French School

I've been working at a French school for 18 months. Below is a picture of all the teachers. This day was great--they said the picture would be taken at 9:00. As I walked to the door outside the school, I got a message that it was postponed indefinitely. Since I live next door to the school, I asked the secretary to send me a message when they were ready; I would have to interrupt a Skype lesson that I would be doing at home. I started the lesson, and turned off my phone so I wouldn't be bothered--completely forgetting about the picture. After 20 minutes, I remembered and turned on the phone. There was a message and a missed call. I buzzed over to the school and the teachers were all lined up. I stuck my nose in and I was done in 3 minutes.

The day I left, they threw an impromptu going away party. It was totally unexpected. The dude in the middle of the picture below, Geoffray, said to me quietly before the end of my class that he wanted to talk to me after the kids went out to recess. I was a little concerned, thinking that I had done something wrong, or NOT done something I was supposed to do. But I wasn't too worried because he was all smiley and such. 

After class, he told me how nice it was to have me, and how they were going to miss me, yada, yada, yada. I was supposed to meet with next year's teacher right then because I was expected at the Russian embassy to pick up my visa. Geoffray told me the teacher was outside at some meeting. I asked him to tell her that I would be waiting for her inside. He left, but then came back. He said I should really come down and talk to her myself. 

I got down the steps, turned a corner, and saw the whole school standing on both side of a corridor, cheering. It was great. It reminded me of last November when the Russian English camp made a tunnel for me to run around the room in to celebrate my birthday.

I was pleasantly and completely surprised by the whole affair. Unlike the stories that I have heard from some places, all of my interactions with French people have been nothing but wonderful. When I was in Paris, everyone was helpful and friendly. This spring, French guy rode his bike to Tirana during the same time when the frisbee evangelists were in Albania to introduce the game of Ultimate to the country. I joined them in trips around the country. Alexander joined us several times, too. Now, he's pulling a chiropractic table around the world behind his bike--a great guy.