Chez Moi

As many of you know, I have been taking more intensive French classes since the beginning of February and have been realizing some of the benefits from this over the past little while. My increased ability to understand the language has made me feel much more at home here in Marseille than before.

In fact, it has also resulted in some more employment in the form of tutoring. I was able to successfully get through an interview about a month ago with an agency that matches students and tutors. I have already been tutoring a student from the university for a couple of weeks, but I will be meeting my first student from the agency on Friday. Although tutoring isn’t the same as teaching English in the classroom, I am hoping that these will be rewarding experiences which will help improve my ESL teaching skills. Regardless of how things go, all of this is a step in the right direction as I am no longer completely petrified to speak French over the phone, although it is still a HUGE challenge.

I also know that I am feeling more comfortable in the city because I have been able to drive in it and not get completely lost or frustrated. Today I was able to find my way to an interview outside of Marseille, at an international school without GPS and during morning rush hour traffic. Perhaps I am now used to the heavier level of traffic, but I it was less stressful than driving in Toronto.

As for the interview... your guess is as good as mine. But I’m sure some prayers and good karma sent my way might help the situation.

Little things like these let me know that this city is becoming more like home for me, but I must say I still miss everyone in Canada more than I can express.