les choristes

today, we wrote a small test before class. after three weeks of studying, one has the opportunity to evaluate one's level. My french is officially A2. Not too bad, I think. I learned a lot here and I am very glad that I took the course. I hope I can continue with the intermediate class back home.
I watched another movie tonight - not a l'ecole, even though there was movie night - but here. The other student's mom and sister visited from Japan and the general excitement about it pushed our dinner time back a little bit. We had the leftovers from my dinner last - yippie! I could eat that every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well, okay. Maybe not breakfast.
So I watched a movie I took from school on DVD - Les Choristes. It was such a great movie, I liked it a lot. I really like this one actor, Kad Merad, a lot. It's the third movie I have seen with him and they are all very good.

bonne nuit.

yum

I cooked dinner for my host family today. that was awesome. I made all my favorite dishes - a salad with balsamic vinaigrette, goat cheese, pecans, and dried fruit, mashed potatoes with meat balls and carrots and pies, and of course flan de queso. It turned out very well. I think people liked it a lot.
the whole afternoon, angele helped my mix the minced meat and cut the vegies. It is a lot of fun to cook with a 7-year-old. She really enjoyed handling the food and making something. that was very nice.
now I am super stuffed, though. I can never resist when it is so delicious.

: )

le week-end

oy. I had a great weekend. France is so beautiful! Saturday I went to see Blois with a couple of pps, which was really awesome. nice chateau, cute small streets and lots of old houses. Also, just like in Tours, it seemed like there was a bog festival of all the local 'club du sport'. There were a lot of stations where people could try out the sports of the different clubs: fencing, biking, rock climbing, athletics, swing dancing, karate, keido, etc. etc. It was really impressive, because children seemed to be super excited to participate and try out all sorts of stuff. I think this is a great way to get people excited about sports and join a club. It might even be some kind of government organized series of events. pretty effective, it seemed. I thought is was a great idea.

on Sunday, I went yet on another bike to 'la fete de la tomate'. That was really nice too. The backdrop was the small chateau bourdaisiere with a great garden. They had heaps and heaps of tomato plants of 650 different varieties. People sold tomato products and excellent food. the sun was shining and the living was easy.

what a day!

I went on a bicycle trip through the french countryside to a beautiful chateau. It was so so nice. The yellow corn fields, the green vinyards, the warm and pleasant autumn sun. Just awesome.
I was gliding along on my rented bicycle that I got for 7 Euro for the afternoon. I daydreamed of by petit ami, thinking how much he would enjoy this too. I passed through tiny picturesque villages with free roaming chickens and beautiful flowers in the front yards. ahhh! I could do this all the time.

: )

la vie en france est un peu bizarre

On Saturday I changed rooms because one of the other language students left. I now have my own bathroom including shower. It's pretty neat. Almost awesome, were it not for the fact, that the toilet is a bit difficult to use. The distance between toilet and opposing wall is so short, that my legs hardly fit. I have to sit very awkwardly to make it work. Today I may have figured out how to do it. Has anyone ever tried to sit 'the other way around', i.e. facing the water basin in the back? Well, let me tell you, if there is not enough space, it works quite well.

I had this toilet break through when I was getting ready to go to the pool. I was pretty surprised that this small town actually had an indoor pool, even though the opening hours are 'un peu bizarre'. It's clearly very purpose oriented but still nice and also really cheap (2 Euro/p.p.). The weird thing was, though, that the showers were mixed. Men and women shower together. I find this 'un peu bizarre' as well, but I guess France is known for its openmindedness in the realm of sexuality. I chose to pass on my thorough shower apres swimming and felt very american.

oy.

a propos, j'ai decidee que je vais prendre une classe francaise quand je reviens a Boston. C'est tres triste, parce que ce vais etre sans Andy. je vais voir...

bonne nuit.

clubbing

My grandma and grand pa went clubbing today. g, I am boring. there is an annual week-long festival in her town and they went to the traditional Monday morning drink. They got there around noon and left 5 h later after touring through three different locations and had beers and shots with various people they know.
Meanwhile, I was in class studying french the whole day and working hard. Okay, okay, admittedly, I am in France living the good life too and have not much to complain about, really, but still. I guess this is something I can look forward to in old age.

Party it up.

une autre catastrophe

Aujourd’hui, j’ai regarde un autre film francaise. Un film tres tres francaise: asterix et obelix. Encore, nous avons regarde avec sous-titres et encore j’ai lu beacoup de sous-titres au lieu d'ecouter des voix.

Je dois decider si je veux prendre une classe de yiddish ou une classe de francaise. Le choix, c’est tres difficile. D’une part, je connais yiddish assez bien et une classe (oy. conditional. cette une catastrophe) serait augmenter mon langue beaucoup, mais je pouvais prendre la classe avec mon petit ami. Ce serait beaucoup d'amusement.
D’autre part j’aime francaise beaucoup et je peux apprendre plus. Aussi, ce serait beaucoup de travaille - tout les jours dans le semaine.
oy. c’est tres difficile.

oh well. c’est la vie.

bonne nuit.
la petite princesse

une petite catastrophe

C’est moi, la petite princesse. Aujourd’hui, comme tout jours, j’ai achete un pain de chocolat au le boulangerie. Mais, malheuresement, c’est ferme. Je dois manger un pommes a sa place. Cette une petite catastrophe.
A l’ecole, nous avons faire un gateau aujourd’hui apres-midi. C’etait un gateau bizarre. Le pate etait comme pour un crepe - tres liquide. Je pense que je essaye une recette similaire de livre de Mollie Katzen, mais je n’ai cette aimer. Mais aujourd’hui j’ai aime le gateau et c’etait tres bon.
Pour la premiere fois, je regarde un film ce soir. ce s’appelle Tanguy. C’est de un homme ou garcon que a 28 ans et habite avec ses parents. C’est tres drole et j’ai compris beaucoup de chose. Mais j’ai lu les sous-titres en francaise et c’est plus facile. Peut-etre demain soir, je va ragarder sans sous-titres encore.

bonne journee.
a demain.
la petite princesse

Le monde est tres petit.

C’est moi, la petite princesse. Aujourd’hui je me leve tres tot. Malheuresement, il fait pleu. J’ai marche a l’ecole avec la etudiante suisse. Nous avons parler de ou elle habit et je raconter que je connosais une famille a un petit village en Aargau en Suisse. Et elle a dit que elle connais une fille de cette famille. Est-ce que vous ce pouvez croir? Le monde est tres tres petit!
Ensuite le lecons commencent. Ma classes etait tres interessant. Je pense que j’apprendre beaucoup de chose.
Peut-etre je vais aller a la Marseille ou Geneve, si je peux. Je n’ai jamais pas ete ces villes. Une autre possibilite est aller avec ma classe a Mont Saint Michel. Mais le problem est qu’il y ont beaucoup de allemandes et je deja sais comment parler allemand.
J’ai parle avec ma mamon ce soir aussi. Elle a raconte que elle a une nouvel emploi. Rien-du-tout raconte quelque chose en cette famille!

Je dois partir.
A demain!

La petite princesse.

ma premiere journee

C’est moi, la petite princesse. Malheuresment mon francaise c’est tres mal. Excuse moi.

Aujourd’hui, c’est ma premiere journee dans l’ecole. J’ai connaitre beaucoup de autre etudiantes. Il y ont quelque etudiantes allemand et suisse et japonnaise. J’ai connaitre une femme allemande que etudiat mathematique a Cambridge en Angleterre. Elle et moi connaissons un etudiant mathematique de NYU et une etudiante economie de Harvard. C’est tres drole.
Pour le dejeuner j’ai mange mon sandwhich que j’ai achete a Paris aeroport. C’etait tres mal. Je dois aller a supermarche et acheter d’allimentation - et de shampoo et de apres-shampoo. Par-ce que j’ai parti ces choses a Boston.

Je sais maintenant que nos petit chien s’appeler Caesar.

Well, c’est suffit pour cette nuit. Et c’est tardif. Je suis tres fatigue.

Bonne nuit.
La petite princesse

welcome to my blog

Je suis la petite princesse. Welcome to my blog. This my first blog post ever and will hopefully be my last one in english, at least for a while. Today I arrived in France to - you might be able to guess it - learn the beautiful french language and I think I am off to a good start. The host family I am staying with is not only adorable and lives in a cutesy little village in the french countryside, no they also speak a lot (of french) and very loudly all the time. I think they have a great sense of humor, most of which remains elusive to me for the moment, and it seems they are very interested in talking to me and helping me understand what they say. As I had known from before, my host family has three young children - probably the liveliest most talkative and outgoing bunch I have ever met - and, here comes the best part, the youngest, Angele, is indeed a girl. This is particularly convenient as I bought a small collection of shiny pink beads including clasps and wire to make a piece of jewelry as a gift assuming that she is a girl. I would have felt very bad had that turned out to be not the case.
There are two other language students staying here as well, one swiss (not surprisingly her french is very good) and one japanese (whose french is not so good, I think, but certainly better than mine).
My travels went extremely smoothly today. The flight was pleasant, everything was on time, I made all my connections and I arrived right at 6.37pm in my temporary home. Because nothing ever works out perfectly, my host family forgot about me for about an hour. So, after I made the poor local train ticket clerk call all the french phone numbers I had on my cheat sheet without any success, I got to hang out at the local train station with several young french guys who, of course, I did not understand. It was actually rather pleasant (because of the wonderful evening sun) although certain memories of being the last kid to be picked up from school couldn’t be entirely repressed.

Oddity number 1 that I noticed and would like to report on tonight is that the toilet here has no toilet seat. I haven’t figured it out completely, but sitting on it is rather uncomfortable (much like sitting on a railing) and certainly does not inspire any feelings of relaxation. Presumably I will get used to it soon enough and I can look forward to a toilet seat as soon as I get back home.

a bientot.
la petite princesse