Advertisement
Published: January 9th 2008
Edit Blog Post
January 7th
Out of the small cramped hotel room of five girls and on to the next adventure: my host family! We spent our Sunday walking along the Doubs River and re-packing suitcases. And when we were all situated downstairs with our coats on and our bags packed it felt eerie-ly similar to puppies in a pound waiting for someone to come take them home. I wasn’t even sure if my host family was informed of the right date, but hooray! Alain, my... host father I suppose... came to fetch me. That was probably the most nervous I have been in a long time; first impressions are everything. “What if they don’t understand me at all??” “What if they don’t like the way I dress?” “What if I say something to compliment them and it comes off as the rudest cuss word in the French language?” All were thoughts that happened to cross my mind in those last minutes before I was picked up. And even though I can recite lines for a living, for some reason I just tend to blank when I get nervous about speaking French, so the car ride home was a little awkward with Alain’s pointing
of random important pinpoints of the city so that I could find my own way home, and me speaking in broken French sentences with a lot of “Oui, oui” and “D’accord” (Ok). And arriving in someone’s house, even just for a quick visit, is always awkward...this was no different. I met all the children first, and I think I feel the most comfortable with them because they don’t judge and are good at keeping conversation going. They are all very musically gifted... Bastien, the second youngest, is extremely talented at only thirteen. He has a classical band in which he composes and plays clarinet. The daughter, Miriam - 14, loves art and dancing. Then there is Clement, the oldest at 16, and Florin, the youngest at 4. (Florin put on a little marionette show for me and then wanted me to do one in English...so my improv skills have already been put to the test.) They loved my gift I brought them, coasters that double as picture frames with some of my photography in them and recees peanut butter cups (Bastien ate 7 for desert.) They also repeated some of the phrases that they have learned in their English classes
Rooftop
I've been taking a lot of photography here...but that's to post another day. Here's just a sampling, if you will. like “I wake up, I brush my teeth, and then I take the bus.” Which I thought was pretty amusing.
The following contains a longer rant about some little problems I have with the French examination process. Skip ahead if you like:
Alain drove me to school today, and there we commenced a long day of placement tests. The written part took 2 and a half hours. It was difficult not because of the French, but because it was poorly explained and the questions were too subjective to be accurate in level-placement. I didn’t have enough time to finish the grammar section, so I marked some random X’s and turned it in. Meh.
Then, the oral exam. My professor was a French man who was a little too...mean. There’s no other way to describe it. He didn’t ask very good questions (“How many kilometers is your city at home?” ??? Metric, bleh.) and I got a little frustrated when he kept asking me what there was to see in South Dakota. I had already described the Black Hills...and let’s face it, there’s not much else besides the Empire mall. “There aren’t any cows?” he asked. Um, duh there are cows.
And then he started asking me about farming and I explained that I grew up in a city nowhere near a farm. “But you must know something about agriculture, being from South Dakota.” NO, I DON’T. WHY DON’T YOU TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT FRENCH TOAST, s’il vous plait.
Fin.
...of my rant.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to complain. I think things have just been getting to me easier because I’m getting a tad overwhelmed now. Especially now that we wake, and speak French. Go to school, speak French. Take the tests, in French. Go home, speak French. Talk about an overload... writing this has probably been the longest time that my brain has been switched over to “English” this whole day. Even as I type this I slip into French and have to stop, erase, and re-write. It’s not a good limbo to be in when your French is not amazing and your English isn’t either.
To end on a good note, I did get really high results on my exams. I know...after all that. I’m in the highest level of the intensive grammar program of January, which we start tomorrow for 5 hours a day.
Le Doubs
We took a walk down the Doubs river. See my smiling face? I’ll let you know how I faire. If I’m still alive. AND I helped my host brother with his homework on Hamlet. Even if my language was probably absurdly simple, the concepts were still there.
Lastly,
Justin, I petted my first French kitty!
Sara, there is a Sephora here. And almost everything is on sale here now for the "soldes" which are the french nation-wide after-christmas sales that go on for 3 weeks and stuff gets cheaper and cheaper as the sales go on. Don't be too jealous.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0525s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
anonymous
non-member comment
Bastien is such a little turd. But he's a smart little turd...