The Three Rs: Reading, Writing, and Pronounciation

Yesterday I had class again, Expression Ecrite. It seems I'm the only one who doesn't hate the professor. Our professor is head of the IEFEE here in Aix, and dresses to the nines every single day. He has a sharp, clear French accent and appears to have swabbed his face in Botox. The problem comes from the fact that M. Charbonnier is a very strict, classical style professor who mixes famous Latin, Greek, and French phrases into class. He's very exigeant and has already given us plenty of written homework—after all, the class is supposed to teach us writing. For me, though, his awesome accent and sharp appearance outweigh his somewhat dull teaching style.

One interesting aspect of the class is preparing to write in French written tests. Often, final exams here are four-hour sessions in which students must write about a topic covered in the class. We're going to practice ahead of time, but even so, four hours of writing in French sounds pretty ominous at this point.

Yesterday I had lunch at a kebab place called Topkapi with some friends and it was, in a word, delicious. The meat and vegetables were just sublime, and it wasn't too expensive, either. Despite the weatherman's promise that Friday would be sunny and 13ºC, it was a grey, miserable day. I went shopping in the last of the big sales with some friends and, surprise surprise, I even bought some new shoes. They were very cheap and, after all, the two other pairs I brought with me are very quickly deteriorating with all the walking I'm doing. We also found a fantastic store that sells everything: wine, cheese, absinthe, hard liquor, pocketknives, corkscrews, candy, and more.

Today I actually need to do some homework. I have writing for Expression Ecrite, of course, plus plenty of reading for my classes; even the ones that were canceled gave me background reading so we wouldn't fall too far behind. Tonight we're having dinner with some French girls one of my friends met, which should be interesting. Tomorrow it should be beautiful out and, if so, I hope to finally fully enjoy the parks.

Because of all the rain, we've had a few small leaks in Mme G's apartment. We're on the top floor and when it rains a lot, water drips into the kitchen and living room—not a lot, but it's a problem all the same. The insurance company has to come and look, then the building owner will repair the roof and someone will come to repaint Mme G's ceilings.

Speaking French every single day is becoming easier, but pronounciation is still tough for me. I constantly struggle with words like yaourt and the subtle differences between au-dessus and en dessous, for example. M. Charbonnier even specifically told us yesterday that, despite our good command of French, it was readily apparent that we were Americans. I asked Mme G if that's why so many people in stores or restaurants respond to me in English, but she said no. Mme G believes that French people want to help out foreigners who struggle with French—but only if we make an effort first. "If you give me a gift [of speaking French], I'll give you the gift [of speaking English]" was how she explained it. If I had just shouted English, they might have replied in quick and heavily-accented French to spite me. Moreover, many people here are desperate to practice their English and show off that they can speak it. I'm thus reassured that my accent and sentences aren't as horrendous as I assumed.