If this is the real world then I'm never going home....

Salut salut!
I am officially an elementary school teacher. Well, sort of. I completed my first full week of teaching and when I say full, I mean I work 12 hours a week. If anyone is familiar with the French way of living, it goes a little something like this: you work for a few hours, take a two hour lunch, work for a few more hours, a couple smoke/coffee breaks in there and voila, c'est tout. The French are also keen on taking as many holidays as possible, so, in a week I am off to Switzerland for one of my many paid vacations. Life is so hard here.
The French babies are absolutely adorable. As many of you know, I am mildly obsessed with babies, particularly French ones. I teach CP (our equivalent of 1st grade) up until CM1 (our 5th grade). I have three different schools, with six different classes, and many different buses to take on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. Primary schools here are off on Wednesdays (shocker) and I don't teach on Tuesdays aka pretty sweet deal. School here is very different- primary school teachers aren't the bubbly, animated teachers we grew up with. They are sticklers and if you mess up in class, game over. The French learn to write in cursive and only cursive- the kids all have the same graph-like paper which they write in with precise and careful lettering. On their desks, they all have pen cases with rulers, white out, and glue. If a kid doesn't write exactly how the teacher wants, things get ugly. I was observing a class and this one boy spelled a word wrong. Menial, right? False. The teacher called him out in class, while the other kids snickered and mumbled under their breaths "I can't believe he spelled that wrong" etc. Well, if a word is spelled wrong, you better believe that kid feels horrible. He took out his white out, corrected his mistake, all with 20 pairs of eyes pouring into him. I felt so bad for this kid- in the States, we would just pat the kid on the back and tell him to try again. Here, not so much. With that being said, English lessons are meant to be a break in this rigid system- they are filled with games, activities and laughter. It's okay if they mess up, learning a language is hard, and that's something I'm hoping to teach them as well.
My kids are fantastic- for the most part, they are stoked to learn English (there are a few who are wondering what I'm doing teaching them English when they clearly just learned how to speak and write in French). The teachers are enthusiastic as well- many of them don't know English, so they sit in the back while I teach, practicing "hello, my name is..." along with their students. It's really great to see their progress after a week as well- kids who couldn't say "hello, what is your name" can now ask that question and respond. While I'm supposed to speak only English in the class, I do need to speak French when I explain how to translate something, or to explain a game. Some of the kids were confused when I spoke French and asked me if I was French. Um, is my French really that? Probably not, I speak like a 4th grader. Questions I get asked in school: "You're from Washington? Do you know Obama?" "Do you know Madonna?" "Do you live in the White House?" "Can you see the Statue of Liberty?" These are the staples from American culture the kids know- they have no idea that the Statue of Liberty is in New York, or that Obama and I don't hang out when I'm home. They are so cute though, so I usually laugh and try to explain that it is impossible for me to live in the White House.
Alors, I have one more week of classes, then off for 10 days! I cannot wait to get my hike on in Switzerland with my friends, and to, of course, take a million photos. It's crazy how when I get back, it will be November. We need to teach the kids about Halloween, not that I know the history, but I'm sure if I bring in candy they won't even care about the history lesson.
Tours is beautiful right now- we've had about five days of mucky weather but suddenly, fall has arrived. The air is crisp and the fall colors are coming out along the Loire River. Today, I went for a run and the French were out and walking (there's nothing else to do in this country on Sundays, so everyone is just out walking). Luckily, we've had great weather the past couple of days. My friends and I tried to go to a Chateau but pulled an American tourist and took the wrong bus. We decided we have seven months here, so we'll be able to go another time...and to the other amazing chateaus in the region.
C'est tout for now- I'm going to start tutoring a girl in English for some extra euro euro bills on the side. She wants to learn grammar and that whole jazz, which will be interesting because I can't tell you what the pluperfect tense is in English. Just another experience...
Bisous!