The 15th day...

As the name suggests, here I am going to talk about a 15th day... but of what?! Well, it's the last 15th day of a month I'd be living in Bourges... Sounds a bit funny,huh?! Anyway, that day was really special...

My work contract is almost getting over. And now am really bored and longing to go back home. I am running out of the ideas about what I should be doing in the classes as all most everything is been taught and plus the students too aren't that motivated coz it's the end of the year! For them, the summer is calling and for me it's Pune calling! So as usual I was struggling in my mind about what I should be doing the class and also trying to find a reason if I could miss the class! :p Obviously that wasn't possible. Actually speaking for a change, my day was gonna be quite busy! Had the school in the afternoon and then I was going to a friend's place as it was the day where I was going to make "Repas Indien" (the Indian meal) for my French class friends.

Relcutantly I went to the school. As it's mansoon season (!!) in France, it's been raining like anything and at anytime. So I prefered going by bus. Which meant that I reached school 10 mins in advance! Normally I work after the lunch breaks at the schools. I really like to see children playing on the ground before they get into the class. The bell never rings at 1.30 sharp! So it was around 1.40 and the teacher told me that before the English class they had a practice for their "Sepectacle de l'Ecole qui chante" (A programs of singing schools). An interesting point to observe here is that the school gatherings are at the end of the academic year! One by one all the classes gather under the play-shed. By all the classes I mean ALL the students! From maternelle to CM2. They sang one song, by Michel Jakson, "In the world..." It was really nice to see all those French kids sing that English song with their cute accent! The 15 mins of practice turned into 30 minutes of different practice sessions and so only 15 mins of class!! The kids were obviously in the festive mood so I didn't stretch too much either.

In the evening, by 4.30 I returned to the school with my friend Mary. Her daughter, the little angle Lena goes to the same school. In French schools I observed this one thing there's always a small fun fair kind thing in say every 2 months where Children sell the cakes and pastries made by their moms! It's quite a la mode in this particular school! So after that fun fair children were going to sing.

The program started at 5.15. Children gatherd on the "stage". In their regular dresses (of course! I can't say uniforms as they don't have one!), no make-up, no fancy dresses, no decoration on the stage, no lights, just the mike and speaker and some chairs in front of the stage for children's parents. Simplicity at it's best I'd say! The first song was not accompanied by the music, so it wasn't that impressive. But as later the nursary school students joined the stage, the whole program took a different colour! The wonderful songs sung by those cute little kids, perfectly co-ordinated by their music teachers and the engery of the students brought a different atmosphere in the school! Everybody was just happy! Students were happy to perform in front of their parents and parents were feeling proud to see their children on the stage! What I loved the most about this program was no good or bad students were singled out. Everybody was considered equal and was given a fare chance. I am sure that none of the students went through that childhood's painful experience of not being selected for the group singing or dancing like many of us did. I think it was very thoughtful of the teachers to give everybody that chance to go on stage which I'm sure will help them a lot later in their life. Generally in France, the school activities involve all the students of the class. I don't remember seeing any one partitcular group of same students favoured by the teachers. And this is one of the many things that I admire about French schooling system.

After that wonderful program at the school, now it was a time for an Indian meal for our "multinational" group of French class. It was a long due Indial meal which I was going to make today... The menu was simple : Khidachi, Matar usal, Polya, Rava cake and kakadi koshimbir! It is so much more fun to make food for friends than for oneself! I love doing it! If nothing else, this France stay has certainly inspired a cook in me! :D Poland, Ireland, Germany, France and India gatherd together at the table that night for a lovely cultural meal which inculded a daily Indial meal, some snacks, a French dessert, a Polish soup and of course the French wine! And funnily, French was the "international language" here and not English!!