Tuesday

Mike just got back last night, after being gone for 5 days. He was at Syracuse University in New York taking an intensive 8-hour-a-day course on coding. He still has to do some kind of big project, but once that's done he'll have the rest of the summer off. I'm really happy for him. It's been a long time since he's had a significant break from school.

Guess what! I'm almost done with my TEFL course! I completed the last module this weekend, and I've spent the last couple days checking over and organizing all my projects, getting them ready to submit. I also have to take a final exam still. I'm hoping to do that today or tomorrow. With any luck I'll be able to put this part of the process behind me very soon and start interviewing for a teaching job.

I probably have some pictures I could show or some more things I could talk about, but I'm tired, so that's all you get. lol

Sunday

This is all French stuff, so be warned...

This morning I woke up at 6 to get ready for a 7am class, and one of the first things I did was check my email. That's when I discovered that the class was cancelled because the teacher couldn't make it. Woo hoo! That was a nice surprise, and I was reimbursed immediately.

I've had a new, kinda weird issue crop up recently. A week or so ago I was listening to an episode of my French podcast, when I got the idea to pretend to be an interpreter. That is, I wanted to try to hear the French and change it to English in real time, without pausing the podcast. (PS: I was doing this in my mind, not out loud. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I do have limits on how weird I allow myself to come across.)  I found that I could do it with very little trouble, and it was even fun. Then I couldn't stop doing it, and, long story short, I kinda created a monster. See, I don't actually want to be thinking in English as I'm listening in French. That's not a good idea.  Rather, I want to be immersed in the language itself. Anyway, now I'm forcing myself to stop, but you know how it is when you tell yourself not to think about something. Doh.

A couple blog entries ago I included a video in which I'm talking in the imperfect and perfect (two different past tense forms) at the same time. The problem is that I messed it up. Since then I've had a couple classes on the subject, and now I'm pretty sure I get it. Anyway, here's my redo. In this video I'm talking about something different than I was in the other one, but you'll know what I'm saying because I made subtitles. The way to activate those looks different on different devices. You might have to click on three dots in the upper right corner, then click on "captions," and finally click on "English." Or you might just have to press a button that says "CC" or one that looks like a cartoon speech bubble.

Btw, if, when you click on any of that, it gives you French subtitles instead, then click on the settings icon, then "captions," then choose "English."

Ugh, you know what? This is a mess. I'll just tell you what I'm saying:  "Last summer I rode my bike almost every day. One day I was riding my bike, when suddenly I fell directly into a puddle. I said, 'I'm okay!' But actually I was very embarrassed, and I was dirty, too."

Friday

Yesterday I was in a French class with only two students, me and a Canadian guy, and it was fairly difficult. It wasn't really that the subject matter was hard; it was more that the teacher asked a lot of complicated questions in order to check for comprehension.

For instance, at one point she showed me two pictures that she found online somewhere. One was of a little boy on a beach, and it looked an awful lot like the kid was eating the sand, and the other was of a boy playing video games. I was supposed to compare the two pictures, so I said something like, "When he was young the boy liked to eat sand on the beach, but when he was older he liked to play games on the TV."

"Alright," my teacher said, "but I want to you compare them more in terms of time in general."

I had no idea what she was getting at, but I forged ahead anyway. "Umm... When the boy was young, he had an idiotic idea. He ate sand on the beach. But then he got older, and he didn't eat sand anymore. He wasn't an idiot."

At this point the Canadian guy started quietly laughing.

The teacher tried again. "Yes, good, but I was thinking more about the concept of 'in times past vs. nowadays.' Try again, but this time start with the word 'before.'"

"Oh, I see! Okay. Before, when the boy ate sand...err..."

By this time the other student was openly laughing (in a friendly way, not a mean way), because it was painfully obvious that I couldn't give our poor teacher what she wanted. I wasn't trying to be obtuse; I just didn't understand at all. Plus, I was fixated on the sand-eating thing. Finally the teacher put me out of my misery with, "I meant for you to say something along the lines of, 'In times past kids played outside. Nowadays they play inside."

Ohhhhh. See, I didn't get that. LOL Sigh.

When the class was over I was sure I hadn't done very well, but then I received this really nice class report. (She also wrote a message to the Canadian guy, but I didn't include that section. It was very kind, too, though.)

Suzanne and [Canadian Guy]:

Very good lesson. You were able to easily achieve this lesson’s objectives. You are able to conjugate verbs in the imperfect tense and understand when we use it. 

You both have very good listening and speaking skills. This lesson was quite simple for you, and you did not have any problem completing every exercise, answering my questions, and creating sentences on your own. 

Suzanne : 

It was almost perfect. The only mistake was “faire un vélo” instead of “faire du vélo”.  There were a few sentences when you hesitated between passé composé and imparfait, but when you described your first memory everything was perfect, not a single mistake. And it was very good, because you made long and complex sentences (using relative pronouns, adding adjectives, etc.) and choosing the correct tense when needed.

Thursday, Part 2

This morning I was talking to Mike about something, when it occurred to me that it would make a good blog post. But then later in the day when I sat down to blog I forgot all about it and wrote about everything under the sun except that. So! This post is about what I meant to say originally.

Yesterday my friend Tanya, who was one of my best friends when I was a teen, told me that our high school teacher Mr. Bonnema died. He taught some of the science classes, and I had him for physics and advanced biology. He was one of my favorites. He was interesting and funny, but no-nonsense at the same time, and he liked my friends and me. (Not gonna lie, we were sort of teacher's pets.) I have a couple specific memories of things that happened in his class, and that was what I was sharing with Mike this morning. Now I'll tell you guys. (PS: I think I've actually told these stories here before, but it's been awhile.)

One time in physics I accidentally did an assignment a few days early, so when the rest of the class finally got around to doing it I figured I could take it easy. Picture it: The classroom was pin-drop silent. Everyone was industriously working on math problems having to do with circles, except for me. I was lost in a novel. What I didn't know was that Mr. Bonnema was walking toward me like a shark circling its prey. He came right up on me...mind you, I didn't have any idea he was there...when suddenly he struck, slapping his hand down on the top of my desk. I practically jumped out of my skin. My book clattered to the floor and I banged my knees on the underside of the desk. Then I was like, "What's going on?! I did the circles already! Wait, aren't we doing circles today? I thought we were doing circles! Are we not doing circles???" You never heard anybody say the word "circles" so many times and with so much panic. lol In the end Mr. Bonnema apologized very graciously for assuming that I was slacking off.

A few days later in that same class Mr. Bonnema was standing in the front, lecturing on something, but I wasn't paying attention. My mind was on food. I whispered to my friend Robin, who was sitting one row over, "Hey, have you ever had chicken divan?"

"What?" she whispered back.

"Chicken. Divan." I tried to whisper each word really clearly so she'd understand. "Have you ever had it?"

That's when I realized Mr. Bonnema had stopped talking and was looking at me. I wasn't that far from the front of the room, so I'm sure he heard me asking about chicken divan. He stared at me for an uncomfortable few seconds, then he said, "Now we're even."

RIP, Mr. Bonnema. (And I know he will, because I went on his FB page yesterday and discovered that he was a believer. I'm glad.)

Thursday

Today I'm starting module 9 (of 10) in my TEFL course! I'm excited to be done. I'm kinda over learning how to teach English, and I'm looking forward to just doing it.

Yesterday was Mike and my 26th wedding anniversary. Weird, right? It doesn't feel that long. Here's a picture that was taken when we were dating.

In other news, we celebrated both Father's Day and Zach's birthday on Sunday. Here's a picture of the two of them on that morning, talking about universal revenue. I was pretty proud of myself, because I happened to know a little something about the concept as well and was able to add my two cents here and there. (When Zach and Mike have conversations, I often can't join in, because of...to put it baldly...ignorance. They like to discuss political and economic stuff that I've just never cared to learn about. This time was different, though, because a few weeks ago the French podcast I listen to was on Le Revenue Universal: Une Utopie?)

Even though it was Father's Day, Mike made us all a delicious dinner on the grill, and then we had birthday cake for Zach.

And, in honor of Father's Day, here's a picture of me and my dad. It was taken at my wedding rehearsal in 1993.

Oh, I've got something so cool to show you guys! Awhile back I downloaded an app on my phone for editing pics, and I've been practicing with it. Let me show you what I did. I took this picture years ago, and the telephone lines always kinda bugged me. (That's Drew's arm. He was a kid at the time.)

Anyway, so I messed with it. First I decided to see if I could remove all the lines stretching to the left of the pole. It worked!

Then I decided to try to remove the entire pole and street light, and that worked, too! Cool, yeah?

Lately I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in my French classes. I told you guys that people from all over the world make up the student body, right? Well, now that I've been in the school for awhile, I'm starting to see patterns among nationalities. In general:

• Asian students are very polite, quiet, and reserved.
• Western European students (like those from England, Scotland, etc.) are somewhat reserved, in that they won't necessarily jump to answer questions right away, but when they do talk they have an air of confidence.
• Russians aren't reserved. They're outgoing, friendly, and they like to laugh.
• Americans are the most extroverted of all. We talk a lot, ask a lot of questions, and make the most jokes. We're usually the ones who make the teachers laugh.

Speaking of French, I have a class today on the past tense, and part of it is to tell a story about an early memory. I made a video of myself telling my story. Here's what I say in it: "When I was three or four years old, I said to my mom*, 'I'm sick and tired of you!' She said, 'What?!' She was mad, so I changed my sentence. I said, 'I feel sick. And tired.' My mom laughed."

PS: I'm pretty sure there are some mistakes in it with verb tenses. There are times I should've used the perfect tense when I used the imperfect instead, but...eh. Live and learn.

* Actually I use the word for "mother," but that was an accident. I meant "mom."

Baylee's Senior Pics and a Bit of Misc.

Baylee had her friend Bonnie (an amateur photographer and someone Baylee has known literally her entire life) take her senior pictures this weekend in Leavenworth, WA. They turned out so beautiful, and I just couldn't be happier.  Here are my favorites.

And here's her graduation announcement.

I'm still listening to that French podcast, and this week the topic is French cuisine. The whole thing's interesting, but the best part is when he describes what it's like when French people have friends over for dinner. They serve it in courses:

1. The first course happens before you even sit down at the table. It takes place in the living room before the meal, and it's called the apéritif. It's an alcoholic drink meant to stimulate the appetite. It could be champagne, gin, sherry, white wine, etc.
2. Now everyone moves into the dining room and sits around the table, where they have what they call an entrée. I think in the United States we'd call it an appetizer.
3. Next comes the plat principal, or main course.
4. Then there's the fromage, or cheese course. That's where they bring out some selections of fancy cheeses, and you take a couple small pieces of whatever looks good to you.
5. The fifth course is the dessert.
6. Finally, there's what's called the digestif, which again takes place in the living room. It's more alcohol, meant to aid the digestion. Popular digestifs include brandy, liqueur, vermouth, and port.

By the way, alcohol is served with the middle four courses as well, a different type for each one, depending on the food it's paired with. You'd think with that much booze flowing, there'd be a lot of drunkenness in France, but there isn't. In fact, it's much less of a problem than it is here. One of my French teachers explained it once by saying that in France children grow up drinking alcohol. They're often given a bit of watered-down wine with their dinner starting as young as 7, and they're allowed to buy alcohol for themselves at 18. Therefore drinking is no big deal to them, and they don't go crazy with it when they hit their teens/20's.

Another interesting thing about French dinner parties is the sheer amount of dishes, glasses, and cutlery used. In fact, there's an expression in French for when you have a dinner party: "To put the small plates on the big." Here's a picture of a French place setting, and you'll see exactly what it means:

Anyway, I thought it was all kinda cool to learn about. It does make me think, though, that I'm going to look like a bumpkin if I ever go to France, because I don't drink at all. I can just picture myself having to turn down alcohol 50 times a day. Oh well.

Monday

Man, I had a perfect storm of a French class today:

1. The subject of the class was especially difficult to get a handle on. In fact, it's the first time I ever went into a class really unprepared, because I just couldn't grasp it.
2. I told myself that at least three other students besides me were scheduled to be there, so at least I wouldn't be dumb all by myself. When I got to class, though, I was the ONLY ONE besides the teacher. Those other jerks totally bailed!
3. The dog was a doofus. He kept barking at the back door, wanting to be let in. Then I'd excuse myself and open the door for him, only to have him change his mind and just stand there. Meanwhile my teacher was waiting for me. I told her, "Je suis désolé. Il est vieux et difficile." (I'm sorry. He's old and difficult.)
4. I finally just left the door cracked so the dog could come in when he was ready, but that made it so my teacher and I could clearly hear the stupid crows screeching away in the backyard. They're protecting fledglings right now, and they hate Gibbs, so they scream and dive bomb him.
5. If all that wasn't bad enough, I also had allergies, so I was on camera wiping my nose with a washcloth. (Because I don't own a handkerchief and Kleenex just wasn't cutting it.) 

Aye yi yi. It was a long hour.

Zoe came over for the weekend, and it was so nice having her here! She's lovely, honestly, inside and out. One of the things that happened while she was here was that she and Drew went to the Asian grocery store near our house to buy some fun treats. They got Asian ice cream balls (called mochi) and some little green apple candies, and then they ate them while they watched a movie in our TV room. 

Here's the thing, though:  While they were in there eating that stuff, I was in the living room, and suddenly I started getting whiffs of cat pee. Alarmed, I told Mike about it, and he said that he smelled it, too, but that he was sure it was coming from outside. I insisted it was coming from inside, and, long story short, we legit got into a little argument about it.

The next morning some of that green apple candy was on the kitchen counter, so I unwrapped a piece, thinking I'd try it, and guess what. It smelled exactly like cat pee. Well, to be specific, it smelled like a cat peed on an apple. Good News: I found the smell. Bad News: Drew and Zoe ate a ton of those things.

I just started Module 7 of 10 in my TEFL course! I'm excited, because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Module 6 was about classroom management, and it included a section on discipline. This piqued my curiosity, because they said it was possible to have discipline issues even in adult classes. Basically their advice was to use positive reinforcement whenever possible, but if you have to punish then do things like give extra homework, have the student sit out of an activity, or give a lower score on an assignment. That sounds reasonable, right? Except think about it. Can you really imagine telling another adult that he has to sit out of an activity, because he's being a disruption? *cringe*  (To be fair, they did say it's usually very young adults.)

Some pics from lately:

Isn't he cute?

I ran across this picture recently and really liked it. It's from when TMA was on Band in Seattle.

Zoe's visit this weekend.

Mike and I went out to eat a couple days ago, and this was the view from our window in the restaurant.

Wednesday

We've had quite a week! The biggest news is that Baylee took the driving test and got her license (1st try!), and we gave her my old car as a graduation gift. Now she's responsible for gas, insurance, and upkeep.

She also had a show last weekend.

Drew and Zoe celebrated their 4-month anniversary the other day. He texted me this picture of their date.

Zach's been crazy busy with school this quarter. For instance, he just wrote a 15-page paper on three different buildings in Seattle...who built them, their history, etc. I edited it for him, so I had a chance to read it, and it was really good. Then he had to take that same topic and turn it into a PowerPoint presentation to deliver as a speech to his class. The whole thing was quite an undertaking, but he said he thinks he did well.

I'm still plugging away at my TEFL course. I'm about halfway through Module 5 now, but I took today off from it so that I could use the time to do all the end-of-year paperwork for homeschooling. It's a huge job, and I absolutely hate it. That's one thing I won't miss.

PS: Part of that is creating a portfolio of schoolwork for the year, which we store in case we're ever asked by the state to prove anything. Do you know how many Rubbermaid containers filled with papers and tests and assignments and art projects we have squirreled away, collecting dust? Between all three kids it's a lot. A lot lot. Mike and I were asking ourselves today how long we realistically need to hang on to it all. We're not sure. It would be just our luck that the moment we got rid of it there would be a knock on the door. "Hi, we're here from the Public School Department of Getting Up in Your Business, and we have a few questions."

In French class I had to explain my education and job history. Here's what I said: "I have a Bachelor's degree in Religious Education, and I was a homeschool teacher to my children for twenty years. But now all my children have graduated, so I'm taking a course on how to teach English to foreign students. I want to get a certificate, and I want to teach English online."

I was pretty pleased with it, so I made a video. lol