Wednesday, March 30, 2011

March 30, 2011: Grenoble - English Tutoring, Good-bye Julie, Work

This morning I was invited over to the home of a new friend from Open House, Anne. She's interested in giving her young daughter more opportunities to practice English, and they live in an apartment building only a short walk away from my own. Because French children don't go to school on Wednesdays, it was a good day to arrange for some tutoring for Naola.

For an hour we played card games (which gave Naola a chance to explain the rules and instructions to me in English) and did some drawing (Naola asked me to draw a wolf, and seemed delighted by my rather cartoonish effort). She clearly understood most of what I said, but was shy about speaking in English herself. When we finished tutoring we dropped her off for catechism classes, and Anne and I went back to the apartment to chat in (mostly) French for an hour - good practice for me.

After a quick stop by the apartment I was off again to a good-bye lunch for Julie, who is returning to England this upcoming weekend. The lunch was hosted by Maureen, and several of us from the Open House group were there. Maureen served a lunch of some typically American dishes that she hasn't seen much of while in France: deviled eggs, bean salad and coleslaw. However, like a French meal, it unfolded at a leisurely pace, and we didn't part ways until 5:00.

When I got home I discovered that I had a bit of freelance work - a proof-reading job that I managed to finish off before supper, and then another one that I would be able to polish off the next morning. The time difference from Toronto really works to my advantage - I can head out for a day of activities and get home just as the Toronto work world is getting started for the day.

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