Thursday - Week IX

Today was much, much warmer about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and the sun was out most of the day, hurray. There were a few spots of rain but nothing whatsoever to be concerned with so I won't mention another word about it.

I spent the day pretty much with my students. We met this morning at 11:00am at Kelly's Pub this time. It's a very friendly place and I had a yummy hot coco and scone. My student's really enjoyed themselves with today's activities. First I had them finish telling their 3 minute stories which we had begun doing yesterday. They each picked a funny incident that they had in the past and described it in as much detail as 3 minutes would allow. We had a lot of laughs and heard stories like when Martin when hiking with his friends a few years ago and when they arrived at a place to rest the first night out it was dark so they just spread their sleeping bags on the ground and went to sleep. He remembered smelling something strange but ignored it because he was so tired. Well the next morning when he woke up he and his friends discovered they had chosen to place their bedding on top of a pasture filled with cow dung. It was so adorable to hear him tell this story in his very French accent. Martin is only 20 years old and as sweet as can be. Yes, I've recycled this picture from the other day and yes, Nuria is missing from it but I was so busy listening to them today I forgot to take some pictures.

One of my favorite stories was from Nuria who told about the time her and her husband were going on a camping trip to Italy so they bought a large tent that didn't require any assembly you simply take it out of the package and it instantly pops open to a fully-formed tent. To test it out they opened it in their dining room but quickly realized they didn't know how to fold it up and put it back in it's packaging. The directions they were provided were of no use and for one week the tent remained open in their home. She said they when she would call home to talk to her husband she would always ask "how is the tent doing? Is it still there?" She had us hysterical as she recounted their adventure in the camping store where five Spanish men, including her husband tried to figure it all out. They opened another package with the same kind of tent hoping to understand how it was folded but It wasn't until she, Nuria realized what they were doing wrong and then quickly adjusted the folds and was able to put it away safely and then do the exact same thing when she arrived home to her tent. It turns out the directions the store had initially sent them home with were for a completely different tent so it was understandable why they couldn't figure it out.

After they each told there stories I then had, so they could practice speaking even more, each of my students tell a different person's story as if it were theirs. It went so well and just to get them get used to listening for speaking errors and correcting themselves I had them write down notes about what pronunciation and grammar errors they heard. After each story was told they had a chance to explain what errors were made and how to correct them.

It was a very productive 4 and half hours and I'm so happy to see them really progressing well. They're pronunciation is much better and their vocabulary has increased. I'm very proud of them all.

I met Jean Marie at the Budding Cafe and we went to the gym. It was so nice after two days away from it to get in the water and relax.