Ya Done Good Paris

So dear friends and family who read this, it’s been some time now hasn’t it? As the 3 month mark is approaching, I figured I would take some time this sunny November 14, 2011 to play catch up.

Learning French:

I feel like I write a lot about learning French here and how much tougher it is than I thought, so I am going to get it out of the way quickly. It is a subject constantly on my mind (in English) because I find myself in a weird place where back home I’m fluent but, with the exception of that one lady I sat next to that one time, no one here is fooled. It feels as though the second you peg down some grammar, your syntax gets way off. You get some syntax and suddenly you can’t spell. You start spelling things correctly and your grammar is nuts again! I usually spend my dinners posing questions to my host mother, bless her heart, and setting up weird linguistic scenarios for her to explain to me which all start with “Peux je dire ____? Pourquoi?!” (Can I say ___? WhAAA???) No matter how much goofy work I put in I still feel lazy and behind sometimes, which never feels great. In good news, as ungraceful as I am expressing myself (and lets be honest, I’m just as dorky in English) I can understand almost everything. I wake up to French radio, I take French courses, I listen to French podcasts, I youtube French viral videos. Big picture? It’s all more or less good in the hood.

Paris:

As my friend Mallory and I decided to simplify our trip to Bruges into a trip to Paris I wasn’t sure what to expect. In the days leading up I hadn’t gotten a single bite on couchsurfing and was trying to keep calm and carry on in my school work at the same time (due to a mix-up I missed a midterm as a result of my OFII medical appoinment (a step in attaining my carte de séjours which is just one of the many hoops that needs jumping through to live in France) which resulted in one pissed off French professor) so I was feeling some pressure. Mallory had snagged us a ride with covoiturage (French ride share) and finally I posted, following a suggestion of a fellow couchsurfer, a final desperate plea on an emergency couch group for Paris which resulted in, with just a few hazards, us couching with the one and only Ludovic Lewandowski. Along with his friend Etienne, we all hung out during the two evenings we were in town eating Moroccan food, looking through travel photos, and drinking beer. During the day Mallory and I hit the bricks and toured around the city on foot, coffee-ing and picnicking when necessary. Overall voyage? Parfait!