First days of "school"

This week marks the beginning of the school year, even though it's only an intensive French class. Very intense, I might add. Yesterday we got to school at 9 and listened to about 2 hours worth of presentations from the program directors and the student organization- all of them chock full of information we should probably remember, but is luckily written down somewhere to reference later.

Next a brief fire alarm. These are actually much less jarring- the alarm sounds like very loud, slightly monotone bagpipes- and much more well organized than the American ones I've seen. We were next split from a group of over 100 into groups of around 25. Within these groups we split up further into groups of 4 or 5 in order to start planning a theme for our presentations on Friday. Of course, the common language is English for must of us, but we aren't allowed to speak in it. My group is technically "gastronomy," but somehow it devolved into alcohol amongst cultures. I have three Chinese students (there are about 24 Chinese students in the large group, but because my small group runs from G-M, we have all the Li's, about 50% of my class is therefore from one nation) and a German in my group. The leader of this class, however, thinks that everything we're coming up with is too "list-like," and suggests that we make more comparisons between the cultures. I think to myself, silently, that a list by any other name is still a list and say "Oui, Madame."

An hour and a half of lunch followed by an hour and a half of "Institutions." This is my favorite class- it's all cultural exposure. Yesterday we talked about the arrondissements in Paris, the regions in France, and the French social security system. Maggie and I have adjacent names in the alphabet and so are in the same group, and we were pleased to know a lot of what our prof. was saying about Paris already. She made a lot of comparisons that seemed to single out the Americans, especially where the social system is concerned, but I think it's more because our system is very different than other Europeans than for any other reason. She spoke the most quickly out of all of the professors, but she also enunciates very well (she'd be good at choir warm-ups) and provides examples of everything she's saying.

Next up is "grammaire" for our final hour and a half. Yesterday we went over past tenses (imperfect and whatever the English equivalent of passé composé is) and I made the mistake of looking up everytime I knew an answer, which wasn't always a good thing. She was asking a question about transitive verbs that can two types of auxilaries. I don't exactly know what that means in English as I haven't taken grammar in years, but basically they're verbs that can be conjugated two different ways. For example, in English we can say "I passed you the butter," or "I passed by the post office." It's the same in French, but some of the words are also "movement" verbs that come from a different list we've had to memorize. Well, I got confused and spat out a word from the wrong list. Luckily I was able to redeem myself by explaining why the ending to a past participle changes when a direct object is placed before, rather than after it. How's that for a grammar lesson?! This particular teacher won't teach us again unless we're placed in the "plus faible" (weak) French class, so when we left I thanked her and said that I hoped I wouldn't see her again soon, which she seemed to find funny.

So exhausted after getting home- the bus was packed and it took us upwards of an hour- but it was "recommended" that we attend another networking event last night, so we went. It ended up being a lot of fun, even though we stayed less than 2 hours. We talked to some of the Germans, who are my favorite nationality here. Our summer preparatory class professor over the summer had implied that the Germans were usually very "clique-y," overly studious, and generally good only for studying. I find, however, that they speak French the best, are very friendly, and are indeed studious :).

This morning got to school even earlier for a 3 second ID photo for which we were requested to arrive an hour early. Took a long test this morning covering oral and written comprehension. The tape was about 3 times faster than any of the professors and I couldn't hear as well as I would've liked from my seat, but no one seemed to feel extraordinarily comfortable with it, so at least I'm not alone. Off to practical French, where we received a packet of terms that I would've appreciated a month ago- rental terms, documents that one might want to bring along to sign a lease, how to talk on the phone... Luckily Maggie, Sarah and I could all contribute our experiences to the discussion.

Lunched in the cafeteria to try the school's food, which will never, ever happen again. We ended up talking to a nice Finnish girl who was behind us in line, but that and the over-cooked vegetables were the only pleasant part about the meal. The fish was overcooked and bland and the french fries were soggy. No real French food here! The Finnish girl and my roommates and I compared cultural differences- the Finns are a very independent people who believe that women could/should work, have a social system that pays for everything (healthcare, school...) so that people don't have to depend on their families, and who are very well traveled because it's a pretty wealthy nation.

Back to Institutions after lunch- today we talked about the role of religion in France. We learned a new word- laïque. It basically means that while the French are at heart a very Catholic people (68% I believe identify themselves as Catholic), they are also very firmly for the separation of church and state. The roots for this are in the ideals of the French revolution, which linked monarchy and papal power in countries as something that oppressed the people. Therefore, it's all well and good if someone's religious, but they shouldn't have any method of forcing their beliefs on other people. That's why there was such a big stir relatively recently over Muslim girls wearing their head scarves to school. We also discussed gay marriage/civil unions and the adoption of children by homosexual and unmarried couples, followed by a discussion of world opinions of Sarkozy. I was so interested in class that I was sitting forward in my seat after lunch (I'm usually exhausted and half asleep at that point).

Back to grammar for a new teacher who taught in Vermont. We reviewed the subjunctive (sp? I've been confusing French and English spellings for the past month) today, some things were even new. I found it interesting how oddly they structured our classes. The test this morning covered things like subjunctive, past tenses, practical French, etc. We won't learn most of these things until the middle/end of the week, and were certainly not taught for the test. So essentially we're learning what was on the test after the fact. Interesting, to be sure.

Overall I find that I can understand the professors 90% of the time, but not quickly enough to take very good notes, if I were actually going to be tested... So, while I need to improve enough to be able to write and listen in French at the same time, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.