Début

For the month of October, I taught a total of two days. Hard life...

Last Thursday and Friday, I started teaching French to elementary kids here in Perpignan.  It made me very excited for this year.  But of course it also made me nervous.  For one, it made me realize how little I know about what elementary kids do (or are supposed to) know.  For some of my classes, teachers want me to skip what the kids should already know to help expand their knowledge, but I find that difficult when I'm THE prof d'anglais for the year, meaning that most of my classes were waiting for me to start teaching English to the kids.  That also means that the students are at various levels within the same class.  As such, that will be a great learning experience to figure out how to keep classes interesting for those who are ahead, but still simple enough for those who are novices. 

Overall, I am really happy with my first days of teaching.  Of course, I loved when my students got really excited about what we were doing.  In this case, it was learning about me/ Colorado (so many oohs and ahhs over the photos I brought) and where in the world English is spoken.  It also melted my heart when two little girls in my last class on Friday told me "Tu es trop belle!" over and over.  Aww shucks, they think I'm beautiful!

For the remainder of the year, I'll be teaching every Thursday and Friday (followed by a five day weekend!) with a total of 15 classes and over 200 students. It's exciting, nerve-wracking, rewarding, and so much more, all at once.  I'm definitely thinking this was a fantastic choice for the year after graduation. 

But for now I'm on vacation!  Teach two days, and then have two weeks of vacation.  That sounds about right, doesn't it? I'll post more about what I've done and am doing over vacation in the next few days.

A bientôt!

Sunday Hike

Bonjour à tous!

Yesterday was the first time I experienced hiking in the Pyrenees mountains - that's the mountain chain along the Spanish-French border.  A group of 5 of us drove out towards one of the tallest mountains of the Pyrenees called the Canigou.  We parked in a small town, which happened to be celebrating the festival of chestnuts (fête des châtaignes).  The entire area was covered with chestnut trees, which if you've never seen a chestnut in the wild, they're pretty intense looking.  It is a large, spikey, green covering that you break open to find the brown chestnut inside. 

From that small town we walked up to the Abbaye Saint Martin du Canigou.  It's a small abbey sitting in a nook in the mountains.  We explored around the abbey for a little while (we joined a tour to get inside, but didn't stick around with the group since it was a tour in Catalan!) and found a beautiful lookout point a little further up to see the entirety of the abbey.  It's a quaint place, like a mini castle, which is still currently inhabited.  There's also a beautiful cloister surrounded by roses and stonework. 

From there, we descended the roadway for the abbey, and took another route from where the car was parked.  This route was more of any actual hike through the woods, and it followed a stream back into the mountains to a beautiful waterfall for about an hour and a half.  It was a beautiful hike with the sun shining and autumn leaves on the ground.  This was my first taste of the autumn that I know... with leaves and that distinctive autumn smell.  It was great to experience that as it's something that I've been missing.

 After the hike, we returned to the car, made a stop in a cute village called Villefranche (I'm definitely going back up there to spend some time and climb up to the fort) and returned to Perpignan.  It was a perfect day outdoors, getting some exercise, and meeting some really great people that are also living in Perpignan.

Collioure

Today I took a break from Perpignan (my new home) and went on a day excursion.  I, with two other English language assistants, ended up in a small coastal village called Collioure. 

Collioure is very picturesque with its old stone buildings, colorful streets, mini art galleries, clear water and rocky coast.  Our first stop was to find a delicious sandwich.  Mine was ham, lettuce, and butter on a baguette... yumm, and we sat for lunch on a bench looking across the water and village.  During this time, there were also some army guys doing training exercises in rafts and kayaks on the water.  After that, we spent a lot of time exploring the village.  Some of the highlights were the lookout point where a small, old church sat, the varying colors of houses with pink, blue, turquoise, and orange all mixed in, and browsing through tiny art galleries where the artists were painting and proud to show their work. 

Now back in Perpignan, I am looking forward to starting teaching next week.  We had a full day of lesson planning and school training a couple days ago, and I'm hoping that my 12 hours of teaching will go smoothly.  I'll be teaching in three schools, one which is in Perpignan.  The other two are in outlying villages called Baixas and Peyrestortes.  Baixas is a village of wine makers, and Peyrestortes is so small that the entire school is only 3 or 4 classes. I'll be able to do both of those schools in one day, and I am looking forward to getting to know my colleagues there!

While Perpignan doesn't yet quite feel like home, I'm really enjoying the people I've met and the experiences I've had.  And this is only the beginning!