Stage, part 2 of 2

Today was the second half of my stage, which was more stressful than the first half, for reasons I won't go into at this time.  But since Marie already took me to the CAF office, I got to go home for lunch when everybody else was CAF-ing it up.  So I made myself un-cranky and set out to go look for school #2.

We didn't get rides today, but I'm used to riding the bus by now.  I got off at my stop and used the trusty Bauer Wander Method to find the school in under 15 minutes, after walking past it twice (whoops).  They were expecting me "sometime in the afternoon" (ahh, France) and so, as I was standing outside the locked gate staring at an empty playground, I had a chilling realization...since they weren't expecting me at any specific time, there was nobody waiting outside for me, and I was going to have to make a phone call in French.  It was a sink or swim moment, because I'd already been standing there awkwardly for a little too long for comfort (I was on the verge of telling passerby, "I'm not a creeper, I'm the English teacher!"  That would have been reassuring).  Anyway, it was about a 30 second phone call, and luckily the directrice picked up and knew who I was.  But still, this was my first 100% successful phone call in French (to someone I didn't already know), and I was proud of it.

Then I met the teachers, who were friendly and welcoming.  I can't say enough nice things about them.  I elicited another round of promises not to leave me alone in the classroom.  The directrice actually said "I know some teachers would try to leave you alone while they go make copies, but that isn't how things are done here".  I also don't have to worry about written work or exams.  I'm only there to aid in oral exercises.  Which means I can spend all my time thinking of fun activities for the kids.  Sweet!

Then I finally got to meet the aforementioned children, who were incredibly cute and sweet and FULL OF ENERGY.  One of the teachers told me with a little smile, "we sleep well at night".  But they also assured me I'd have no shortage of volunteers for activities, which is why I like little kids.  Their boundless energy may be exhausting sometimes, but they aren't yet "too cool" for whatever you have planned.  I asked them if they had any questions for me, and they definitely did.  One of my favorite questions, which I actually got the other day as well, was "where did you learn English?"  Also there were more questions about New York ("have you seen the Statue of Liberty?").  These kids also wanted to know when my birthday was, and seemed really excited by the response.  I guess "September 8th" was the right answer?  There must be a lot of September birthdays in that class.
I got them to introduce themselves, which went well (most of them managed "my name is ___"), but things went slightly downhill when I asked them their ages (burgeoned by the success of the last exercise, I suppose,  over half of them responded with "my name is EIGHT!")  "Non," I said, "répétez: I am eight years old."  They smiled and repeated, "My name is EIGHT!!!!"  Well, now I have a starting point.

On the way home my bus had a little accident, although what felt like a little bump to us passengers probably felt like significantly more to the people in the car (everybody was OK, though).  I wasn't looking when it happened, but apparently the other people on the bus were because they began to share their opinions quite openly.  I always enjoy it when French people do this, because they get so expressive.  And sometimes I learn new words.  It turned into a gigantic hassle in the end; though, as everybody had to get off the bus and wait for the next one, which got progressively more and more full with each stop until it was like the subway at rush hour in New York, or maybe Tokyo where they shove people into the cars.   

My schedule turned out quite well.  I work all day Monday (I use the term "all day" loosely here, to span a period of about five hours), in the afternoon on Tuesday,  have Wednesday off, work Thursday morning and Friday afternoon.  I will also work Friday mornings with adult English teachers, but only during their two stages of a few weeks each.  I'll have quite a few Friday mornings off, and I don't really have to get up "early" at all, except for those few Friday stages.  Pas mal.