La rentree

Well, the big day finally arrived. Lundi, 4 Septembre, Le Rentree. The start of the school year. We all woke up early, and we all felt nervous as we walked through the village to the school, one of us more than the others, I dare say.

And there were a few tears at the school gate ... and Emily cried too ..., no, only joking. We found her classroom, no problem, identified her teacher, who is a delightful young woman, - yes, she knew Emily didn’t speak French, yes, it’s normal to be nervous. No problem. Then the bell rang, and the kids all ran to their classrooms. Mlle took Emily in (there were a couple of tears) and we left. We passed a nerve wracking morning, then made our way back over to pick her up for lunch at 12. We walked quietly and quickly, desperately hoping that we wouldn’t be confronted with a crumpled heap of girly distress when we got there.

11.58. We waited outside the school gates with all the other parents ... 11.59....12.00 ...the bell rang and the gates swung open. Out comes the first class, then the second, then ... hang on, there’s Emily, and she’s smiling ... and laughing ! A tall blond girl is turning and gesticulating to her, and a shorter dark girl is walking beside her. I nearly fainted with relief. Sure enough, out she comes, she’s had a good morning, the teacher, who turns out to speak a bit of English, introduced her to the class and got her to show them where New Zealand is on the map – they all went ‘Oooooh’ in suitably impressed voices apparently. Then they made origami pencil boxes, followed by math – times tables, which Emily knew, so she felt great. At morning tea the girls all crowded around her asking her questions that she didn’t understand, while the boys ran about shouting ‘game over!’ , which presumably is the limit of their English!

She was keen to go back after lunch at 2pm, and still happy when we picked her up at 5pm.

God, what a relief. Neither Al nor I had realised how tense we had been about the whole school thing. Now it feels like we can get on with the things that we want to do, which for him is writing his papers, and doing science, and for me, well, I’m not really sure. Taking pictures, writing the blog, learning French (I’m currently using the ‘watching TV’ method), watching the lizard on the balcony ...