What the....?

Just when I thought Spring was settling in this is what I opened my bedroom window to last week. We got almost 2 inches of snow last Monday and by Tuesday it was gone and everything is now sunny again. Was a very surreal scene to wake up to, especially just coming from beach weather!

The job is going well and I am getting used to sounding like someone's mother (no offence Mum) with phrases like 'tuck your elbows in when you eat', 'wait your turn', 'say please/ thank you' and 'be quiet' coming out of my mouth on a scarily frequent basis. I am on my first day off after 10 days straight and am very much enjoying the peace and quiet. Oh, yeah, and I am heading to Portugal next week on my week off.... perhaps with a little trip to Morroco as well : )

Otherwise we have been making the most of our weekends with little trips around France. This is a photo of Talulah (aka Andrea) and I in Lyon. We all have American camp names and I am getting used to being Mitch from California. None of the kids have the slightest clue that I am not American (even when I draw blanks when teaching the map of the USA in english class). We have a pretty cool bunch of people here and we have lots of fun both working and hanging out (apart from the occasional moments of tension that come with living and working with a virtual group of strangers). I am teaching them lots of Australian, apparently we speak a completely different language, which was news to me. We get so much US media that I have no problem understanding everything they say, but half the time my vocab draws blank stares from everyone. I have already taught them pash, snog, dag, dob, Nigel and dropbear ; )

One of our little weekend jaunts was to Annecy, which was gorgeous, had quite a Swiss feel about it. The water in these canals was so clear that you could see right to the bottom.

This is me and a few of the team helping our favourite local bartender celebrate his birthday (all drinks ended up being on the house, I am really going to miss the Blue Bar when I move locations!)

After my week off in, um where was it ..... oh, that's right, Portugal, I am moving to a different camp location to help set it up. Should be an interesting change and will provide for some new weekend jaunt locations : )

J'adore....

.. France. I am completely smitten with France so far and am just wandering around in a happy daze loving every minute of being here. The food, the sites, the shopping, the people - it's all fantastic so far. Now I just need to learn the language!

I had the first week of camp this week, and if I thought it was strange for me to be up in front of a class teaching, it is stranger still to get dressed up and act in skits and sing songs etc. So far I have been an aerobics instructor; an actress; a bad cowboy and a bodyguard. And I've even sung 'You are my sunshine' in front of a class full of kids... never thought I'd see the day that would happen! The job is fairly full on with long hours and I feel like I am herding cats most of the time, but it will be a good experience. Our TEFL course certainly didn't teach us how to deal with children who are dyslexic, can't read or have had a traumatic childhood and just start beating their heads on the ground when they aren't happy - all of that was new to me this week.

Tour de Buis is a cute little spot about 30 minutes from Vienne; which is about 30 minutes south of Lyon. We've already made friends with the bartender at the local bar, so there are plenty of drinks on the house, which takes away some of the stress from the kids on a Friday night (and perhaps a Saturday and a Sunday night). I went to Vienne and played tourist last weekend checking out the Roman ruins etc and spent the weekend in Lyon this weekend. It was absolutely beautiful with great weather, it's warming up nicely for spring.

Sorry, no pictures this time. Haven't got the technology at the camp to upload to the computer, but I will find a way shortly I'm sure. I'm sure you'll find the pictures of roman ruins and churches a nice change to pictures of temples and buddhas!