I arrived at the Cours Gambetta early today to take my written exam. It turns out my exam wasn't until 10h30 so I had a bit of waiting to do. Like I said before, my study abroad program doesn't give me any information, so instead of staying in the dark, I decided to ask another student about the plans for the day. There was were two people in the hallway with me. I decided to go to the guy that looked like he knew what he was doing. Oumar is from an African country called Guinea, near Senegal. My french is still awful so our conversation was pretty funny. When I didn't know how to say something in french, I would ask in english. Oumar speaks perfect french, it's one of the official languages in his country. He knew very few english words but we spoke for a good amount of time, mixing french with english which resulted in full comprehension somehow. It's kind of like when my parents talk to me, switching between vietnamese, lao, and english. Right before the rest of the students arrived, a girl walks out of the lounge toward us. Her name is Georgette and she's from Miami. She was so excited that she heard english being a foreigner on her own as well.
Today was a big day for IEFEE students. We met at 9h30 for a program-wide breakfast. Oumar and I sat down with Georgette and two others. Andrew is from North Carolina and Francis is from Ghana where english is one of the official languages. Breakfast was a very social ordeal, but since we were all speaking english, I made sure to translate as much as I could into french for Oumar (with Francis' help). It's surprising how much that helped me with my own french skills. I didn't realize I knew so much. I guess it's all up there in my noggin, I just needed a reason to drag it out.
Our petit dejeuner consisted of juice, brownies, and heavy, sweet breads. For those of you that know me well, you know I hate sweets. I felt so sick. The entire time the directrice was making her welcome speech, I thought I would puke. Once breakfast ended, I went upstairs to take my exam. It seemed pretty easy, but I skipped the last 3 pages so I could get in the lowest level possible. I really wanted to start with a blank slate and learn everything as if I'd never taken french. I feel like if you want to do something right, you need to start at square one.
After my exam, I went downstairs to see what level I had been put in. Zut! They put me in level 3. They're crazy!!! There are five levels. 1 being beginner's french and 5 for advanced students. Though my reading and writing in french is pretty decent, I have horrible speaking skills. I guess I'm not going to argue and just stick with it. If they think I can handle it then I'm just going to suck it up.
Francis met up with me after he got his assignment and took me to a boulangerie for lunch. We made sure to stop at an authentic french spot. The sandwiches here were delicious! I'm not a fan of bread but there's something about the baguettes here that entice me. My sandwich had feta, corn, tomatoes, romaine, and olive oil on classic french bread. Yum...
After lunch, we ran into Oumar in the street. We decided to explore the old part of the city together before we had to be back at our facility to meet our professors. I learned a lot about the guys during this time. Oumar is here on scholarship. Coming from an extremely poor country, he is certainly blessed. I'm always impressed with people like him. He's such a pleasant person to be around too. Francis is studying in France for the third time. He was previously in Lille and before that, he was in the Burgundy region. He's also studied in the U.K. Francis is a mover, like me. He has this extreme yen for travel. We will certainly be good friends.
After meeting our professors, Francis and I get lost in the town, literally. We end up on the Cours Mirabeau and checked things out for awhile. Francis had to catch a bus back to his village so we parted ways after a bit of grocery shopping.
Later in the evening, Yann took me to a mega-store for groceries. I believe it was called Monoprix. It's so helpful for my language absorption to see familiar products with descripts written in french. Yann must be so annoyed with me. I'm always asking him what this word means or what that word means. He's so helpful though. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't meet him.
Yann made me dinner tonight. We had steak with vegetables and lardo. It was trés délicieux! After dinner, we went to Maggie and Lydia's apartment on Rue Villars. There, I met Liza who is from Utah. She's super cute. We all down a few glasses of wine and take shots of this vodka with gold flakes. It looks a lot like Rumpleminze but doesn't taste anything like it. We eventually head out and go towards "Bar Street." We run into other students we know on the way who are drinking out of beer luges--like those Lube Tubes at Quaker Steak. Every bar pretty much has them here.
Maggie, Liza, Yann and I split up from the group temporarily. We were anxious to get to a bar and sit down. I ordered myself a Cuvée des Trolls which was a pretty decent beer that I also spilled all over myself. And then somehow the four of us and the rest of our crew end up on top of the tables, dancing. Ay yi yi...
On our way out of this pub, a random guy hands Maggie a creme de menthe type drink. Armando is telling her not to drink it because it probably has rufees in it but I'm a dumbass and I want to taste it. She lets me have a sip and then pours it down a drain in the street.
We end up at Scat Club where there is a huge dance party. Just my place! I get tired and try to make my way home but get lost so I go back to the club. The club owner intercepts me and takes me down to the bar for some shots. At this point, I know I've had too much and he's creeping all over me. Ew...He ends up kissing me somehow, on stage, in front of everyone. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm an idiot. Luckily, I see Yann and grab him. We were out the door in seconds.
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