shop til you drop and valentine's day goodies

Yesterday after school I went to the mall at Part-Dieu. You may have heard me talk about Part-Dieu's train station which is the one that I can get to fairly easily on the bus. There is a huge mall/movie theater across the street from this train station. This area of Lyon is not one I've taken many pictures of because it's got fairly new buildings and architecture, as opposed to the more interesting roman empire/middle ages/renaissance/17th-19th century architecture of the other areas of town. The mall is 4 floors of every store one can think of; I know I only came close to getting through half of it. I was on a shoe/clothes-for-my-trip-to-Italy shopping mission... and 3 hours later, I semi-successfully came out with a dress and 2 shirts... no shoes:(

I had a fun school day... In Corinne's class, I continued teaching animal names. I've decided that if I put out books and flashcards on a table, they're more likely to talk about the subject naturally as opposed to me making them sit through a story or play a little game. They would pick up a card and talk about the animal in French and I'd sort of mention the English word and they'd turn to their friend and say what I just said. It was pretty cute. And although I think I've only successfully taught them the word for dog.... and maybe sheep, I feel like that's a pretty good start for 4 and 5 year olds who are still learning French, their first (or even second) language at school.

In my CP classes I got to work with half of the group which was awesome. It made me realize how far I've come in my French language skills because I'm able to do a lesson and behavior management successfully... at least with 6 year olds:) In my CE1 classes, I did a neat lesson with colors and emotions and the kids got to act out certain things like jealousy and anger.

I had brought in a little plate of brownies and other Valentine's Day candy goodies from my package. I figured I should share so that I don't force myself to eat it all before Valentine's day;) (Wouldn't have to force much hehe). So during the break, my favorite teachers hung out with me in the lounge and all had a little tasting of reese's peanut butter hearts, red hots, and brownies. They looooved it all. They were shocked at how moist the brownies were, intrigued by the cinnamon tasting candies, and amazingly pleased with the peanut butter candy (as the French usually scoff at the mention of peanut butter). They don't celebrate Valentine's day at school like we do, so it's been fun to talk about with them!

Today I went down the street to do my laundry and cleaned up my apartment. I'm about to make heart cookies to share with teachers at school tomorrow. I know I could have gone downtown and done something cultural today- that would have probably been more interesting for you to read.... but sometimes I just need moments of normalcy. I don't want to go a whole 7 months without doing things that I would normally like to do (like baking Valentine's Day cookies), just because I'm in France. And to be honest, sharing American goodies with my French friends is a very cultural experience... I always think back to one of my earlier blog posts about why I'm here... I'm hear to exchange cultures and to create relationships with people from a different culture. And the museums will still be there in March and April. I'm not done here yet! So if I want to spend extra time creating thorough lessons and making cookies to share, I should!

Anywho- hope you're all having a nice week!

Reste cool:)