Monsieur President!

Quincy was elected to the position of Class President today in a landslide victory. He walked away with 19 votes while the other contenders received only 4, 2 and 2. We are all quite proud and eager to see him in his new role. It will definitely force him to have to speak French more publicly so that can't be a bad thing.
I attended an afternoon coffee with about 15 other mothers from the school. Unfortunately, the room was very small and everyone was speaking at the same time and quite quickly so I had a very, very difficult time following any conversation. I finally ended up sitting next to a Chinese woman whom I recognized as not being a proficient French speaker either (much better than I but obviously not native). I went out on a limb and started a conversation with her before declaring my ineptitude in French. When I ran out of conversation, I asked her if she spoke English and she quickly said "yes". She explained in halting English that her English was fluent while she lived in China but after marrying a French man and moving to France, she became more focused on her French than her English and lost much of her English. She proceeded to tell me that she speaks Chinese to her children when she is alone with them, they all speak French when her husband is home, and any television or movies that her children want to watch have to be in English! She said that both her 2 year old and 3 1/2 year old use all 3 languages interchangeably. However, she did admit that her oldest didn't speak at all until quite late and that her pediatrician felt that this might be due to some confusion over the languages.
Today was an absolutely gorgeous day so I had to head down to the seaside for a short walk and some pictures.