I have some major catching up to
do. I have literally been busy for the
past 6 weekends and haven’t made time during the week to write my blog. So here it goes.
April 6th-9th
Easter weekend I went to London
to visit a friend I went to college with.
Anna and I lived on the same floor our freshman year. She is currently doing a Masters Program
there so she was the perfect tour guide.
I had a great time while I was there and was able to eat food that was
American-like and was actually able to understand 95% of what was said (some of
them have crazy accents that it doesn’t even sound like English). In France I probably only understand about
80% of conversations…luckily I have good deduction and reasoning skills.
Anyways, while in London I did
all the touristy things: London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Kensington Palace,
Buckingham Palace AND got to see the 2012 Olympic Stadiums! I am sure it will be super cool this summer
when I can say “hey, I’ve been there!”.
The night before I left I met up
with two of my friends/current HWS students who are studying abroad. We went to a pub where I drank a DELICIOUS
hard cider and ate some fried food that was all kinds of terrible for my
body. Don’t worry, my body punished me
the next day. I am afraid how my body is
going to react when I go home!
Overall, I had a great time and
it was really nice to be able to hang out with my friend Anna!
April 14th-16th
Last weekend I went to the Palace
of Versailles in Paris! Friday night I
spend the night at my French friend Elisa’s house and Sautrday morning at 4AM
it was rise and shine so we could take our bus to Versailles. I was afraid I was going to get bus sick so I
sat in the front seat and lucky me, I was able to sleep the whole way
there. About 4 hours or so! They all made fun of me and were like “Oh,
the trip here was beautiful, don’t you think?”
Haha…they were just jealous they don’t have my napping skills!
We arrived at Versailles around
10AM and started with walking around the castle. We picked up an audio guide to listen to the
history and background information about the different rooms. The rooms were cool but were over-crowded and
the audioguide was a little boring. Everything
always says how Versailles is so cool I think my expectations were set to
high. It was cool, just not
amazing.
In other news, as I said, I went
with my friend Elisa, and one of my students (who is friends with Elisa as
well) and her younger sister Manon.
Manon clung (clinged?) to me because she thought I was the coolest thing
in the world. Which I think it pretty
funny seeing as she didn’t always understand me when I spoke (I always didn’t
understand her when she spoke either).
My student Laureline was our translater…except not a translator, just a
repeater. She repeated what I said with
all the French noises I can’t make and repeated what her sister said while
speaking at a normal pace! One time I said
something and Manon giggled and I asked her if she understood what I said and
she was like…”ummm…no.” It was funny
because even when she couldn’t understand my French, she still thought I was
the coolest thing since sliced bread.
After seeing the inside of the
castle, we saw the gardens and fountains which were pretty cool! The bushes were beautifully pruned and
shaped. Also, everything was
symmetrical! Pictures to come.
Finally, at 5PM it was time to
head back. We stopped for dinner at a
rest stop and eventually made it back to my friend’s town around 10:15PM. THEN, José convinced me to go to a party in
Limoges. I gave in because it was going
to be the last time that I could see some of the other assistants. We talked, danced, and drank until 5:45 in
the morning!!! It was a really fun night
and although I was super tired, I somehow managed to stay energized the whole night
(Red Bull may have helped a little)! We
then spend the night at José’s adopted brother’s apartment and headed back to
Bellac…feeling like crap of course.
Last Week in France
This past week has been
absolutely amazing. Monday I was able to
sleep in and catch up on the sleep that I missed during the past weekend and
then taught my 3 courses. All my students
were very nice and enjoyed my last lesson about differences between French and
American culture. They found it very interesting (and it is)…and then I bribed
them to pay attention with candy. Haha. Works like a charm!
Tuesday my American friend Stefanie
came and we hung out and said out goodbye’s.
We didn’t do anything exciting because it was raining outside, but we
did watch a Disney movie and ate brownies (I haven’t eaten brownies since I’ve
been here, so it was a nice treat).
Right after Stefanie left, I went to judo to say goodbye to all of the
lovely, welcoming people I have met over the past few months. After judo was over and I said my goodbye’s,
I was really sad. The people at the club
are so friendly and truly make me feel comfortable to speak French. They joke around and act goofy, and we always
have a good time. It stinks that the
past month or so I couldn’t go because of my stupid foot. Oh well, at least I took the time to say
goodbye.
Now on to Wednesday. Wednesday I closed my bank account, a process
that was much easier than I expected. My
normal bank counselor lady (I forget the English word for this) is on maternity
leave so I was a little nervous to meet with someone else. It went fine and I understood everything she
said. I forget sometimes that I actually
know, understand, and can speak French.
Silly me. After that, I took a
nap and then José and I headed off to the pool!
When we got there, they informed us they were clothing an hour early and
we only had 45 minutes. We both worked
the hardest/quickest we ever have at the pool and even made time to go in the
hammam and sauna at the end of the workout!
José has definitely become a much better swimmer since the beginning
because now he can keep up with me and in the beginning he couldn’t. Good for him.
After the pool, we went to an assistant’s apartment who was having a get
together/soirée. We ate dinner, chatted,
and listened to one of our friends play guitar while the people who knew the
song sang along. It was nice to see a
few of them one last time.
Thursday… Thursdays are always my
busy day. I have 2 classes in the
morning, my 2 hour French class, and then teach 2 hours after my 2 hour French
class. Busy busy busy! My first class went well and the class gave
me nice card. My second class was
amazing. They are my favorite group at
the middle school. They are both polite
(most days) and intelligent. I feel like
that a class like that is hard to come by.
There teacher was absent because he said some kind of training in
Limoges (of course he couldn’t warn me), so I took the whole class for an hour.
Technically that isn’t allowed, but they are such a nice class that I don’t
mind. We started with differences
between French and American culture and ended with a game. At the end of class, they gave me a
present. It is the cutest thing I have
ever seen. It has all of their pictures
on it and says things like “We will miss you” or “we miss you already” or “we
love you” or “we are sad because now we will have Monsieur Bordes all the time.” They told me to fire their teacher so I could
be their teacher. I told them I can’t
teach English because I don’t know the grammar rules and they told me they didn’t
care. At the end of class we took some
pictures, I had a girl hanging onto my leg telling me I can’t leave, and they
all gave me a huge group hug (hugs are weird for them just like their
kisses/bisous are weird for me). They
loved it and love me. I truly will miss
them. They really didn’t want me to
leave. So much that 3 of them lined up
in front on the door so I couldn’t get out!
I then had my French class that
went well. It was only me and a new guy
so I was the only one who did my homework writing about what I think about
French politics. So the teacher
corrected my homework on the board, I LOVE individual attention and being
corrected! It’s the best way for me to
learn. At the end I said goodbye, gave
kisses, and walked home in between the rain showers (lucky me). I then had my 2 classes left for the day. When
my first class never showed up, I went to the office and the lady told me it
was normal because they had an equivalent of a practice SAT (or course no one
could tell me this in advance). I
already set up the projector to show a PowerPoint so during that hour, I
watched the show Private Practice on the projector. It was like a personal movie theatre. Haha.
It was great. I then had my last
class with 12 girls and it went really well again (partially because I bribed
them with candy)! After my classes, I
packed my things (mostly everything fit), and waited for José and our Mexican
friend Daniela to come to make us tacos for dinner! They were delicious (and not at all similar
to the tacos we have at home).
And then it was Friday. I said all of my final goodbye’s to the
important people…the principal ,English teachers, nice office ladies, etc. The worst was saying goodbye to José. He gave me a photo album (it just took me a
solid minute to remember how to say photo album…I could only come up with the
word photobook). It was really nice and
he commented on the photos. Remind me to
show it to you the next time I see you.
He then helped me carry my things out to my friend Elisa’s car where we
hugged and I started crying...and José teared up as well. Of course 4 of my students were outside
smoking and saw me crying. I really am going to miss him. He has been my closest friend for the past 7
months. He will just have to keep it
touch!
And here I am, a car ride, train
ride, and shuttle ride later…sitting in my hotel. Today I woke up at 4AM said “No Delee, go
back to sleep” and gave up at 5AM and got up.
Keep in mind that my alarm wasn’t set to go off until 7:30! I showered, got dressed, and breakfast and
after that, STILL had 3 hours to week before it was time to head to the
airport! So, here I am writing this blog. It’s probably a good thing that I woke up so
early because I was able to catch up on my blog and will be able to sleep
better on the plane! Guess it wasn’t so
bad after all.
Hope you enjoyed reading my
blog. At some point after I proofread my
blog for my many grammar and spelling mistakes, I am going to make it into a
book. Should be interesting to read it
and keep track of my “Exploration of France Part 2.”
