A weekend in Freyming-Merlebach – Friday, March 30th through Sunday April 1st

Friday afternoon and evening was laidback and not overly eventful. Saturday was the “Porte Ouverte” (Open House) at my high school and I had to work all day. It was interesting. It was quite different from American Open houses, which, from my perspective, is for student’s parents to come and see what they have done at school. In Freyming-Merlebach, the day was dedicated to prospective students and/or their parents to visit the school and see what the school had to offer. I helped talk with a few prospective parents, but mostly I chatted with the English teachers. I ate lunch with Dominique and saw completely new sections of the school! They have a room full of baby changing tables to teach students, who are going to go and work in daycare, to change and dress babies – I was astounded since I learned that baby sitting and it definitely wasn’t a class!

In the evening, I had dinner with the middle school teachers to say goodbye to them. It was a lot of fun. We ate at Emma’s apartment; just 10 minutes walk from my dorm. All the food was delicious (it was Mexican food and there isn’t a lot of that in France!).

Sunday I started working at sorting through everything in my room and headed off to do laundry. In the evening, Salem (the younger English teacher) and one of his bandmates, picked me up around 4 and we headed off to a Motorbike show in a neighboring town. It was fun to go around with them and talk, about bikes or life. I couldn’t believe how Salem seemed to know EVERYONE! It was a really fun afternoon followed by dinner and great discussions. I thought it was quite funny that Salem (like the students) didn’t know my age!