Baby cake

Well, dinner last night was not quite the interactive experience I'd hoped for, since Marie and Julien were there, and with five super-talkative Frenchies at the table it's basically impossible to get a word in. I was lost the majority of the time as far as the conversation went, and I have trouble telling when they're joking and when they're not. For example, this is the second time recently they've been here, and they keep talking about Julien's diet...I think they're kidding, but I'm not sure. I'm not a huge Julien fan, since he dominates the conversation, speaks too fast, never speaks to me, and never pours me water even though he sits next to me (I don't actually need him to pour me water, it's just customary to do so and this further affirms his lack of interest in me). He's a super-typical French young male, based on my experiences with them. He's probably 30, but he acts like a teenager. I don't know many American men in their late twenties, so maybe it's a guy thing, but the ones I've spent time with here (Julien, Jean, the son of Dad's colleague, Jeanne's friends) seem somewhat lazy, immature and Mama's boys. Now that sounds too negative, and I don't mean to hate on young French men...I just hope by the time my son is 23 he won't come home from school every weekend and dump an enormous pile of clothes on the floor for me to wash, iron, and repack in his suitcase......

Good part of the meal last night...chocolate cake! This is the third attempt by Mme. Beguin to make it (she's made it the last three times Marie has brought the baby for dinner) and it's gotten progressively better each time. Last night's was super yummy, with bits of chocolate and almond in it. Lucky for me, I got a huge hunk for breakfast too (although it was way too rich to eat in the morning, but so so good for lunch).

French?

I think that my French has improved. Noticably, at least in my mind. After the intial huge learning spurt that came after arriving here, things have been pretty much the same, with gradual improvements, I guess. But in the past week or so (ironically since around the time my family came), French has started to become the language in my head, more and more. The past few days have been pretty intense immersion days, since I haven't spent significant time with any anglophones, and I've been either in class or working on my paper...plus my language hour with Jeanne, the meeting with Sahar, a long meeting with a tutor today, and daily chats with the host fam. I don't think my vocabulary or actual grammar/language skills have improved that drastically, but I'm becoming more and more at ease talking. At least to people I'm comfortable with. Talking to strangers is another story, but even things like ordering food are getting easier. Or at least less difficult.

Last night I had a great dinner with the host family. We ate in front of the television, but for once we weren't watching politics or an old movie that's either dubbed or French. Mme. Beguin chose a documentary on Buddhism, which was not too difficult to understand and quite interesting. I didn't know very much about Buddhism before; but I always thought of it as humanistic, peaceful, searching for zen, etc. ...all those stereotypes. Now I'm slight disillusioned with the religion, as it appears quite sexist (lots of things are forbidden for women, although that's changing). It also seems somewhat idolistic (is that word?), as they built enormous statues as tributes to the Buddha. Anyways, I had lots of reactions to the documentary, and I made several comments while we were watching. It was practically a real conversation with the host fam (lng. barriers plus their outgoingness plus my quietness make this generally super difficult). Point being, for once I had something to say during dinner, and I enjoyed being involved in the conversation, and hopefully we'll watch another documentary tonight (or at least talk about things that I understand and can comment on).

Hi everyone, I know I promised to update about the weekend with the family and I promise that I will try to as soon as my life slows down a bit, but for the moment, I'll post about today. nothing big happened, but it's what's in my head at the moment, as i'm avoiding writing my cinema paper.

This morning, bright and early, I had my second midterm for my french to english translation class. that's the last graded thing we have for that class, so it's basically over (although it was literally not a word of work the entire semester). He said he'd have class next week so we could continue correcting the last midterm (I think I'll take the extra hour of sleep instead of spending time learning about the correct prepositions in English). The exam itself wasn't too bad. I flat out didn't know two of the words, but other than that, I am very confident about the rest. I translated the word "curtly" as "brusquely" and I think he'll accept that one, but my translation of "folding and unfolding oneself" (in the context of sitting down) as "stretching out and lounging" probably won't get much credit. Oh well, I'm doing fine in the class.

After class I was supposed to meet with a tutor from Middlebury to review my term paper for my cinema class. At 12:30 he sent me an email saying he had class and couldn't make it. I received said email at 1:15, after I had already traveled to the Midd center. Oh frenchies and lack of sense of time...

This evening I went out with Sahar, our former exchange student. We met in a cafe and started talking and before we knew it two hours had gone by. And the conversation was entirely in French. And it was real conversation too, not the daily jibberish that normally makes up my French speaking moments. We talked about the French vs. American university system (always a topic of convo between students) and of course, politics and the election came up (obviously, since we're in France). It was a very pleasant evening, and hopefully now I can take my French speaking and translate it into a paper.....................

Family in Paris!

Sorry for the huge delay since the last post, but the family's been here and we've been quite busy taking on Paris. I'll give the highlights for the moment, and hopefully get back here later this week with pictures and more details.

Thursday:
Family arrived. We ate our first Parisian meal in a little cafe near the hotel. Brian fell in love with croques (super-French sandwich...basically a tasty toasted ham and cheese). The cafe unfortunately didn't have french fries, but those came profusely later. That afternoon we walked from the hotel (across from the Louvre) all the way down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe (we went up top and saw the amazing view of the city). We then continued down the road to Porte Maillot, where Dad took us to an adorable French restaurant that had a line out the door 20 minutes before it opened. The restaurant only served steak and french fries, both of which were absolutely delicious.

Friday:
Everyone was exhausted and slept in. It was rainy and gross out so we decided to hit up the Louvre. We spent a few hours there, doing a grand tour. We then headed to a fancy cafe called Angelina's, rumored to have the best hot chocolate in Paris. The hot chocolate was pretty amazing...super thick and accompanied by a cup of whipped cream. Pricey, but delicious. Afterwards we headed to Notre-Dame, hoping to go up on the terrace, but it was closed b/c of the weather. We walked around the inside of the cathedral and then back to the hotel. For dinner we went to St. Michel, to a little restaurant where we ate cheese fondue, beef fondue, and raclette. super filling but yummy.

More to come, I promise...............................

Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeench

Sorry for all the anglophones out there reading the blog, but I've had a very French day today and I'd like to continue it with my blog. I also have a paper to write in French tonight, so I need to be in French mindset. If you want a translation, pop it into www.freetranslation.com.

J’avais un jour assez français aujourd'hui, donc, je veux réfléchir en français, et continuer le mieux que possible parler et penser en français. Heureusement pour moi, j’ai un devoir à écrire en français pour mon cours de cinéma, donc, j’ai plein d’opportunité d’utiliser mon français.

Je n’ai pas fait grandes choses aujourd'hui, donc, je ne comprends pas vraiment pourquoi la langue m’a frappé. Je crois que c’est parce que je n’étais jamais avec les étudiants de Middlebury, et je n’ai pas eu l’opportunité de parler anglais. J’ai passé la plupart du jour en pensant en anglais quand j’étais seule, mais je n’ai parlé qu’avec les francophones aujourd'hui. Ce matin-là, j’avais thème, ou traduction français-anglais, qui est vraiment une perte d’une heure parce que je n’apprends rien jamais. Mon prof est tellement sympa, et il m’adore puisque je suis anglophone et il peut contraster les expressions britanniques avec lesquelles américaines. Je crois que les différences entre nos expressions viennent surtout de la différence d’âge entre nous (il a 60 ans ?) et aussi du fait qu’il cherche les mots dans le dictionnaire, et il enseigne aux élèves les mots qui ne sont pas courants. Aujourd’hui, Templeton, mon compatriote de Middlebury, n’était pas là, donc, j’ai eu l’opportunité de m’installer à côté de mes « amies » françaises. Elles sont un groupe des filles qui sont vachement sympas et qui nous invitent toutes les semaines à prendre un café avec elles après le cours. Nous avons pris un café ensemble trois ou quatre fois maintenant, donc je crois que je peux commencer à les appeler amies. Enfin, je me suis installé entre deux françaises aujourd'hui, et elles ont pris les notes pendant que je lisais un article pour un autre cours. De temps en temps, le prof a dit quelque chose utile, et je l’ai écrit avec l’aide d’une française pour l’orthographe. J’avais lu le mot en français sur son fiche, et puis je l’avais écrit sur le mien, et vice-versa pour elle. C’était un très bon système d’échange linguistique. J’ai appris le mot pour Lent (Carême) et quelques autres mots utiles. Et lorsque le prof a proposé une traduction absurde ou une chose qui n’est pas de tout courante en anglais, j’ai chuchoté le mot le plus courant à mon amie. Bien que je n’aie pas envie d’y aller ce matin, je crois que c’était un cours utile.

Marty in Paris

Martha's been visiting for the past few days, so I've been Paris tour guide once again. We saw the major sights on Wednesday, and I sent to her to see a few on Thursday while I had class, and since then we've done sights of Paris that I haven't yet seen, including the Opera and Versailles.

Thursday night, my French class went on an "educational excursion" to the Opera Garnier, the old amazing Parisian opera house. The ballet was an interpretation of Proust's masterpiece In Search of Lost Time, or Les Intermittances du Coeur. Even though we read an excerpt from the book in class and we read a detailed information packet about which scenes from the book were converted into the ballet, it was still impossible to follow the storyline (assuming there was one). I think a Proust scholar might have enjoyed the experience a bit more. Nonetheless, the dancing was very impressive and powerful. We were seated in the front row of the highest balcony, which was far but we could still see well. Although the ballet is not super-interesting, it was definitely a great experience, especially to see the building itself. I may go back to see Cinderella, since I know I'll be able to follow that storyline.

Friday morning we slept in, since it looked cloudy and rainy, and when we did wake up, the sun had come out! We decided to venture out of Paris to Versailles, only a half-hour train ride away. Versailles was amazing...not much else to say about it. It is gorgeous and over-the-top in every aspect and incredibly well-maintained. It was also a zoo and there were American tourist groups everywhere (we did get to hear some interesting facts by standing next to tour groups). There was also a ton of restoration going on, including in the hall of Mirrors and the outside, which spoiled some picture-taking opportunities. My camera was not good enough to even get the entire castle in a picture, although we tried several times from the gardens. We walked all around the gardens and to some of the outer buildings. None of the fountains were turned on yet, and the statues weren't unveiled yet, so I may have to go back in the spring to see the gardens in all their glory.

Friday night we went out to dinner with Martha's friend Lisa from Hopkins, who we randomly had run into Thursday night on Blvd. St. Germain while looking for a cafe. She's here on the Columbia program, and we went with her and a bunch of kids from her program to a really cute, family-owned French bistro. The service was slow slow slow and the meal lasted 'til midnight, but the food was delicious. I started with a salad with roasted camembert on it, a yummy variation on the chevre chaud standard that I love. I had some sort of fish (loup?) for the main course. No one knew what "loup" was when we saw it on the menu, and we had to ask the waitress if we were going to be served wolf. Luckily no. For dessert I had raspberry and abricot sorbet with whipped cream. Amazing.

This morning Martha and I headed to Saint Chapelle so that Martha could see a church before leaving Paris. Saint Chapelle is famous for its 15-foot stained glass windows, which were amazing. The chapel itself is pretty small, but the windows are worth paying for.

After Saint Chapelle, we wandered onto the right bank and walked by Hotel-de-Ville, where we saw a really neat free exhibition of cartoons of Paris. The expo would have been much better had we understood the French and the jokes about Parisian neighborhoods better, but the art was good and even Martha enjoyed it. Afterwards we crossed the street to a big dept. store where Martha found a Longchamps bag on sale (!) and she and Lisa (from JHU) each got very cute, trendy Parisian bags. We then plopped down at a sidewalk cafe for lunch, which was the perfect, very Parisian way to end our visit, eating croques and quiches on the sidewalk. We ordered chocolate viennois so Martha could finally taste Paris hot chocolate, but our waiter brought us coffee viennois instead. We finally tracked him down and sent them back (although he wasn't convinced they were wrong). He came back with two new ones, and a half-apology. We started drinking them, and realized once again, we had coffee instead of hot chocolate. We gave up on fixing the situation at that point, as the waiter was nowhere to be found. When he finally came to take the money, I showed him my cup of coffee and said very clearly "this is not chocolate, this is coffee." He offered to bring me a new one, and I said we had to leave, but I didn't want to pay for it (5 euros) since I didn't get what I ordered. At that point he completely ignored me, took the money on the table, and gave us change with the coffees included on our bill. Yet anohter example of how the French have never heard of the phrase "the customer is always right." Oh well, makes a good story.

Geneva: the land of cheese and chocolate

This weekend Becky, Templeton, and i took a spur-of-the-moment trip to Geneva. Geneva is practically in France, and the train ride was only 3 hours. We left early Friday morning and arrived in Geneva at lunchtime. When we arrived at our hostel hoping to drop our bags, they had our room ready. We got lucky with the hostel - it was nice, it was clean, the workers were friendly, we didn't have to pay extra for sheets, we got free breakfast (if we got up before nine), the showers had hot water, lockers were free, the rooms were single-sex, it wasn't too loud, and it was clean. After we dropped our backpacks in the lcokers, we headed down to the lake to search for a place to eat lunch. After scanning many, many menus, we discovered that Swiss cuisine is essentially the same as French cuisine, at least in restaurants in Geneva. The major difference is that every standard brasserie has a pizza menu (the Italian influence in Switzerland?). After lunch we wandered around the lake, took a little train tour of the major monuments in the parks and walked around the old city and the town hall area. We saw most of the old city and that side of the river, then headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. We also started calling Switzerland the land of cheese and chocolate, and decided we would eat primarily that for the duration of our visit. And we bought our first chocolate. For dinner we decided we had to eat some Swiss cheese, and found a place to eat fondue. Our waitress was incredibly nice, and picked out a nice local red wine for us that went perfectly with the

traditional gruyere fondue. We ate a long, relaxing meal before heading back to the hostel to get to bed early (we had left at 7:30 a.m.). Luckily for us all our of roommates were already back and sound asleep when we got back.

Saturday morning we had hoped to visit the UN, but we discovered too late on Friday that it was only open on weekdays. We had visited the tourism office and picked up lots of brochures, and we picked out a nearby town that had a Swiss history museum, a morning market and looked very cute and Swiss. We took a 20 minute train ride and arrived in a really cute, charming town called Nyon. There was an outdoor market that we wandered through, and we also found a super-nice grocery store (I was able to achieve one of my weekend goals of exploring a Swiss grocery store, and we all enjoyed looking at the products). We walked down to the water (this town was also on the lake) and saw the town's landmark chateau. On the chateau terrace we met a group of high schoolers from New Haven, CT. The view from the chateau looking over the water was amazing, and basically made the trip worthwhile. It was a beautiful day, with a perfect blue sky, despite the coldness and the intense wind from the lake. Weather-wise it almost felt like being back in Midd. After exploring Nyon, we hopped on a bus to the next town over and went to the Swiss history museum, which turned out to be kind of dull, but worth the adventure to the little town. When we returned to Geneva we went to a watch museum (we figured it was a very Swiss thing to do). The watch museum was also pretty dull, but we saw some interesting watches. For dinner Saturday night we chose Indian food, since the restaurant selection near our hostel was pretty slim, and there was tons of international cuisine. Geneva is an extremely international city - over 1/3 of its population is international, and I've never heard such a variety of languages spoken. Everything was written in the four national languages - French, German, English, and Italian. French was definitely predominant, but we heard a variety and nearly everyone we met spoke English well (I think every single visitor in our hostel spoke English very well or natively). We went to bed early again Saturday night, so we could rise early and get in a site before breakfast.

Sunday morning we got up early enough for breakfast, and after breakfast checked out of the hostel and hopped on a tram to the Red Cross museum (all public transportation is either buses or trams that run throughout the city...way cooler than the metro - our hostel also gave us a free public transportation pass, which no one ever checked). The Red Cross museum was definitely the best museum we visisted. It basically went through the history of armed conflict and natural disasters since the founding of the Red Cross in 1857, and the museum was well-organized and very informative. I learned that the organization is actually known as the Red Cross or the Red Crescent, because Muslims were opposed to the symbol of the relief organization being a cross. The museum had a special program where students were the museum guides, which was neat and it was cute when they talked, as many of them were clearly nervous but excited to be doing this and excited whenever we had a question to ask them.

Following the museum we headed to the train station, where we used up the rest of our Swiss francs on lunch and a bit more chocolate, then boarded the train for Paris, where we returned to sunshine and blue skies, sans wind, very nice.

Overall a successful weekend. I didn't fall in love with Geneva, but I'm glad I went. I'll probably never go back, but it was definitely high on my list of cities to visit, so I'm excited I did. I really enjoyed Switzerland though, and would love to return to another one of the cities of the land of cheese and chocolate (and watches and banks).

Les vaches? A Paris?

Today I went to possibly the coolest thing i've seen in Paris so far... the Paris International Agriculture Show. My host family had told me about in at dinner the other night, and then I received an email from Middlebury telling us they bought tickets for us if we want to go as a group this weekend (unfortunately I'll be away). Today I thought I might check it out, but then I looked at the website and it costs 12 euros, and I reconsidered. Then I went to chat with my host mom, and told her I was thinking about going (kind of hoping in the corner of my mind that she might have some sort of discount coupon or something) and alas, she produced a ticket that she had from some store she frequents and she insisted on giving it to me. score.

So I hopped on the metro and headed to one of Paris' expo centers, which was actually composed of 8 enormous buildings. I wandered into the first building and was greeted immediately by cows (les vaches). Lots and lots of cows. and then sheep. then goats. then pigs. It inspired me to write a children's book "Parisians goes to the farm". Actually it was more like the farm goes to Paris. The Parisiens were all giddy seeing the animals, and at one point I saw a lady reach out and touch a bull's neck, then yelp when it responded by rearing its head towards her and making a noise. quite amusing from my perspective.

I proceeded to the next hall, where there were fruits and vegetables, and tasted some delicious apples and strawberries. The next hall was farming equipment and environmental stuff and employment opportunities. Then basically every bank in the city had a booth there. Hall four was horses and dogs and rabbits, but it was super crowded and I left after only a few minutes. The next two halls were the most amazing...the food halls. In the first one, every region of France and all of the overseas departments were represented. There was wine, champagne, cheese, cheese, cheese, pastries, honey, candy, any type of farm-related food was represented there. Finally, the last hall was the international foods, and tons of countries from Asia to Africa and everywhere in-between were represented (although it was predominantly European countries and former French colonies, and there was no North American representation). These venders were giving out samples like crazy, and I tasted a million things, in particular cheese and chocolate, which were both excellent. I also tasted an extremely yummy apple, called a Golden Victor, I believe from Switzerland, basically a golden delicious, and I bought two to take home with me. That was my only purchase, since I had stupidly eaten lunch before coming, and I was basically too overwhelmed with choices to choose anything else.

I'm now inspired to find other French festivals and check them out, since the Parisians clearly know very well how to celebrate something.

BABY!!!

Today I finally got to meet the baby, little Gaspard. He is so cute and so tiny and looks like a baby model in his chic little pants and his hand knit sweater. Marie's boyfriend was out of town on business (I thought French daddies got paternity leave...) so she came for dinner and a visit with the baby. Turns out she lives two blocks away, less than a 5 minute walk. The baby was sleeping when I first arrived, but he woke up soon to eat. He was so so cute trying to eat and looking for his mom's nipple...the whole process was adorable. Also amusing to watch, since Marie's breasts are currently bigger than the baby's head. Marie is a small person, and according to her, she's completely overflowing with milk. She was really cute and affectionate with the baby, which was nice to see since friendly/affectionate aren't words that one would generally use to describe Marie. Mme. Beguin was telling me the other day how much she enjoys seeing Marie be affectionate with the baby, since Marie is not at all an affectionate person.

After the baby ate dinner, we ate. Mme. Beguin kept making comments about how nice it was to have the family together (slightly awkward for me). She's incredibly excited to be a grand-mother, and her life at the moment revolves completely around the baby. Lucky Marie, to have Grandma there to make clothes and buy clothes and make sheets and towels and embroider everything, and of course to bake something every day for her visitors.

Tonight for dinner we had mackeral that M. Beguin and Laure caught while fishing in Normandy. It was quite tasty, but difficult to eat, since we were served an entire fish (sans head) with skin and bones and whatnot. Luckily for me Mme. Beguin showed me how to cut and eat it properly. For dessert, she made gateau au chocolat (as she called it), but it very much resembled a brownie. When I asked if the french call it a brownie, she told me a brownie was something different. Mme. Beguin left them in the oven too long and they were burned, but still yummy. Would have been amazing without the burn.

When I met the baby, Marie said she remembered I liked babysitting, and it was too early now, but maybe later...yay!

Sunday Museum Day

Today was the first Sunday of the month, and all the major museums are free. Thus I set out this morning to take advantage of that as much as I could. As the French like to say, esp. to foreign visitors, "Il faut profiter" (One must profit).

I headed first to the Musee Rodin, the former residence of the sculptor and current museum. I was hesitant at first about going there, and not sure I wanted to, but I'm extremely glad I went. The museum consists of the building with the permanent collection and an enormous garden with a cafe and massive replicas of Rodin's biggest works. The permanent collection includes many Rodin pieces, as well as works from his personal collection, including a few Van Gogh and Renoir paintings. Typically I'm not one to be super-moved by art/art museums, but I really enjoyed this one and found the works incredibly moving. I could only take pictures outside, but I took a bunch.

The first one is Rodin's "The Thinker". Followed by the "Burghers of Calais". Then Balzac in a monk's robe. Then the Gates of Hell.

After the Musee Rodin, I headed along the Seine down the Left Bank to the National Museum of Assistance and Hospitality. It was a former hospital turned museum that chronicled the history of hospitals and public health aid in Paris. Unfortunately it was simply a collection of hospital-related art, and lots of old documents, and long historical posters that were tiring to read in French. I didn't stay very long there.

Although I was slightly museumed-out at that point, I walked home past the Pantheon, and since I walk by it nearly every day and entrance was free today, I decided to go in (after enjoying a sandwich on the steps for lunch).

They call the Pantheon the tomb/house of the great men, and the government decides who qualifies as a "great man" and there's a massive ceremony when someone gets "patheoned" (they even created a verb for it). The first great men were revolutionary heros, as well as Voltaire and Rousseau. In the Pantheon's crypt, there's a poster describing each man and his accomplishments and then there's the tomb, where people can put notes and flowers and whatnot (except for the really famous ones like Rousseau, which are now blocked off b/c too many people wanted to put things on them). I saw the tombs of lots of famous Francais, including Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, Dumas, Zola, Jaures, Jean Monnet, etc. I also saw the tomb of one woman amongst the great men, Marie Curie. My visit was surprisingly very interesting. The building itself is also amazing, and has a very cool history. Since it was built it has been used as both a national monument and a church, and French presidents have decided its use. Some declared it just a monument and national center to maintain separation of church and state, while others decided to use it as a national cathedral and mend relations with the church. That's the view from the front of the Pantheon.

Paris Explorations

With beautiful weather and a free afternoon today, I set off to explore some new parts of Paris. I hopped on the metro line 1, and rode it to the very end, to Chateau de Vincennes. I finally got to see a French chateau, very exciting. This one dates back to the 13th century and was the vacation residence of Kings Charles and Henri (not sure what numbers). Vincennes was a cute town to wander around. I also saw the Bois (Forest) de Vincennes - there wasn't much to see since not much has bloomed yet, but it was very weird to be in the middle of an urban area and then see a forest (I use the term forest loosely...I don't know many forests with paved roads in them or appt. buildings alongside them, but I did only see part of it. On the way home I stopped a two random metro stops with interesting names, in hopes of discovering some secret, beautiful/interesting/fun nook of Paris. It's all pretty beautiful and very interesting, but no luck yet finding my amazing little corner.

In an effort to explore more of Paris, Jess and I went to Place d'Italie for dinner tonight. I was envisioning something like Little Italy, Paris style, and I was somewhat surprised to find a large traffic circle with a few restaurants and nothing more. Jess and I had planned to eat Italian food, but nearly every restaurant was French or Asian. We finally found a single Italian restaurant and had delicious bowls of pasta, but it wasn't the Italian experience we had hoped for. Except for a group of men who were hooting at us and calling us beautiful, and two other random guys on the street who asked us out. They fulfilled our stereotype of Italian men.

Jour Francais, Finalement

Today I finally recommenced my French immersion, as well as I seem to be able. I started with a linguistics midterm at nine - not the best way to start the morning, but it went fine (I think - I actually have no idea). Afterwards I met with a girl from my translation class and we did the next assignment together. By together, I mean that she translated from English to French and I copied what she said. Except for a few occasions where she didn't understand the sense/meaning of the English words...I felt smart when I could explain, but not so much when I didn't really understand how I could translate/explain it or when it's an awkward expression/phrasing in English, so the translation is awful and doesn't make sense ("he didn't stop his head from drooping" "the word rose behind his teeth" "fling up the window and jam it open" "his stomach twisted, but nicely, like badness climbing in to help him have fun"). This may be the first translation assignment that I do well on.

This afternoon I had my linguistic exchange with my cousin Jeanne. We chatted for an hour half in English, half French. In moments like those I actually feel sometimes that my French is improving (and sometimes not at all). for all the french speakers reading this I'm posting my journal entry for my French class from this afternoon.

Le 1 mars : Échange Linguistique
J’ai continué mon échange linguistique avec ma cousine d’accueil, Jeanne. Elle habite avec ma famille d’accueil pendant les semaines, et elle est assez sympa et serviable. Elle a mon âge et elle assiste à Paris III aussi. De plus, elle prépare un concours, donc elle cherche une opportunité de pratiquer l’anglais. Nous parlons une heure, une demi-heure de français plus une demi-heure d’anglais. Aujourd'hui nous avons discuté nos plans de l’été, les élections, et les sports. C’est une très bonne opportunité pour l’échange culturel, puisque comme nous devenons plus à l’aise l’une à l’autre, nous pouvons poser les questions de plus profondes. Aujourd’hui nous avons aussi parlé un peu des stéréotypes des Français des Américains et vice versa. Je l’ai dit que beaucoup d’américains pensent que les hommes français sont tellement efféminâtes et « metrosexuels ». Je crois que c’est surtout parce que les hommes français s’habillent très bien et c’est à la mode de porter des écharpes. Jeanne m’a répondu en riant, et elle m’a introduit à un nouveau terme français pour les « metrosexuels » ou les hommes à la mode. On les appelle les « uber-sexuels » apparemment. ?? L’échange culturel a compris des termes à la mode, la politique, le sport, et l’université. Nous avons discuté plusieurs fois les différences universitaires entre les Etats-Unis et la France. Elle est assez curieuse à savoir comment les américains peuvent payer les frais si chers. En tout, l’échange d’aujourd'hui s’est passé très bien, et j’imagine que ça devra de plus en plus amusant et confortable chaque semaine.

This evening I ate with the Beguins. We ate a meal almost entirely of frozen food. Except she grabbed some garden vegetables and blended them with some creme fraiche for a little soup starter. Which was delicious. We then had some white fish (she didn't know the name...she called it an exotique fish) - it was quite tasty and previously frozen. we also had individual vegetable gratins (also frozen). They were OK...Mme. Beguin's is definitely better. For the last half of dinner, we watched East of Eden, in English without subtitles. About ten minutes in I asked if they could understand, and they said they were barely catching anything. I didn't feel so dumb about never understanding what's going on in the movies we usually watch...