le 28 juin

Wow, this school moves fast!

The test I took on Monday must have reflected a student who had a good grasp of verb tenses, but they put me in a class at the level B2, C2 being the highest level.  I credit that to my high school French classes, because I really don't have very much confidence in French yet.  At Alliance Francaise, I was placed in level A1, at the very beginning.  I found that the class progressed very slowly which is probably necessary for students who have never studied French before.  By the end of my classes at Alliance Francaise, I passed the exam for level A2, but the teacher only had 2 of us take the exam because much of the class was progressing at a slower rate.  I found myself craving more work, and would often go further in the textbook than was assigned for homework just to get ahead, which is probably why I progressed faster. 

But here at Actilangue, in B2, I am actually intimidated by how quickly we progress.  I love it!  I don't think it's possible to learn a language any other way than to push you to learn at a spead faster than which you are comfortable, because there's just so much to learn. 

The class is currently working on the conditionnel tense.  Unfortunately for me, the conditional tense in english is formed by adding words, and not actually changing the structure of the verb.  But I think the French love to complicate things, because there are so many rules about conditionnel that I had forgotten about.  And of course, the professor listed about 8 different occasions for which you would use conditionnel.  I think the most common, or at least the one that I remember hating so much in high school, is the "si clauses," 'si' meaning 'if.'  I think that I expected these confusing tenses to be easier now that I'm 24 and really want to learn French. 

I was wrong.  It's hard!  And after two days of learning conditionnel in class, I'm finally starting to get a hang of it.  And I've finally realized that it's necessary to understand the rules surrounding the tenses, but of course the only way to really know the tenses is to practice them.  I will never remember all 8 functions of the conditionnel in list form, but as long as I continue to practice their usage, it will (hopefully!) become like second nature. 

After class today, I went to the beach with Maddie from Chicago and Kerstin from Germany.  How wonderful!  Of course, I didn't have a beach towel, and they're about 19 euros around here... Ridiculous!  Even the ugly, not-soft beach towels are that expensive.  And they can get up to 30 or 35 euros... so no thank you.  I bought instead a bamboo mat that rolls up for 3 euros instead.  Glad I didn't have to buy a ridiculously expensive beach towel!

Neptune Plage

And after staying at the beach for about 2 hours, my arms were starting to hurt from the sun, which usually means I'm burnt.  The sun here feels a lot stronger than in New England.  I'm not sure why, or maybe I just haven't been to Watch Hill lately, but I found myself lying on the beach uncomfortably hot, and my arms were starting to itch from dryness... and I took that as a sign to leave.  I think I might have to invest in a beach umbrella soon... only around 7 euros, though I'm not sure how well they stay up on the rocky beaches.



While swimming with my new international friends, Kerstin told me of a story from when her cousin and her cousin's husband, from Liechtenstein, moved to the US.  Apparently, the husband went to open a bank account, but the banker didn't believe that Liechtenstein was really a country and had to google it.  I think she has the impression that all American's are like that.  And I have gotten that feeling from a lot of people here who don't expect me to know where their country is.  It's really sad, but then again, it's hard to get mad about since I probably have similar stereotypical sentiments toward other nationalities.  But it really makes you think about how small you are in this great big world.


It's incredible how much the sun can really take out of you.  I was so tired that night, and grabbed a quick dinner on the way home, did my homework, showered and went to bed.  The only good thing about how hot it is here is that I prefer to take cold showers.  My host mother, Valérie keeps telling me that the hot water heater is small and she apologizes if the water is cold, but really she doesn't have to worry about that at all since I prefer cooler water!  But knowing the way that my dad keeps the house air conditioned, I'm pretty sure I'll have to revert to hot showers when I get home...!