I hardly realized it was halfway through January.
The other day on my day off I decided to explore a village about 30 minutes from here called Cordes-sur-Ciel. It's on a big ol' hill, which as I was walking up to the top, the steep cobblestone street reminded me somewhat of Olinda, a village I went to one time in Brazil. We mounted the hill in a tiny Volkswagon going the wrong way down a one-way street, and the car didn't quite want to make it, and the hill was so steep that I was sure we were going to slide backwards to our deaths. But we made it to the top and ate tapioca with quejo and coconut.
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| cats-sur-ciel |
Anyway, Cordes-sur-Ciel is a ghost town in January. Every single store, museum, and restaurant is closed until Easter. It was astonishingly quiet, and I saw more cats than people. The one interaction I did have with a human was a lady asking me for directions, how to get to the church or something. People always ask me for directions. Either I always look like I know where I'm going, or I look like a local, or I just look approachable. Someone has asked me for directions in every country and city I've ever been in, I'm pretty sure.
Sometimes I wish I was teaching little kids for the sole reason that they are endlessly entertaining (unlike high school students, who are endlessly lazy). My Wednesday afternoons with Paul-Emmanuel and Pierre-Olivier are a nice repose from high school attitude. Not that they don't have attitude sometimes (especially Pierre-Olivier) but they are just so precious I can't help but be attached to them. One time I was trying to teach Paul-Emmanuel about emotions and expressing feelings, so I was making faces at him and asking him, "what am I?" so that he would answer with "happy," "sad," "angry," etc. So when we started this game, I was smiling a great big toothy smile at him and asked, "what am I?" and he said, "ben....tu es belle, comme toujours." Uhhh well you are beautiful, as always. What a little heartbreaker. Briseur de coeur.
My French is coming along, I think...I am starting to think in French about half the time, which is good I guess. I still have days sometimes when my French just goes all out the window, when I accidentally say, "It looks like it might cry today" instead of "It looks like rain." Or when I just feel stupid because I have to go to the pharmacy and say to the pharmacist, "excuse me, but I am in need of some liquid for my lentils." I still don't know if there is a different word for contact solution, but she got the idea. And then some days I realize how little I understand French grammar because it is horribly complex. My friend in Paris corrects me usually, but it interrupts my train of thought and then I feel like whatever it was I wanted to say isn't even worth the complicated sentence I would have to construct in order to say it. But even the French have arguments amongst themselves about what is "technically" correct. What would the Académie say ???
Yes, your French must be coming along: "mounted the hill" and "nice repose." (BTW, I think you could say "nettoyeur enzymatique" or "solution saline," though I suppose there is a difference between the two.) And remember that the more advanced you become, the more difficult and nuanced the language will seem. Take it as a good, albeit frustrating, sign!
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