Deauville Dispatches: Sortie Scolaire

With only 8 full days left in dear Deauville I am trying to make the most of my time here so that I can leave with good memories and few regrets. This endeavor has occasionally proved to be more difficult than anticipated recently due to the fact that my students are all very excited for the end of school and no longer particularly interested in English (or in behaving). Still, I'm having fun. Tuesday night was my last time with my young ward Felix, so his mom and dad took us out for dinner at a nice seafood restaurant where, between the two of us, Hortense and I filled 4 bowls with crustacean and mollusk detritus. As a reformed seafood hater, this is a big deal. I ate tons of crevettes roses et grises (pink and grey shrimp), huitres (oysters--okay, I just ate one, but still, Cousin Bob would have been proud after all the Christmas Eve parties he spent trying to trick me into eating one), tourteaux (smaller crabs) and crabes (normal sized crabs), langoustines (mini lobsters--not sure what English version is), and even an amande de mer (no idea, but it looked like a little clam). It was all quite tasty and we had a nice conversation. They also were nice enough to give me a cool mug that shows the 4 seasons of Normandy (here's a hint: pluie, pluie, pluie, et...pluie) and a really nice illustrated grammar/phonetics/conjugation guide/dictionary that's written for 5-7 year olds but will still be perfect for me to use with my classes next year. A very thoughtful gift indeed.

(Oh wait, I haven't shared my big news yet: I have a job! I've been hired by my old elementary/middle school to teach Spanish to the K-4th graders and French to the 5th-8th graders. Very exciting!)

Anyway, while I will certainly miss the pastries, the cheeses, the wine, the moules...as well as being surrounded by French, being a 5 minute walk from the beach, the markets, etc. I know that what I will miss the most when I leave here will be the people, and particularly my students. I've already had to say goodbye to a few who have left on vacation and it's been hard knowing that I won't ever see them again or even that I won't know who they become as they grow up.

All of this sentimental blah blah is to say that today I went on a field trip with the GS classes (kindergarten) and I was very glad to be able to spend some quality time with the two classes that I've grown the closest to this year. We went to Caen to visit the Jardin Botanique and the Colline des Oiseaux, the latter of which is a landfill that was turned into a park, complete with an enormous rose garden and a labyrinth (definitely a hit with the students). I was in charge of 3 students, Charlotte, Aymeric, and Lea. We had a great time searching for the objects ranging from plants to wells to fences with interesting patterns that the two maitresses had taken photos of and distributed to us as a sort of scavenger hunt. All in all, an excellent (if a bit tiring) day.