Salut!
I hope everyone is doing well! I myself am feeling pretty spectacular, even though 80% of the time I'm a sleep deprived zombie. Well, I don't know if sleep deprived is the right description... Is more like I need a lot more sleep here then I do in Canada to survive the day standing. Understandable, really, seeing as I'm basically spending all my time trying to figure what the heck people are saying to me. Yes, mes amies, I've finally decided at its time to crack down on my French, meaning no one is supposed to speak with me in English. Though fun at times, I usually feel as if I am basically repetitively running into a brick wall... I guess that's why they call it a "language barrier".
But, i have seen a steady improvement in ma francais, so it's all good. In fact, I often find myself speaking French without really meaning to and, wait for it... THINKING in French. Pretty impressive, seeing as how a month ago the extent of my vocab was "me suis fatigue". Now I don't want to mislead you... I am in no way bilingual. I prefer to think of it as main course English with a side of French, or three fourths bilingual. And most o the time, I can understand more then I can speak. That is, until I get into class- then I'm completely lost. Except English of course; believe it or not, I'm top of my class there! The class tends to be interesting for two reasons; a) my teacher is a young, bilingual French man who is quite funny and most definately gay, and b) he has absolutely no problem with swearing and teaching swear words. Example 1: when one of the students got a bit ahead of their self he simply looked at them and said, and I quote, " now stop that or you'll f*** up my lesson". Ahem, pardon me? Teachers definately don't say that at home. Example 2: we spent about 5 minutes today learning the meaning and use of the phrase " I have a lot of sh*t to do". I'm almost one hundred percent positive we never learned that in class back home.
Back to my main point..There is a downside to my improvement in the French language; I'm caught in this weird half place. I can speak basic French, but I'm forgetting my complex English. I'm not used to life here, but I life back home feels far away.
Also, I can't for the life of me figure out whether I'm gaining or losing weight. My clothes all fit oddly, and I'm unsure whether it's me or the washing machine. For a teenage girl, this is a problem! But otherwise, I am doing just fine. I'm happy, I'm well fed, I'm getting along with my family and making friends. Soeaking of which, here's something I do have a Problem with... I'm not allowed out socially with friends yet, as comanded by the exchange program.Mmm excuse me, what? I'm a teenager, not a animal, why am I being caged? Okay, I admit, sometimes the amount of food I consume make m seem slightly cow-ish and I occasionally suffer from slightly bipolar-esque moments during the full moon, but we can chalk that up to those unfortunate things called teenage hormones. Anyway, they say I need to focus on the language first before i work on a social life. Ironically, my French is improving the most when I'm with my friends, so this rule is really doing more harm then good. Oh well, I'll figure it out. On the note of family and friends, I have suffered only one day of homesickness thus far. Fixed that problem with an outrageous amount of chocolate and a nice little chat with a Canadian girl. I'm not too worried about a repeat episode, as Louis is more then happy to put on a wig and dress so I can pretend to have a little sister, and my friends here seem to enjoy people (and by people I mean boy) watching just as much as my friends back home. All in all, I'm having a fantastic time, and the first month has been outstanding! I don't plan on coming home early, even though I know you all wish I would! But I love hearing from you guys, so please comment and leave me messages! Ask me questions if you have any, I'd love to flaunt my limited knowledge of French culture!
Much 3/4 bilingual love,
Emma