Classtime

So up until now, I've been pretty much ignoring our classes and focusing on our expeditions and tourist-y stuff. But I don't mean to ignore it- they're interesting and we do it every day. It's just that the expeditions are even more interesting to blog about. 

But I will focus on my classes. I'm in niveau 3, the highest level, with Vanessa. Each day, we have a different topic, whether it's the press, the patisserie, movies, etc. At the beginning, we started off conducting surveys and talking to the people of St-Laurent but it varies a lot now. For newspapers, we each bought a newspaper and read a few articles; we even had to invent and write our own news articles...and at the end we also are writing our own gazette for the Abbey Road immersion program, describing what we did and adding photos. For the patisserie lesson, we first read an excerpt by Proust about him having an out of this world nostalgia moment when he tastes a madeleine, and then we went to the patisserie, bought pastries we never tried before, and wrote our thoughts, emotions and sensations while eating it. Some people thought it was a bored but I thought it was creative. I had a tarte aux citron meringué which was basically a lemon bar mixed with an apple pie and marshmallow. It was quite delicious. But then again, I wanted to try everything. But If I did I would get fat and I would not have any money. C'est la vie.

(side note: I tried an authentic baguette, perfectly toasted.. It was quite delicious)

During my elective, conversation, we usually sit at a café and discuss various topics, like food, fashion, etc. I enjoy just sitting and talking in French because that's what I imagined myself doing here. 

Today, we visited Nice and the Cours Saleya, the famous marché in nice. We went around discovering what vendors had to offer: spices, fresh produce, soap, paintings, confitures/jams, olive oil, etc. in the US, I don't get these open markets, but I absolutely adore them. And there are plenty here so I'm happy. 

So while in class we learn vocabulary and writing, it is mostly during dinner I practice speaking and listening French--I probably already mentioned this, but I laugh and learn at the dinner table with my family, and dinner actually last 2 hours. We talk about everything, and the family likes to joke a lot. Highlights? When M Mulet tries to speak English and we misinterpret it as him trying to say something in French because he has such a heavy accent.

And when they speak French in a Quebecoise accent.