Camille's Last Class

Today was our last class with Camille and he had cooked up a lot of fun things for us to do. Most of the class time was taken up by a "competition" which had several different parts. First, we had a "dictee" where he read a passage to us and we had to write it down. Then we exchanged papers to correct them! This was followed by "acting out" games: the first, after choosing out of a hat, we had to mime an action (a French verb) and the other students had to guess. I got the easiest one which was "tricoter" or "to knit." Others were much more difficult to act out such as "demissioner," which means to quit work.

In the third part, we each had to describe a French expression or person or thing (again chosen out of a hat) using words, and everyone else tried to guess. I got Serge Gainsbourg, a French singer (now deceased); fortunately I knew who he was. The last part was a multiple choice quiz with 10 questions about France such as: which is the longest river? where is Mont St Michel? what region does bouillabaise come from? at what age do French children go to "college"? for how many years is the French president elected? Camille had devised a point system for all this and, at the end, Heiner was the winner with 13 points. Zannah and I came in second with 11 points each. :)

Then we had a little party. Everyone brought in something: cookies, pastries, wine etc. Zannah brought in snickerdoodles that she made in her toaster oven! We all exchanged email addresses so we can keep in touch and maybe get together for coffee later in October. C'etait vraiment une classe tres "sympa." Of course, Daniel, Shwu, Fabienna and I will still be in class together next week. Heiner and Ulle are coming back at the end of October. And maybe Banning will be back.

Camille isn't going to Colombia until January so we asked why he isn't continuing to teach at the AF until then. Here's the scoop: the AF has about 120 (?) full-time teachers, but a lot of them take time off in the spring and summer. So the AF trains some young people every year from September until February. They fill in during the months of May through September, then that's it for them. So Camille has been teaching at the AF for only 5 months. It's hard to believe because he has been such a good teacher. He is enthusiastic, patient, creative and puts in a lot of preparation time. He's hoping to do some individual teaching after first going to Egypt for a week. Maybe I'll hire him to give me some remedial classes in verb tenses!

Pedometer: 3,802. Gray, overcast, windy and chilly today. L'homme de menage came today (I handed GG landlord 20 euros yesterday, and he said, "do you have any more?"!), and my apartment has that "just been cleaned" smell.