summer update

I haven't posted here in awhile, so I thought it was about time that I did. I leave for France in less than two months, and I cannot wait! I have a little countdown going on. I will be going to Chicago at the end of August for about two days so I can get my visa. I will hopefully be heading out there with Mira. We met there one year ago at the Consulate. It doesn't seem possible that a year has passed now, and that we're both now heading back for our second year. I will also be meeting up with my good friend Suzanne. We studied together in Aix, and we met up last summer in Chicago. So happy about that!!

Other big news is that I will be also heading to Boston for three days at the end of the month. I'm going there for a conference with work. I'm excited that I'll be meeting up with my friend Tara there who I haven't seen in over a year. Her goal is to make me fall in love with the town.

Other than that, I've just been working. Sometimes, I have major issues with the language. Seriously, people will say things to me, and I stare at them like I have no idea what they just said. You would think that after being back here for two months, it wouldn't be an issue. But nope, it is. And numbers! Let me tell you, I sometimes cannot process those. I focused so much on numbers in French, because I always had trouble with them, and now, numbers pop up more easily in French than in English. Well, at work, we can look up the frequent shopper cards with phone numbers, and I swear, I have to repeat the numbers over and over again in my head before figuring out what I have to type in.

I'm sure customers think that I'm slow sometimes. I'm "special". At least I have a name-tag that says "Je parle français". Maybe they just think English is not my first language as Mira pointed out. Last night, one customer got really snotty with me. She asked why my name-tag said "françois" (yes, that's how she pronounced it), and I explained it. She was all like "Well, that can't be very useful" in a very rude tone. I wanted to slap her. She probably knows zero words in another language... unless they're something that were used in a Taco Bell commercial.

Although as a nicer antidote to that, there's this guy who came in with his two little girls (I remember him from last year when he came in with just the one girl), and he only speaks French to his daughters who seem to be bilingual. His accent isn't French (maybe Québécois?), he speaks perfect English, and his name is about as American/Canadian as they come. He hasn't said anything to me about how I can speak French, but I think he realizes it. I laugh along with what he says to his girls (because he is funny!), and I did say a few little things in French to his girls. Like this past time, he told his older daughter to say bye to me (he said that in French). She acted all shy, so I gave her a little wave and said "salut". She blushed but replied to me. So cute!!

Unfortunately, when there were legitimate French people in the store - an actual group of Frenchmen and only one who spoke a handful of English words - I wasn't there! My coworker told me about them. Such a shame I wasn't there! Though I do still suffer from French fear! I get all shy about my French skills! Plus, now I have a Picard accent...