Okay, so its been a while since I've written. A ton of things have happened since I last wrote, and frankly I had been avoiding writing because there was so much to say. Things I was up to, things I was feeling and thinking, things I was observing... everything. Also, most nights I end up exhausted and too tired to sit down and write after having taken in so much each day. Nevertheless, I've been keeping a notebook with me to jot down short ideas I wont forget to write about later. I've just reached my one month point here in Clermont, and can't believe it went so fast. However, when I was here for only a week, I had already felt like I was here for a month, now its just feels like a month in a different way. Maybe that sentiment can be somewhat explained by some of the things I can and cant do after one month. So... voilà!
Things I can do (somewhat) successfully:
-Make contacts to work at circuses! Pics to follow!
-Drink a shot of espresso in 5 minutes before class so I can function, but NOT get the shakes
-Enroll in a couture class (with a bunch of middle aged women...yes!)
-Get my computer fixed (free of charge), but lose all documents, music, pics etc.... is that success?
-Decode texts from French students without help (ex. “C'est” means “it is”, the way you pronounce the phrase is “say”, which also happens to be the same pronunciation as the letter “c” in the French alphabet. Poof! Chic SMS short hand. Another one: the expression “j'ai” means “I am”, which is pronounced “zjhey” (or something like that), which is the same pronunciation as the letter “g” in the french alphabet. And one more: the equivalent expression for “lol” is “mdr”, which stands for mort de rire “dying of laughter”.) So what does, “Slt c pierre g chanG de num” mean? Answer at the end of this blog!*
-Not be surprised when my host fam tells me that we are going to hike 10K in a day
Things I still cant do in France:
-Be on time (24 hour clock still kicking my ass)
-Take the bus without getting hideously lost (hence contributing to my not being on time)
-Yoga (there is a good story behind this, to follow)
-Understand why the French love PowerPoint so much (Seriously, I just got assigned my 5th assignment that must be completed via slideshow...)
-Laundry. The washer started to “fume”, aka smoke (but really just steam) after I put in a large load of dark colors. It wasn't my fault, I guess the machine is sort of finicky and broken according to my host mom. Basically I cooked about half of my clothes, and she did my next load for me.
Overall, things are going pretty well. On the family front, my host mom continues to amaze me with her kitchen concoctions (amazing fresh soups, lasagna, quiche, and tartes galore), my host sister continues to make me laugh (most recently by coloring the dog with pink highlighter, and by doing hilarious impressions from Harry Potter), and my host dad continues to make me feel like I belong with the family (brought me a little gift box of incense from his last business trip in Thailand). More than those simple actions though, these people are really great. Véronique organizes all these cultural events for groups she's involved in, takes religion classes, and reads with a book club. Dominique rides his bike to the countryside house almost every weekend, is very sweet with his wife, enjoys basket weaving, and used to do cross-stitch when he was young! Camille loves fashion, playing cello, horseback riding and just being goofy. I got her to tell me her boy secrets after watching 13 Going on 30 together... lol.
On the school front, I am still in class a ton and projects/ presentations are what we do. For everything. I've made a few decent French acquaintances, but wouldn't venture to say that they'd be “friends” yet. It is a little hard when the group of American K students takes almost all classes together, and the only thing we have with French students is Marketing and our Pepinière project (real life enterprise study).
Anyway, I am going to be posting very shortly about some of my recent excursions/ adventures (including a doctor's visit, old castles, the top of the largest dormant volcano in CF, a trip to do "les vendanges", picking grapes at a winery, and my first Italian class in French, also known as my first Italian class ever). Wanted to drop a line now though to celebrate one month in Clermont-Ferrand!
xoxo, Colleen
*Answer to the cryptic French text message: “Hi, it's Pierre. I've changed my number!”
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