Yesterday was just so random. Apparently, when you meet up for coffee with someone, it means that you are going to be spending the rest of the day with them. That's what happened to us yesterday. Hart, Katie, and I met up with the DJ from Cuba, C. We've been talking with him since he started working there back in December. He likes to speak English to us (though we have to use French with him). We got a drink at La Rotonde and chatted for awhile there. Then, he had to go to Cuba for something, so we agreed to go with him. He also told us that we could meet his son who was in his car. We were like "You left your son in your car?" Turns out, his "son" was a dog. A really cute and friendly dog. I think we've seen him before at Cuba. We all went to Cuba (dog included) and hung out there for awhile and played pool.

Next up, we went to C.'s place for an apero. His place was pretty cool - records everywhere (hundreds of them), musical instruments (that he can't even play), and other random things to play with and look at. This guy is both bizarre and interesting. A lot of our suspicions about him were confirmed. Next up, we went to Mephisto which is a pretty cool pub in St. Quentin. We ordered pizza (yummy!), because we were starving. It was a good time. I think there would have been more to the evening if we all weren't super exhausted and had to get up early today for class.

The only sad part was that we got a text from J. (gendarme) saying that he was out at the bar and wanted to hang out with us, because he missed us. Aww!! Hopefully, we will be able to see him soon. Luckily, he is working in Chauny for the time being, so he's not just here on his vacations anymore and then gone for a long time.

Today, my classes went okay. I had some issues with the dreaded DP6. Some were my fault, but mostly it was because 4 out of the 6 students who were present are just horrible - they were throwing things the whole time. One of the behaved students had already done the exercise with me two weeks ago, so that's where some of the problems stemmed from. The others were jealous that I wasn't forcing him to do the exercise. He was quiet, that's all I cared about. And whenever I asked him a question from the exercise, he answered correctly without missing a beat. The other behaved student once again apologized (in English) for the behavior of the others. The good news is that I might not have them at all next week. Cross your fingers for me!

There was an article in the local paper this week about two of my students. The one they mainly talk about is a super nice girl who seems to have a decent understanding of English. Anyway, the article talks about girls in BTS - Plasturgie to be exact. My school has two girls in the program (both in my BTS PL1 class). Another interesting number in the article was that there are only 32 girls in the entire high school! I knew the number was small, but I didn't know how small. We have over 500 students here! And next year, the school will be introducing a licence program (partnered with a university in Compiègne and another Picardie university) which is for post BTS students who want to further their education. My school is getting itself on the map! If you want to read the article, it's here. And another short article about the event at the Sorbonne the girls were invited to.

I wanted to write about my observations of my progress with the French language, but I think I might save that for its own entry that I might write later on.