The First Week of November

After the departure of my dad and Halloween I still had a few days left of the holiday to relax and spend time with my friends. I saw a French film, "La Princesse de Montpensier" that was just released. Although it wasn't anything extraordinary, it was generally a good film with a decent story line and was easy to follow. French cinema has a tendency to be like American independent, artistic films, sometimes making them more difficult to follow. I also took time to prepare lesson plans for my upcoming classes, which resumed Thursday November 4th. Last week and this week I have been teaching lessons about Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Teaching seems to be getting easier and I'm becoming more confident. I am starting to see my students/classes for the second or third time so I am learning names, remembering faces, and gaining a better understanding of their abilities. Some students in the "European Section" take an extra 2 hours of English class per week, so I've become even more familiar with them.

Saturday I met Adeline for lunch and then we did some shopping together. She had never taken the bus from my apartment to hers, and after we found the bus stop together I went back home. I later learned she waited a very long time for a bus that never came, thanks to ANOTHER demonstration about the change in the retirement age. Saturday evening I went to Ryan's house and we made dinner together before meeting Adeline at a rock concert. Ryan's roommate, Thibault, is in a local rock band so we thought it would be fun to go to a local music concert in Tours. We arrived around 10pm and saw two bands before Thibault's group, 'The Ghost Brothers' Big Band', played last. I enjoyed the atmosphere more than the music because it reminded me of going to many local concerts in Fort Collins at university. Thibault's group was by far the best though!

Sunday, Emma drove Jenny, Alex, and I to the castle at Chenonceau. Chenonceau is one of the smaller castles in the area but well-known for it's beauty, charm, and construction over the Cher river. Even though it was raining on and off, it was still a wonderful day. Around the castle grounds are trees, forests, and gardens. It was the perfect autumn weekend to go as the ground was covered in orange and yellow leaves while just enough remained on the trees to keep the scenery from looking bare.

Chateau de Chenonceau

Emma, Jenny, and me

Emma and me

Yesterday and today my classes went extremely well. Not only was I well prepared with my lesson plans, but my students seemed genuinely interested in Thanksgiving/Halloween and were happy to participate :) Now more than ever do I understand how important it is for students to participate- not only so they can show what they understand- but so the instructor doesn't do all the talking! As a student I thought I was pretty good about participating, but I never understood its importance from the teacher's perspective. Now I very much appreciate when students willingly volunteer to read aloud or give an answer. Oh, how the tables have turned!