I've gone over a week without writing! Midterms are coming up so I've been trying to get all my schoolwork done for that and make sure, on top of that, to have all or most of my schoolwork done for when Chuck and then my parents visit in only two weeks!
The weather here is so nice. It's sunny and late-spring temperatures. At least it was. Two days ago the 'Mistral' picked up. It's a wind here that is famous for being cold and relentless. With the mistral there are beautiful clear skies and a cold, biting wind. The Mistral tends to last for three days at a time. Then it will be over or it will continue for three more days. Then it will be over or it will continue for three more days. I don't understand why it works in threes, but that is what it's known to do.
Because I want to get work done before my visitors get here, I spent the weekend here in Aix-en-Provence to get schoolwork done. On Sunday there was another school trip to Nice to see the 'carnivale' and so I signed up to go. We left Sunday morning and we spent the day there, because it's so close. I wasn't feeling good this weekend, so it felt really good to be in the sun. Bradie and I bought some fruit at the market and picnicked on the beach. We spent almost the whole day there and absorbed all the seaspray and sunshine we could. The first time in the sun after the winter always feels so good. Then we walked along the promenade to watch the carnivale parade. The floats were like something I'd never seen....there was a dragon whose whole body slithered around mechanically and acrobats jumped around his body on ropes. All the spectators had confetti and silly string, and by the time we'd gotten enough awe from watching the parade, we were covered in the stuff.
Colette is feeding me well, just so you know. Last Friday at dinner she noted that I didn't look like the picture the school had given her of me before I got here, in which I looked all 'skinny' or when I got here when I was all 'skinny'. Now, she said, I'm looking plumper and it suits me well. She meant this as a compliment, but I took it as a warning. I know what I look like when I'm plumper. And I've been running every day, so I can't be eating so much at dinner just because she cooks so much! I don't want to put on weight just out of politeness. So after that I went for a run. And the next day I went for a run twice.
When I got back from Nice on Sunday, though, she told me that I was looking more like my picture again. "You're all tan now, it looks like that picture of you they gave me". I did get a LOT of sun in Nice. Anyhow, though, I don't know what to make of what she says now.
I got really sick at the end of last week and it lasted throughout the weekend. I've still got it now...one of those nice, rich flem-filled coughs and scratchy throat. Sneezing, headache, the works. In my first class on Monday my teacher shushed me when I started coughing. He shushed me. I couldn't have been more angry. He shushed with a smile, but a shush is a shush. I will never forget that he did that. I started to hope I could use my illness to get out of teaching Monday because I was so scared after last week, but I thought of how mad I would be if Mandy left me to take care of the class by myself. But this week went really well, actually.
Last week we found out from them some of the things they want to learn about the United States. It was like pulling teeth to get this simple information out of them, but now that we have it, we know they're interested in Holidays, in Chicago and New York, in California, in the White House and Statue of Liberty, in our president, in sports, animals, and the different states. So this week we started with holidays. When we got to school one of the girls ran up to me and asked if they could play heads-up-seven-up, which must have been played in another of the foreign-language classes for her to bring it up. But it got us thinking....we already planned to start out the class with a rule: No Talking if someone else is talking. To which we added, if they are quiet and we get through the material we'll pay heads-up-seven-up. The class cheered and I worried they wouldn't concentrate because they'd just want to play the game the whole time, but it went well. We talked about holidays in the United States and we made worksheets for them to follow along. We ended up speaking a lot of French in order to explain more complicated concepts, like Groundhog's Day, and in then that became a gateway for them to speak French, which might have seemed bad because they weren't practicing their English, but it helped lots of them feel more comfortable to participate and answer questions. Of course, some weren't participating at all, but maybe that's normal in such a large class. This 4th grade class is packed with almost thirty kids in a room that can't be much bigger than our dining room, at least it seems like. When we finished, we told them they could play the game even though we had more things we could have moved to. They were extatic. I liked watching them play the game that we all used to adore so much as kids. I didn't know it was played all over the world. I liked watching kids peek their eye over the edge of the desk as if no one knew what was going on. We've all pulled that trick, come on, kid.
My birthday (and my Grandpa's) is on Friday and I didn't want to do anything except go camping at Mt St-Victoire, but that also happens to be the class field trip to go wine-tasting, so I will be doing that, too, that afternoon.
Then I think Bradie and I are going to go camping that night. There are cabins around the foot of the mountain that you can stay in, especially because the Mistral is chilly we will probably want to do that. Colette lent me a sleeping bag. We'll camp out Friday night and then climb up saturday morning and back down in the afternoon and it will be amazing. Hopefully it will go through...it might not be fun to camp and hike with the Mistral if it keeps up into this weekend.
My other friend, Becca, tells me that Thursday night her and Bradie's French friends are going to have us over for a cake that Emilien and Becca will make for me, which is all set up by Becca. This is because I never go out with them and this is a way to make ensure that I finally do. Their French friends (including Emilien) are the same boys that we went with to the military ball a few weeks ago. Bradie and Becca have been hangning out with them many times since then and I always find an excuse not to go. They hate that I do that, and so this is their tactic to get me out.
Yesterday for my birthday I got a pocket-sized video camera from my family! So I will be able to make videos to put on this site really soon. I'll take some videos this week of Colette and her house, of my school, and of this weekend at Mt St-Victoire.
That was the perfect gift, and I'll make sure I use it a lot. Something like that is important to always keep with you for filming the best stuff, and so that's what I've been doing ever since I got it.
More soon!
Love,
Pam
