Dont have time for structure or cohesion. Stealing Charles blog style. Is that enough citation to avoid copyright infringement?
Who'da guessed 7.5 hrs of class would be this exhausting. Current schedule: Wake, eat, class, eat, class, nap, eat, HW sleep repeat.
Wednesday went to nature lodge with TAs. Quite boring (sorry TAs). Were supposed to see flamingos. Didnt. Were supposed to read all the posters. Didnt. Were supposed to be astonished by its beauty. Wasnt. Was supposed to get better at French. Might have.
More class. Had our first quiz, Aced it. Turned in our first essay. Didnt.
Reading famous authors travel journals to learn about citys. This week Dumas. I like his French writing style. Might try to read 3 musketeers in French.....might.
French soccer game. Watched it downtown where there was a big screen (read: huge). Nothing really happened. Cant wait for a better game. Allez les bleus. Went out after that. Saw some creepy guys. Rule #1: if you dont want creepy guys to creep on you dont in your strong American accent ask if you can take a photo with them and then let them buy you a drink. Hopefully they learned that.
Saturday optional excursion to Aigues Mortes. Talked with Yazz (TA) in French all the way there. Usually can convey any thought and be understood when speaking French. Couldnt.
Got to AM, first thing river tour. Was told of the particular beauty of the country; other students saw it. Didnt. This post is sounding a lot more negative than I meant for it to. Im having a blast. Promise. Lunch. At bull cooked in wine. Pretty good. Nothing to extreme. Went art shopping with artsy girls. Cool paintings but au meme temp..... Crabby lady didnt let us on the wall around the city without paying. Others said it was the best part of their trip. Walked around more. Saw the salt mines from afar. Cool. Back on the bus. Half bus driver, half comedian. Unexpectedly took us to a wine emporium. Wish I was making more progress on the "become knowledgeable about wines" goal. Back on the bus. Yazz ran out of things to talk about. Wish I was a better conversationalist (across languages). Came home. Ate alone.
Sunday went to the beach. It was an awesome beach. Wish I liked the beach more. Dont worry mom, I wore sun screen. Got burned anyway. Dinner with Annick, she was late so I "cooked." Sauteed potatos and garlic and added left-over Ratatouille. It was ok but she was overly complementary. Homework. To much. How do they expect us to do anything but study? Easily 6 hours worth of work. Did it (granted poorly) in 3. Talked with parents. Going to only speak in French to the other students, even if they respond in English. Hopefully it will catch on and the others wont thing Im a giant tool. Might be too late. Might be the reason for my rambling.
Monday was long. Started bringing my lunch, saving money wherever possible. Ham sandwich with cheese and mustard 3 Eu for 2 days. Pas mal. Bought a french knife. Useful and a souvenir. Wait, do we say that? Souvenir?....Is it a good sign that I just had to google translate into English? Hello language fatigue, my name is Matt.
Im sorry about the last few minutes of your life I just wasted. As you might have guessed Im pretty fatigued, but you know what they say: "shut up". Also Im sorry that I havent taken any pictures while in Montpellier. Goal for the rest of the week: take 50 photos and create a flicker account. Someone hold me to it. I might try to come back and make the above rambling comprehensible. Might. If you want any clarification or further descriptions let me know and Ill be happy to oblige (we say that right?). Also, if this sounded at all negative I might just be following a "" journal style. That is to say: negative. I am having the time of my life and feel so blessed to be here. Shout out to SARC Lwt 4+ 3rd in the Nation. So proud of you guys. I'd like to think I played a small part, and you guys absolutely deserve it. Revel, it fades quickly to black and white.
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Picasa is good, too. Considering Google owns Picasa and Blogger, that may integrate well.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I feel your pain with speaking after coming over. It's interesting... you come over confidently, knowing that you have an arsenal of verbs, loaded with noun and adjective rounds, ready to take on the conversation. However, as you hear people speaking, you read, and you feel the language around you, you falter. It's as if someone stole half of your guns and most of your ammo. Wait... does that word work? Is it a false cognate? I should rethink this... wait, that is not the right conjugation... blahhh!
ReplyDeleteYeah. It passes. Trying going to the bike shop and telling them that you need a lock and your brake line needs tightening. Then go to the train station and try to tell them to switch your reservation from the 1st class ticket they accidentally gave you to a second class reservation running through Luxembourg, but to have a 3 hour layover so that you can see the town before you leave.
Either way, your accent isn't going to sound too great, the R's aren't going to come out like you'd been prrrrracticing, and you're going to forget words. But it's okay. It passes!
Oh its not my French thats faltering (Im actually really happy with where my French is). Its just really fatiguing with all this work! And I wasnt very impressed by our excursion.
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