Day 73: Junior High in France

12 novembre 2009 (Day 73)
Today I woke up early to go spend a half day at a junior high called, “College Petite Lande.” I met up with Clemintine and Jose at Pirmil to take the bus to the junior high. You see, we have a group project in our French culture class. This is why I went and had a fun time with those itty bitty French kids. I forgot how tiny junior high students are! We took the bus to the school and got there early.
First we went to a French class. We asked the students questions and they could ask questions as well. They were completely shocked at some things that were normal at our schools. For them, it is necessary to wait outside the door for the professor and then they stay standing until they are told to sit down. It is against the rules to chew gum, eat candy, or have a cell phone. They also get literally LOCKED in the school yard and they are not allowed in the hallways AT ALL during classes. They also have these crazy disciplinary notebooks.
We talked to the vice principle afterwards about discipline at school and other things. We talked about the school system and how it is changing that they go to school on Wednesday and have Saturday off since for a long time they’ve had to go to school on Saturday but not on Wednesday. We went to an English class (equivalent to 7th graders) for about 10 minutes. It is so cute how they are learning British English! They have British-French accents when they talk.
I had my first Spanish lesson today! We went to a Spanish class. Boy was that fun! The kids were really active and talkative. I learned some weather words and how to make comparisons in Spanish. En Madrid hace tanto calor como en Barcelona!
The boys were taking pictures while the kids were having their lunch break and we had a whole group of kids get in the picture and take pictures of us! It was pretty fun. They were so interested in us (even if they said I have an American accent). We hurried back to get to our writing class with Annick. I was really tired and we were talking about argumentation (AGAIN) so I was sleeping with my eyes open. Well, they were actually probably closed for some of it, but I was exhausted.
I came home and prepared for my lesson with Mathilde and have been checking email and listening to my new favorite song, Eet by Regina Spektor. Oh, and my heat is working!