Hard to believe I am 80% of the way through my French classes already. With the new week came a new teacher, and she speaks almost NO English (I think her knowledge of English is limited, in addition to wanting to encourage us to think/listen in French) - but she is very nice and very encouraging, and I'm still doing just fine. It is a blessing that the majority of the class speaks English, though. It's not uncommon for someone in the class to repeat back or translate out loud in English, so I get some confirmation that I understand (or didn't understand) what's going on ... group chatter on group assignments is generally in English too. Yesterday we started learning how to read menus and common phrases in French restaurants, so it's nice to have something applicable to learn. I wouldn't say I've mastered French in the past 8 days, but I'm at least a world more comfortable with it than I used to be. It's nice to know, for example, that the same adjective DOES change spelling (and usually, but not always, its prononciation) depending on the gender of the noun it's describing, and that there's no rule for deciding which nouns are feminine and which are masculine (alas). Trying to puzzle through these rules of the language on my own would have driven me crazy.
I have class for four hours a day, then the afternoons are free. The routine this week has been to go to class from 9 to 1, meet up with Andrew around 2:30, and spend the rest of the afternoon doing a museum or a neighborhood walk from one of our guidebooks. At about mid-day or mid-evening we have pastries or coffee, or a nap, or some down time to check email or write to family, then at about 8 or 9 pm we go out again for a late dinner and an evening stroll around the sites at night. It's about as fantastic as it sounds. Just the right level of activity for a truly relaxing vacation. It's so nice to be able to savor one museum a day without rushing to reach them all.
Two more days in France, then the next big adventure begins - biking the countryside! Au revoir!
Angie, it sounds so fantastic... I'm so jealous... (At least I got to see Obama the other night.)
ReplyDeletePlease... roaming the quaint streets of Paris? Coffe shops and pastries? Germans live to work, the French work to live.
ReplyDeleteI've got hours of article reading, the neuro-organization of the brain, many episodes of HGTV house hunters and dozens of dirty shirts from poop covered paws under my belt this semester. Eifel tower is just a big radio tower anyway. (Remember: our family is highly sarcastic and we're all very jealous of your life right now. Stay safe).