Not too much has happened since I last wrote but I felt you deserved an update!
Last Sunday I did something really exciting in Paris. On the way home from class one afternoon I saw a poster on the side of a bus stop for a walk/run for cervical cancer. The run/walk was called “Les Boucles d’Or”, which translates to either the Curls of Gold or Laps of Cold. The event was held in the Bois de Vincennes which is the other large wooded park in Paris, on the other side of the city from me. Some of my friends were already interested in checking out the Bois de Vincennes so I enlisted a couple of them to do the walk with me! Despite the terrible, terrible weather (cold and rainy) the walk was very well organized and very well attended. The walk lasted 2 hours and the organization who put on the walk donated 2 euro for every lap someone completed either walking or running. This was the second year they have done this and I read in the paper that they made 5 000 euro last year. When I left the walk a little bit before the official end, they had already made 14 000 euro! I decided to run and my three friends walked. Each lap was 2,5km so at the beginning I figured I’d run two and get my normal run in for the morning. I ended up running about 8km, which is a lot for me! I was very excited.
We laughed a little at the end because none of us thought that that many French people actually ran. There were easily 2,000 people there on Sunday!
I had the worst run in with a rude French person on Tuesday. I went to the post office to mail something and the woman “helping” me was a nightmare. Once she heard my accent, she insisted on speaking English with me even though her English was TERRIBLE and I certainly could have understood her better if she had spoken in French. She would throw the forms at me and not explain well what to fill out. Then when I stood there patiently waiting for her to tell me what to do next she would ask what my problem was. She mocked my French and tried to make me feel stupid. I don’t get heated very often but let me tell you I was very ready to tell this woman off. I told my host mom about this later and she told me that happens often because that is a government paid position and they can’t get fired. It made me appreciate the post office workers in my little town in Connecticut, who are usually smiling, that much more.
Wednesday was my last day of classes at the Sorbonne. It was sort of a bittersweet ending. If you remember from my last entry, I’d grown pretty frustrated with my professor. So in that way, I was ready to leave the class, take this exam and move on. I also realized I have been studying French grammar in one way or another for the past 10 years! I am very much done with grammar. I think I’ve learned about all that is going to stick with me for now.
On the other hand, the end of classes meant all of my friends started talking about how we only have a week and a half left before we leave Paris. We’re all really sad because we’ve had such an incredible time here. I honestly don’t know anyone in the program who doesn’t love this city. We’re definitely going to take advantage of every last minute we have here.
The past couple of days has been absolutely beautiful and nice and warm here. I made the conscious decision to wear shorts the past two days despite the fact that the French DO NOT wear shorts like we do. I just can’t wear long pants any longer… I’m ready for summer!
Tomorrow is my French grammar exam. It lasts 3 hours and is held in a LARGE building outside of Paris that the Sorbonne holds all of their large exams in. I’m not too worried. I feel like I know what to expect and now it just comes down to thinking things through and remembering all of the little rules I’ve learned along the way. I have my oral exam for my grammar class on Tuesday and then my final for my ACCENT class Thursday… then I’m a senior in college. Yikes!
I took this picture before I went to Nice but I rediscovered it and wanted to share it with you. This is most of the people in my program, I believe only 2 are missing, with our ACCENT professor. We are in Belleville park on our walk of the neighborhood.
We found this sign after the walk. The entire thing says "Parc Floral de Paris" but we had to take a picture in front of the Paris part! It's a little bit like the one in Amsterdam...
The Champs-Elysees! In the front on the left on this picture where that large mob of people are there was a group of guys breakdancing. I watched them from above and they were actualy really awesome!
