Kermesse

Yesterday was a long, long day. As ready as I am to say good bye to my students, there was a big event at the school that they wanted me to attend. Kermesse is like a carnival of sorts with games they can buy tickets to play, food to eat, and prizes to be won. But the purpose for the event performing the dances each class has been preparing for a couple months. You'd think June would be able to provide decent enough weather to hold an outdoor event - wrong. The weather was a back and forth mixture of windy, downpour and warm sunshine. One minute, I'd be soaked, I'd dry off, and then the rain came back... But the show went on and each class performed their dance (twice). The event started at 11:30 and didn't get over until just before 4:00pm, to give you an idea of how long it was. I was exhausted before I even got there and was on my feet all day long.

I hung around with Françoise, her sister in law Gigi, nièce Marine, and Nadia. (I don't know where my head has been but Nadia works at Paul Bert and I've never seen her...) Mid-way through the event, the girls and I were starving. We realized that although Nicolas had said he would end the event around 1:30, that wasn't physically possible. We scrapped our plans to eat after the event and decided just to get lunch there. The problem was, they'd by then sold out of just about all the sandwich fixings and I don't consider fries a lunch. Surprisingly delicious, I ate half a baguette with a merguez sausage, which did nothing to sate my insanely ravenous stomach. That was it bread and meat - they were out of cheese, condiments, and I don't think they had veggies to begin with. 

These are the innocent looking ones from one of my worst classes. The blondie with glasses is a sweetie. 

Enzo, Quentin, et Nicolas - Love these guys! 

Rodolphe and Françoise. He loves to tell jokes to try to embarrass me but he doesn't succeed. He also loves blondes.  

Silvia's class. I love these guys.  

Simon always runs clear across recess to tell me hello. He's precious.

Noah and Hugo make me smile from the inside. And they're super tiny, too! 

Maxime and Axèl. Maxime may look innocent but he randomly shouts out random syllables all throughout class and can't easily be contained. 

Fanny's class danced to Waka Waka. I don't even have her students but they're probably the most polite students to me. They always call me by name and respect me as they do other profs. Other classes show their "respect" much differently. 

Laurence's class. Simon and Matthieu are on the far right and I love 'em to pieces. Matthieu is maybe the tiniest kid I have but he doesn't act like it. He and Simon are two of my best CE1 students.  

Céline's class had the best dance overall - Mamma Mia. They're smart kids but I they have no energy at all in class. They're almost boring but that doesn't mean it takes less energy to teach 'em! They're kind of just too cool for school.

Michel's class... I've got three sessions left with them and the idea of it makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I think I lose a little of my integrity each time I step foot in this class.  

When Kermesse was over, my day was only beginning!
Bisous,
-kelse


La kermesse - the fête
Une nièce - a niece
Une merguez - a spicy sausage