Drinking Mint Tea and Being Tall

Over the past couple of weeks I have discovered a few things:

1.                  Sometimes I am really helpless when pouring my own tea.

2.                  I am too tall for certain things here.

Kristen and I went to a cafe late at night with our friend who lives in Morocco.  I ordered mint tea because I would have stayed up all night if I ordered a coffee.  When I got the tea, I didn’t know what to do.  They served me a teapot, a cup with some mint sprigs, an empty cup, and a plate of large rectangular sugar cubes.  I thought I would just put the mint right in, but my friend took the tea from me first.  If I shoved the mint in, I would force some of the tea out of the pot.  My first mistake.  He poured a little bit of tea into the empty cup, then put the mint in, then poured the tea back in and added the sugar.  Then he handed it back to me.

            It’s traditional to pour a cup of tea several times and then pour it back into the cup in order to mix all of the ingredients for the best possible tea.  Since I knew this, I poured my first cup.  I attempted to pour it back into the pot.  Somehow I missed most of it and it ended up on the tray.  My tea was snatched away from me again.  Oh well, I will get it eventually.

            My second discovery is that I am too tall for some things, like attempting to blend into society or walking in general.  People stare at me a lot because I am tall and I don’t even look a little bit French.  I don’t mind the staring, but I can’t tell if people are talking about me or not.  I guess it’s better that I can’t understand anything they are saying.  Next, I can’t walk down a sidewalk properly.  The bottoms of the trees are cut so low that I am always running my face into branches.  I am constantly ducking.  At least my agility skills are improving.

            I began teaching this week.  After a confusing start of not knowing exactly what to do, I am beginning to get a handle on things.  I am working with all age groups.  In the mornings I am with the 6-9 year olds in a Montessori classroom.  Some kids know a lot of English and some have no clue what is going on.  I read a story to them in English and they asked me questions in French.  Nodding and smiling has become my signature move.

            The main subject that I am teaching is science and I just finished my first lesson.  I am doing a unit on melting points and boiling points, so we read an article about ice cream.  They learned lots of new words and they understood some of what I was saying, but I am realizing that this is going to be a huge learning experience for everyone because all of the kids are at very different points in their English education.  I think with a few months’ work, though, a lot of them will be rapidly improving and forming simple sentences.  I hope for that at least!

            The kids are funny and I have to ask “What?” a lot of times to them and they have to do the same to me, but by the end, we usually figure things out together.  We are able to reach a common understanding, which is the most important part in the end because that lets us get things accomplished.