Yet another perfect week has passed me by...

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Well, I think this is week three that is drawing itself to a close this weekend. It's kind of sad...that's it's passing by so quickly. This week was definitely a "study week." In other words, not much playing around outside of school. That is, of course, attributable to the fact that I had a lot of homework, but more so to the fact that I wasn't feeling too well this week. Always tired (though couldn't sleep well at night) and always felt nausiated. Translation: not fun.

This past Sunday I finally did my laundry. For had I not, I'm afraid I would have been...well...not very well covered near the end of the week! And it's cold here, so that was just simply not an option. Anyways, as I was doing my laundry next door to the foyer, I was working on some homework for my language class. I kept expecting my clothes to be done...waiting and waiting and waiting... well, a little over an hour after they started washing they were finally done. I don't know...it never takes that long in the States. But I didn't complain all that much...I got my homework done...

On Mondays, I don't have class until 13h30, which makes me very happy indeed. So I got up for breakfast at 7h30 and just chilled until noon. Each Monday at the University, there is a Mass at 12h30 (It's a Catholic School). Well, I had seen a little flyer in one of the buildings on campus announcing the mass times/locations and I suggested to Amber that we go, for my family is Catholic, and she had never been to a French Mass. So anyways...we went to Mass. Well, we forgot the fact that the French students were all on vacation this week, thus leaving on the CIDEF students and a few other stragglers on campus. Well, no one in the CIDEF had apparently heard of or wanted to attend mass that day, for it was just Amber and I...well...besides the priest and some other guy that works up at the school in the religion department. So yeh...awkward! Well, we went in anyways and attended the Mass. Well, in a Catholic Mass, there is always the Liturgy of the Word, which basically means "scripture reading." Well, the scripture reading is usually given by someone other than the priest, so when the time came, he asked Amber and I (being the only 2 students there) if one of us wanted to read it. Oh wow...no thank you! It's not that I mind reading scripture, but I just imagined myself totally butchering the scripture during the middle of the Mass... yeah... not a good thing I'd suppose. So I just smiled and was like "We're students in the CIDEF from the United States, but I'd be happy try some other time maybe!" I don't even know why that last part came out, but I figured if the normal crowd was 3 people, how bad could it be?! Well, after the Mass had ended, the priest came up to us and said hello and all that. We learned that he was once a French professor and that he actually spoke English very well, though of course we just spoke in French 😊 Anyways, then he showed us a poem writen a long time ago by Cardinal Newman, and he was so happily surprised to find out that we knew what "thou" and "thy" and all that meant. I thought that was cute... Anyways, he went on to explain that he'd love to meet with me before Mass one day to go over the scripture reading if I'd like to do it. And then he assured me that only about 30 students were usually there for Mass. As if that was just a few. Yikes...that was definitely the deal-breaker... Nah, I'll think about it... 😊

As for the rest of the week, I'm afraid I don't have anything too terribly exciting to share. During the week I just had my classes during the day, and breakfast and dinner with the girls at the foyer. But besides that, nothing much to share. Though one night I did have dinner with a French family with some of the Japanese girls from the foyer...that was nice... And this morning I went to the outdoor market for just a few minutes to get some apples and a little something for lunch. But like I said, I haven't been feeling too well this week. Today is pretty much the first day that I have felt relatively normal... so I didn't want to walk around in the cold for too terribly long. No more sickness for me. That is just completely interdit for me!

Well, I promise to have something more interesting next time around! Hope everything is going well and that your classes are superb! 😊

HMA

Here are some French words/phrases that we're learning in my Familiar French class:

1- Mets-la en veilleuse! = Ferme ta bouche.
2- Baratineur = qui essaie d'abuser de quelqu'un par les paroles
3- Un grand ponte = VIP
4- Avoir sa dose = En avoir assez
5- Prendre la tête = s'énerver
6- Les chiottes = les toilettes (N.B. assez vulgaire)
7- Avoir marre/Avoir sa claque/ras de bol = En avoir assez

All of these phrases/words are coming from a book (that I am reading for my Familiar French class) by Anna Gavalda entitled: Ensemble, c'est tout. This novel is serving as our textbook, for it is practically overflowing with informal French expressions and words. I actually recommend the book to anyone who is looking for something to read. I just started it this Thursday, and I'm already on page 136. Unfortunately, the book is almost 600 pages long haha... But seriously, it's one of those books that you seriously can't put down. And if you don't mind just reading past informal french words that you don't know, it's not hard to understand at all.

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