J'ai marre de la chaleur
It's so freaking hot here, and it won't quit. I keep expecting it to stop to no avail. This morning, in my pre-awakened haze I thought it was raining on the river out my window. I slept so contendedly for the next ten minutes in my delusion that it would be a little cooler today.
My mouth hurts.
I have little scrapes all over the inside of my mouth from eating real French bread. Real French bread is the beautiful marriage of thin, hard, crunchy outer crust with soft, delicate, but never doughy, inside. So for a person unaccustomed to eating this wonderful creation, shards from the outer crust mar a otherwise perfectly enjoyable experience.
The back of my tounge hurts too. The reason for that took a little longer for me to figure out. At first I thought it was because the British Airways toothbrush I've been using since they lost my baggage is like sandpaper. But this morning I woke up in particular pain and after yesterday's elocution lesson I suddenly realized it was the French language. "R"s in French require one to lift the back of his or her tongue to the roof of the mouth and exale forcefully. Sort of like the "X" in Russian, or just about every letter in Hebrew. Also, a lot of vowel sounds are preformed in the back of the mouth and sound a little nasal.
To aid in healing these maladies, I bought the only form of mouthwash I could find. Industrial strength Plax. Ouch.
I have French friends!!!
The other night I went out with my host brother's friends to a pretty cool bar, l'Abreuvoir "the water hole," with really fun dance music. My host brother lui-même actually didn't come out with us, but I had a great time with his friends. Camilla is his girlfriend and she's got this cool, calm, Bohemian air to her. Guillemette is a totally awesome girl who speaks several languages, but understands that I'm supposed to hear and speak French to get better at it. Anne Laure knows English too, but wanted to speak it with me (as well as her boyfriend, Guilleme, which I'm totally not spelling right), which I actually found kind of difficult after speaking in French for several hours. It seemed weird for speaking to be so easy.
Tonight I went to a party at Anne Laure's house and just generally had a good time. There were about ten or fifteen people there, all French, but most knew English so if i was talking to them and they didn't understand, I could just say it in English. It's kind of cheating, but it makes for a better relationship. It's awkward and embarassing if it takes too long to remember how to say something.
They all had a good time laughing at my mots à apprendre book, a notebook where I write down words to learn. Half of the things in there I'd spelled wrong and about half are words... well, that you just don't learn in class. But I suffered through the laughter good-naturedly and came out in the end with about a dozen more words and phrases.
I really wanted to go with them to this bar on a boat that travels down the Rhône, but tomorrow's Thursday and I have about eight hours of French class.... speaking of which.... bonne nuit.
•
My mouth hurts.
I have little scrapes all over the inside of my mouth from eating real French bread. Real French bread is the beautiful marriage of thin, hard, crunchy outer crust with soft, delicate, but never doughy, inside. So for a person unaccustomed to eating this wonderful creation, shards from the outer crust mar a otherwise perfectly enjoyable experience.
The back of my tounge hurts too. The reason for that took a little longer for me to figure out. At first I thought it was because the British Airways toothbrush I've been using since they lost my baggage is like sandpaper. But this morning I woke up in particular pain and after yesterday's elocution lesson I suddenly realized it was the French language. "R"s in French require one to lift the back of his or her tongue to the roof of the mouth and exale forcefully. Sort of like the "X" in Russian, or just about every letter in Hebrew. Also, a lot of vowel sounds are preformed in the back of the mouth and sound a little nasal.
To aid in healing these maladies, I bought the only form of mouthwash I could find. Industrial strength Plax. Ouch.
•
I have French friends!!!
The other night I went out with my host brother's friends to a pretty cool bar, l'Abreuvoir "the water hole," with really fun dance music. My host brother lui-même actually didn't come out with us, but I had a great time with his friends. Camilla is his girlfriend and she's got this cool, calm, Bohemian air to her. Guillemette is a totally awesome girl who speaks several languages, but understands that I'm supposed to hear and speak French to get better at it. Anne Laure knows English too, but wanted to speak it with me (as well as her boyfriend, Guilleme, which I'm totally not spelling right), which I actually found kind of difficult after speaking in French for several hours. It seemed weird for speaking to be so easy.
Tonight I went to a party at Anne Laure's house and just generally had a good time. There were about ten or fifteen people there, all French, but most knew English so if i was talking to them and they didn't understand, I could just say it in English. It's kind of cheating, but it makes for a better relationship. It's awkward and embarassing if it takes too long to remember how to say something.
They all had a good time laughing at my mots à apprendre book, a notebook where I write down words to learn. Half of the things in there I'd spelled wrong and about half are words... well, that you just don't learn in class. But I suffered through the laughter good-naturedly and came out in the end with about a dozen more words and phrases.
I really wanted to go with them to this bar on a boat that travels down the Rhône, but tomorrow's Thursday and I have about eight hours of French class.... speaking of which.... bonne nuit.
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