French Friends!

This has been quite the week for finally meeting some Frenchies, and possibly making some French friends. Tuesday in my translation class I finally got up the courage to ask the girl sitting next to me if we could work together on our homework. She told me she already did the next assignment, but maybe we could work together on the third one. Or something like that. I got lost halfway through (another situation of understanding the big picture, but not the details of whether she wanted to work together or not or when or what). The point is, she was super nice (super-sympa as the French young peeps say) and we exchanged e-mail addresses. She said that she'd be willing to correct my translation if I wanted to email if to her. I feel kind of bad doing that, since I want to help her in return. But I also realize that it's not that difficult for her to read through 2-3 paragraphs of French and correct little errors like incorrect prepositions or all the silly things I do in French. Maybe I'll do that the next time if she doesn't want to meet.

This evening Middlebury organized a get-together for the Middkids with a group of French students who have graduated high school and are taking a prep course to prepare for the entrance exam to get into a Grand Ecole (French ivy league equivalent, but actually more prestigious and graduates are basically guaranteed lifelong employment). The exam, called a concours, is super-intense and a month long. The French kids spend two years preparing for it. Anyways these kids are studying for that at the moment and their teacher worked something out with Mme. Lacarriere so that we could get together tonight. I was nervous beforehand and thought it might be really awkward, with Middkids clustered together and the Frenchies on the other side of the room, but when I arrived everyone was intermingled and chatting away. When i got there basically everyone was speaking French, as the Middkids are normally forbidden to speak English in the Center, but after a little while Mme. Lacarriere reminded us all that this was a linguistic exchange and we should practice both languages. So all the Americans went to English. But we did a decent job of switching back and forth. There was a fair amount of speaking in one language and getting a response in the other. The levels of English varied enormously between the students, and many commented that we spoke French well. French students, actually lots of French people, thus far have seemed to be impressed with our language skills. Maybe Midd has good reasons other than snobbiness to require such a high level of language before sending us abroad. I think the french also have really low expectations of Americans. Tonight Mme. Beguin had four girls over for a cooking class, and the girls are doing a program with a study abroad company like SIT, and they could barely speak French. One girl had barely a year of language. They spoke to me in some French, but mostly English. I spoke to them in English before I left for the get-together, but when I got home I was all excited and Frenchy and I babbled in French and I hope they understood but I'm not sure. Anyways, they were sweet and nice to meet.

Back to linguistic exchange. There were two random girls there who go to Paris III also, and it turns out they are in my translation class! Hopefully i can do some work with them as well...that could do really good things for my grades in that class. I also met a bunch of other people, including a boy who shared my birthday. His friend suggested we throw a joint-party, and I was kind of excited about this idea, but he wasn't. I liked his friend a lot though, and we rode the metro home and exchanged numbers. It was great to interact with French students who actually are really interested in befriending Americans. Overall awesome night.

When I got home I talked to the cooking girls a bit, and Mme. Beguin (it was really cute she whispered to me about the class while they were in the kitchen...it was a great moment cuz I actually felt like I was family/close to her at that point). I then ran into Jeanne, my cousin, and we chatted for a few minutes and made a plan to meet next week for a linguistic exchange (1/2 hour English, 1/2 hour French). We went to school together again this morning and we get along pretty well. She's basically exactly what i'm looking for in a host sister- friendly, talkative, interested in me/helping me. We chatted again later. We made fun of Laure's music for a few minutes, which was very amusing. Laure gets obsessed with a song and plays it constantly. At least 1-2 times per day I heard "Down on My Knees", this awful American song. she listens to lots of American music. i find it amusing. Jeanne also said she'd give me the names of some clubs and concert venues and whatnot that I would enjoy. And one night I should go out with her and her friends. I'm excited about that prospect. And to have french friends...