Pants! What's the word for pond?

Hello mes amis:)

I finally got up on time and almost made the bus.... I think after having to get up extra early for the painters/electrician those last few weeks before break, my normal routine is thrown off and I take longer because I think I can, but I can't.... but all is not lost, I took the tram and walked. It was in the upper 40's today, so not quite as nice as this weekend, but I'll take anything above 38:)

I saw Sabine on my way in and she was fairly cheery, asking how my weekend went. I had a great weekend, up until the last few hours on Sunday when I was in the process of making dinner... and my electricity went out. I was using the stove, the oven, my computer, and had a few lights on.... which I guess over did it. I called Laurence, because walking around in the dark I realized I didn't know how to fix my little problem. I assumed I needed to just flip a switch somewhere, but where and how was my main issue. I also don't have a flashlight, just a few candles... so that didn't help me much either. She tried explaining over the phone, but with my expansive knowledge (not) of electrical vocabulary, I probably sounded more lost than ever to her. So, she said, "J'arrive, j'arrive," and was here in no time to walk around with her flashlight and turn my electricity back on:) It's a good thing she doesn't live too far away!

Anywho, I made my way up to my first lesson, Vincent's class (the one who had the sub). My goodness is this an entirely different class! All he has to do is snap his fingers very quietly when someone is acting out and they stop whatever they're doing. We had a discussion at the break about whether or not they were scared of him. The other teachers were laughing and saying, yep, that's why they're so good, they're scared! He said, no, they fear me, which is very close to respect. Lol. This lead us to comparing the US and France again... how American school teachers are much less severe than their French counterparts... they said they've always had the "if you're bad, you're punished and told to straighten up" system and that's what they were taught to do in their education classes. According to them, students should have a level of fear of their teachers.... whereas in the US, most teachers are a little bit more nurturing. I don't think these generalizations apply to everyone on both sides, as they are generalizations.... I work with 2 teachers at this school who I feel are very nurturing and much less severe, more fair, etc. But even with these 2 teachers, I have not seen one positive behavior system in a French primary school.... going over board to reward students for their effort, behavior, etc. It's interesting to see the differences between the 2 systems...

Sorry- I keep getting off track! My lessons all went very well... I had several teachers ask me, however, why I kept calling pants, pants, instead of trousers as they all learned in school. Apparently, in British English, pants are your underwear and trousers are your pants. Which now explains why, when giving Julien this example sentence , "Ah, I can't find my pants!" he burst out laughing.... I thought maybe he just thought the word pants sounded funny.

After my lessons, I ate lunch at school. They had couscous, with an odd combo of meatballs, sausage, and veggies poured over top. There was also a mystery breaded patty of sorts. I'm beginning to wonder if I should just make my own lunches. Usually I enjoy at least 3/4 of the meal, but today... was too out of my comfort zone. We also had salad with carrots in odd dressing, plain yogurt (not my favorite), and chocolate wafer cookies. Not even one slice of cheese today!

During lunch, Vincent suggested that we speak in English. This lasted about 30 seconds after he said something wrong and everyone laughed. I didn't think it was that bad, but they're so hard on themselves! So instead, anytime they brought up a new subject, they'd ask me for the English word. They were talking about a pond behind the school (une mare) and I couldn't think of the word... I said puddle, but Sabine said she thought that was more like a flaque. I said I thought you could probably use the word puddle for both, only because I wasn't really clear on how big this pool of water was. And then... another teacher who's second language is German, jokingly said, "It seems to me that English is a very vague language..." Lol. Yes, let's go with that. (When I got home, I looked up all of these words and emailed them to the teachers with the title, les mots précises en anglais.... precise English words...hehe)

My not-up-to-usual-par French cafeteria food motivated me to go grocery shopping. I was almost out of TP, so it's a good thing I went:) I made myself an excellent dinner, if I do say so myself, and have yummy leftovers for tomorrow (tuna steak with avocado, mozzarella and tomato salad, and pear+cheese for desert). AND- my electricity stayed on throughout the entire making of the meal:)

Hope you had a nice Monday!

Reste cool:)