First Day of School!

Today was the best first day of school I’ve ever had!  Mina and I rode the bus to school together and she introduced me to her Japanese friends, who were very nice.  I love the Japanese style; I can’t really describe it, but they wear a lot of accessories and combine many articles of clothing.  It’s very cute.  Her friends and I communicated mostly in French (otherwise in a bit of English) and laughed a lot at our many errors in grammar and pronunciation.  All of the students sat in a theater, listened to the director speak about the program, and then took a placement test.  The exam was part listening comprehension, part reading comprehension, and part grammar.  It wasn’t too difficult and we find out our results tomorrow, which will divide us into eight groups based on our level in French.  After the test, we ate a big French lunch with many courses and lots of bread!  I met two American friends; and at lunch sat with Mina, the two Americans, and a few Japanese friends.  We laughed a lot, mostly at ourselves speaking French, which seems to be the best joke here...

Me and my new friends at lunch!  Mina is the girl to my left.

After lunch, all of us and even more of Mina’s Japanese friends went to Centre Ville for a bit of shopping. It was a different experience going in a group rather than being by myself, but I think this group was too big.  It took forever to go anywhere because first the other two Americans would ask me something (in French—we’re supposed to speak to each other in French at all times), then I would discuss the idea with Mina, she would talk to her friends in Japanese, Mina and I would talk some more, and finally we would do something.  There was a lot of standing in a huge group in the middle of the sidewalk and blocking people while we conversed—this was the part I didn’t like.

Anyways, I can tell that my French is improving a lot already, especially my listening skills.  My brain feels so overloaded with French that it’s become difficult to write in English at the end of the day.  I’m used to thinking so much about French grammar and vocabulary all day, and hearing it all the time!  This evening I had a lot of good little conversations with Madame about teenagers (Madame asked me a few questions about when I was 15 because she has a 15-year-old daughter), my parents (what their jobs are), my day at school, etc.  And I asked her (as always) a few questions about words/phrases I had heard in French, how I can buy a booklet of bus tickets, and how I can buy and use a cell phone here.  Madame also told me that I am welcome to stay here after September!  Yay!  The university told me that I was responsible for my own housing after September, so this is exciting news.  I did the dishes with Madame after dinner, which I usually do because I enjoy helping her and talking with her.  Tonight she asked me if I had told my mom yet that I do the dishes here and make cakes.  I said I told her about the cake, but not the dishes and then we laughed about that.  It seems I am always laughing here!

One more piece of exciting news—I may be going to a beach called La Baule this weekend on the Atlantic coast.  It’s a beach where a lot of Parisians go for R&R.  Alexandra, a German girl who lived here in August and came over for dinner the other night, invited me to go with her and her German friends.  I tried to call her tonight, but couldn’t reach her.  Madame helped me write her a note in French and Jean is going to drop it in her mailbox tomorrow morning.  It says, “Hello Alexandra!  If you go to La Baule this weekend, could you come get me first?  Also, you may call Jean to speak to me. (And it gives his number). –Betsy”….Hope it works and I get to de-stress from this grueling day at school on the beautiful beach!

Hopefully I'm on this beach in a couple days...