Winter Haikus written by my students

In Heatherpardy (a Winter / Holiday game that was explained in my last post), in order to win 500 points under the category Miscellaneous, teams had to write a haiku about winter... here are some of my favorites... ENJOY!

*note... I am writing these down verbatim. In other words, before their AWESOME language assistant (me) dropped some knowledge and helped them correct their errors

During the winter
I'm exciting and happy
because it's Christmas.

Santa Claus love milk.
Santa Claus is coming town.
Winter is better.

I love Chrithmas trees
with candles who are pretty,
and gift lovely.

See the snow falling.
Found the Santa Claus coming.
Heard children laughing.

When Winter's coming
Time has come for happiness.
Eat chocolate and cakes.

The merry Christmas
We wish you happy new year
Magic of Christmas

Winter is coming,
and snow is going to fall.
We are so enjoy!

The winter is cold.
Santa Claus is comin' soon.
So... Happy Christmas!

I am Santa Claus
And I give presents for childs.
I wear a red cloth.

When Winter comes here,
Snow is falling on the ground.
Santa Claus comes home.

Behind the window,
I can see a big snow man
playing in the snow

Winter, you are cold.
Winter, you are beautiful.
Winter, you are calm.

Other than that, things have been good. Went to a teacher's house for dinner... delicious, went on a little hike / long walk through the forest by a castle, ate a cronut, celebrated a friend's birthday, met a huge panda. My class on Friday was canceled, so it is officially Christmas break for me. I go home in 3 days!

Jenna and me

panda at the Christmas market

Loving life & Birthday!

Do you ever have those moments when you're walking down the street and people are staring at you like you're a freak, and then you realize it's because you're wearing a smile that is abnormally big and is probably creeping these people out? Well yeah, that's been me lately. I've been so content with life and feeling really lucky. Just the other day, I was walking back home in the crisp winter air, listening to N*SYNC Christmas music (which is the best Christmas album out there and will always be), walking on an assortment of pretty yellow and orange leaves, and it just hit me--life is good. It was a glorious feeling.

My awesome Holiday/Winter game

Work has been going great lately, and I am loving my students. With each passing week, I'm remembering more and more names. I walk through the hallways and I hear excited "hello"s as I turn the corners. I got to plan a lesson based on the film Hunger Games since 2 of my classes were going to see it for English Appreciation week at a local movie theater. Some of the students remembered the word "cornucopia" from our lesson two weeks earlier which means they really are learning things from me! This week, I'm starting lessons on Winter / the Holidays. I spent 4+ hours on this Jeopardy-esque game, and my kids are loving it. I love making them come up with team names... today I had the Opposite Team vs. the Caribous vs. the Green Moose. However, the best was when a girl belted out "All I want for Christmas is you" à la Mariah Carey in order to get her team 500 points. I think I finally have this whole "edutainment" thing down.

friends <3 pointing at me, the birthday girl

The social side of my life has been lovely as well. I have definitely been "profiter"ing. Last week, I frequented the Christmas market many times, went to a trivia night, chilled at a pub, celebrated my birthday (Dec 7), and went ice skating! On Friday, my awesome friend Jenna made me a cake... I still can't get over the fact that you have to go to the pharmacy in order to buy baking soda, haha. Anyways, the cake was delicious, despite the stupid trick candles that I couldn't blow out. It was great being with such a wonderful group of people right at midnight when I officially became 23. On Saturday, I caught up on sleep, then had the pleasure of showing Angers to my friend who I studied abroad with who came to visit me! We got to reminisce about Aix, try a new restaurant, go on a ferris wheel, and more. We also got to satisfy our craving for McDonalds. That evening, we went out again, ending my birthday in the same fashion as when it started... surrounded by my awesome new friends.