Everyday Life

A friend of mine asked me the other day to update my blog and for a second I wondered, "But what will I write about? I haven't been galavanting around any new countries recently!" Needless to say, this entry might be slightly less exciting than the last.

After returning to Nantes, I was immediately thrown into SCHOOL. I've had three midterms over the course of the past two weeks and two out of three have been successful (I haven't gotten the third one back yet). The grading system here is a bit different than at home. Everything is "out of 20." A 16 or more is an A, a 15 is an A-, a 14 is a B+, and so on... Strangely enough a 10 out of 20 (which would be failing by our grading system) is a C here. Imagine that. The next few weeks will be busy writing papers and studying. However, it will be nice to get it all done before vacation in April.

Last weekend, we went to see "He's just Not that Into You" in French (Ce que pensent les hommes). I was pleasantly suprised to find that I could understand most of it - although it was slightly weird hearing French voices in place of the actors' normal voices. I think slowly but surely my comprehension of the language is getting better. I'm finally starting to pick up on certain French catchphrases and mannerisms that will hopefully allow me to improve in my own speaking.
Last Sunday, my "host" grandparents came over for the day. At first I was really nervous that I would sound stupid speaking in front of them, but they were more than forgiving! The grandpa kept reminding the grandma to speak slower for me and the grandma told me that she thought I had a "belle accent" (beautiful accent). We had a really interesting discussion about culture in the United States and the whole family regaled me with stories. The grandpa shared a bit of his family history (his mother comes from Greece) which was interesting to hear. All in all, it was a nice day with my host family and what I thought would be scary ended up being a good experience!

The strike at the university continues. Fortunately, the one university class I have is a class with many IES students. So our professor came to IES on Monday so we wouldn't get behind. I feel bad for other students in my program who are taking a lot of classes at the university because they're stressed about getting enough credits for the semester, etc... It's just a sad situation for students (like my host sister) who WANT to learn and who would do anything to have classes again. I think it's been almost 4 or 5 weeks now.

While I was in London, I received an email from a French student who is studying in Nantes right now and who is going to be the new assistant to the French department at Hope next year! Her name is Aude and she came to Conversation Club with us on Tuesday. She seems like a sweetheart and we're getting together for coffee this week so that we can each practice our "second" language. I'm happy that we put the connection together because she'll be a French friend I can take with me to the U.S.!

This weekend I spent a lot of time with my host siblings because my host parents were gone for the weekend. It was nice to bond with them. We watched a huge French charity concert. If you take every famous French entertainer, every popular French or American song, add wacky crazy costumes, and a ginormous audience you will have a French charity concert. It was certainly entertaining to watch. The style of French performers is very different from that of American performers. There was one particular song in which a man was dressed up as Snow White and his background singers wore fake dwarfs on their backs. Strange, no? Anyway, I feel slightly more enlightened to the world of French entertainment now.
I did a little bit of shopping yesterday. I've been pretty good about not spending money on clothes whenever I feel like it. But I think that's because IF I did that, I would be buying whole stores. The clothes here are so cute, but of course rather expensive. So we did more window shopping than anything. I wish I could have a one thousand-dollar shopping spree in France! Of course, if I were given one thousand dollars, I don't think I'd spend it on clothes but rather on a plane ticket for my parents to come visit me!

I think that's all for now. Frankly, today's been a bit of a lonely day. Sometimes the language barrier really gets to me and I find myself wishing more than anything that I could be back in the States in the presence of people who really know me. But then again I don't want to wish away my time here because I'm never going to get it back! Always a rollercoaster ride, this adventure of mine. :)