ohhhhhhh children

Again updating in chunks... this is Wednesday....So. Here we are. The day before I start my first day of work. I have a lesson plan, but I’m lacking in supplies, because it’s impossible to get things here. I think I may need to do some talking with the teachers, although some of my schools don’t have a whole lot of "affiches" on the wall. I figure I’ll hit up an art supply store on Friday afternoon when I’m done with work.
All in all I’m pretty nervous about the whole thing. It’d be nice if we had some more information, or if this information had been given to us a little bit earlier. Because this is so close to when we start. Maybe, a week or so before the first day, not two days. But what do I know. Besides, two of my schools are in a dispute over which days they have me, and I’m just going to tell them to call each other and sort it out. Because I’m sick of trying to be the middle man for principals and having to do mediation in my second language. Although one of the directors of the conseills pedagogique helped me out a lot, because she’s really sweet. So that’s good.
I had a ridiculously homesick night on Wednesday. I think it’s because I was home alone, making lesson plans, listening to music, and watching the slideshow go on my computer. Songs and pictures that make me think of home kept popping up. So I got a little sad.
But Cody came over, another assistant from the Texas-land, and he’s a good friend and a sweetheart, so that seemed to work out for the best.
And now it's Thursday. The first day down, two schools and three levels per school, which means six classes and SOOO MANY students. I forgot how tiring it is trying to speak to small children, especially the smallest level that doesn't speak English or really communicate at all. Although we had fun playing the what words do you know, what facts do you know, what questions do you have for me, and for me, trying to see what they know. It's amazing that "How are you?" and "How old are you?" get so mixed up, with being only one word apart. They get "How old are you?" better than "How are you?", and it's impossible to stop one another from translating for each other. I had to keep repeating that this was not a translation class, and that I didn't want to hear French. But it was good, and I spoke in French from time to time, and the last teacher I was with in my last class of the day said: "I hope to speak English as well as Hilary speaks French" and that made me feel really great. Also, all of my teachers seemed to have a positive response to me, and I think the kids liked me for the most part. I think some of them got bored in the combined classes, because the younger kids were confused and I had to slow down a bit from time to time. I guess the intelligent thing is to speed up so the older ones don't get bored, but I don't want to lose the younger ones completely.
So after a long day working with my six classes, Aly called and she and I found our good Scottish friend (also an assistant) and spoke with him for a while, then Jen called, and the four of us went for coffee because we were all exhausted and feeling the stress of a full work week for the first time since arriving three weeks ago. Grahame left to go home, Aly and Jen and I decided to find cheap chinese food rather than cook. It was amazing, and cheap, and fantastic. Note - Aly and I need to find a cheap microwave. Our kitchen is only two burners and a sink, and it's hard to reheat leftovers.... oh well.
Tomorrow afternoon after I finish up at school, I'm going to call our landlady to try and see about activating the phone line so we can get our high speed internet, and run some errands to get cardboard and posterboard and make photocopies and be a teacher. Oh snap.
So tomorrow is my first day of teaching at my last school. So far, the directors (principals) and other teachers have been fantastic, and so supportive, and so encouraging, it's really quite fantastic.
Oh - Aly and I have house insurance and liability insurance, in case we accidentally push someone over and they break a hip. Thank god. We all know that the two of us have wild, violent tendencies.
Stimmer (or Christine) is coming to visit over my long break of Toussaint. It's a week long, and it's long long long overdue.
Salut mes amis,
Je vous aime....
vous me manquez beaucoup.
-hilary