oh, picardie

I'm all mixed up by daylight savings time. My computer still has the time for back home, and I'm now so used to looking at it and knowing exactly what time it is here. Well, the clocks sprang ahead back in the US, but it doesn't in Europe until the end of the month. Now, I'm all confused by the time. I could change my computer, but then, I'd never know what time it was back home.

I sat in on an extra class just now, because I might miss their class tomorrow, and these kids are awesome. Okay, not really at English, but just at life. They are beyond friendly to me. One of them has made his class buddy and always sits next to me and seems to care about learning new words in English. There's also a lot of teasing between all of us, and there's just a nice lighthearted nature between us. Love it!

I also learned that the word "moniche" is not mean in Picardie. It is a term of endearment. We have constantly been fighting against this term, because we do know the bad meaning and would not believe there was actually a nice connotation. Plus, a few of the people we asked about it outside of that group of friends were like "jamais gentil" (never nice) or had just never even heard the word. Well, today with my BTSers, we were talking about "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis". Claude was saying that in the teachers' room they were talking about the word "biloute" which has a nice connotation up here in the north, but literally, it's not a nice word. Up here, it's almost like "friend". Well, not exactly. But, well, for lack of a better explanation, it would be like saying to your friends in English "Hey! What's up, bitches?".

Anyway, Claude asked the students if they would be offended if someone called them a "biloute", and they say no. Well, N. decided this would be the time to bring up "moniche". He asked Claude to explain to me that when he calls me a "moniche", it's not mean at all. I was like "Oh no! He did not just bring that up", because believe me, the literal meaning, not nice at all. But Claude agreed that it wasn't at all mean in this region. So now, I have to explain this all to Hart and Katie since we're always like "C'est méchant!" (that's mean) (oh yes, I was given a good impression of that in class by N.... as well as Katie's favorite phrase), and N. and friends are like "Non, ça veut dire les jolies filles" (it means pretty girls). Well, after months of fighting against it, I find out that it does have that meaning.

Oh, Picardie. Why are you so messed up?

The weather has cleared up a bit since this morning. It was very windy and torrential downpour, but now, it's just really windy. Hopefully, the rain stays away, because I need to go grocery shopping. I'm making dinner tonight - stuffed shells. Hopefully, Viany will be able to relinquish control of the kitchen. She's agreed to let me do it, so we'll see.

Ehh... it already looks like it's going to rain again. I wonder how many sunny days Picardie actually has during a year.