des aventures nantaises

This is going to be the last blog update for a while (yay!) because I’ll be home Saturday (yay!!). I just had my translation final (two down, one to go!) and let me tell you nothing more than that makes me realize that yes, there are in fact things that I can’t say in French, and most of them are in fact related to, I kid you not, water ghosts. The only reason I believe that was part of our exam is because it is not at all what I saw coming. That professor is pretty funny I guess if you like stories about talking dogs and water ghosts. I have my last final tomorrow (history), and then I am going to Paris with Meyanna on Friday before hopping on the plane to Dallas, El Paso, and home sweet home!

One more absurd thing before I launch into something a little reflective: I went to see a choir concert at the cathedral last night, and their manger scene was lacking one crucial figure: yes, baby Jesus himself. Ridiculous.

Okay, so here is a very (very, very) short reflective list about this semester:

Things I’ve learned:

• a lot about French
• how to ask questions of strangers
• how to play piano and sing a little more
• lots of things I can’t think about

Things that were awesome:

• the food, the friends I met at IES, how little work there was
• public transportation
• the fact that everything is steeped in history
• restaurants and classes
• the books I read
• the movies I watched

Things that weren’t awesome:

• how expensive everything was
• rain
• people not talking to each other in the street
• not knowing exactly how to say what I want
• not having enough books to read

Things that didn’t always make sense:

• French people eat so much ham
• everyone has country houses
• buses that never showed up
• professors’ instructions for assignments
• French political opinions

Things I wish I could take back to America:

• eating dinner together every night
• cooking at home
• walking everywhere
• spending time with people you like

I am doing crossword puzzles with my friends now, so that will have to suffice. I’m really happy to be coming home soon, and I’ll be happy to be back in France next semester. Until then, thanks for keeping up with me, and I hope you have a beautiful Christmas and New Year!

Sorry guys, I completely forgot about this blog entry until I got home yesterday, and since I don’t have a computer anymore I couldn’t post this until today. Apologies!

We’re in the last week of classes here, and I’m pretty much never ever busy anymore. I turned in all my compositions a while ago, so everyone else is freaking out and I’m watching James Bond movies with my host family. It is pretty sweet. I have been able to spend more time with them now that I’m not working a lot, so the other day I was in the salon working on some Christmas cards for my students, and my host brother was listening to music and for some reason decided to have us listen to the national anthems of the U.S., France, and England. It was interesting, to say the least. He definitely sang along to at least half of The Star Spangled Banner. Last night he played some French boy bands from the 90s for me.

Something that made me feel really good recently is that I turned my final paper in to my internship professor, and when she returned it to me, she told me that I have “a very beautiful French.” I was really happy because I was afraid I haven’t improved as much as I should have… I feel that way about half the time, and the other half I can tell I’ve improved. But there is no way my French from before could be described as “beautiful.” “Efficient,” maybe.

This is the last week I’m with the elementary schoolers. I already said goodbye to half of them, and I’ll see the rest today. I am kind of sad because I love the kids but also kind of happy because I hate trying to teach any of them except the CM1 and CM2. It is really cute though because even the most annoying bothersome kids are still adorable and want to giv hugs and kisses because they are French and that is what they do. I am both nervous about and excited for the kindergarteners’ reaction.

Last Friday my friends and I had a mini Christmas carol sing-a-long, and it was pretty great; I hadn’t realized how much I miss that kind of thing. Then on Saturday we went to the Christmas Market, which was amazing, and I hope to go back soon. There are hundreds of little stalls with all sorts of products and things; it’s a bit like a huge festive flea market that’s open every day except Sunday.

I told my host family that I had learned to play two Christmas carols (Hark the Herald Angels Sing and Angels We Have Heard on High), and now my host mom wants me to play them for the family. Ummm I don’t know them that well, and their piano is really out of tune. Ah well maybe the last day so they have a chance to forget it over the holidays. I also learned to play a simplified version of the Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker. I love love love that piece so much that it hurts to listen to it. I’m pretty happy that one of the books in IES had a version of the waltz, and I’m glad that I’ve had a chance to play piano here. I think I’ve improved a lot.

So I will post one more update next week, which is finals week. I’m going to Paris next Friday, and my flight leaves on Saturday morning, luckily with one of my best friends from here on board! I’m sorry again for how late this is and hope you are having a beautiful holiday season!

… is what the French call dips and curves and stuff in the road. So of course I am speaking metaphorically about the road of life. My computer has officially thrown in the towel and decided to no longer work, which doesn’t really bother me too badly except for the fact that it was not at all old. I had already finished 90% of my schoolwork. Plus I had a good conversation with the guy at the computer repair place when I told him I was from the U.S. I was also proud that he didn’t figure it out on his own from my speech… yay, I’m getting better at French! Plus whenever I read, I manage to pay a lot more attention to sentence structure and stuff and really get the impression that I’m on my way to being bilingual. I can even have pretty good phone conversations, which is hard because of background noise and thinking on your feet and stuff. Woo.

My host mother was out of town this week to go see her new granddaughter… the baby’s name is Faustine, and from the pictures I have seen, she is really adorable. I bet my host mom will want to talk about her a lot. My host dad and brothers were really good about meals and stuff this week, which surprised me a bit: I expected to be eating sandwiches since my host mom wasn’t there… but nope, my host dad even made a quiche one night (even his sons were surprised).

I suppose I should touch on French Thanksgiving: it was really nice to eat dinner with everyone and meet my friends’ host parents, and the singing and piano-playing were good, too, and everything generally was very pleasant. The only funny thing was that the restaurant tried to make pumpkin pie, but the French don’t really do that… so they put in curry spice! Haha, we spent a good five minutes trying to figure out what it was before Hannah finally figured it out. Still, it was a nice night, and I had a really good time. It’s the thought that counts. Plus, right afterward Hannah and I started singing as many Christmas songs as we could think of.

Along that train of thought, Christmas is everywhere here now and is in full swing. There’s a Christmas market, lights everywhere, and posters all over the place, even in schools. I was discussing it with my friend Meyanna; we both really like how omnipresent Christmas is here, with little regard for political correctness and were noting how Americans are kind of afraid to do things like that. I said I thought it was because they had pretty successfully separated Christmas from everything Christian whereas Meyanna argued that the country is historically Catholic anyway, and that probably has something to do with it. I think we both hit on valid points. It is really pleasing, though, to walk around and see all the lights and signs and decorations.

Next week is going to be my last week with the elementary schoolers, and I am a little ashamed to say I am not regretting it completely. They are kind of tiring; I know that sounds mean, but I am just being honest. I will be happy next semester not to do the internship… I am very happy to have done it, but I will also appreciate the rest.

I will be home in less than three weeks, now, and I’m looking forward to it. I still don’t really feel the Christmas spirit yet, but I think I will once I get home. I’m thinking of everyone, and I’ll be happy to hear all your stories as you’ve been reading mine!