Some good stories...

The first good story I have to share is a little sad at first. I got to the house where I'm tutoring and Aurore (the 13-year-old) seemed really sad. I asked her if she was okay, and she told me her great-grandmother had passed away the night before, and her mom had just called to tell her. I'm not that good at moments like those as it is, but I felt so inadequate trying to console this adorable girl who I can't communicate with that well and who I don't really know that well and who maybe never really has had to deal with death before. I gave her a hug (which I realized too late the French don't really do--oops), and then she got out some pictures of her great-grandmother to show me. The woman had just celebrated her 106th birthday on Thursday and seems like she was an amazing lady. We ended up finding pictures of Aurore and Philip-Emmanuel as babies, which were really cute, so both of the kids started laughing and seemed to be doing better. Their mom called and told them they didn't need to do homework (thank god--their great-grandmother just died, plus it was FRIDAY night!) so we ended up playing Monopoly, the Lyon edition. They had a couple really fun rules that were new to me. For example: if you don't want to buy a property you land on, you can establish a base price and the other players get to bid for it--so cool! Maybe that's a normal rule, but I had never played that way and maybe would have enjoyed Monopoly more back in the day if I had... I'm really just NOT good at Monopoly, but it was cute playing with them. Aurore had turned the radio on and whenever a song that she liked came on, she would pause the game and dance around the room singing. I seriously love her. Then at one point, she started rattling off all of these words, and the only way I knew that they were bad words was that Philip-Emmanuel kept freaking out and gasping. Then she asked if we had bad words in English and wanted me to teach her some... Riiiiiiight. Definitely don't need to get on her mom's bad side this early on. The game kind of descended into chaos and giggles after that, and unfortunately that was the point at which their mom came home. I didn't know how to politely and coherently say sorry for her loss so it was all very awkward. Then she asked if we had spoken English at all and if Aurore had shown me her English homework yet, which she hadn't, so she said we should do that for sure on Monday. I mean, I have no problem speaking English with her, but I would kind of like to establish some sort of trust and friendship first so Aurore feels more comfortable with me. I think that will be more helpful in the long run anyway than if I just jump in and be a drill sergeant right from the beginning. That woman REALLY needs to loosen up a bit.

Second good story was more of an observation. After leaving the kids, I went to this huge meet-up with a ton of the other assistants here in Lyon and its suburbs. There were probably at least 50 of us who met up and went to this brasserie in Vieux Lyon for drinks. It was kind of intense and overwhelming trying to meet and actually connect with anyone in such a big group, but everyone seems nice and it sounds like we're all in basically the same boat with finding housing and figuring everything out at our schools and all. The majority of people were American, but there was representation from the UK, New Zealand, Palestine, Germany, Austria, Australia, and other places I'm sure. Paying the bill was a nightmare, and then groups sort of split off. I ended up at this bar called The Rambler with a couple other people, and it was hilarious. They kept playing the most RANDOM songs. We were there for a couple hours and heard Thriller, Cotton-eyed Joe, Material Girl, YMCA, If You Seek Amy, some French techno; I mean, it was all over the map. And some of the French guys were really getting into it, which was hilarious. I tried to take some covert pictures and failed so you'll have to wait for those.

Third good story just happened this afternoon. I went to the big park nearby to read and soak up the sun since it's such a beautiful day. I was reading and minding my own business (well, for the most part; I was stalking adorable small French children behind my sunglasses--see picture below) when this older guy who was playing soccer with a younger boy came over and asked me for a light for his cigarette. Clearly, I don't have one since I don't smoke (and I wouldn't have given him one if I'd had one since that's generally a sketchy pick-up line here) so he went away. Five minutes later he came back and asked, well mimed, if he could sit down. I felt awkward and really just wanted to read, but it's not MY park and plus, I thought that maybe I could use him to practice some French before running far, far away. Turns out he's from Bulgaria and didn't speak French OR English. Suffice it to say, we had a really great conversation... He did manage to ask me to go for coffee. Yeah, right. Finally, he asked his friend to come over who sort of spoke French. We chatted a bit (after finding out my age, he said he was 28, which was a BLATANT lie), and he kept asking me if I wanted to go get a coffee with his friend. I think at one point, he even asked if his friend could come to my house. Awkward! They were totally harmless and kind of amusing--the one who actually sort of spoke French kept trying to sell me on the merits of Bulgaria... But I got over it pretty quickly and said I had to leave to meet a friend. Ah, France. Figures that the first guy who hits on me here doesn't actually speak French. Awesome.

Anyway, so here's a picture of one of the adorably cute French children I stalked in the park today. The little guy here was playing golf with his dad and wearing the most amazing little hat! He kept getting frustrated when he couldn't hit the ball and at one point threw down his club in disgust--at three-years-old, he already has the makings of a pro! Note the grass in the foreground, which was me trying to be subtle and discrete and keep my camera hidden...