Good Day

I started my first day of teaching today with a group of four students in their last year of high school. It was only for an hour, but I feel like the semester is going to go so well. They are so excited to have me there! When I asked what they’d like to do throughout the semester, they said that they just wanted to talk and practice speaking. The battle to find the correct word during conversation is quite trifling and my giant orange dictionary lingers as a constant companion. We had a pretty good time talking about funny American phrases today. Our conversation is not the first time I’ve been laughed at for saying, “O my God!”

As an aside: a few nights ago, Nathalie and I were talking about the exact same thing. All of the American students she’s had in her house say, “O my God!” any time they’re exhausted, exasperated, excited, scared—basically all the time. Not five minutes after we got done laughing about it, this HUGE spider ran across the wall right beside me! We all know how I feel about those things. So, what did I say? If you can’t guess, it rhymes with “Go buy sod” (It’s the only thing I could think of).

Anyways, The whole group of students is pretty funny and so nice to me, so it’s nice to sit and talk with them after a full day of classes and work. Then, after I got back home from teaching, I made dinner for Nathalie and her family—my favorite—fusili! Nathalie informed me with much enthusiasm that I can make dinner for them whenever I want. Talk about appreciation! Also, since Nathalie didn’t have to make dinner, she had time to make desert crepes with nutella in them. New favorite thing? I think, yes.

On top of all the good news, I think I’m FINALLY getting rid of the cold I’ve had ever since I arrived. I also had one full, successful phone conversation with Nathalie—in French. And I made it through all of dinner without asking for someone to repeat something. Go me!

And finally, we now have working Internet at home! Nathalie made note that I was smiling a lot more today after I had a conversation via Skype with Mom, Ellen and Lily. It’s nice to be able to do the research I need to do for my history and literature courses at home instead of searching for Internet connection. Things are looking up!