Firsts and Seconds

I had my first day of teaching yesterday and it was interesting to say the least. I was supposed to introduce myself and then observe a typical English class, but that's not exactly how it worked out. Instead I ended up teaching all 5 classes all on my own. I hadn't prepared any lessons or worksheets so I mostly winged it. "What English words do you know?" I would ask. Then I did whatever counting, colors, and days of the week exercises I could think of off the top of my head. I had the children in one class count backwards from 10 to 1 and then yell "BLAST OFF!" But they had no idea what "blast off" meant, so I drew a rocket ship on the white board and wrote FRANCE on the side. The whole 12 hours a week thing is a bit off because I end up planning for classes during a lot of my free time. I'm excited to do activities, songs, and games on Halloween and Thanksgiving though, because it will all be new to these kids.
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Good news: The lady I live with is letting me use her daughter's bike which is nice because walking takes so long since I live about a mile from the Centre Ville. They also found me a second job! (Yes, I know I am a workaholic.) One of her other daughters works at a big open air market, that takes place every Wednesday and Saturday morning at the Place Lafayette (by the gare, which is the train station), in a Cambodian lady's food truck. Well, Sofie, the lady I live with, knew that Monica, the Cambodian lady, needed some help on Wednesday mornings. I don't have to work on Wednesdays because there is no Primary School on Wednesday in France. So I met Monica yesterday and, poof!, I start work at a real, live French marché next Wednesday! That should lead to some interesting stories, don't you think?