Je commence des cours...

I am exhausted after my first 2 days of classes. It takes so much energy to concentrate on understanding what the profs are saying while at the same time taking notes on the material...
In House Church we sometimes share by saying "highs" and "lows", so I'm going to do that for the past 2 days since I've had a lot of ups and downs...

-HIGH: Monday morning I went to 3 hrs of French language instruction - which sounds awful but was actually really good. It's part of my Grammar Block that I'll have 12 hours a week with the same group of students. It was really easy - the prof spoke slowly and clearly, and we spent most of the time introducing ourselves and getting to know the other people in the group. I came out of it feeling encouraged in my French skills because I was able to understand almost everything the prof said.

-LOW: Monday late afternoon I went to two literature classes which were pretty boring. I had some difficulty understanding the profs, and by the end was starting to zone out. I started to wonder if my other classes would be like this...

-LOW: Dinner Monday night was the most awkward thing in the world! The 29-year-old son of my host family came to visit, and he spoke so quickly that I could barely understand anything. When I was introduced I had to "bise" him - in France you kiss people on both cheeks as a greeting - which I had only done twice before and was weird. When all of us were at dinner the three of them talked non-stop at such a pace that I quickly gave up trying to understand. I just concentrated on my food and tried to be invisible. It was nice in a way because I didn't have to put forth the effort of trying to formulate sentences in French, but it totally blew my confidence of the morning in my French skills. French spoken in a classroom in very different than French spoken in casual conversation! After dinner I opted to read a magazine (they get TIME here - that was actually a HIGH because I like knowing what's going on in the world. I read about ethnic cleansing in Kenya and the situation in Pakistan, which were both very interesting.) But I could hear all of them in the next room talking and laughing and having fun, and it made me wish I was with my family and friends at home where I was part of that group. When I went up to my room I was feeling pretty down, so I decided to look at some pictures I had brought. They really cheered me up, and I got inspired to use some to decorate my room. I also got inspired to do some more unpacking - I hadn't unpacked everything when I first arrived, and then hadn't gotten around to it in the past week. So I guess the evening really turned into a HIGH...God's cool like that :)

-LOW: In my French language class this morning I was really frustrated with the grammar lesson we were doing. I was trying hard to understand it, but having a really difficult time. The prof came over and explained it to me again, so I think I understand the concept, but I'm not real confident that I can do the exercise. The most frustrating part is that it is NOT grammar that I'm going to use in conversation - it's too complicated. I had hoped that the Grammar Block would give me a refresher on some of the basic stuff that's I've forgotten - different verb tenses, negatives, conjunctions, etc. But instead of reviewing that stuff, we're moving on to harder stuff! So my confidence in my French skills plummeted yet again...and any review of useful grammar will have to be on my own.

-HIGH: This afternoon was really good - I had a class on French Society that turned out to be really interesting, and then went to a "Litterature Desinees"class that turned out to be about cartoons! I was going to go to a class on European Institutions, but it turned out that it was a continuation of a fall class and new students weren't allowed in. I was kinda bummed about that, but while waiting for my next class I got into a really good political discussion with another BCA student. We have the same views about almost everything, and our discussion meandered from how to work for change without getting too discouraged, the US's abysmal foreign policy and how it has caused pretty-much every problem in the world, terrorism and who gets to define it, globalization, and the presidential election. I love discussions like that! :) I guess that's one thing that's been hard about speaking French (a LOW) - I can't articulate my thoughts in an intelligent manner. Like our director said during orientation, I have the vocabulary of a child and that's how I sound when I talk to French people. It's frustrating not to be able to say what I'm thinking, and it's difficult to form relationships when my ability to communicate is so limited.

-LOW: When some friends and I were walking back from the university they wanted to see which way was faster, but they walked so fast that I couldn't keep up. Instead of waiting, they left me to walk about a block behind. They thought it was funny, but I didn't. I hate the feeling of being left behind...

-HIGH: Tonight I took the dog for a walk as usual, and that helped clear my head. At dinner the awkwardness of the night before was gone, and we had a very pleasant time. I was even able to talk coherently in French about my day :) Afterwards we watched the news, and now I'm here at BCA writing to all of you! So it was a good evening.

Thanks for listening to my highs and lows...although this post was not any shorter as I had promised. Hope all is well on the other side of the pond, and let me know what's going on with you! :)

~Peace~
Amanda