Tick tock goes the... calendar?

It's hard to believe that I've only been in France for two and a half months. It feels like I've been here for ages, but at the same time, I can't begin to express how quickly each week and month passes. I guess it helps that my next two week vacation is never more than seven weeks away. Yay for the French school system! I feel like I'm kind of getting into a groove with my lesson planning. I know I could make things a lot easier on myself and just not care about making the lessons interesting or trying to reinforce the language skills they're learning, but let's be honest- once a language teacher, always a language teacher. It would be nice to just not care for a little bit though. Oh well.









I'm trying to come out of my shell a little bit and talk to more French people, but the problem is, I just feel so awkward. It's like, I'll be enjoying talking with someone, but when one of us has to end the conversation, I feel weird being like... so can I get your number? I just want to practice my French. Nothing weird. I know I'm probably making it more awkward than I need to be. It just seems like I'm using people for their language. Which brings me to my next point. There are certain French people who are extremely eager to give me their phone number, but I never text/call them because it's even more awkward to make it perfectly clear that I'm just want to talk to them in French and that I share none of the same wishes that they do.




This week alone, I was prompted to the front of the bus by the driver. I thought I was in trouble or my card didn't work or something. So, I went up there, but no. He just wanted to ask me out for a beer. It's not like I was offended, but I generally just ignore French men. In this stance though, I felt like I had to go talk to him because you can't just ignore the bus driver when he tells you to do something. I'm no Rosa Parks here. So, I had to stand at the front of the bus until my stop and awkwardly talk to him. Thank goodness I got a new phone, because I am a terrible liar and I was actually able to tell him that I didn't know my new number yet. Now, I'm just waiting for the awkward moment when he's the driver again.

The next night, I was waiting for the metro (mind you it was actually 5 AM) and I was proposed to by an interesting young... gentleman. Thankfully, he took my rejection rather well.




However, I am slowly getting more comfortable talking to the people I work with and I'm making friends with friends of friends (you know how that goes). So, hopefully after another few positive French encounters I'll be feeling confident enough to propose a language exchange. AKA- getting a coffee and talking with a friend... real challenging...  I know.  In reality, I am getting more comfortable speaking French more often. I know I'm still going to make mistakes, but my conversational French is definitely becoming more comfortable at least. I'd really like to be able to have some more in depth conversations without having to stop and calculate my thoughts every ten seconds though. And in order to do that, I need to push myself a little further than quick conversations in the teacher's lounge.

It's definitely going to be my New Year's Resolution to become a French speaking machine, but I hope that I can take some baby steps there before hand. Or giant leaps. Whichever.

Also something cool- I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but on Tuesday nights I'm teaching this English workshop from 16h30 - 18h at one of the schools I work at. The school is actually paying me a bit extra to do it, which is great. It's not a ton of money, but every little bit helps, right? The only problem is, what middle schooler wants to take another English class after in school all day? Well luckily, at least one person does. There's two people signed up, but I haven't seen them yet. No one showed up last week, which is when it was supposed to start. This past Tuesday, one of my students (who isn't even one of the registered students) came and he sat there and talked to me for an hour and a half all by himself, bless his heart. So, I was planning on doing really fun awesome games to help them practice speaking, but unfortunately, they don't really work with one student.

So my questions to you are:

• Does anyone have any suggestions for things to do with one or two students to get them speaking that won't bore them to death?? 
• How should I go about asking someone to talk to me once a week so I can practice my French?

I am currently missing home and my friends and family a lot, but I am so excited to see Jason in 3 weeks and my Mommy and Daddy in a month and a half! Anyone else who wants to visit- bienvenue!