This is the story of my life so far: 68 years and counting.
Prequel: A Brief History of my Family in France
The story starts here
Previous episode: Part 104
During our first year in Canada, Roseline was in grade 11 at Richmond Secondary School, Betty in grade 9 and Syrille in grade 8 were in McRoberts Secondary School and Gaëlle was in grade 4 in Whiteside Elementary School.
The reason why Roseline, Betty, and Syrille were in two different secondary (high) schools was that at this time, in Richmond, there were two kinds of secondary schools: senior secondary school for grade 11 and 12, and junior secondary schools for grade 8, 9 and 10. Two years after our arrival, the system was changed and there was only one kind of secondary school, from grade 8 to 12. So Betty and Syrille did not need to change schools after grade 10.
The McRoberts and Whiteside schools were within walking distance of the house in Berry Road, so most of the time, Betty, Syrille, and Gaëlle were walking to school. Initially, I must have driven Roseline to Richmond Secondary, but after a while, she must have taken the bus to go to school. At this time in the Lower Mainland, high schoolers were given a card that allowed them to use public transportation (buses and SkyTrain) without paying.
All my children were in French immersion schools, so part or all of their subjects were in French. But they needed to also get English as a Second Language (ESL) so that they would be able to speak English fluently. So, they spent half of the school day in French immersion and the other half in ESL.
In ESL, the majority of students were Chinese. And some of them were spending six years in ESL because outside of ESL, they mostly spoke Cantonese, with their Chinese friends during recess and with their parents and siblings at home. For my children, the situation was very different, as there were almost no students that spoke only French. So, they had to practice their English with the other students and this way their English improved very quickly. The end result was that they did not spend too many years in ESL.
We spent only one year in the house on Berry Road, as it was not really comfortable. During spring 1995, we started to look for another house to rent.
Continue to Part 106
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Summary
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7
Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14
Part 15 - Part 16 - Part 17 - Part 18 - Part 19 - Part 20 - Part 21
Part 22 - Part 23 - Part 24 - Part 25 - Part 26 - Part 27 - Part 28
Part 29 - Part 30 - Part 31 - Part 32 - Part 33 - Part 34 - Part 35
Part 36 - Part 37 - Part 38 - Part 39 - Part 40 - Part 41 - Part 42
Part 43 - Part 44 - Part 45 - Part 46 - Part 47 - Part 48 - Part 49
Part 50 - Part 51 - Part 52 - Part 53 - Part 54 - Part 55 - Part 56
Part 57 - Part 58 - Part 59 - Part 60 - Part 61 - Part 62 - Part 63
Part 64 - Part 65 - Part 66 - Part 67 - Part 68 - Part 69 - Part 70
Part 71 - Part 72 - Part 73 - Part 74 - Part 75 - Part 76 - Part 77
Part 78 - Part 79 - Part 80 - Part 81 - Part 82 - Part 83 - Part 84
Part 85 - Part 86 - Part 87 - Part 88 - Part 89 - Part 90 - Part 91
Part 92 - Part 93 - Part 94 - Part 95 - Part 96 - Part 97 - Part 98
Part 99 - Part 100 - Part 101 - Part 102 - Part 103 - Part 104