Hi from my island....

Hello everybody!

I hope you are all enjoying what you are doing wherever you are and if not,well,tell yourself the nightmare is nearly coming to an end!

Personally, I'm enjoying myself quite a lot in Malta mainly because I am very well integrated in the so-called city where I live. I nearly know every person I meet in the street and if I do not know them they surely know who I am, the Language Assistant who teaches French to the son of my wife's niece.Hum we are a big family over here... What is boring is I can't even have a walk in the supermarket without meeting a student staring at me and whispering to her mother 'it is him! He's the new teacher'. The worst is some students come at the local pub where I watch passionately the games and keep shouting at the players... and to the barman who always takes one hour to bring me my lemon tea with two sugars!
As you see, my city is more like a village in a remote area where even the Italian or English newspapers arrive with a two days delay rather than a cosmopolitan city.

I have to say, I'm lucky to love football. If it was not my passion of football my integration would have rather been difficult. Football is what they life for and what they speak about. I never had a conversation with a person without being asked which team do I support! It goes to the extend a lot of time is spent in the classroom speaking about football even though I`m in a girls school!
Beautiful and sad at the same time but I can understand them as they do not have anything else to do on the island except going to church and watching football games.

Now my job at school consists of giving French lessons to girls from 12 to 16 years old. I have been mainly asked by the teachers, Pierre,Maureen,Josette and Robert, to make what they call 'image interpretation'. I show an image to the students and I need to make them talk as much as possible in French by asking them questions or making them do role plays.
Other possible activities I need to prepare are some culture lessons about Belgium. I give some lectures as they call it to different classes every week but this time it all happens in English. It is sometimes a difficult task as they are more used to have lessons in Maltese.
I am really shocked by the less of knowledge they have not only about Belgium but of Europe in general! I hope by the end of my stay they will have some more knowledge about Europe to which their country at the end also belongs.
My teachers are really very kind and are always positively surprised of my lessons. The only negative point about them is they don't see me as an assistant but as a teacher. I don't really collaborate with them except when it is to organise a party, carnival or a dinner.
Well yes, I often go out with my teachers as they are still very young.

For now this is it and I wish to all of you nice Easter holidays!

Take care,

David