Hello to my family and friends!
Thank you all for following this blog! I am so very blessed to be here, and I want to share as much as I can with you. My family here is incredibly kind and generous. They are very concerned about my truly nasty cold that just won't go away, and are doing every thing possible to help me to wellness. My student's mother is a nurse, so I am in good hands. The only problem is that I will not rest! I flatly refuse to spend a few days in bed, which is what it would probably take to get over this. But the truth is- I can rest at HOME!!! Who would waste such precious time here in France on a cold??? So... onward to the day's activities!
If yesterday was spectacular, there are no words for today. We began the day with a tour of Sebastien's school- St. Etienne's. It is a private, Episcopal church school, and very different from anything in the US. Their shcedule is very flixabile, and their teachers only teach 3 to 4 hours per day. His school day, however, is considerably longer than ours, so the teachers appear to work in shifts. They prepared a tour for us, then provided refreshments and incredible gift bags with wheeled book bags and many, many other things.
This is a picture of their gym where we met this morning, and some of the students in the class. If there's one thing I would like to describe to you, it would be the incredible attention to detail that is evident everywhere. Check out the parquet floor of this gym! Not you're ordinary gym floor! And the beautiful windows. Who else has windows such as this in a gym??? 
And check out this rec room! Two levels, table tennis, and a floor like this, and I could be in school heaven
On the left here is la Rive I'Ille As best I can figure, it joins the
In the center here are the Cinq Professeurs who made this trip happen in the first place: Byron Hager, Kelli Kidwell, Hilary Peoples, Jordan McEwen, and yours truly. And on the right here is a portion of the outside of St. Etiennes. They have decorated it with the American flag and red, white, and blue balloons to welcome us.
Following the boat ride, we returned to St; Etienne's for lunch. I have to tell you, that if we lunched like this at home, we would be far happier teachers!!! Yep, you guessed it, it is common for teachers to enjoy their own bottle (small one!) of wine with their lunch meal!!!
(The two teachers at the rear of the table are French. Notice I'm not in the picture!!! )Here are some students at lunch.
After lunch, we walked to the Strasburg Cathedral- Le Notre Dame de Strasburg. Truly amazing sturcture. It is so large, I could not get far enough away fro, the building to capture it all. The details are staggering. And As I sit here at midnight, I discovered I have some editing to do on these photos; so more of the cathedral tomorrow.
We finished the day with a long walk around the city. For my daughter, Jennie- I found a store just for you- but I have to teach them how to spell!!
Please forgive any mispellings or misalignments of photos! Seb's computer uses Vista, and his keyboard is French. If I typed a sentence like I normally would, it would looke something like this:
If you re,e,ber taking typing clqss in school ,qny years qgo; you hqd to leqrn this sentence. *The auidk brozn dog ju,ped over the lqwy foc:
All is well here- the kids are fine; the teachers are fine, we are learning much and making memories.
Blessings and Peace from France!
Bonnie
