The good times continue here at the Centre Mediteranneen. I'm sitting in the sun in the beautiful gardens whilst the students have a short break from classes. They're keen to write an entry this afternoon so stay tuned. The program is so full it's hard to pin ourselves down - there's never a dull moment here in Monaco!
This morning the classes had an excursion to Cap d'Aïl, where they had little 'missions' to complete - all in French. All groups had to buy something different from the boulangerie, ask questions about the region and find opening times of shops etc. For me as the teacher, it was an exceptionally good activity and the students got a lot out of it. They're going to have a dégustation of all the things they bought later on - so it's an all encompassing experience. Their teachers here at the centre are so pleased with their language skills and one of them even said that she wished all her classes were as enthusiastic and well behaved as our Scotchies have been.
As for excursions and other activities - we've been to the Parfumerie at Eze, where we learnt how perfume is made and how you can become a 'nose' after 10 years of training. A nose is the person who can distinguish all the different scents and you have to be born with this skill. Certain students think they've got what it takes and it pays 15,000 euro per month for 2-3 hours work per day, so it's rather appealing! The old town of Eze gave spectacular views of the coast and the narrow streets were like scenes from a movie.
We also went to Menton, the last town before you reach Italy. Here we discovered the Musée Jean Cocteau - an artist who helped design the language school and we also went crazy for ice cream and Gelati. A new record has been set with 2 of the boys managing half a kilo of ice cream each. Luckily we've been jogging to stay in shape and with all the walking we've been doing, it's a non issue!
Night time at the centre has had some diverse activities - including a crêpe night - where M. Lefeuvre presented his famous crêpe à la bretonne, which was amazing! You'll have to ask him for the recipie! We've also painted a plate in the Jean Cocteau style and had a disco. The disco was a mix of choreographed routines performed by the Italians, disco lights and lots of singing and jumping about. It was a great chance to de-stress and have some fun.
We've got 2 more nights here at the Cemtre and then it's on to Avignon. The trains are still on strike, so our schedule may need to be flexible, but more trains are running than there were last week. 3 out of 4 are guaranteed, though we won't know which ones until the morning we leave. Fingers crossed it's all OK, were getting good at adapting to the circumstances!
I'll make sure some students do the next update!
Shawn
Many thanks for the wonderfully descriptive update and merci bien de soigner notre petits Scotchies si bien (you may need to correct the French!).
ReplyDeleteMerci pour les mises à jours, Shawn. Great to follow all the action and see how you are all going. I guess there's already been some dancing on the bridge at Avignon? Or more probably underneath?! Ont un temps fantastique!
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