School, Gorillas, Parks, Moms and what should we do this long weekend?

A great thing about homeschooling is the fabulous fieldtrips, of which this sejour in France is certainly one. But, quite shockingly, Annika seems to have had enough fabulousness for one fieldtrip. She keeps saying things like, “well, France was fun, now let’s go home”. “If daddy can go home, why can’t I?”
And we thought that Annika, with her propensity to love everyone and have them love her back, would blossom with all the opportunities to make new friends. Also with her great ear for tones, we thought she’d love learning French. And, on the other hand, we thought Lauren, because of her tendency to be quiet and contemplative in a group, would have more troubles adjusting. Well, it just shows you not to be so sure of your expectations…especially when it comes to your kids. I’ve heard more experienced parents say this, but still it’s surprising every time. Apparently, it’s the kids’ job to turn their parents expectations on their heads and it’s the parents’ job to continue to be surprised every time.

It is so cute how Lauren’s friends have taken her under their collective wing. I’m trying to think of what kind of animal takes a newcomer in like this, instructing them in the ways of the tribe. I assume birds do it; hence the metaphor “take under the wing”. I recall hearing at a zoo demonstration once that gorillas do it. Well, Lauren loves being the new gorilla...and what’s not to love, as she is lapping up every bit of attention and encouragement from these nurturing little gorillas…I mean sweet girls. They seem to be always around her, checking that she’s got her lunch card or that she knows what’s coming up next. At lunch and recess, they seek the British girl to translate a list of things that they have to say to Lauren. They are always drawing pictures and writing notes as little gifts to each other.

Their class had a track meet the other day, competing against some other schools in the area, and I went along to help them with timing the 50 meter race (and to practice my French…adding up times, and points in French…it was fun). Lauren was “the strongest girl on their team”, her friends told me, in the long jump and the 1200 meter run. They were swinging her around and saying “Bravo, Bravo” to her. How cute is that for a mother to see? (thank you Cascade Striders training) They also shout “Bravo!” when she comes out with a sentence or even a new word in French, which, surprisingly, is not often. That’s another thing I didn’t quite expect. Lauren usually has the type of mind that seizes on information and asks a lot of questions, wanting to know about things at a very detailed level. She also has a memory like a steel trap. I thought she would be more like this when acquiring the language, but she seems, rather, to sit back and let it all just float around in her brain, without venturing to use the language much. “I’m going through immersion” she tells me, having heard me spout theories on language acquisition. And, I know she understands more than she will speak because she can answer people’s questions with yes or no, for example. And she imitates how French people use facial expressions and how they use a napkin at the table, as another example.

Then there’s little Annika who has actually memorized and uses more French phrases, and her accent is perfect. And, I guess it’s just her age, but the kids in her class can be quite loud and rambunctious and when she tries to get in the fray, she ends up overwhelmed, either in tears or having been offended by someone laughing at her or, she says, showing her their tongue or their stomach. It’s a bit of a contrast to her small preschool class where she was pretty much the love of everyone’s life, and vice versa. Now, she’s just the new English girl (that’s what the kids call her), and the kids sometimes don’t even have time to deal with her and her lack of French language skills. The teachers are very sweet and experienced though. I’ve noticed that they direct her to the quiet girls coloring in the corner, and I think that’s a great idea that she hook up with them. Yesterday, we ran into one of these girls at the park, and she was leading Annika in a game of catch the ball: “Je lance, tu attrapes, d’accord?” Again, isn’t this the kind of thing a mother dreams of seeing?

Oh, and that brings up my next points: the park and the holidays and the other moms.
1. There is this park/playground in the middle of town and I’ve never seen anything like it; it’s just this perfectly manicured and flowered urban greenspace which is long and thin (like the Jardin des Tuilleries, I guess, but much smaller), with reindeers fenced in on one end, then a bunch of pens of different species of birds, kind of scattered among the walking path, all with nets overhead, so the birds can’t fly away. Then comes the mini golf course, the playground and finally the concession, which is very cute and homey compared to any park concession I’ve ever seen and they serve baguette sandwiches (along with candy and the regular junk). One mom told me yesterday that everyone from our school often go to this park, so I’m sure we’ll be there again soon, and I’ll take photos and put them up here.

2. So, that brings up both my next points, about the moms and the many days off, but let me take the days off first. Well, for starters, every Wednesday is a day off school. It’s a bit weird and makes Wednesdays feel like a little weekend. Yesterday, I kept thinking it was Sunday. We did a lot of cleaning: the house, the laundry, the car and everyone’s hair, so now at least we’re clean. But last Friday was a holiday, as is tomorrow, and there are two more Friday holidays coming up in May and June. Wow. Last week end Kevin was here, but with just us here, I wonder what we’ll do? I’ll invite one of Lauren’s friends for dinner, perhaps the whole family. I wonder if I can handle it. I guess I better start thinking of something. We could spend three days walking around the river, going swimming and going the park. We’re certainly clean enough already, now we have to think of something to do with our clean selves. Hmmm.

3. And finally, the moms. I must say I was a bit intimidated about that whole waiting outside the school chit chat that moms do. The week before we left, I was chatting outside Annika’s school with Cassie and Laura (two of Annika’s friends’ moms), and then the terrifying thought struck me that I would soon be doing this in French with French moms. And now that I’ve been doing it for a few weeks, I can say what I’ve found. First, every time, except once, it has been me who started the conversation. This one time, a very friendly mom mentioned to me in passing that her kids are always saying “hello” now, inspired by the English girl’s presence in their class. I said that we now prefer to say Bonjour, so that’s funny. But in all the other conversations, I have approached….well, first let me say that there are a few moms who seem lonely or tired—both that I’m thinking of also happen to be newcomers, one from Brazil and the other from Rennes---and these ladies were much easier to approach. But besides these two, most of the moms have this very confident, almost cold exterior, like they do not need your conversation, thank you. BUT, the funny thing is that every time I have struck up a conversation, they are so warm and friendly and they actually have the hugest smiles hiding under that placid exterior. In fact, sometimes they start talking so much to me that I get overwhelmed. I mean, it’s one thing to think about what you need to say and to approach a cashier or a shopkeeper with that one situation in mind, but it’s much more taxing on the brain to keep a session of “smalltalk” afloat. And then once I start making mistakes and my inner grammar corrector starts criticizing my verb tenses and article agreement, it’s hard to keep listening and flowing with the chit chat. But, generally, it’s all good. I’m loving it, and I’m trying to shut up my inner grammar corrector who may have a an important role to play during a test or when studying alone, but really it is nothing but a destructive interloper in a situation requiring quickly flowing chit chat. I just have to resign myself to the fact that I can’t speak perfect French and just keep talking anyway, focusing on the conversation instead of the words and the grammar.

Oh, and I found someone who’s willing to exchange an hour of English conversation and language questions for an hour of French. He’s the husband of a teacher at the school . We’ve yet to meet, but when we do, I’ll blog about how it goes.

I just read my friend's blog about our friend who got laid off from MS, and I'm praying that it will all work out well in the end for them. I could choose to worry about that too, but I think, ah, forget it. I'll just cross that bridge if we come to it.

For now, I better go. I know the trottoir photos and explanation are still forthcoming. I’m technically challenged here for one thing, and I’m lucky if I can go online once a day. Days off school are particularly difficult because I can’t have the kids running around the internet café. Even if I go to McDonalds to use their free wifi basically the kids eat (that’s how long it takes for my computer to start up Windows), and they’ll play for 10 minutes on the play structure and then they’re nagging me for sundaes or ice cream cones, so we just go (btw, McDonalds here is not cheap…actually I don’t even know if it’s cheap at home because we never go at home, but all I know it that I’m shocked that it’s like 16 Euro, or $20, for a salad and two happy meals). And I cannot copy photos from Livewriter or Word, so I have to be online to put those up. Anyway, a la prochaine….