variety is the spice of life

So classes were good today! Im starting to figure out means of stress relief and more importantly figuring out why this transition is so overwhelming - allow me to share:

first: the core french courses are no less than 3 hours each, 2 hours for the electives. I don't care who you are - that's a long stinkin class.

second: you can't just zone out, because its a different language! it's not like 3 hour classes in the US where you tune out but you're still mostly keeping up with the context and the flow of the lecture...it's like you zone out aint no way you're gettin back in that immediate train of thought, you have to wait for a break in the lesson to recap what you missed and everything else that flowed from the part you missed. whew!

third: (at least in my class) there are mostly asian students from China, Japan, and Korea -- now this has two points 1- a japanese person speaking french sounds unbelieveably different than an american speaking french; so talk about straining your ears! but 2 - having so many asians is way cool because their first langauge is chinese or japanese etc, so there's no resorting back to english for common ground - FRENCH is our common ground! if you dont know a word you 1)act it out or 2) find synonyms until you get your point across in french.

Anyway, needless to say - it's a hard adjustment, I'm guessing it will be like this for a while and progressively get easier to transition to and from english; or i might just forget how to speak english all together. I know my professor can tell I'm desperately trying to take it all in because she called me out on my big eyes, she said for the whole class to look over at how big my eyes were - it was a tad embarrassing, but then they all started looking at the colors of all the Americans' eyes and it was good.

Matt and I are having a ball with the kids in our french family. In fact I think Eve is helping Matt with his college-level homework right now! It is not uncommon for Charles to be following us around the house with his latest card trick (which by the way totally fooled me with a beginner slide of hand behind the back trick!) or he will come in the room and stand until I ask him whats up and he scampers off saying "rien!" (nothing). Eve is always looking to giggle or ask us questions, or even just sit in the room while matt and i struggle to put together conversation in french - all in all it's everything i could want in a homestay.

anyway, c'est tout pour maintenant (that's all for now), let us know if you have any questions, mom the virtual route to school is coming!

Lara

oh and picture 1. matt and i with some friends posing outside the city of sorgues or gordes -- i cant remember now
2. same place, but i just want to point out that this is an actual representation of matt and i's friendship...