Semaine 5 - wow, we've been here a month already!
Sorry, friends, a bit slow on blog this week - good friend visiting (wheee!).
I digress.
So we had another week of Geneva hating French school and with some legitimate reasons. It really is different than Canada - teachers much more strict, difficult, etc. - and I sometimes wonder if they forget that she is French second language as her French is pretty good so she's tossed in along with the rest of the class to keep up. Which she does pretty well. However, one learning which is tough - on exams and marking and such, the incorrects are actually subtracted from the corrects so it's a double hit - both on mark and confidence.
However, she is doing swimming in Sports class and seems to excel beyond many of her peers. In fact, her Prof suggested she join the swim team, which practises Wednesday afternoons. She's not certain on this point. We're still discussing.
Win was in Espanol - which last week Geneva wanted to drop as it was too difficult - when after studying a moderate but regular amount over the weekend, she said she topped the class in answering the required questions/responses. Small victories.
Elena is getting there - hers were more social concerns as she likes her teachers - and friends seem to be coming so we keep breathing in and out.
Marco started school for two days last week to get settled, schedules, meet people, etc. He is excited and intruigued as his class is a world map - of course, students from France but also China, India, Mongolia, Nepal, Argentina and Russia. As he is the only English first language speaker, he may actually be at the advantage to his fellow classmates. Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. Today is first day of courses. Go Marco!
I am adding bits of French each week - Marco has commented that he already notices my improvement - however one thing I know I'm weak at is identifying days of week/times in conversation - two cases in point: I had trouble making plans with my mom friend Helene for an after school date for our two families of girls to play badminton as I was unsure following our conversation of what I'd committed to. A quick text to Helene and her patience with me helps. She's actually started scolding me for saying my French is poor when I meet someone as she's impressed with how well I'm doing (she's just being nice, I know, but it's reassuring). Next, I was to meet Elena's teacher to discuss how I'll help in English class. In fairness to myself, I'm adapting to the 24h clock and when she said we'd meet at "une heure quinze" - this didn't make sense to me as it would be in the middle of the night so I was certain I'd heard incorrectly and translated to "onze heure quinze" - 11:15. Neither were correct as she'd meant 1:45, after lunch. Oh well, luckily I don't have a lot in my day right now so was flexible.
Good stuff now - we're all enjoying friend time! Girls each invited a friend home for lunch on Friday so we hosted Estelle and Constance for macaroni avec fromage, broccoli et homemade biscuits avec pepites des chocolats. Think all went well but Geneva was embarrassed by me. Hey, I can embarrass my pre-teen in 2 languages!
Best... la vacance en France avec Genevieve also began on Friday. Jen is here until Thursday and we're making the most of it. Which means we did drive to the beach for the weekend, even though it was 13 degrees and raining most of it. Still nice to get away and have some girlfriend time with wine, yummy food, random singing and silly English. Sigh....
Jen leaves on Thursday am :( and then I will have my first English tutoring in Elena's class in the afternoon.
Following, Marco's brother and family arrive for Canadian Thanskgiving weekend - no turkey in my little oven and as Lisa's vegetarian, better to find another option anyway.
Happy October 1st - I'm supposed to say "Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits" for luck says Jen so - "Lapins, lapins, lapins a tous!"
A la prochaine semaine,
s