[Paris] Dagnabit

I put aside this afternoon to catch up on my blog, but instead I have spent it on personal email. If you didn't receive one in the last few days, you have only yourself to blame (or maybe it got lost in delivery...). I really need to make the blog a priority one of these days, since I definitely won't have time to catch up today. Meanwhile it is finally a beautiful day, and I am spending it at the computer! grrr

I started my language class on Wednesday. The school is very pretty and comfortable. Everyone has been incredibly nice. I think i will just stay there instead of switching to the more well-known Alliance later. It's cheaper too. My teacher is incredibly sweet and only speaks French to us. This works fine except when I get tired and it is hard for me even to comprehend English. The level of the other students is well matched (despite that i never took the test). I find that more often than not I know (inside) how to put the sentences together, but the words come out all wrong anyway. I'm incredibly tired and I think I have been grinding my teeth. This too will pass.

My hosts, J&G, are great fun. G (who asked that his name be left out of the blog) has been creating a database of every train ride he has ever taken -- yes, he has kept all the tickets! In a few minutes, I am going to meet J for what at home we call "happy hour" with the girls. Then there is a small dinner party here also including Muriel (whom you will remember from my tales of Mallorca). Muriel loves to shop, so I think I can get her to take me shopping this weekend, since I plan to start trying to dress less like a mission hipster and more like a native. If I can handle it. So far, I have been wearing makeup. Don't worry. It's still me.

The school is also a good resource for social activity. This weekend, there's a party one night, and folks might be going to a club another night. I also read on tribe about open studios in a near suburb; I'd like to see what the artists are going here. I'm not sure what I will make it to, however.

Enjoying being in Paris is difficult because I am so knackered from my studies (and there is homework nearly every night). But yesterday we had a guided walking tour (in French) of some lovely parts of the city (Palais Royal, Jardin du Louvre, St. Germain, Ecole Nat. des Beaux Arts). I bought some flash cards afterwards bc I really need to get serious about my vocabulary.

The teaching philosophy seems to be very organic: we sing songs, we have exercizes and attempt conversation. However, I am approaching it rigorously; I have 3 books in front of me at all times (dictionary, book of verbs, and phrase book) and refer to them constantly. I give the teacher a wink bc I know she doesn't want me to be using them, but instead to be listening to her and learning organically. At least maybe she believes I'm highly motivated.

There's one guy in the class and at one point I asked him why he decided to learn French now. He said that it was always his worst subject in school and he wanted to figure out why. Me too! I can't understand why I am so naturally bad at this! But here I am....

I had an incredibly beautiful weekend in Switzerland (it looks like a green Kings Canyon without all the trees and with European villages!), but you will hear about that in another entry.