Our second meeting of the Blandford French club

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Blandford, foreign language, French, library, postaday2013, speaking, translation

Yesterday was our second meeting of the Blandford French club at our Porter Memorial Library right at the heart of our small town. We were only three, but instead of being sad or bothered by our very small turnout, we spent more than an hour speaking French together about this, that and everything. There seriously was not one second of silence and the hour sped by, it was great. I am the only native speaker, but both ladies have spent quite a lot of time throughout the years visiting and traveling through France so their ears are very much in tune with the lyrical cadences of the French language.

I am so glad that my friend, who is head of the library board of Trustees, decided to start the French club; it is only once a month, I know, but it is better than nothing. I really like the two ladies, they are kind and sweet. They share the same passion for baking, cooking and gardening that I do, so even though we are speaking in a foreign language, we are speaking about things that we all love and it makes it much more interesting; especially when the three of us are searching the ceiling for those certain vocabulary words that sometimes elude us. I don’t know why I always look up at the ceiling when I can’t think of a word, but I do look up waiting for the elusive word to appear and it never does, you would think that I would learn by now, but I don’t.

I have to remember to bring a few French children’s books for my ladies, they asked me if I had any because they would love to have some easy French reading to maintain whatever progress they make during our once a month conversations. I also have to see if food will involved in future meetings. I am so happy that we started this club.

High school alma mater

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alma mater, blogging, high school, postaday2013, speeches, writing

You’ve been asked to speak at your high school alma mater — about the path of life. (Whoa.) Draft the speech.

My high school alma mater, is Saint Francis Preparatory high school in Fresh Meadows Queens, New York. I think that I was lucky to have gone there because the education that I received was an excellent one and I was well prepared for college. I have fond memories of many of my teachers, especially the Franciscan brothers; they were truly dedicated to teaching and providing us with strength and support. These days one doesn’t often hear that about teachers, unfortunately the attention that teachers often get is of the negative variety and so many of the good teachers go unappreciated and unnoticed.

If I were to speak to the graduating class about the path of life, I would assure them that no matter which path they followed, their education given to them by the excellent teachers at Saint Francis would serve them exceptionally well. My high school curriculum was varied and solid as I’m sure that it still is, why change something that works? The opportunity to study the basics of legal studies, business management, computer programming, advanced sciences and math, music and art; all these choices gave myself and my class experience and ideas about what path we might choose during college. These qualities are why I feel that you, the graduating class, have been blessed and that you should leave your high school years confident that you have been given wonderful tools to continue to build upon the strong foundation that you started here just four short years ago. I am very happy for all of you and I wish all of you the best of luck. Go forth and continue to flourish.