First week

We haven't even finished our first week and so much has happened! From the kids' point of view, a big thing was receiving their cell phones. Please understand, these are NOT smart phones. They are flip phones you might be familiar with from the 1990s and the 2000s. They only work within France. And much to Jack's chagrin, there are no games.

Alisa is getting it.

Chloe isn't quite sure.

McKenna caught signing in to her account.

Lupe might be having a problem.

Monday evening, we had a reception at City Hall with a representative of the Mayor. Traditionally, two stagiaires give a speech. And traditionally, they have a week to prepare. Because of our schedule change, they had the weekend to prepare. And there were five students who volunteered. We decided, "Why not?" So, Olivia, McKenna, Maria, Zoe and Tara all presented a short speech.

I am in the process of creating a video montage of the speeches. I will post a link here as soon as it is complete.

Chase, Noëmie and I were as proud of these kids as if they were our own children.This is such an incredible group of young people!

I created a portrait of each stagiaire with their family. Marlene's family couldn't be there, so I will catch them as soon as I can to make a portrait.

Stagiares with Monsieur Péculiande, a deputy mayor.

Jack withthe Coisine family

Emily and Shivani with Anohere Jehanno

Élouan (the little guy) has fallen in love with McKenna

Madeleine with Christine Siou

Miranda with the Lardeau family

Guadelupe and Olivia with the Mace family

Christophe is an incredible dad for his family and for Tara!

Mason with Marion Bellaguarde and Lionel Magueur

Sophia and Maria with the Cochennec family.
Laurent is much friendlier than he looks in this picture.

Marion with her "Boy band"

Annie and Bruno might be the most wonderful people I have ever met!
Natalie is very lucky to have them as her host family. I keep telling them
that I am moving in with them when I retire. They think I'm kidding...

Duncan with his two moms

Zoe with the Pennec family.

Phillippe and Nadine Talarmin with Chloe and Vivian.
They included Erica because her family wasn't able to attend.

And that was just Monday! Tuesday brought our first day of sports activity. We teachers were on it! We had the gym reserved. The kids had sports clothes. Perfect. But we forgot the bag with the balls. No problem. Noëmie shared games from her primary school while Chase literally ran back to Octoi for the bag of balls.

He returned in plenty of time for a spirited game of soccer (le foot). Others walked the perimeter, while others figured out their cheer routines. And there was frisbee (my favorite sport after pétanque).

Muntaha moves seriously fast.

The girl has moves.

Competitive, this group? No...well maybe. 

Did Jack score a goal? I think possibly yes.

Frisbee is a sport. Shut up!

Like I said. It's a sport. Look at the great hand action! Shut up!

What a face to love!

We discovered that this is a very competitive group, whatever they do. This bodes well for the program.

Next up: excursion to l'Île de Batz. It is trop cool!