A Little Eccentric

Que faites-vous?

Hello all!
I FINALLY got WiFi for my computer!!! We figured it out with no help from anyone here. Tonight, I actually was able use my computer for the first time in over 3 weeks. We still don’t get any Internet in the dorms, but there is a library that is a 3-4 minute walk from our residences that has a wireless port. Ahhh, it feels good to type on my little Mac again.

Yesterday was lovely. I only had one class and it got canceled so Tchykita and I met up and strolled around. Tours is a very, very old town and the main part of town is completely made up of buildings from the 15th century. It is pretty cool on the way to class to walk down the worn cobblestone streets between these tall, ancient stone buildings and listen to my iPod while munching on a baguette. I could get used to this. While walking around Place Plumereau (‘Place Plume’ for us hip, young people) we found the remains of a church and some building that used to be an underground cellar or something. Also, there were some French cats following us along the top of a wall. It was a nice way to spend the morning.

There are all kinds of cool, old things here you can just run into. Besides oodles of churches and bridges, there are all kinds of centuries old-oddities. On the other side of the main street (Rue Nationale) on Rue Colbert, I was just looking around and found this little tunnel that runs under some buildings to a little square. I looked it up and found out they used to lead condemned criminals through that tunnel to be guillotined or hung in the square. It’s amazing to think of all the people that lived and worked (and died) in the old streets and buildings I walk through everyday.

There is this French dude that has my room number, compliments of the International office, and came by tonight. Apparently, when I signed a paper saying I’d be willing to go to some meetings to meet French students, this authorized them to tell Frenchies my room number, e-mail address, etc. Fortunately Florril (the French guy) is extremely friendly and me and Tchykita made plans to hang out with him later this week and work on my language skills. I’m at a rough spot. I comprehend French almost perfectly now, I read it very well, I write it very well, etc but I still translate in my head when I try to speak. So, I’m slow and use the wrong tenses a lot. It’s frustrating when I know what people are saying to me but I can’t just chatter back. Tchykita is so awesome though and has been helping me out. She does a lot of the business stuff, and I interject and do the basic conversation stuff. I build more everyday, and she is going to make up quizzes for me on all the tenses so I can pound them into my head. It is tough and frustrating, but really is the only way to learn a language.

Oh, and I tried to dye my hair mahogany brown and it turned out a purpley red maroonish color. I am bummed its not the color I wanted but it is sweet nonetheless. Everytime I see myself in the mirror, I am shocked. Tchykita did it while we worked on an insane translation assignment. We had to translate this into French, “It is now well-nigh an Olympiad since I endured the misery of a change of sheets; and the customary state of my outer man you may gather from the fact, that I merely shift my linen and shave myself when I wish to preserve a strict incognito.” That is one sentence out of a half-page passage. I don’t even know what some of that means in English.
The people in this picture of the group are German, Moroccan, French and American (me and Tchykita are the only Americans).
Also, I was late to class today because there was a protest over something in the middle of town that stopped the buses so I had to get off and walk an extra half mile to class.

posted by Molly Jo @ 6:39 AM