Field Trip!

Hello again! So today I had the opportunity to go on a "field trip" with the BTS students. Basically, they loaned me a pair of galoshes and we went galumphing through the low tide looking for all manner of sea creatures. It was a lot of fun. Low tide in this region of France is truly a low tide. We walked about a half a mile away from the beach out into the marshy seaweed-y tidepool like low tide area. At first it was horribly cold, but as we started walking, we began to warm up. It didn't hurt that the wind stopped blowing about half way through. I was sure that I was going to slip and fall, but I was lucky. We found all sorts of things...crabs (at least 5 different species), starfish, chitons, snails, limpets, slugs (ew), worms, oysters, barnacles, mussels, sponges, and a squid! The squid was pretty cool. When you touched it, it changed color to camoflouge with your hand. All the students had buckets. Which meant that there were many crabs harbored against their will. I was very fearful that I was going to wind up with a crab in my hair courtesy of one of my students from the whispered conversations and gleeful expressions I observed. Luckily, the professor checked all the buckets and made them put the crabs back. These students study fish farming and all sorts of things having to do with the ocean, so this trip was like Disneyland for them. The teacher had to keep yelling at them to put down the rocks, crabs, squid, or whatever else they were chasing and rejoin the group for the lecture. Afterwards, we returned to the shore and enjoyed a picnic lunch. It was very enjoyable. Especially since I got out of teaching today. Tee hee...
Like I've said, most of the BTS students are close to my age, so it was fun getting to know them and start to make some friends that aren't teachers. Beatrice, one of the girls, has lived in Martinique most of her life. Understandably, she finds France very cold. I've asked her to go to Carcassonne with me for La Toussaint...the week and a half break that is coming up in a week. Also, Laurent might join us. Laurent is going to bring his bike over tomorrow and we are going to take a bike ride. I hope I will finally discover the elusive bike trails that everyone keeps talking about. And tonight, I'm going to play basketball! Which means, that I should probably get going...talk to you all soon!