Talking the Talk

My apologies for my absence for the past two days. Tuesday marked the day that I start watching the baby solo, and it's been tiring to say the least. Lucky for me, she's teething - bad. Which means a cranky baby who doesn't sleep well. Which means I don't get my usual break to blog during her nap time. Which means I'm pooped at the end of the day. Which means I veg out in my room with a good ol' American movie and a book with my phone on silent. So again, my most sincere apologies to e-mails and phone calls I've neglected. I've been pooped and quite honestly have no updates to inform you of.

INSTEAD I've decided to entertain you with my experiences with learning French while here. The Bon's claim my French is very good, and alway tell me how impressed they are. I started feeling pretty cocky until I went to the supermarket and some lady in line behind me turned to me to express her discontent with how long the line was, and I pretty much froze - standing there muttering something like "oui oui..." with a confused expression on my face. It was really just the equivalent of "Can you believe this line? Sheesh!" and I must have looked terrified. Reality check.

With that said, here are some other funny things I've noticed about the French language:
-The French word for one's boyfriend or girlfriend is "petit ami". This literally translates to "little friend". This means that in every day conversation you have the opportunity to say "Say hello to my little friend", just like Scarface, and it would be totally normal. Gets me every time.
-When I first got here, Marjorie and her mom kept calling the baby a "vilaine fille" whenever she would misbehave. I thought it was hilarious! Like a villain in a comic book or something...what a great alternative to saying "bad girl". So much more dramatic: "VILLAIN!!" I looked it up. It just means naughty.
-In French, the verb for sleep is "dormir" - the same as in Spanish. And as a lot of you know, in Spanish when your mom wants you to go to bed she says "Mimis" (for the -mi in dormir). But in French, they say "Dodo" (for the do- in dormir). That struck me as funny since it's the same exact verb...
-The Bon's and I communicate through 3 means: 1) I actually understand what they're saying 2) We look it up together on the computer 3) An impromptu game of "I can't understand you" charades. So naturally when we were strolling through downtown and I wanted to know if graffiti was pretty common, I started acting out the action of "graffiti" like a mime in the middle of the street. Turns out it's the same word in French.

So that's that. I started getting pretty discouraged with my French, but then I think about how much I've learned in the small 11 days that I've been here and I feel better.

In other news, there is a strike going on in France right now because the government is trying to raise the age for retirement from 60 to 67. My french professor once told me that there are 2 national sports in France: soccer and protesting. They protest EVERYTHING. Right now, the protestors include anyone in public service - including the post office. So, if anyone has sent me any letters, they might be a bit delayed. I'll keep you posted (no pun intended).

ALSO! My friend Léa arrived in France as did my (old) roommate Mallory!!! And my friend Lauren arrives in Paris tomorrow (Yes, I have friends). It's so nice to have people to talk to in my time zone. Mallory will be visiting me this weekend too!!!!! Definitely looking forward to seeing a familiar face :) You can check out Mallory's blog HERE!

À Bientôt.