Jil in Cyprus

Hi,


I have now spent two month here and it's really difficult to speak about the difficulties I encountered because everything was easy and fine from the beginning. If I really have to write something it will be the fact that I missed and still miss my family and friends in Belgium.

Before leaving Belgium I never thought about living such a beautiful experience. It's amazing, everything is more than positive. At school, I attend the French lessons and I give some lessons (public transport, the time, St-Valentine's day,...). I work with them on the pronounciation (awful by the way!), I play the dialogues and read the text. I also play the role of the interviewed: At the end of each lesson, every student has to ask me one question. I also began a project with 26 of my students. In Cyprus, 2008 is the european year of the intercultural dialogue, that's why I decided to work on it with them. My teacher really liked the idea. The aim of the project is to make a parallel between Belgium and Cyprus. We decided with two other teachers to mix three subjects: music, drawing and French. There are 4 groups of students, each group has a different subject. They will search the information on the internet in the Belgian pages at school and then we'll discuss about it and find a original way to present it and to sing it. There will be a representation in front of the entire school just befor easter...And it's will be in french of course! I'm really excited and really involved, so are the students! Thank God!

What about my relationships?
I have two good friends from the school and two good friends from the Alliance Française (one teacher and the other assistant of French in Limassol). It's strange because they always take me with them when they go and see friends...It' surprising...But it's Cyprus! All the people I know, even friends of friends, are really open-minded, speak at me like I'm their friend for ten years and they make me feel like I was home. They are real, they don't play, they don't calculate anything like in Belgium. Everybody is cool. That's the exact word.

Please, take care

Kisses

Jil