Maureen and I have finished our first year teaching in Paris! Woohoo!! What a whirlwind of activity this last month has been. Now that we have a little bit of breathing room we felt that it was important to get back to our blog.

One interesting experience that we had at the beginning of June, was attending the American School of Paris’ International Day. We were told in advance that this would be one of the highlights of the year.

International Day is a chance for the whole school community to come together to celebrate the diverse backgrounds represented at ASP. The idea is that each nationality has a booth and sells delicacies and items from their home country. For example, the India booth was selling beautiful woven rugs and scented candles. Meanwhile, the Mexican booth has various ethnic dishes and a chili eating competition (Greg broke the record by going to ‘level 6 – the highest level). Our favorite was the Raclette and wine at the Swiss booth. There were about 30 different booths and each was impressively decorated. The Parents Organization also organized a lineup of cool entertainment ranging from traditional Chinese Dragon Dancing with a huge dragon, to a Jazz Band, Tai kwan doe and singers. They also rented twelve different massive inflatables for the kids to enjoy (climbing wall, survival competitions, jousting, foozball, mechanical bull etc…) which were set up all over the field. All of the proceeds from the day went towards different service projects that the school undertakes.

Maureen and I were in charge of organizing a booth for the Kalahari Experience that we are leading in a week. We sold popsicles to raise money for the program we will run in South Africa. Greg and Breezy volunteered to help out at the Canadian booth (which sold Maple Syrup Smoothies – a massive hit with everyone) and we all had a  good day, even though we were ‘at school’.