Claudie
The pic above was taken at the end of the day we helped Claudie move to her new house (for anyone wondering, that's Claudie in the middle). Claudie is a terrific lady, a single mom to two extraordinarily intelligent kids, and best of all, she speaks English! Finally, a French person that we can chat with casually. She finds Emily easy to understand but my North Carolina accent is sometimes a challenge, despite the fact that I barely have any accent compared to many folk I knew back in the US. Since we first met her she has been substitute teaching nearly full-time while taking courses for her teaching degree through the 'distance learning' program at the university of Rennes.  She finally finished her degree last June and now has one full-time job instead of several part-time ones!  Yay, Claudie!  In addition, she has been active in local politics and is now one of the assistant mayors of Herbignac, responsible for youth and school programs.  Unfortunately, this means we don't get to see her very often, but we know our government is in good hands.