the apartment together, after sharing it for nearly seven months. Although I will go tomorrow morning to pick up Allie from Avignon TGV and will spend the next four weeks traveling around with her, it is going to be weird to be here without my British compatriate - I will miss her! How seven months can go by so quickly, I will never understand. As I am having trouble truly (and succinctly) putting into words what the assistantship meant to me, I am going to try to put it into three simple words: c'était incroyable - it was incredible.

And now, onto another beginning!

*That is, once I mail my phone and already written lettre de résliation on Saturday to Virgin Mobile.
**Translation: I will miss them!

***That might not be true - when I started writing this Wednesday, I might have sobbed like a blubbering idiot. But reporting from Thursday night: I am fine (at the moment).

Differences between American and French schools

As I am nearly done with my job as an English teaching assistant in France, I want to share some cultural differences between American and French education that I have noticed while I have been working at a French high school (lycée). These are all generalizations and they are all from my personal experiences and perspective. I am not saying that these are the 'end all be all', and some are my opinions. Either way, have a look at my view of l'education française!

1. Schedule. In France, school runs from 8-5, Monday-Friday (and sometimes Saturdays), but has Wednesdays off (in most schools, but in mine Wednesday morning classes still happen). There is a 1.5 hour break in the middle of the day for lunch, and two 15 minute coffee breaks (called récreation) during the morning and afternoon as well. Also, classes rotate every other week; they operate on a semaine A and semaine B format.
  
2. Vacation. There are lots of vacations throughout the year: around every 6 weeks, there is a two week vacation. However, school runs until the first week of July and starts again the first week of September, only a 2 month summer vacation.

3. Food. No food in class. Period. Only exception I saw of this is when they are celebrating an assistant leaving. ("Rebecca, est-ce qu'on peut avoir un 'tit gôuter?!?"* = the response of all of my students when I said I would be leaving)

4. Politesse. In many of my classes, I have noticed that there is no seating chart for the class. However, everyone must stand until being told to sit at the beginning of class. It is to show la politesse, politeness. Also, classes must wait until a teacher asks them to enter the classroom, they stand in the hallway and wait between classes until the teacher is ready and says so.

5. Substitutes. When a teacher is sick/absent, there are rarely substitutes. Class is normally just cancelled. Exception: when a teacher is gone for maternity/paternity leave, a remplacant is found. However, sometimes there is a delay to find this teacher, and during the delay class does not meet. In my case, it took them two weeks to find a replacement teacher for one of my colleagues and during those two weeks, class didn't meet. What did students do you ask? Hang out in the courtyard. Or go to a nearby cafe and enjoy a drink. They can do whatever, no one watches them.

6. Lessons. Lesson plans are not as organized persay: no anticipatory set, presentation of information, guided practice, individual practice. Sometimes, I found them quite hard to follow. Whether that means that they are more/less effective, who’s to say! French students are known for being very intelligent, but I have found that to be because of self-led intrinsic motivation mostly.

8. Conversations during class: Students are generally louder, talk over teachers and carry on conversations during class. Even when told to be quiet or given punishment, I have seen that in general, students will continue to talk to one another.

9. Le Provencal quart d'heure: Being late to class is not a big deal, either if you are a student or teacher. This might be just an aspect of Provence culture seeping in, I have heard it is different in other regions. But here, expect le Provençal quart d'heure - the fact that anyone or anything might be at least 15 minutes late.

10. Utenstils ready. Every student carries pencil cases and graph paper - lined paper doesn’t really exist here (at least I haven't found it anywhere). Students are extremely organized in this realm.
  
11. PDA. Everywhere. And no one controls it. Once one of my colleagues pointed at two young ones going at it and said "This is disgusting! Does this happen in America?" When I explained no, she seemed even more upset, yet didn't go up to the students and tell them to stop.

12. Strikes. Teachers decide to strike. A lot. And when they strike, there is no class.

13. Professional Dress. Most teachers wear jeans and sweaters to class, rarely do they “dress up” persay. There are some that wear skirts and dresses, but I have never seen a man in a tie. Maybe a button up shirt, once.

14. Classrooms. In France, teachers don't have their own classrooms. Since teachers schedules vary, they do not have a set classroom and must switch between several rooms between classes. It kind of operates like a university in this sense. I am not a fan of this difference - I would miss having my own classroom! I think it really makes a difference in making a comfortable and inviting place to learn, filled with useful tools to help with teaching. Or just cool pictures, French posters and French flags hanging everywhere.

15. Mock exams. I have never experienced so many practice exams for a standardized test in my life. Here in France, they have an exam called the BAC that terminale (senior-aged students in America) students take at the end of the year. The BAC exam is extremely important, if they don't pass the BAC they don't get their diploma and can't go to university.

16. Free (or really cheap) University. To add an incentive for students to do well on the BAC, as long as they pass the BAC, they can go to university for free, or nearly free. That's pretty good, ouias?! When I told my students that 12,000 dollars per year is not extravagant for university in America, their jaws dropped. They said that 12,000 euros pays the tuition for the highest institutions in France. Quelle difference!

17.  Grading. Grades here are given out of 20, and it is EXTREMELY rare that someone will get a 20. Or 17-19. It is considered a great grade if you got a 13 and a 15 is exceptional. As an American, this shocks me 13/20 = 65%, which is a D. That's considered a good grade?! Teachers are very particular and don't give high grades for anything. Also, grades are sometimes announced in front of the class, so everyone hears each other’s grades. The first time I experienced this was during my study abroad, when our presentation grades were listed off for everyone to know. I guess there is no sensitivity or privacy in this manner here.

 I am sure there are many more things that I did not cover, but these are the ones that struck me the most. Though there are positives and negatives to both systems, I am happy to be returning to the American education system, where I feel more at home. Though there will be less breaks and vacations, I think somehow I can manage. 

*Translation: Rebecca, can we have a little snack?! It's like our version of, "Can we have a party?!"

The Beginning of the End

With another school week completed in Apt and just one left week left in the classroom until the end of my contract, it has become more apparent to me how fast this experience has gone by! It seems like just yesterday I was anxiously taking my first steps into a French classroom. Because I have a teaching school that rotates every other week, I have already had quite a few 'goodbye' classes this week. To see the students’ reactions to me leaving, always sad and wishing I could stay until the end of their school year, makes me realize that I have made quite a difference by being here. It is both encouraging and heartbreaking to hear them say "sniff sniff" with a frown - knowing that they will miss me and that I will probably never see them again. For my "goodbye lesson", I have been having students tell me what they are planning on doing in the future and then they can ask me the same, along with any other questions they may have for me before I leave. This has led to some hilarious requests, my favorite being "What do you think of French men?" I have had quite a few students ask about how I got the job as assistant, saying that I have made them want to consider doing this for year (going to a foreign country to teach French). I cannot explain the pride this makes me feel, knowing that I did make some type of an impact on them. Some have even come up after class and asked for my e-mail to stay in contact. I feel like I really made a rapport with several of the students here, making it hard to leave. I have to say that when one of the students left my classroom on Monday and said "goodbye forever", it really hit me that I won't ever see them again or be here again. It is just extremely weird to think about - I will miss this place!

With Easter vacation coming up (vacances de Pâques), in one of my classes, we talked about what everyone is doing for the holiday. Of course, some didn't know the meaning of Easter at first, leaving some bewildered looks. To try to be clearer, I asked "What do you think Easter means?". One female student who knew the answer excitedly yelled out "chocolate!" I mean, let's be honest - she IS right! Monday I received a surprise Easter package from my parents filled with just that: chocolate (and other assorted goodies too). With so much support from home during this entire experience that I have been here in France, it has really made me realize how blessed I am to have such amazing parents. As this was my first true experience living away from home* in my life, venturing to live and work in a foreign country, knowing no one coming in, I cannot thank them enough for the many times I called them, wrote messages on Facebook, skyped them, etc saying how much I missed home. They were and are always nothing but supportive and passionate about my goals and dreams, not letting me give up and making me see that everything will not always be bright and cheery - those are the moments where we truly find ourselves.

How the French do Easter chocolate

Merci Maman et Papa!

The weather continues to be blue skies every day, with the sun getting stronger each day. Jeans and jackets are being swapped with skirts and sandals; Spring is really starting to arrive around here! Not only are flowers starting to bloom, but the buds on the trees are starting to turn into leaves too. Today, as I was walking around the school grounds in a light cardigan and sundress, I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply the smell of Provence. I instantly opened my eyes to realize I had been caught in a memory; the smell had brought me back to my summer studying abroad in Aix-en-Provence, with my long sunny walks to and from school. It is funny how this weather is bringing back so many memories of this beautiful region. I can't help but remember myself arriving in September, sweating and panting while falling down the ramp at Avignon TGV with my too-heavy baggage, not used to the Provencal climate or laid-back nature of the culture. Wednesday afternoon, though I had some work to do, Amy and I went to the park to relax, read and soak up the sun. I think that I might be getting a little habitué to this way of life, at long last.

Monsieur Potter and sunlight.

This week also brought the visit from the primary assistant from last year, Cece! Though I had never spoken to her until she arrived, she was so lovely to have around, extremely friendly and we all spent hours telling stories of our experiences in Apt and beyond. On Monday, we all went to dinner at a new place in town called l'Auberge Espagnole. Again, because Apt is so small, new places don't happen very often - I was pleased to see it quite busy on a Monday night! We enjoyed a leisurely dinner of tapas and sangria, coupled by great conversation and a friendly waiter. We welcomed her to a simple dinner at the apartment on Tuesday and after a quick two days, we said our goodbyes. Doing the assistantship brings people together but having been placed in Apt automatically made the three of us instant friends. It is hard to explain to other people, even assistants, what it is like to live and be in assistant in this small village. We all had a universal understanding and bond between us from the beginning. I am so glad that she had the opportunity to come and visit - it was so great to meet her!

She even brought us some American spoils - my favorite girl scout cookies! Thanks Cece!

 This morning, I officially paid my last rent bills and gave the office my lettre de résiliation, my letter explaining when I would be leaving the apartment and when to schedule a contrôle de chambre (room inspection). This required me to go and see my least favorite French person here: the gestionnaire (secretary) of the school. Every time that I have had to talk to her, it has resulted in her rolling her eyes and getting frustrated that I did not understand or could not say something. Needless to say, I always brace myself for a conversation with her. When I saw her and presented her with the letter, explaining we needed to schedule a time for the inspection, she looked at me, wide-eyed and the biggest smile on her face, and said “Mais tu parles bien le français!”** I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so happy or smile that big. As we continued our conversation she kept repeating her compliment and while making a photocopy, even remarked to another office worker how well I speak now. As I was leaving, she reiterated this by saying, “Tu as fait bien du progrès pendant ton année ici ! C’est bien !“  I can safely say that her kind words meant and still mean a lot to me, as I spent the year avoiding her judgmental glares. With her compliment, it really allowed me to finally say to myself “Yes, you have gotten better. A lot better.” That feeling is wonderful – I am proud of myself and what this experience has given me even beyond French language learning: a stronger sense of self.

With one more weekend and week until my job as an assistant is done, I have to say that I am a bit melancholic and triste. After so much time spent here, it is hard not to be! As always, I will continue to enjoy the last few dregs of this experience, like savoring the last sip of a glass of magnificent rosé. Chin chin!

*Yeah, I know most people have this moment when they are 18 and go off to college. For me, it was at 23 when I moved to a foreign country. Cheers to attending college in my hometown!

**Translation: But you speak French very well!

***Translation: You made good progress during your year here! That’s great!

Soleil, you can stay

It is already the weekend here in Apt! Though I am excited for it to be here, the past week has almost been like a vacation for me. With sunny skies every day and the temperatures reaching 80 degrees, I was wearing dresses and sandals all week – not bad for middle of March! Not to mention, because of oral exams given during many of my classes, I only worked 5 hours this week at school. My schedule reads that normally I have 13 hours this week, already not many when you compare to an American teaching timetable. Nonetheless, I was happy to have the time to lay in the sun, read and relax. After this week, I look as if I went to the beach on holiday, with a few shades darker on my skin.

On my walk to private lesson in Gargas

Although I only worked 5 hours at school, I did manage to work 5 hours of private lessons too. When I was walking back Monday evening from one of these lessons, I heard someone behind me shout out a hesitant “excusez-moi?” I thought she was not talking to me but still out of politeness I turned my head. She looked at me familiarly and asked “tu parles francais?” Recognizing that this was a teacher from the collège, I responded and she began to tell me that she spoke to one of the teachers I work with and was wondering if I could give her daughter private lesson. I said of course, she instantly called her daughter and took me to her home (which also happens to be here at the school) to meet her. Although we did not meet that day, we called each other and set up a lesson for Thursday. I used to be quite intimidated on the first day of a new lesson client, but now that I have had so many, I was not nervous at all! It is all about recognizing the level of the student and what their interests are. For all the private lessons I do, my focus is to just get them to SPEAK and have a conversation with me, as speaking is always the hardest skill to master in a foreign language. This new client is very enthusiastic and fun-loving, I know that I am going to enjoy giving lessons to her for the next month while I am still here.

With a month left of teaching, I have begun to do what I have been dreading since the beginning: closing everything down. From internet service, to phone service, to my bank account to my apartment, discussions about les resiliations* have been an everyday occurrence here. Though many are making the processes very easy, I just have a feeling that the second I go to them on the day I need to leave, they are going to say, “mais non!” and tell me I have to pay a fee. I am not paranoid for thinking of this, I have read about closing accounts in France online, and numerous people have had finicky situations. Here’s hoping that me doing my homework this far in advance will help!

I still can’t believe that I now have only four weeks left, time is just flying by! This week was spent booking all the hostels for my little European vacation. I have to admit I breathed a sigh of relief when that was done! I am happy that I get to spend a few more relaxing weekends around here, as looking towards this whirlwind travel extravaganza, though I know it will be amazing, makes me realize how much energy I will need to do 18 straight days of travel. Gotta get ready for what I know will be the best trip yet!

*Translation: the cancellations, the closings

Back to Real Life.... in France

And another relaxing Sunday night in Southern France is here. With the full moon shining outside and the breeze coming in through the window, I am loving Provence spring. Since I have returned to le sud de la France, it has been sunny with blue skies every day, with temps in the mid 60s to 70. That’s right folks – 70 degrees in early March. Maybe I’m becoming a southern girl after all!

Another sunny day at school!

When I returned to Avignon on the last Friday of vacation, I met my friend Clara at the TGV station. I studied abroad with her in Aix two years ago and she is an English assistant in Andorra for this school year. As she had her vacation the second week of mine and wanted to visit Provence, I invited her to come to Apt for the weekend that I returned from Paris. It was so nice to have her come – we spent a lot of time talking about our various experiences from this year from assistantship stories to traveling accounts to foreign language woes. It is refreshing to reconnect with someone who is doing a similar experience as you, sharing what you have found and realized from all of it. 

On Friday night, we stayed in and made a meal in the crockpot, though we might have gotten a few desserts from a nearby patisserie. On Saturday, we woke up and went into town for the market in the morning. Seeing many familiar student faces, it was nice to get back to this pace of life again, especially coming back from a whirlwind week in Paris. For lunch, I took Clara out to Chez Sylla, and of course we enjoyed the wine and cheese tasting with salad. This is becoming a standard place I take visitors now, and I am not hating it! After that, we went to rent some bikes for the afternoon. As this was my first time renting them here in town, I explained to him what we wanted and asked when we should have them back by. His response “la fin de la journée”*. As vague as all Provencal men are, I noticed that they closed at 7pm and planned to be back by then.

It was a perfect day to go on a bike ride – sunny, slight breeze and 70 degrees. I found myself pedaling down the path, racing some imaginary person next to me and smiling like I had just won the medal. The plan was to try to go to Rustrel, a village nearby that has amazing ocres. It is named le Colorado Provencal. Unfortunately, the directions the man gave us at the shop proved to not be very helpful. So instead we just rode further into the countryside, which I didn’t mind so much, as the beautiful weather could not be wasted. We stopped for a rest by a clear creek and took in the rays.

Perfection.

On the way back, we saw signs that led to Saignon. Since I hiked there before, I knew it was quite a steep climb but thought it would be nice to see over the valley with the sun starting to set. However, I misinterpreted the climb a bit…. After ditching our bikes at the bottom of the hill, we hiked up to the top to get a magnificent view over Apt. It was not for long though – looking at my watch which read 6:15, we hurriedly biked back to the shop. Although we arrived at 6:45, the owner was waiting outside with all the other bikes put away, clearly waiting for us. He smugly said “je pense que c’est la nuit…”. My response “oh no no monsieur, c’est presque la nuit!”** Either way, we dropped off the bikes grabbed pastries, pizza and wine and headed back for a relaxing night watching My Fair Lady and eating. Thought biking was wonderful, I forgot how painful it can be – my muscles were sore for two days after!

After seeing Clara off on Sunday, I began to plan for classes during the week and took the day to relax. I was trying to get my mind back into work mode. So when I walked to class Monday morning, fully prepared and ready to teach, you can sense my surprise when I walked in to find 5 students. In a class of normally 20. I turned and looked at the teacher with a bewildered expression. She said “Oh yes, they are not so many!” If that wasn’t obvious. Then, she explained to me that all the Spanish students were going to be gone the entire week – they were going on a school trip to Barcelona. The week coming back from a two week vacation…. and they miss the entire week for another trip. I just don’t understand things around here! Anyway, because of this news, nearly half of all of my classes were gone, leading to smaller class sizes and, for the most part, more manageable classes. But it still begs the question, I thought I was going back to “real life” here. I guess that is just what real life is like in France.

Along with temperamental class sizes (with randomly all my Thursday afternoon classes being cancelled… without anyone telling me..), this week gave me lots of time to work on the future travels I have coming up. All my main transportation is booked, now it is just time to reserve some hostels and do a bit of research on things to do and directions! I can’t believe how real it is getting now – booking all the planes, trains and buses made it even more so!

Saturday, I decided to take the bus into Aix to see something I have wanted to see since I studied there: Cezanne’s atelier. I was the first to arrive there, walking in at the same time as a 40 person high school tour group from the U.S. but as I was the only one with the tour in French, I got to have a private tour of the atelier. VIP status right here! It was wonderful to see where his vision stemmed from, and the tour guide did an amazing job describing his life story. I was left to wander around when the first part of the tour group came in, so I got to hear the tour in English too (and therefore assess my listening comprehension skills, I did pretty good if I do say so myself!). I also got to enjoy some sunlight sitting in his garden and reading a bit of Harry Potter II in French. It was a lovely morning.

After grabbing the obligatory Pizza Capri, I met up with Clara and her friend Aly at Giovanni, my favorite gelato place on the Cours Mirabeau. Clara just happened to be visiting her friend who is studying at IAU the same weekend I was planning on  making this day trip, so we stopped for a nice sugary treat. It was great to hear from a current student perspective how much IAU has changed and stayed the same. That paired with sunshine and gelato made for a wonderful afternoon. After some more time reading and shopping, I boarded the bus back to Apt. This ended being the worse 2 hour bus ride, with screaming students, several stops because an elderly woman would not stay in her seat, and even one unexpected stop with no explanation but the driver ran outside with ducktape and was fixing something on the bus. Needless to say, I was happy to make it back in one piece.

After a relaxing Sunday of laying out, catching up on shows, seeing Dallas Buyer’s Club and talking to my Fifi, it has left me to reflect a lot on time. One month from now, I will be done with the assistantship and starting a 4 week travel adventure and two months from now, I will be HOME! It has all gone so fast and although I am SO excited to be reunited with everyone at home, it’s weird to think about leaving this place. After all the hard times I have had trying to adjust to living and working in a foreign country, just when I think I am starting to get the hang of it, it is time to leave. Either way, c’est la vie and I am always feeling grateful for being able to have this opportunity. Until then, I am going to post some pictures of my future travels...(not to make you jealous or anything...)

Barcelona, Spain

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Cinque Terre, Italy (this picture is of Manarola, one of the five villages I will be hiking to)

Santorini, Greece

*Translation: the end of the day. Well, as if I didn’t guess that!

**Translation: He said “ I think its night time…” I said “Oh no, sir! It is ALMOST night time!” Since he said to bring back the bikes at the end of the day, and the sun hadn’t set yet, I kind of was being a little smug. J