Well, it finally appears that I have working internet chez moi! About damn time! I was beginning to get really annoyed. Who am I kidding? I was far past really annoyed!
Anyway, Natasha's friend from England came to Chauny for the weekend. I think she was quite entertained by small time France. Cuba made an appearance, bien sur. And she was quite freaked out be the French bise. No one could get near her! LOL! I think she possibly avoided doing it all weekend... maybe. We might have seen S. while we were with her??
We had a yummy lunch at our cafe before spending Saturday night in Paris for Natasha's birthday. We had such a great time! There were a few of her friends from England, so it was us, them, and an assistant from Amiens. We had a delicious dinner complete with dessert. We then spent the night in some bars and pubs before searching for food again around 4am. It was... questionable. But kind of cheap and about the only option we could find. Apparently kebab alley has been transformed into one kebab place. The others were all closed when we went! We were completely exhausted by the 6:40am train back to Chauny. But the night was well spent! And Paul so proved to be the star of the evening. We still break out into fits of laughter whenever we think about some of the things he said and did. Seriously! Hilarious!
Let's see... what else? I took a quiz in French. Yes, you read that right. My terminale S group have been bugging the teacher to make me a quiz. Well, they had a quiz on Monday, so Claude had me do the same quiz (describing a photo) but in French. Today, he and I corrected it. I scored a 19/20! Sweet! I was kind of nervous, because my written French this past year and a half has been confined to only text messages, talking on MSN, and emails. You can guess that no one uses proper French in those. While I was writing the quiz, I had to keep going back and writing "ne" when doing the negative. The main mistakes I made were when I wrote things the French say rather than write (because apparently they're lazy when they talk and try to avoid things like the subjunctive), so that was normal. He actually was quite amused by that, because it shows I've picked up things the students and locals say. And other times, I didn't know a specific word, so I kind of talked around it, but still got my point across. So yeah, he was impressed and said that the students will definitely be seeing my paper during our class Friday.
Other than that, not much else has been going on. I do have some exciting plans coming up though! Tomorrow, we're watching Love Actually and celebrating the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau. Friday, we have plans to meet up with the Australian in town. Next Saturday, we're celebrating Thanksgiving in Chauny. Yes, I am imposing my culture on the others. I think there's going to be a lot of people, but so far, I am the only American. Then, December 6-7, we are going to Paris for the K&K 200th episode podcast and for the Christmas markets. Shall be fun!
Oh, I'm also having language issues. Seriously. Some days I can't speak in either French or English, or I do a horrible mix of the two (Case in point, I almost just wrote "melange" instead of mix). I also have a tendency to use the French equivalent when I speak in English. If that makes sense. For example, I've been using recuperated (like the French "récupérer") instead of "to get back" or "to retrieve" or whatever. Like "I recuperated my coffee mug from the other high school" instead of "I got my coffee cup back from the other high school". An the scary part is the former sounds more natural to me than the latter. Not good. And that is definitely not the only example! I also just prefer some French phrases to those in English. Like "faire la tête". I have not found a good English equivalent that conveys quite the same meaning, so it has made it into my English vocab.
My franglais has come to that point too, and hanging out with all these English people has made me say things like "I can't be bothered to" instead of "I don't feel like it". Ugh.
ReplyDeleteWe are having the most multicultural Thanksgiving ever: A Mexican girl, 3 English girls, a Spanish girl, 2 German girls, a Swedish girl, and maybe a Chinese girl, along with 5 Americans. WOW. We are doing it next Sunday, I can't wait!
OMG! Me too! I've been saying things like "rubbish" and "bin" and who knows what else. Though Natasha and I did have a little "fight" at dinner tonight over "chips" and "fries". LOL! The surveillants probably thought we were mad.
ReplyDeleteI go to great lengths even in written French to avoid the subjunctive! I'm pretty sneaky about it. Also have been trying to teach student the "describe the word you don't know" thing, since it's much more useful than standing there silent searching for the perfect word.
ReplyDeleteSee you in Paris in a few weeks!
@Andromeda: You know I actually like the subjunctive and I don't try to not use it. I think I subconsciously like to show off that I do actually know it. But I have a horrible concept of the imperfect/passe compose...
ReplyDelete@shannon: They are fries. I don't care if the Brits were here first, they are fries. Even the French call them fries!!
Andromeda, I'm okay with the subjunctive sometimes... okay, when it's quite obvious that I need to use it, but when it's in a more subtle sense, it's often lost on me. Can't wait to meet you!
ReplyDeleteEmily, today, I was working on a worksheet with my kids with the teacher in the room. So of course, soon the tables were turned on me. I had to do a French translation. I kept mixing up the imparfait/passe compose. It's not that I don't know it, it's just that when doing things on the spot, I don't take the time to think. Not a problem if it's just a conversation, but kind of is when it's a translation.
I totally "coeure" le franglais.
ReplyDeleteSee ya at Ep.200!
Oops! That was me above!
ReplyDelete