Today was probably one of the most oddly cultural I've ever had. I started off the day in the LE office, where Reading Group was cancelled, but the boys showed up anyways. They all wanted to stick around before class, so I had some fun just hanging out with three of them before lessons started. I spent the first lesson in the year 5 class, and then I prepared to go off into the city. Elanour, the head of the International Student Dept (who is Chinese), wanted me to come along with her and Gregoire (the French student) as she showed him around the Central Market so we could get to know eachother a bit before Mentor Day tomorrow. We made for quite the cultural combination -- a Chinese woman, a French boy, and an American all wandering around an Australian city (which could probably start off a really good joke).
Our first stop was the Language School of Australia, where international students go to learn English before attending school in Adelaide. We met a couple more French students and some Chinese students as well. At one point, I was sitting in the middle as Elanour chatted in Chinese on my left and Gregoire was talking in French on my right -- my ears were so confused! After that, Elanour dropped Gregoire and I off at Rundle Mall, which he had never been to before. It felt a bit like the blind leading the blind, since I've been in Adelaide the same amount of time as him, but I did know a bit from my earlier teenage tour guides. He got a kick out of the Mall's Balls and the brass pigs (two Rundle Mall landmarks), and he seemed to really enjoy the Mall. He's a great kid -- really funny and great to talk with about the different cultures in France, America, and Australia.
When we met back up with Elanour, we headed to Chinatown. She seems to know it like the back of her hand, so it was great having her as a guide there. She showed us where to find the best shops and even managed to bargain down some stuff I bought at a souvenir shop there (the Chinatown shops have a lot of the same stuff as the main ones in the Mall, but way cheaper because it all pretty much comes from China anyways). We had lunch at a really good dumpling restaurant -- it almost felt like a Chinese culture shock, and yet we were in the middle of Australia. After our Chinatown adventures, we went to this French Pettiserie on the other side of town -- the workers were all French, and so were the desserts. Gregoire said that it was pretty authentic, which made my first real French experience too -- in Australia!
When we got back to the school, I headed off to the year 2 class. They're realling growing on me -- their art teacher was in the middle of explaining something to them, and when they saw me they all turned around and were yelling out hello (most of them also shouting "TJ the DJ!"). They were working on painting Aboriginal designs, which gave me some more culture for the day -- this time Australian! I helped them out with cleaning their boards and got to talk with them as they came up to the sink -- they're such cute kids and all have something interesting to say. When the lesson 7 bell rang, they thought I would have to leave and got all excited when I told them I was staying longer today -- such a fun class!
To cap off my day, I went to the Bar Nine cafe, where they have French Press coffee, which is almost like American style coffee -- I managed to add a little Yankee to my day Down Under! On the ride home, I started to compile a list of "Aussie-isms" to keep track of all the funky things that Australians say, so I'll be sure to share some of that soon!
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