Last Week Part I

Well hello there!

Last week was terrifying, and as a result, this is bound to be a long one. I’m kind of frightened. Maybe I’ll break it up into two entries. Here’s the first one J

I guess I should start with the good part. The weekend after my birthday was very enjoyable. Saturday the 30^th was spent with the other international students exploring the Auvergne region. This included a visit to a medieval castle called chateau Murol, a visit to a cathedral called Orcival, a traditional Auvergnat lunch of truffade (a dish composed of potatoes and the region’s most popular cheese, St. Nectaire), a visit to St. Nectaire cheese farm and a tour of the cheese caves (once also medieval underground dwellings). It was a day well spent, but it got even better because by the time we returned to Clermont, a friend from K had arrived by train from her study abroad spot in Bonn to stay for the weekend. Sunday and Monday were spent showing Suzy our favorite spots in Clermont (and making new ones). I was quite sad to see her go on Tuesday, but it just means I have to get my butt over to Germany.

School this week sucked a lot. I should back up and say that the Friday before; we had to sit through several hours of a conference on business ethics during which the speaker proceeded to bash America in many ways. I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life. Monday was frustrating as well. My French civilization and culture class in the morning was pretty uneventful. I had another Pépinière meeting in the afternoon, during which I kept making a complete ass out of myself. Afterwards, I had my second violin lesson, which was even more of a failure than the first one. It was yet another 15 minute lesson. He had me sight-read a piece that started on B # and had many double sharps and called for many odd positions. That pissed me off, especially since in France, it’s not B #, it’s “Si dièse”, or something, so I couldn’t even tell him that I hate B #’s because I didn’t even know how to say B #. The French don’t use the letter note system… C D E F G A B C. They use solfedge here, like Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do, only it’s not even that. In France, Ti is Si.

Tuesday was Native Speaker Day, which meant that all of the French students at l’ESC who are taking English classes could sign up with myself or any of the other 6 K kids for hour long sessions to do nothing but talk in English. Each group had about 5-6 kids and we did this 3 times throughout the day. Let’s just say it was awkward. Some of the groups just didn’t want to talk. I don’t know if they were shy and unsure of their English level or what, but I ended up doing a lot of talking, and they would just sit there and stare at me. I’d ask them questions, and they would respond, but it never went any further than that. When they did ask me questions, they were horribly awkward, like about French-American politics. Unfortunately, I’m doing this all day today as well...

I guess that’s enough for a first entry. The second half of the week will follow :)