Cake and Encouragement

It’s true that if you don’t know where you’re going, the journey seems longer. That’s why the first month of my stay in Nancy, France felt like a lifetime, but the following months whizzed by.

Six and a half months is still a long time to spend away from home. The three more to come will seem like a breeze, but I want to savor every moment of my stay here. I love my friends, school is going well.

At the end of every trimester, there’s something called a “conseil de classe” which is a giant meeting where all of the teachers discuss each and every student and make commentary, while our class president and vice take notes on their observations. A student can sometimes get a “felicitation” which is congratulations on high quality work and good behavior in class, and is given to the best students. There is also “encouragement”, which is a recognition of improved work and effort as well as encouragement to continue. Pupils can receive one, two, or none of these acknowledgements. I am proud to say that I was given an “encouragement”, mostly because of class participation.

I realized how ridiculously easy it is to participate in class. The hard part is understanding the teacher at all, but making commentary is only a matter of translating my English thoughts. At this point in the year, I understand French quite well and the majority of the time, I can comprehend the teacher. The only roadblock is my accent and poor grammar, which is of course improving, but will never be perfect.

This year will finish fast, I'm astounded that it's already March. I have bright hopes for the rest of my stay here in lovely France.