Week 3 at the Institut de Touraine has finally brought everyone back into a more normal schedule; I was actually surprised this past Monday when I got there and there was a giant crowd of new students waiting to be assigned classes. After one particularly weird day when classes started at two in the afternoon, I\u2019m back to their normal four-week progression of the course until I leave. I liked my professor last week better than my professors this week, I think, but time will tell. We started class on Monday with an unusual icebreaker\u2014we each had to pick an object that meant a lot to us and then introduce ourselves as the object. Definitely a good exercise in French and helped me get to know my classmates better than the classic \u201cNotre Dame Introduction\u201d (name, major, hometown) would.<\/p>\n
Surprisingly, I think the hardest thing about speaking French here is trying to get my fellow American students to practice it with me. They\u2019ll often switch to English when there aren\u2019t any non-English-speakers around. Fortunately I have a friend from Notre Dame here now who\u2019s just as eager to practice her French as I am, and one of my new friends from my classes is getting comfortable enough with the language that he\u2019s starting to use it in everyday conversations with me. I also occasionally have to act as an interpreter for another student who\u2019s just arrived to stay with my host mom, if he doesn\u2019t understand a French word she\u2019s trying to use or she doesn\u2019t understand an English word he\u2019s trying to use. Considering that\u2019s the type of career I\u2019m looking at, I admit I get a little thrill whenever that happens.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a pretty quiet week. I couldn\u2019t keep reading Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> because someone checked it out, but I\u2019m hoping I can read at least a little more in the upcoming weeks. I\u2019ve been wanting to read that for so long. This upcoming weekend I\u2019m going to see the actual Notre Dame in Paris! I\u2019m really excited. Stay posted, I\u2019ll probably talk about it a lot next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Week 3 at the Institut de Touraine has finally brought everyone back into a more normal schedule; I was actually surprised this past Monday when I got there and there was a giant crowd of new students waiting to be … Continue reading