La...er, Culture Française

{Thursday, October 16}

The rest of last week was obviously pretty busy; dinner with MMC {a more fun and concise way of saying the twins and Cody} on Wednesday, seeing Faubourg 36 {by the same director/screenwriter as "Les Choristes" and with a few of its cast members} on Thursday night, and homework and classes and all that good stuff. On a sidenote related to our cinematic experience, French previews are fabulous. Among ads for various interesting movies, there was a commercial for Le Parisien, one of the newspapers here, wherein an American couple was looking at Paris on Google Earth {and speaking English with really schmaltzy voices and French subtitles}. As the wife zoomed in on the Eiffel Tower, she noticed a man holding a sign.

Woman {enthusiastically}: Look! I think they're trying to say hi to us!
Husband: Uh...are you sure?
Sign: Merde à celui qui le regarde {If you're reading this, eat shit}.
Voiceover: Il vaut mieux les écouter ici {Try getting in touch with the Parisians this way instead}, picture of Le Parisien is shown.

Quite amusing.

On Friday, I went back to my speed-speaking friend at Aladin; he was quite nice and clearly glad to see me, which was almost like making a friend - the relationship between the people who work at a store and its "regulars" is sacred here. Afterward, I met my friend Lexi from French class at IES to watch some old Georges Méliès films, after which we attempted to find a photo exhibition somewhere in the area {unfortunately, my cinema prof was none too specific about the location}. We ended up finding, instead, a library off of the main road near our old school and, geeks that we are, decided to sit down and read for a while. Around 7, we went to her host mom's apartment for dinner - the place is really nice, and she has an adorable Jack Russell Terrier named Voyou {urchin}. The 'mom' herself {who is not a mom at all, but a single, retired, chic Frenchwoman} was sweet and welcoming, told me that I sound like a native speaker, and is utterly cool {she even listens to Eminem. Whoa}. She left to go to a friend's house, saying that I could sleep there, since we were planning to be out late and I live all the way on the other side of the city, and Lexi and I had a drink and waited for her friend Livia to arrive...which didn't happen until 11. That didn't matter much, though, because the place we were going to had a cheaper cover charge starting at midnight. Off we went to la Java, a dance club in Belleville to which none of us had actually been before.

We made our journey without incident {save having to hop back and forth between two metro trains going in the same direction from the end of Line 2}, and arrived at la Java, ready to dance. After checking the place out, the ladies decided to have a cigarette, and I didn't want to stand inside alone, so I followed them out to the smoking area, where we met Fodhel {pronounced 'fuh-deel'} and François, two regulars who pointed out the club 'celebrities' and invited us to join their table inside. So, rather than awkwardly hanging around an unfamiliar club, we made friends and got to have cool cultural discussions about school and the French language and America with Fodhel, François, and their friends Nicolas and Walid {'wally'}. Lexi and I got to dancing {the music was mostly reggae, but not bad}, then Fodhel joined us for a bit while Livia and Nicolas got to know each other.

After quite a bit of dancing, Lexi and I took a break at the table, where Walid told me I reminded him of Charlotte from "Sex & the City" and that he wanted to spend some time with me because he loved me. We decided it was time to leave. The taxi ride back wasn't too long, and we arrived around 4:15 and collapsed.

Since Cody and Monica were in Normandy for a couple of days, I spent most of Saturday doing homework, then grabbed dinner with Cody once they were back, after which he, Nick, Lexi, and I had a beer before calling it a night. Sunday was also uneventful.

On the class front, my BD professor seems to think I'm awesome, because he keeps leaving positive comments on my blog; the other day, he said that the workd I do is so "excellent" and so much better than that of my classmates that he can only invite me to pursue a "mémoire de master" on the subject {sadly, I have no idea what this is, and am so far too intimidated by him to ask in person}. Bénédicte suggests that he means a masters thesis. Whoa.

I also had my first lab session for Phonetics yesterday, where she asked me some preliminary questions {how long have you been studying French, were any of your teachers native speakers, do you play an instrument [yes, this one is actually connected to language because it trains the ear for rhythm and tone], etc.}, then made me talk for a couple of minutes into a microphone, after which we analyzed my faults {yikes}. It was cool, though, because she knows I understand the material from the class, so this is the place where I'll really get to work on my accent {thsi was apparently a relief to her, as was the fact that I've never learned the difference between the French 'o's, because she said, "At least I can teach you something"}.

Today, we bought tickets for our trip to London {the twins & I}, then went to Notre-Dame with Cody and two of Melissa's friends. It's amazing to see a real mass taking place there, but all of the tourists walking around is somewhat distracting {yes, I know; I'm a hypocrite}. Anyway, you get the picture. My favorite part is the smell.