The end of an era...

Well, today is my last day of French class. I would have never believed that I ever hoped a class would be longer, but I wish I had another week of this class to study!! I have learned so much, but I have not been able to put anything into much practice yet. Although I DID use the Passe Compose in a sentence the other day, that was very exciting for me...nothing like being able to talk about what happened last week eh?

This weekend Cyr and I are taking a weekend trip to Amsterdam to celebrate. We plan to try to speak French more and are even going to make Saturdays "French Days" where he only speaks to me in French. We tried last weekend and it went pretty well! We also speak in French during the week, but it's more casual and he will switch to English when I need him to. I'm hoping that by the time the wedding gets here, October 25th, that I will be able to understand most of what the priest says. Right now I can get the big picture, but I totally loose the details.

Right now I'm off to class and then off to Amsterdam. We are brining a lap top because I want to be able to make some phone calls and send a few emails. It's odd how fast time passes here. I know I have mentioned it before, but it seems that I go to class, come home and by the time we eat it's 10pm. Or 22h for those of you in France. I can not get used to the 24 hour clock here, I am constantly doing math in my head. So I actually speak French AND tell time like a six year old! Not to mention when I shop sometimes I have to look close at the register to see how much it is and hold out my hand for the cashier to pick through my coins. Oh well, at least I keep the Ch'tis entertained.

Lemming

Ok, I am aware that this is an immersion class, but I feel like it's 12 hours a day as opposed to 5. And why does the time pass so quickly here? I can sit down for 5 minutes, but when I look at the clock it's been a half hour. Must be something with the tides or something...

So today in class we did our grammar thing in the morning. We actually had a test. Oh yeah, another test. Oh - by the way I passed the verb test on Monday! Not by much, but I passed! The funny (or sad) thing was that the girl next to me saw my score and said; "Oh man, even you did better than me."

HA! HA! HA!

That's right folks, I was NOT the lowest score in the class!! I know this should not matter to me, but it gave me a little boost for the rest of the class. I think I should have been at least a little insulted by the comment, but I wasn't even the slightest bit annoyed. Hell, I wanted to take her out for beers for letting me know. Ok, back to today...

So we had this test that I thought was going to be on vocabulary and time like depuis, dans, en, il y a and things. In English it's kind of like since, during, ago and things like that. Well it was, but it was also on three other things that I had no clue about. The vocabulary was all fill in the blank with no choices. Seriously, give me something to work with here. I couldn't remember how the heck to say "fireworks" in French or "tablet" of aspirin. The funniest thing was we were supposed to write a recipie in French. I must have missed a class because I don't remember ever doing this. I made it more like directions and in English it went like this:

To make a goat cheese salad you need salad (I couldn't remember the word for lettuce), goat cheese and vinaigrette. You put salad on plate then put goat cheese on salad. With you put vinaigrette on salad and voila, there is goat cheese salad.

I know many of you have just now taken note of this amazing recipie. Let all your friends know that you have Susan to thank for this meal. Oh...I also titled it "Hot Goat Cheese Salad" and then couldn't think of the verb "to warm" so alas my cheese was cold. I guess I could have said "make hot" but I didn't.

After the test the teacher went on about something and said we were going to have the second part of the day in the language lab. When she let us out for break I packed my bag for the lab and was ready to go. I told the girl next to me "I don't even know where the building is that the lab is in, I'm just going to follow you." She looks at me and says "What? What do you mean?" I told her that the teacher said we were to meet in the lab in the other building. She then starts laughing and says; "Oh no Susan! We are on break now and we come back to this room after coffee. When we come back we will go to the next room, that is all."

I totaly was all packed up and ready to move. But hey, I did get one point higher than someone on the verb test. I will always have that memory to cherish.

Week one down!!

Well...I made it. Week one is over and I survived.

Today was a half day, we started at 9 and were done at 1pm. I'm so glad too. The afternoons are mostly conversation and I just feel like my time would be better spent trying to learn the main irregular verbs and the present tense. We are having a "petite exam" on Monday on the present, future proche, future simple and imperfect tenses. Yeah...sure. I am not even sure I can tell you when you use the imperfect. At least I have Cyr here to help me with the millions of questions I have.

After class I was all stressed out and ready for a small meal and a large beer. Some of the girls asked if I wanted to go out to lunch with them so I said yes. Apparently I don't even understand English now, because they were going to the cafeteria. Hullo...je booz-wa un grande bier! When they started to walk in I said about as much, they looked very sad and I excused myself to walk to the train station to head over to O's house for an afternoon of chatting and a secondary lesson. The more I thought about the last hour of class the more I got upset. I needed to just clear my mind. I saw a cafe that was filled with people all over the age of 65 and headed to the bar. I ordered a beer, he got out the 25cl glass and I told him, "Non Monsieur, s’il vous plaît." He totally got it. I had my huge 50cl beer and sat there dazed for about 20 or 30 minutes. I pretended to read the paper and just looked at the pictures, I pretended to conjugate verbs and wrote whatever. I tried to name all the new teams in the Tour de France this year without looking at the paper. I did everything but study and think about that last dreaded hour when apparently (as I learned from O) I was learning to use pro-nouns in the past tense. I had no idea...I was just following the pattern of the example sentences. No clue. Really? Passe compose?? Wow, I rock. I didn't know I could do that.

After chatting with O about life in general I felt like I could tackle the French language once more. We worked for a little over an hour and I feel like I really learned some of the concepts. I think I might no do so bad on Monday when we have our little verb tense test. I might not do super well, but I bet I do a heck of a lot better than I did last Monday. Life isn't so bad after all. It was a hard day, but it ended great, and I have a new friend.

And hey - thanks to all of you that have posted comments, you have no idea how good it makes me feel to read the little notes you leave me!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!! They sure don't do much here for the 4th....

Some times you're the windshield...

Today I might have been the bug.

Today was day 3 of class, really day 2 of learning. I'm so tired from all the thinking and walking, but it feels good to be doing something again. It's funny though, I go through these cycles all day in class. It feels like this;

Oh yeah, ok, I get that. That's good.
I know that. I'm understanding French.
I rock.
Ohh - look a bee outside!
What? What did she say?
I don't know that word, why are people laughing?
I should laugh. I'm laughing.
I think I want to cry..
Oh, I got that, ok, I understand...
Please don't call on me.
I am understanding her.
Ohh - look a bird!

I feel so ADD ridden it's crazy! After class today I met O for dinner. She is the Canadian girl that was too advanced for the class. I was super frustrated with the second half of class and felt like bursting into tears. The 15 minute walk to meet her felt good, it gave me a chance to burn off some frustration. Then it started raining. Of course I didn't have my umbrella with me, did you really even have to ask? I was meeting O in the middle of the square so I stood with my wet-rat self under an awing until I saw her.

Once we started talking she could see how upset I was. We went and had a drink and she helped me with just some basics. She even drilled me and had me conjugate verbs. By the time we were done with dinner I felt like I could go back to class tomorrow and not feel completely stupid.

So right now I'm on an upclimb on my French Language Roller Coaster, I hope the drop isn't too bad tomorrow.

Le Yikes!!

Well...I went to class. I am fairly certain I bombed the written test, then the teacher spoke to each of us to gauge our oral skills. I didn't know this, but apparently she told the class that she didn't want anyone to waste their time or money if the class was too advanced or below a person's level and the test and our little talks would help her determine who fit the class.

I was so nervous when I had to talk with her I couldn't remember anything. I was such an idiot. I wanted to beg for a space and to yell; "You HAVE to let me try. I NEED this. I sit in my apartment all day long because I can't speak this language and if you don't let me in I'm going to turn into a hermit and stop shaving my legs!" I was told that I was "faible" (weak) and that the others were "tres forte" (strong) in the class. Then she took my email and said she would grade the test then email me this evening. Oh...my....gosh. I might get the boot. I might be too weak and she is going to kick me out. Well bienvenue to French schools Susan. I also hear they post all the grades in class and rank you. Nice. I'll just pretend it's alphabetical and my last name is Zzwet.

After class I went to have lunch with two girls (I know!! Lunch!! With people!!). One girl is from Canada and the other from Poland. The girl from Canada is from Toronto, so she didn't grow up speaking French but she speaks it with her boyfriend here in France. Everyday. She said she thought she did alright on the test. During her oral test the teacher took her email and said that she would email her tonight and let her know if maybe she was too advanced for the class. The Polish girl has taken classes but she said they were a long time ago and she forgot everything. She said she did horrible on the test. The teacher didn't even ask for the Polish girl's email. I guess she is in.

I have since calmed down and realize that even the worst case scenario isn't that bad. Worst case scenario; I get the boot from the class, but I get my money back, apply for the free classes I will get once we are married, and best of all - I now have TWO friends who live in Lille and I can practice French with them! Best case; I stay in the class, become better friends with these girls, learn to use the past and future tense in French and get toned legs from walking to class. I'm hoping for something in the middle.

Now I'm trying not to check my email every 5 minutes. Guess I shouldn't drink to calm down, because if I do make it I don't want to have a hangover on my second day of class. Of course that might happen anyway. Cyr is cooking something special for my first day of class celebration (hopefully it's not my last day celebration as well) and has a bottle of champaign for us. Oh well, when in France...

UPDATE: My Canadian friend received and email saying she was too advanced for the class!! Uh! I loved her!! Darn it! She called me and said that the professor sent her an email saying that 9 out of 12 students scored below average on the test and so she was sorry but she didn't think the class would be able to meet her needs. Well, bad for Canada, but I guess good for me. No news yet. And no news is good news right?

Life is Good...

It's another sunny, beautiful day and Cyr is home! What a fantastic day...I have the patio doors open and the window in the kitchen so there is a light breeze that is flowing through the house. No clue what the temperature is, I would have to say it's "Houston-Spring with a few clouds". So...maybe 76ish??

I start my intensive French class tomorrow and am really excited/nervous about it. Cyr is so sweet, he is going to drive me to my class so I don't have to take the metro my first day. I don't mind the metro at all, I actually kind of like it, but who turns down a chauffeur eh? The info says 3 hours of class time in the morning with 2 hours of lab or conversation afterwards. But tomorrow, since it's the first day, we have to take that assessment test I spoke of in my previous post. Not looking forward to that at all.

I've never been a fan of school, I think that is why I was a teacher for a short while. I thought, "man, someone needs to make this stuff entertaining." I did for a while, but then I moved over to the dark side (outside sales) and never went back to teaching. Turns out most teachers are good at sales. I mean come on, if you can sell US History to a room full of 7/8 year olds all at the same time, you can sell almost anything my friend.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and I'll let you know how my first day of class goes! Wish me luck...