This morning was a little bit different because I had to get up at 6:00 to walk Damian to the bus for his flight this morning. He was a good sport about paying the tourist price for the shuttle bus to the airport rather than making me escort him on the "locals" bus that stops near the airport but doesn't really help if you don't know the area extremely well. I can't thank him enough for that because, seriously, I needed the mid-morning nap I took when I got back to the house at 7:00.
My tutoring lessons went well. I spent a fair amount of time reviewing the progress made with both "pupils" so far. The older pupil is speaking more confidently and her vocabulary for literature is growing because we have been reading and studying some pretty difficult texts, plus I have taught her three or four new verb tenses. Also, based on what she has said I am getting the sense that her English teacher at her lycee is reproducing my tutoring lessons for his own purposes in the class. I'm not sure if I should be annoyed, flattered, or amused by this. Annoyed because I took the time to put these lessons together for my pupil, not for his students, flattered because a professional teacher is stealing my work, but also amused because I found most of my teaching resources using a simple Google search. Seriously, how do these teachers get these jobs? In the States a teacher has to actually put effort into teaching before they have tenure because job competition is so fierce.....I digress....
In the next couple of weeks we are going to read Animal Farm and come up with a strategy for her to write essays comparing the book to the Russian Revolution, which is cool because it's an interesting topic and she is Russian herself. Hopefully this is the type of thing that will lead to her acceptance at the lycee of her choice. The younger pupil, an 11 year old, is showing signs of true absorption and I think he understands me when I speak a lot more than he did at first. What is even more important, he isn't afraid of me anymore and actually seems to enjoy our lessons! I am so lucky to have such nice pupils for these tutoring lessons.
When I was waiting for my bus home from Nice I was pretty put out by the huge crowd of people who approached the #200 when it stopped at the bus shelter. Two rather smelly women were waiting in line to pay the driver with handcarts filled with groceries. I had resigned myself to wait another 15 to 20 minutes for the next bus to avoid standing next to The Two Smellies for an hour when another, almost empty, #200 came up right behind the one that was loading up. What luck! This never happens and, what's more, only myself and a woman with her little boy even noticed this better option so we got on the second bus and each settled into our seats, sans Smellies.
The rest of my day was pretty chilled out including laundry, phone calls, etc. My friend Jescy landed safely in London this morning and embarks on her European adventure starting tonight. From what I gather she is hitting up Dublin, London, then Nice to see me. We are going to Cinque Terre for the weekend and then flying back to London at the start of my printemps holiday. Not a bad range of places and experiences for a three week, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants trip.
But I am getting ahead of myself because this weekend I am going to Paris- lovely, divine Paris, with a lovely new friend from Taize. I'm so excited to have a relaxed weekend in Paris since the last time was devoted to seeing the major tourist sights. Because we have both been to Paris before, this time I suspect we will walk around, eat yummy food and just enjoy the city. For the first time in a long time, perhaps ever, I am going away for a few days without having planned out each moment. All I know for sure is when I will arrive, where I will sleep, and when I will leave. The rest is left to the moment.
Ah, j'adores la vie francaise!
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