Our first few days

My gosh, it’s only Wednesday, and we have already done so much!

Classes stated pretty well, with only four stagiaires getting lost on the way to school. (I found them.) Lots of information was shared and lots of questions asked. Questions are like gold nuggets to a teacher. These students are making us rich!

Lunch was an adventure. We dine in a cafeteria that offers meals to residents of the various buildings in the Aile group, special groups like ours and the general public. The meals are really good and the portions are a bit overwhelming.

They get their choice of a starter (shaved carrots, a slice of cantaloupe, radishes, potato salad, and on and on), choice of dessert, salad or cheese, and a choice of one of two main dishes with a side dish. No one goes hungry.

Monday, several students chose as a starter what may have looked to them like bologna. But, it was “pâté de tête,” what my grandfather would have called “head cheese.” He loved it, our teenagers, not so much.

Today, we teachers sat with the students at lunch. I sat next to Lucy and Charlie, who both chose noodles with cheese and fries as their main dish. I guess the apple pie with caramel added the necessary protein. The most sensible one at our table was Harmon, who went for all veggies. Smart kid.

Monday, for afternoon activities, Corentin got a head start on the family show. He had the kids brainstorming about all the different things they could do. And boy, did the ideas flow! The ideas were all over the place:

· The Irish dancing that involves stomping of feet

· Individual music performances on guitar, violin, and keyboard

· A song duet

· Their own episode of the Magnificent Lady Bug

· A selection from La Cantatrice Chauve

· A big finale dance number (to be choreographed by Aiko, Brooklyn, Abigail and others)

· And several other things I cannot remember

Three days in, and we are really on top of this. This group sure has a can-do spirit.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are our sports activity days in the afternoon. This week, we didn’t have access to a gym. It was sunny and 79 degrees so, we went to the beach!

The French are talking about a particularly hot summer and a heatwave. From the articles in the newspaper, they seem to be worried about it. We Indiana people are like, “What heatwave?” The highs are to be in the low 80s this week, except Friday, which is predicted to have a high of 87. Hah! Come to Indiana in August!

The water here is rather cold, it comes off the North Atlantic, after all. Water temps Tuesday were about 15 degrees Celsius, about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Anna C. talked about swimming in Lake Michigan and dove right in. We had some other hearty souls, but most of us waded.

We played volleyball and frisbee and climbed a rope thing. Some of us napped, and some of us (me) laughed at the antics.

We are off to a good start!

What follows is a collection of images that show what we’ve been doing. In my experience, if parents ask their kids what they’ve been doing, the answer is “not much” or they talk about only one thing. I hope to give you a sense of what they are actually doing.

(I probably won’t post again until Sunday. We have a lot to do and an excursion on Saturday.)