La Fin De Tours

Bonsoir Mes Amis,

I'm going to try writing in this more often. There is just so much to say here.

A lot of my time here is thinking about my language acquisition (or sometimes lack of acquisition). My host mother has taken to, instead of willingly answering my "Comment dit-on...?" questions, feigning ignorance and forcing me to explain which words I needs to learn - in French. Last night I was setting the table and there were only three placemats. "Uhhhhh Madam, est-ce qu'il y a un..... comment dit-on? uhhhh... uhhhherrrrrmmmm?" I began pantomiming placemat (someone affectively, if I do say so myself) but she just stared at me with an amused smirk. Eventually I explained "erremmmuhhhhh quelquechose pour protéger la table??"... "Ooooh oui un place de table, c'est la même en anglais, non?" Oh yeah, I guess it is the same in English. Basically this can be frustrating in the moment, but it is really an incredibly affective way to practice the language and really learn the language through the language.

My French abilities are dramatically improving. Every day in my conversation class we talk about "social issues" so I now have an immense vocabulary for talking about road access and my feelings on gay marriage - but I still fail to remember the word for earlier. My host sister has the same issues - yesterday at dinner she tried to convince us that her coat was made of "wood". I did feel like I made a major accomplishment a few nights ago when I explained The Borgen Project and my summer internship to my host mother. We had a very rousing discussion about the developing world and I feel like I managed to convey some very complex ideas IN FRENCH. Things like this bring me such joy.

It is also really fascinating for me to learn a language while entirely immersed within the language. There are certain words I have learned that I don't realize until days later that I only know them... in French. It's kind of hard to explain so let me give an example:

When I came to France I imagined I would be saying Bonjour more than anything else. This is not the case. There is actually a very precise process for greetings and it goes something like this -

Bonjour - This is said when first greeting a person, usually in the morning but it can bleed well into the afternoon as well. Technically one should only said Bonjour to a person once a day - this was never explained to me, but it's just how things seem to work here.

Bonjournée - When saying goodbye for the day one says Bonjournée. It is less "good day" and more "have a good day".... a farewell of good wishes for the rest of your journée

Rebonjour - I learned this a few days ago. Instead of saying Bonjour Bonjour Bonjour people say Rebonjour... it's like "hello again". It's actually rather amusing and I don't know if I will be able to say this with a straight face.

Bonsoir - This is the same as Bonjour, except in the evening. The transition seems to start around 5 pm, but 4:45 seems to work too. I spend a lot of the afternoon psyching myself up to start saying Bonsoir and not Bonjour - and then when I wake up I have to retrain myself back to saying Bonjour. Walking down the stairs to breakfast I often mutter to myself "Bonjour Clara, it's Bonjour... it's morning now you can stop remembering to Bonsoir."

Bonsoirée - Bonsoirée is much the same as Bonjournée, basically a wish for a good rest of the evening. It does have a sense of "you're going out and doing something enjoyable tonight and we might see each other later or we may not."

Bonnuit - In cases where one is most definitely going to sleep and not doing anything beyond that Bonnuit is appropriate. There is much a sense of finality and an understanding that we won't be seeing each other until the morning..... when the process starts all over again.

This is something that has been rustling around in my head the past two weeks, in French. It's just so interesting to be thinking in French and understanding things without having to translate them word by word into English first.

Beyond that my days in Tours have been filled with sitting in cafes, reading books, walking, shopping, eating (and eating and eating and eating), dancing, scaling the gate when our host sister locked it and forgot to give us the key, sleeping, laughing.... it has been wonderful.

Here are a few pictures of the last few days.

Tuesday there was a strike in all of France. The current age of retirement is 60 but the government is trying to raise it to 62, so all of the public transportation, teachers, etc. striked for what seemed only like 2 hours? It must have been settled very quickly? I really should be reading more about this.... I have been awful about keeping up with the news here.

Typical

My classroom in Tours

Some friends and me at Le Loire celebrating John's (on the left) birthday

As for now I am currently on the bus headed to PARIS! I'll post this as soon as I have internet again, and will most likely follow up with an I'm In Paris post later this weekend. Leaving Tours was a bit bittersweet. I am beyond happy to officially start my new life in Paris, but I am going to miss my host family and life in this simple, quiet town. Mme Crespe (ma mere d'acueil) practically begged us to come visit her again in Tours and assured us that we would always have a place to stay - so hopefully I will be able to do so before the year is up. She really was one of the nicest women I have ever met and assuredly made my transition to French life better than I could have ever expected. I think she really enjoys hosting students too and it got me thinking that someday I would like to do the same. It seems to be a great way to travel the world without even leaving your house.

Well I am now going to sleep a bit on this 4 hour bus ride (oh mon dieu!!!!) to Paris.

Bientôt mes amis! Vous me manquez beaucoup.

~ Clara

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J'adore Tours

I was planning on writing a big I'M IN FRANCE AND HERE ARE ALL THE DETAILS post but.... sitting at dinner today I thought a story might be more appropriate and descriptive of my experience so far in Tours, France. (Though, for those of you who have just tuned in - I am staying two weeks in Tours, France about 3 hours outside of Paris taking a French language class before I head to Paris for the rest of the year and a new host family).

Amara, a fellow Trojan, and I live in an itsy bitsy apartment (4 stories tall, two rooms and "une petite escalade" wide) on the top floor with Mme Crespe and ta fille Sybille. Sybille is 18 and I know she would be absolutely hilarious if I could understand a word she was saying. Today at dinner was especially strenuous in the understanding department because Sybille had a friend over for dinner, Alix (??), who talked soooooooooo fast. She had red hair and freckles and zero awareness of the fact that my French is très limité. So for dinner we had this meet thing and cantaloup and bread and there was salad which was passed to me so I started to take some and then my Mme Crespe said something about the salad and I.... just nodded and took some. Moments later I realized I was the only one with salad and then deciphered that this meat cantaloupe thing was not really the actual meal and that the salad was... for later. I then second-guessed myself and wondered if maybe I was the only one that liked salad? Maybe I should put it back? Maybe this is a major faux-pas? Maybe it doesn't even matter? I then figured that the only option would be to just stuff the salad in my mouth as discretely and quickly as possible.... the sooner it was gone the sooner everyone (mostly myself) would just forget about this salad incident. Then we had this fish thing and some pommes de terres (potatoes) with which Sybille had salad.... then other people had salad... then Mme Crespe offered me more salad. Basically I had French salad and French meals.... it's stressing me out.

I've been in France for two days now but it feels like nearly a week if not more. I've been traveling since forreevvvveerrrrrrrr. It's very nice to sleep in a bed but I wish that I was at my homestay in Paris so I could fully unpack and sit down and say "this is exactly where I am living for the next 9 months"... which is something I haven't said for a very long time. It seems like I am always moving somewhere (Anacortes, LA, Seattle, Tours, Paris..... too much). The group is very nice and I'm making a lot of new friends... though I don't know if it is possible to make 69 new ones (there are 70 of us on the trip, and 35 staying for the year by the way. Some other fun facts: there are 56 girls and 14 boys from 26 different colleges. USC and Northwestern have the most students. 20% of Americans study abroad, but only 4.5% of that go for a year. And about 90% of those go to English speaking countries. Basically I feel super isolated in this decision to do something kind of crazy.)

It's really frustrating because I feel like everyone is telling me very important information, but it's all in French so I'm only comprehending 40% of it... pretty stressful for Miss. Need-To-Be-In-Control. For example: my host mom just told me the plan as far as eating for the weekend..... and I'm like "oui, oui, parfait, merci, oui, oui, parfait, merci"..... and in my head i'm like "uhhhhh I think you said you're gonna make sandwiches for lunch tomorrow but I have a very vague idea of what time and... well this will be interesting.

Also literally all I have consumed is in the past two days is: bred, cheese, wine, fish, salad (mehhhh), water, and some cigarette smoke - but not from the French!!!! from some idiot hipster American (hipsters piss me off a lot more in France for some reason).

Well I must be going. Some girls from SC and I are going out and exploring the Tours night life. There's like a river and stuff.

~ Clara