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Published: September 2nd 2009
Bonsoir à tous!
These past few days have been very exciting and busy! I am so glad I'm living with a family who has young children because I can go to bed as early as them! It's 9pm and we just finished dinner....I'm ready for bed!
Yesterday was our first day at the CLA. We spent the morning going over our itinerary for the three weeks we are here, went on a beautiful walking tour of Besancon, and returned to the CLA for our first Oral Practice. While we were on our tour, we stopped at a popular university cafe for lunch. It was interesting to say the least. I had tomatoes, a tomato salad, mousse au chocolat ( which was really like chocolate jello...sad 😞 ), fries, carrots and rabbit. Now last time I was in France, I had trouble eating the rabbit because it was gray and slimy. I decided it wasn't fair to not give it a second chance....WRONG IDEA. Though the rabbit smelled great.....it was actually rabbit meatloaf. Anyone who knows me very well knows I DETEST meatloaf. It's the only food that will truly make me gag! I don't think i'll be giving rabbit a third chance. At least I tried, right??
As I was on the bus coming home, it began to pour. All I kept thinking was I should have listed to mom and brought the darn umbrella. I had a 10 minute walk from the bus stop to the house (i went the wrong way at first haha) and I was completely SOAKED. The busses that went by made such a huge spash I felt like I was walking through Shamu's splash zone at Sea World. I walked in the house and the family was like OH NO POOR ALANA!!!!! Because little Hermine has such a good heart, she offered to dry my hair. Mind you I have curly wet hair sticky from the dirty water and gel....Hermine used a blow dryer and a brush to "fix me." Let's just say they now know what Diana Ross looks like. The older girl, Ines, tried to fix it by putting a big bow on my head, giving me pigtails, and applying my make up. Aparently it worked because she said I looked beautiful! haha
On to today...
The morning started out great! Everyone was still sleeping when I left so I basically had the house to myself. I was feeling good, ate a good breakfast, took a shower, packed up my things, and headed out the door at 7:45to catch the bus. It was so peaceful outside and I was just taking everything in. What happend next? I slipped on something and almost fell. What was it you ask? A heaping pile of Dog S**T. Yep! It's true! Just my luck... So after lunch as we were walking back to the CLA, I was telling Jackie about my emparassing dog poop slip when I once again step in more dog poop. I swear I watch where I'm going....just not today I suppose. haha Whoops!
Oral Practice is going very well. It's amazing the progress we have all made so far. We started out simple by just using adjectives to describe ourselves...and before we knew it...we were having accelerated conversations while "speed dating." It's really encouraging and motivating to be able to realize all this talking and immersion in the culture is working. Because we had such a good day, some of us went to the Centre Ville after class and had a glass of wine. 😊
We ended class today by reflecting on the question, "What is happiness?" For me, happiness is a lot of things. It's family, friends, love, living, good food, great job, traveling, exploring, new adventures, making memories etc.. But when I really thought deep down about the meaning of happiness...It's being able to find yourself and test yourself outside of your comfort zone. By being here, we are forced to be independant, forced to use our judgement, forced to move forward not knowing what comes next. If we come out of this experience as better people than we were going in, more independant and cultured, more appreciative of the little things in life, more appreciative of family, and really having a sense of who we are as individuals...I believe I will have a better sense of what happiness truly is.
Miss you all and thank you for reading. 😊
Bisous!
Alana
p.s. Thank you for all the coments! I'm trying to keep in touch as much as I can...but I only have about an hour or two at night to use the computer. I promise I will write more and e-mail and facebook and everything when I have some time! I'm thinking of you all always!! 😊 xoxo
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Jennifer :)
non-member comment
:)
Hi Alana! Seems like you are enjoying yourself in france! haha. Those girls seem nice i bet your hair and make up looked wonderful after they "fixed you!" hahahaha. :) Good for you for going to France without family, I would never have the guts to do that! Have fun! Love you! Jennifer :)