Voyage en France

Well, it's about time I write another entry. That last entry, believe it or not, took my nearly two hours what with the picture-upload time (...5-10 minutes per picture!) and the post-upload photo formatting efforts.. Perhaps it's my shoddy internet connection, but I can stream tv shows and movies, so I'm thinking it's something else...

Anyway, the main reason I haven't written lately is that not much has been happening (for me) in France. Lots and lots of time in the classroom, which I'm very pleased about. By Monday, the national holiday Pentecost Monday (meaning I had a 3-day weekend), I could tell that my understanding of the language was already beginning to dwindle for not using it like I had during the week. But after Monday, I was right back up there. And tonight, I understood nearly everything that we conversed about at dinner!! Je suis tres heureuse!! It's quite an amazing feeling. Although, I suspect that the conversation topic we fell upon had something to do with my comprehension: obesity and food... seems to be something that us Americans are very aware of, and so I had plent to say, and it was interesting explaining to my host family the purpose of corn syrup... I thought everyone knew what corn syrup was! And it was also interesting telling them about my experiences as a serveuse (server) in a restaurant for 5 years.

I think the most surprising aspect of learning a new language is the point where you stop translating word-for-word, and begin to just understand and comprehend the words instead. It's an incredible feeling that I've never had before, neither with French in high school nor with Chinese in college. It's quite empowering, actually. I feel as if I've been let into an elite club where only a few people understand... although if I were to step back, I'd probably see that I'm one of a minority of people who are monolingual in the world. Perhaps this experience will enable me the confidence to pursue the study of other languages (though my horse, family and Andrew might not like to hear that if it means I'll be abroad...).

Alors, ce soir Ramon me donne some Economists since he's a subscriber, so at least now I'll be able to keep up with the current events of the time. Tomorrow, Ramon and I are going bowling with some of his Chinese friends and possibly Corentin, the 15-year-old son of my host-parents. I think that I've been very lucky with this family, especially after hearing the stories from other students in the group... Apparently a 5-course meal is not standard.

As of right now, my class has about (environ) 10 students, 7 of whom are students from South Georgia University. Unfortunately, they are leaving on Saturday. That means that, for my final week in Bordeaux, there will likely be only 3 students: myself and 2 awesome Korean girls. I'm thinking that next week will be much more intensive because it will be easier for us to progress faster with fewer students in the classroom.

Sunday morning I'm going to meet Hyunjiu and Jinjiu (girls - if you ever read this, I apologize for any spelling errors), the Korean girls in my class at the Place de la Victoire, one of the only places in Bordeaux that I haven't seen, to go shopping at an outdoor second-hand market (my dream come true: a giant tag sale!!) and grab some dejeuner. They are both graduate students and live in France. Jinjiu lived in Brooklyn for a while while she went to school in the city, and Hyunjiu has lived in Bordeaux for some time now. It's fun to hear about the cultural differences between South Korea, France and the US.

Alors, I haven't taken many photos since my trek around the city, but I did take some photos of the house to show you where I'm living. Sorry if the lighting provides for poor photos..

This is the table upon which I eat most of my dinners, unless it's too cold out. There aren't really any nagging bugs that bother you outside here, just some flies who seldom come to the table for food. As my professeur says, "France, c'est le meilleure!"

This is the front of the house... a pretty poor photo but I was backed up against the front gate, so the photo can't get much wider. It's really a very pretty facade, and I haven't seen any houses or buildings that stray far from this style. The big windows on the ground level open up into the living room, and my room is on the 4th floor, whose windows you can't see since I only have skylights on the roof. It's like a princess's tower in France!!!!

The patio and table from the kitchen door.

This is the kitchen. Not too large, but they really took advantage of the height of the room for cabinet space! The little table to the left with 2 chairs is where I usually have my breakfast.

Here is the interior dining room, opposite of the kitchen and to the far left when looking at the house from the outside (i.e. from the perspective of the 3rd photo). The color for the inside-photos is a little off; the walls are more yellow and resemble stone from the outside of the house.

This is the entrance to the stairwell, situated between the dining room and the living room, and directly opposite the main doorway. The kitchen, from where this photo was taken, is all the way to the left (on the other side of the wooden wall you see to the left of the photo).

This is the living room of the house. They really have a lot of books, and I've noticed that Corentin has a Zelda game for XBox...! I don't think he realizes how similar our tastes are! I bet they pay a fortune for video games over here. I saw a sign for 72 euros for an XBox 360 game today... that's outrageous! This room is to the far right of the dining room.