Charlotte Aux Fraises

Has anybody ever tasted a Charlotte? I am not talking about a person, but rather a a type of delicious French cake with thin vanilla cookies on the outside and cream poured over the top. Mmmm....try typing Charlotte aux Fraises into google image. You will see a page filled with...Strawberry Shortcakes! I cannot tell you how excited I was to discover that my name meant Strawberry Shortcake, back when I was a little sophomore in high school. This blog is actually called Charlotte au Citron, which means Lemon Cake (charlotteauxfraises was already taken. boo hoo). After trying out every other type of Charlotte for my blog address from Charlotte au Chocolat to Charlotte aux Framboises and finding they were all taken, I finally settled on Charlotte au Citron. I think this will be perfect. Lemon adds such a fun flavor to the simplest of things. Who does not love cut-up lemon slices in their water? When I think of lemons, I think of springtime. So...as I was walking around my quiet neighborhood in West Jordan this afternoon, I decided that I really wanted to start a blog. I love how other peoples' blogs brighten my life. Why not write one of my own? I hope to share some fun, simple stories that I find interesting in my day-to-day experiences. After all, "The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in." —Harold Goddard.

I have been a French teacher for the past six years. Every day is an adventure in my classroom. I just love the idea of getting kids to talk about whatever they want...IN FRENCH! Wahoo! This time of year is actually really fun because lots of these kids have worked so hard to become fluent. We have arrived at the point where we can say more than just, "You like pizza? I like pizza." We can have discussions on all sorts of things from polygamy in French Africa to cool inventions they would love to see implemented in the future. There are many moments where I feel pretty proud. Then there are other moments where I am brought back to reality and all I can do is laugh.

Today was a reality check moment: the bell had just rung to signal the transition from 1st to 2nd period. My French Level 1 students were assigned a 100-point Children's Book project to be turned in at the beginning of class. I was so excited to see these because I know they had been working hard on them all last week. Many students had been using stickers, fun paper and other scrapbooking supplies to create these unique treasures. Some preferred doing them on their computers at home. Well, the bell to signal the end of 1st period had just finished ringing when Kip flew in. "You are not going to believe this," he said between breaths. "I was just about to push SAVE on my computer after several hours of work, when...my book completely disappeared! The computer just destroyed it!" He said this all with the most serious expression. As he was explaining himself, another girl burst in and cut him off. "Can you believe that my printer ran out of ink, the second before I was about to print it up?!" Then another boy came in. His book, he claimed, was hand-made and colored with special oil pencils. "My book was done, laying calmly by my bed last night, when...my CAT came in and licked the pages, completely ruining the whole project! I have to start all over!" I couldn't believe my ears. Was this really happening? I got up and asked the class if anybody's computer just spontaneously combusted while they were working on their project. Seriously, kids? Poor students and their technical difficulties. Why doesn't the computer ever break down when you are looking at your facebook photos for the 10th time? Why doesn't the cat come in and start licking old junk mail? I guess that just wouldn't be as interesting, now would it?