Last Friday, I stayed at school all day but didn't work at all.
But then again, neither did anyone else. The teachers all told me straight up that the Friday before Christmas break is a day of fêtes. And did I want to miss out on that? Hell no.
In the morning, there was a spectacle in the school courtyard, wherein each class performed a song, a dance, or a skit. It was a serious affair, too -- there were costumes, makeup, glitter and music. Because it was outside, the kids not performing were all running around and making noise and not really paying attention. Still, though, it was pretty cute. And I found out some of my students have serious dancing chops.
Here's a picture of them all after the spectacle, dancing for fun to Shakira.
Before they all went to the cafeteria, I was invited into a CP (French first grade) classroom for an "apéritif." We all had a cup of grape juice with ham-and-cheese skewers that some of the kids' parents had brought. Really, it doesn't get much more adorable than that.
During our two-hour lunch break, there was a traditional Martiniquais Christmas meal for the staff. We had acras (below) -- a kind of fritter made with either shrimp, cod, or vegetables -- and paté salé, meat-filled pastry. There was rum and punch coco and champagne, too -- never mind that it was still a work day.
We had jambon Noël, Christmas ham -- a thicker, more tender version of its American counterpart -- and boudin, a kind of sausage that you basically bite into and suck the meat out of.
Here's a picture of one of the teachers preparing the boudin...
...and another of the teachers showing me how to eat it.
We also had rice, pork stew, pois d'Angole ("pigeon peas" in English), a starchy root called chou chinois ("Chinese cabbage"), gratin with christophines and cheese, bananas, peanut and cherry ice cream, and flan coco.
In the afternoon, when the kids had come back from the cafeteria, they had an afternoon of free time. I passed out Christmas word searches, and they all played board games and snacked on cakes and cookies and soda.
Here's a picture of some CM1 (French fourth grade) students drawing Christmas pictures on the chalkboard.
Here's a picture of the school "Christmas tree."
Here's a picture of some petit Jésus candy that a CM1 student gave me. It was part of her prize for being the first to finish the Christmas word search. It is exactly what it sounds like -- pure sugar molded into the shape of our Savior. Christmas candy doesn't get any better than this, folks.
