Mes cours particuliers

I do quite a bit of English tutoring here in Toulouse.  Mostly 1 hour lessons, but sometimes 2.  Here's a look at my schedule, so I can remember it in the future.

Tuesday:
17-18h I tutor a colleague's daughter and her 2 friends (Salomé, Tristan and Alice).  I think they are 8.  They are my faves because I can play games with them (it's difficult to play games with just 1 student), and also because they are smart, so they progress quickly.
18h30-19h30 I've just picked up a student name Brigette, from an Assistant whose contract has finished already.  I have my first lesson with her this Tuesday.
Wednesday:
14-16h I tutor 2 brothers ages 7 and 10 (Vadim et Guerlain).  I've been tutoring them for the longest, I found them through an English Assistant from last year.  The older boy is great, but the younger brother has become completely obnoxious.  He doesn't like to focus, or try, and he's in a tantrum phase, oh well.  Their mom and grandmother's are super sweet.  They give me tea and cookies when I arrive.  I am suspicious that the reason the younger brother gets so hyper half-way into the hour is because he's eaten so much sugar !
16h15-17h15 I tutor an 13 year old boy named Hugo.  He is one of my 2 students from Acadomia, a tutoring company, that hired me.  Acadomia is good because it gives me steady hours, however, they don't pay well.  For Hugo the teacher only gets 11.25/hr, whereas Acadomia gets 3x that.  For older students the teacher makes 14.25/hr.  I have no idea why teaching younger students would  equal less money, because in my opinion, it takes more effort/finesse and no less knowledge to teach younger kids, than older ones.  Anyway, Hugo is great.  He's quiet and nice and listens.
Thursday:
18h30-20h00 I tutor 2 brother's named Benjamin et Raphael (11 et 5).  Benjamin is good and focused, Raphael is a bit more difficult because he doesn't know how to write yet !  Makes things a bit tricky, but we get by.  Their mom talked me into babysitting them, as well as tutoring them.  Generally, I avoid babysitting, but I was caught off guard when she asked and so I said I would...I shouldn't really be refusing extra money at this point in my life.  So, last Thursday (it won't be every week that I babysit) I picked them up at 16h and stayed with them till 20h30.  It wasn't so bad.  I was amused however, when Benjamin saw my phone and asked "Mais, pourquoi tu n'as pas un iphone?" (But, why don't you have an iphone) Legit question I guess, all of the kids have them here.  I didn't get a cell phone till I was 13, and I was only allowed to use it for emergencies !!  Starting to feel old...
Saturday:
15-17h  Delphine (15) is my other Acadomia student.  I only have lessons with her every 2 weeks, so they are 2 hours when we do have them. She's a really good student and is mostly just looking for someone to talk with and practice so she can keep her English up.  She is apparently unimpressed with her current high school English teacher, so now she has me :)

I quite like tutoring.  It's nice to teach one-on-one, it's much easier to see the student progress.

Paycheck to paycheck

I've got all these cards ready to mail, but no money to buy the stamps.

Out with the English Assistants

Awkward Turtle at Jaeger bar :)

Actually there's a Scottish, Italian and Irish in this picture as well.

Useless post

It has been difficult to gather my thoughts lately...California apparently makes me really thirsty.  Luckily, I wrote these down in my little french book a month ago, so the gathering will be unnecessary.

(This is all pretty uninteresting...)
I had my last day at my main school this past Thursday (April 9th).  I have one more day at the other two schools on the 26th.  I should have had one more day on the 28th but, as we know, I'm and idiot.  I accidentally booked my ticket to London on the 28th, forgetting I still had  work.  My ticket is non-refundable of course.  I'm surprisingly really sad about this, I loved teaching at that school.  (side-note:  was actually super stoked that I got to Camden so early and had more time there)
I really hope that when I choose my life job I remember how happy I was every day after teaching those kids.  Yes, I hated waking up at 7, but I couldn't help feeling elated by the end of the day.  I'm actually doing something useful and kind of exciting.  It's awesome seeing information click for kids.  And it's like Yes!  I helped that happen.  Which is why I liked teaching the older kids better, because that happened more often.  (I miss my kids!)
I think finding a job that makes me feel like I have worth is important to my happiness.  (Again with my English, I seriously don't know anymore).  I don't think I could ever be truly happy if I was taking people's houses away or working for some dickhead corporation.  I digress.  (in my notebook I digressed much more...the only solution is the revolution :)
The other job that I really enjoyed was working at Java Jones Coffee house.  Interacting with people...making delicious drinks...blahblahblah
I actually really loved my summer camp job as well.  I think soley because it was with Lindsay and the co-workers/boss were ridiculously (and inappropriately) fun.  Pitchers definitely contributed to my contentment as well.  And the daily tanning by the pool.  Sweet life.
I guess I just like jobs that are engaging.
Moral of this boring story:  I'm going to miss my little frenchies.  Au revoir...ou plutôt, adieu.

Alexandrrrraaa

One of my 10 year olds today brought her 'petite sœur' up to meet me at the end of recess.  "Alexandrra!  C'est ma petite sœur!  Elle veut te recontrer!"  I don't remember the exact words, but the little girl didn't have any, she was so excited she just jumped into her big sister's arms for a bear hug.  Adorable.  How can you be so cute?

Dude.

Only in France would you tell the kids 'OK, we're going to draw monsters!', and half of them take out their rulers...

Hoity toity

As I sit trying to wrap my mouth around all this un-chopped lettuce in my salad, I begin to wonder if every 'fine', well-mannered or sophisticated thing in life isn't just bullshit.  I've giving this a lot of thought in this here country.  I feel like someone is rolling over in their grave, or maybe the aliens in the sky are pointing and laughing realizing they can make people do anything, no matter how stupid it is, if it means people will feel like they fit in.
Don't know how to get people to buy your moldy cheese?  Tell them it's sophisticated!  Fish eggs?  Call it something fancy and make it expensive!  How do you make humans buy those ridiculous looking sunglasses?  Brands!  That brand shows you have so much money, you can waste it on ridiculous things!  But they make you happy, right?  So, ça va.  And here I am trying to figure out how to eat lettuce like spaghetti just so I don't offend people at the dinner table.  La vie est bizarre.  But, it's cute I guess that people care.

Today was fucking awesome.  I love teaching days, minus the waking up part, however this week it has been extremely easy to hop outta bed at 630am.  This is due, I assume, to jetlag!  Woot.  The kids are so adorable, it doesn't get old.  And they're all so excited, it's contagious.  In my first class the teacher is pretty strict, or just likes to yell, I don't know.  A boy in the front row ( this is a CP class which means 5-6 yr olds) was struggling.  He was a little chubster.  The teacher finally flips out on him 'TU ES UN GROS BEBE, IL FAUT QUE TU GRANDIS!  aka 'You are a big, fat baby.  Grow up!  Haha kinda harsh but it was really hard for me not to laugh, same goes for him.  There's something about being yelled at that has always made me giggle, much to the agaçe of the person trying to be taken seriously.  He loved being yelled at!  He just sat there lookin sheepish, but satisfied.

'It's a funny thing, I noticed that when people are joking they're usually dead serious, and when they're dead serious it's usually pretty funny.'  Thank you Jim

In my last class with the older kids (9-11) we made monsters!  Over break at Sam's house, a few of us made high creatures together.  Lemme explain:  you fold a piece of blank paper into 3.  The first person draws a head of some sort and folds the paper down so you can't see it.  The next person draws a body, folds it, and the last draws the legs.  They can get pretty raunchy, it was really fun though and I decided to do it with my class.  The monsters looked great and at the end each group comes up and describes their monster:  My monster has 3 eyes, a blue and a green ear, 4 nostrils and snakes for hair etc  The kid's monsters were obviously more pc, as in less dicks than at Sam's, however, one group was ballsy enough to draw three balls!  I pretended not to notice, but was inwardly impressed.

I've been reading Salinger's Seymour - An Introduction on the metro and it makes life that much more enjoyable.  But, as amazing as the whole journée was, I must admit that my favorite part, comme d'hab, was taking off my pants when I got home.

I leave you with the coolest quote I've seen in awhile: 

It was in love I was created and it is in love I hope to die.

Hopefully this ain't no honeymoon

I figured it's about time I write a little excerpt about my job.  If you didn't know, which I hope you do, I came to live in Paris to teach English in primary schools and...I love it!  I actually can't believe how much I like it, it's kind of revolting in that 'Ew, how can anyone be that excited about their job kind of way'.  The kids are so adorable and so excited!  "Regarde! C'est le prof d'anglais!'  They try so hard to say things that seem almost impossible for them to say.  Par exemple:  three, Thursday, this, frog, gorilla, purple...see the patterns?  lol.
Anyways, I love them and I love their enthusiasm.  I feel sure that the hardest part of teaching must be to get your kids excited about what they're learning.  I seem to have lucked out and been handed classes full of les enfants surexcités.  Et j'aime bien. 
It also helps that the teachers are awesome and involved and make the lessons work.  I work at 3 schools in the banlieu (the suburbs...except suburbs in french doesn't have the same connotation as in the states...It's interesting, rich people here live in the cities and the poor live on the outskirts, quite the opposite from the word's meaning in America).  I digress.  Je veux dire that in the poorest school I have the most problems because the teachers are not as involved in the lessons.  I teach moi-même.  It's cool to know that I can.  Keeping kids focused is definitely a skill I have not mastered, I have enough difficulty keeping myself focused.  Clearly.
My main school however is awesome, all my colleagues are great.  La chance.
So, today I am thankful for my job, oddly enough.  Didn't see that one coming.