This is a really long month.

So. Hokay.

Everything for my April break is reserved. This is a major task, and necessarily time-consuming but fund-consuming. Oh my goodness! But I'm super duper excited. Spain!! And Bretagne!! With Maggie!!! Even better. Oh I'm so so so looking forward to this vacation!

But I must concentrate on my job. Ooh boy. A few conversations with Maggie inspired a multi-lesson idea: centers! How awesome would that work. I hope to work it into the day that my conseillère pédagogique comes to visit. She's coming two Thursdays from today. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Thursdays are my longest days - 8:30 to 4:30, the whole school day - and have some of my most challenging classes (School Two's fourth grade B, School Three's third graders). But I really want her to come. I want her feedback. I can make some changes in the weeks to come. I know there are things I don't like but I just don't feel like I have the skills to change it. It's so hard! Teaching is not instinctive to me, but I like it enough to work on it.

I will also be going to Tulle for a meeting with the Corrèze assistantes primaires (all four of us are girls). I'll be looking forward to seeing Sashi. Eleanor and Courtney will be disdainful of the whole situation, I'm sure. And understandably so. This is a real teaching job, and little children are devils. Even Luc at School Three said so! It's hard enough with a teaching degree, let alone no formal training whatsoever. I feel badly for them. But I'm looking forward to seeing the girls. Hopefully we can find something fun for lunch. Or I'll just bring a sammich like last time.

I am LOVING my yoga podcasts. I feel so much better, and I would dare say that a week into it I'm seeing some changes in my body. Not like I'm losing weight but I just feel more...centered. Calm. I didn't scream at my School Three third graders today. I stayed calm and they did too. It is SO true: the younger or more immature the students are, the more sensitive they are to your mood.

Only three more classes tomorrow!! I think I'm going to have my fifth graders create a dialogue about the school vocab we've been working on. And when we present them, their peers can help evaluate their accuracy and content. Yes! I have awesome fifth graders. I love them so much. Is it because they're older? No...not really, because I would also adopt three of my third graders from School Three.

Rocio is awesome, fyi. She went to centre ville last night and came back with two candy bars for me!!! She's trying really hard to lose some weight, but the weather has been torturing her with cold, damp, and rain. I don't really care and am powering through my kilo jar of Nutella. (Signs you've lived in Europe: Nutella is it's own food group and you can have two servings a day.) I just want to be happy. And chocolate makes me happy. So does yogurt!

March is really long. I am so looking forward to April. That will be a long vacation, and I will be very happy to explore and be "busy" on my own time. The month of May is really weird. There are a lot of days off, special instructional days, and other randomicities. However I only find out if I ask and like the week before. Yay for France.

[Homesickness is awful.]