Julie has informed me I haven't updated my blog since the 18th so I figured with some down time right now I should fill you all in on the last little bit.
Homesickness. Nearly non-existant anymore. I obviously miss everyone back home so much, but this has become my life and I'm starting to love it. I feel like in this last month I have had to do so much and face so many crazy things that the rest of my time here will be a breeze. Well probably minus writing French exams and spending Christmas away from everyone. Anyways. I am nearly integrated into my new life here.
Probably the next thing that I need to focus on is my French itself. You would think after learning how to form the passé composeé when you are 8 you would not have such terrible vocabulary and grammar skills. Apparently you do. It's not like I'm not fluent and can't form sentences with alright grammar. It's just a little embarassing when people ask you how long you have been taking French and you say 5 to be honest and your French isn't really that amazing. But I still often get asked if I'm quebecois. Which is a bit flattering. At least I don't sound completely anglophone.
Today I had class from 1:30-3:30, 3:45-5:45 and 6:00-8:00. Needless to say. It was a long one. But that was 6 hours straight of French listening, writing, speaking and thinking. Not bad. On top of that, my last class was my oral class. It might be one of my favourite classes this semester. There are about 15 people and the prof is really young and nice. She told us to never hold back talking and making mistakes because that is how we learn. I could tell she was genuine about it too. I didn't feel embarassed about saying something. She would correct us, but in a super constructive way. We listened to a radio clip about Hélène Grimaud. One of the questions we had to answer was what was her life-changing moment. The answer was when she met a wolf. When she asked us if we understood, we were all quiet. We were quiet obviously because we couldn't understand, but that this was just really weird.
Anyways, we then went on to describe one of our passions/loves to our partner, and then they explained it out to the class. I couldn't think of anything really exciting so I said B.C. Everyone laughed, but the 6'5 Sweedish guy's passion was chocolate so I was ok. We then had to switch partners and tell our new partner why their passion (we had to be listening too) sucked and how it's the worst thing in the whole wide world. Mosquitos and the cold obviously were brought up. I had to rag on le foot. I said how I don't like how dishonest the players are because they always pretend they are hurt. Drama queens. But the class was so good and I made some good connections. Needless to say, I'm excited for next week's class.
And now it's my weekend. Last night we went to Liza's residence, and Liza and her friend cooked us lovely chicken curry and rice. Delish. Then we had a little international music exchange. In one little room, we had Swedes, Americans, Brits and Turks. And me. Bringing my lovely Canadian music to the mix. We all just hung out and ate and drank wine and listened to everyone's music while putting it on our own computers. We finished the night by watching Flight of the Conchords videos (check this one out. Too perfect for my experience right now. It's so hard to take grocery shopping serious here) until 1am in the morning. Life can't get much better than last night.
And today we officially signed up for classes. It's just another thing that makes this feel more like home. This is where I'm living, and this is where I'm going to school. Tonight there is this festival-esque thing called Tam-Tam. It's basically 3 days of free stuff. My favourite. I think we can get our library cards for free and even get a membership that gets us free access to part of the museum once a week. There is a planetarium ie stars, so many stars. Only one of the most fascinating things in this universe.
Already one month has gone by. It feels like it has gone by so slow, yet at the same time I can't believe I'm already partially done one semester here. One of those things that continues to blow my mind. I should be off. It's nearly time to assemble some form of a meal on a hotplate.
A tout à l'heure,
Skye
PS Also I apologize if my grammar is terrible. I have this ridiculous blend of French and English in my brain right now. It's super hard sometimes to keep the 2 seperated. Franglais is at it's peak ce moment.
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