Élégance

Quick shot of Kendra before going out tonight...I know, I broke the no portrait run - but I liked the picture too much to not blip it and I had nothing else. The evening was spent at Le Vertigo with the girls, Shwetabh and Pawel...oh and some random French men who were talking to Kendra! Drinks included Embuscade (white wine, beer, Calvados, blackcurrant syrup), Rebecca (yes, a cocktail called Rebecca, I think it had tequila in it?) and a diet coke for me. Normally I would have joined in the fun, but I wasn't feeling 100% well and decided to give drinking a miss for once. However, the look from the barman when I ordered a diet coke almost weakened my resolved...it was somewhere between surprise and you-just-squashed-a-kitten! Hopefully will feel better for doing that in the morning, but on verra! Lovely evening out anyhows, and nice to finally catch-up with everyone...feels like I have never been away.

My day today was pretty normal, after a conseil de classe with the normal sixième (where all of the pupils give their opinions on how the class is doing, if there are any problems with the school, teachers, behaviour etc. Such a good idea, would definitely recommend it!) and a lesson with the quatrième EURO on the snow I had a few hours to spare before my final lesson of the day. With the quatrième I had to try and explain why we call a traffic jam a traffic jam (French: bouchon - think bottleneck), for which my only explanation was that jam is sticky?! Pretty much works! Also had a stern word with one of the students about misbehaving on the playground; which turned into me becoming the talk of the sixième as the student was genuinely remorseful and possibly quite scared of me afterwards. I kept having my INTER class come up and ask me what I had threatened to do (take him to the headmistress...which I wouldn't've!) and what he had said (begged quite a lot for the inverse) for the rest of the day. To be honest, I surprised myself with my French when I was giving him the talk, I didn't realise I could act quite so fearsome!

My final class of the day was with a pupil from troisième INTER, another of those lessons where I try and make them feel more confident in their public speaking, and more importantly their public speaking of English. Just the one student this lesson, as the other was skiving (their problem though, not mine!), but the remaining student is just so lovely that my half an hour lesson actually over-ran by an hour. I think it is because this student very much reminds me of myself at their age...frustrated as to why other members of the class misbehave, when you only have one chance to learn the things you're being taught, confused as to why certain students seem to want to throw their lives away for a cheap laugh, and in a way the knowledge that in later life they may look back at their time at school and realise just how much more they could have done. It made me sad in a way, because the only response you can give is that things will improve as the other students become more mature...but the waiting (as I know only too well) is one of the most infuriating things you will ever experience. The very best of luck to them, they deserve all the successes they will achieve.