It's been very busy the past two weeks. Two weeks before the school spring break. Lots of happenings!
Levina's school is in preparation of the spring carnaval flash mob, making head pieces and practicing the dance moves. She really has taken an interest in dancing lately, especially the tiktok ones Evania's been showing her. She would practice them over and over again. The flash mob moves were child's play. Her teacher played her in the front coz she was rocking them. This was the first year that all elementary schools in Chartron were participating in the carnaval. It was quite exciting as an observer who doesn't speak the language. I was lost in the multiple massive emails to the parents, trying to figure out the details (time/place) of the event. French people don't like to communicate via emails but when they do, good luck to decoding the messages. The emails from school are always very long, and they go round and round about the event. And in the end, no specific location was disclosed for the event. Luckily, I was able to get it from a local parent. I had to double check with her that the address wasn't included in any of the emails. That's how it goes, according to her. LOL
Her class has recently finished learning about ecology(recycling). Everyone in the class got officially certified whether you like it or not. She came home with a piece of paper certificate - Ecologist "should I recycle it"? And she did it before I even had a chance to rely. How fitting! Her teacher also brought us some good news. Levina had started chatting to her friends in French in the past two weeks, more so this week. She's more and more immersed each day. It's the news we've been waiting for since day one 😀 She's probably been the busiest one out of all of us in terms of social life. Been on a few play dates and birthday parties. In fact, Nick and I met some great parents through her. The school is a wonderful place to make friends, for kids and parents alike.
Let's talk about the big kids. Evania just finished a two full day exams. Apparently, French kids have to take Beret exams for high school. Although she's only here until June, her teacher asked her to take Beret Blanc (practice exams). I didn't think much of them but from talking to another parent, Beret exams are big deals here. Everything was in French. She was tested on history, geography, Science, Physics, and Math. If she passes even if they're just for practice, we must celebrate (our friend insists). We shall see. For soccer, Evania's team played a game against a team from Libourne (30 min east of Bordeaux), and due to injuries she got to play almost the entire game. Although her team lost 2:1, she played a great game. One of her teammates came up to me after the game, shaking my hands and saying "Evania, very good, bien fait". That was very mature of him, I thought. Her coach also came up to me and started talking to me in French. He forgot that I didn't really understand a word out of his mouth. I just politely nodded and smiled. In the end, I replied "Merci, bonne journée, au revoir" when he was done.
Noah hasn't played many games since we got back from Morocco. He was sick, and had to get an ultrasound (that's another story), so missed a few practices and didn't get to play games for a bit. However, the first game he got to play, he got 4 goals on the scoring board, and a bunch of assists. He and another teammate had great chemistry on the field, always finding each other. It's the same kid that never brings water bottles to practices/games and always asks him for water. And Noah always shares. If you know Noah, he's a bit of germaphobe. Under special circumstances, he MAY let me drink his bottle. So this kid must be pretty special. Good to know he's made a friend on the team. Or he didn't know how to say in French!!!
Noah also accidentally found himself learning a new instrument, base guitar. I borrowed it initially for myself from the library. That's right. You can borrow musical instruments here from the library, ranging from strings to keyboards. I started learning the basic scales and a few cords, but guess what. Noah took over...started playing songs from watching YouTube. Within a span of 3 weeks, he's playing Say It Ain't So, ok not quite playing smoothly, but not bad for a true beginner.
So Spring Break for the kids here is from Apt. 10 to 21. Evania's friend, Nila, is coming to visit us all the way from Victoria. We're all looking forward to having her here for the next 10 days. After that, Nick's Mom, sister and brother-in-law are coming for another 10 days. Between these two big visits, we'll be spoiled with good companies, good food, wines and cheese, and hopefully great weather.
