December 4, 2014

Very eager for Christmas break and to see my auntie very soon! A lot of people are sick right now at IES, it is like the plague! I am fighting a cold too, so drinking lots of tea, resting a lot when I can. I can't get over how much I love living here. There is so much to observe, so much to learn and I just continue to soak it all in. I really admire the French style of eating, 3 meals a day, less snacking, and just that eating is a pleasure, not something to stress about with calorie counting or the obsession of losing weight I come across so much back home in the U.S. I feel the most "French" if I buy a baguette example as part of my lunch, or enjoy yogurt and coffee as part of after dinner desert. I will definitely be taking a lot of cultural subtleties back home with me. The reverse culture shock is going to be very odd; it won't be extreme, but there will be many subtle things I will miss: boulangeries everywhere, the Christmas markets, hearing French all the time, the bread, the cheese, French bookstores (one of my favorite places to visit), the food markets, I could go on forever.

Things are coming an end fast for this semester. Soon the friends I've made will head back home and it will be time to make new friends. It's a unique experience indeed to get to know well one big group and then another. The energies will certainly be different. This coming Monday, we'll perform our theater piece, which will be fun and I feel good with my lines memorized. It's fun playing a French version of Shakespeare's Juliet and also briefly an evil sorceress, Adeline. I love playing evil roles so much! It's a hoot.

Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well enough to do my teaching internship for today, but I am excited for my last Thursday with my students because I want to show them clips of Sainsbury's Christmas ad about the Christmas Truce of 1914 and a clip from Charlie Brown's Christmas and have a discussion about both and teach them some new vocab. I'm really going to miss teaching the elementary school students. They are more open, receptive to my presence. I quit teaching the high schoolers for the last two weeks and my prof Mme. Duportail was very understanding about it. They're not my ideal age group to work with. Can't believe the semester is coming to an end so fast!

 Pastries we enjoyed for celebrating Cecile's sweet sixteen 

 The beautiful Christmas market at Place Royale 

Coffee after theater rehearsal with friends, Azelia, Piper, & Morgan