I can't believe I've been living here for three weeks already. I've learned a lot about myself in that time, and about others...It's strange, being in a class with students of all different ages and nationalities. There are about eighteen people in my class-- a guy and girl from Columbia, a guy from Bulgaria, a guy from Turkey, two girls from the U.S., one girl from Switzerland, one girl from Iceland, a guy and girl from Tawain, a guy from Japan, two girls and a guy from China, two girls from Greece, a girl from England, and a girl from Brazil.
Things I've Learned:
Tonya, with an "o" really doesn't make any sense. My friend, Stojan (which is pronounced STOY-on), taught me how to write my name in Macedonian, which is awesome because they have a letter for the sound "NY" in my name. He gave me a nickname, which sort of sounds like Tanja.
I can't pronounce r's. C'est impossible.
The white outside of cheese actually does taste good. And cheese that we would call moldy tastes good as well.
You always want/adore what you can never have. My friends from Tawain love the color of my eyes because they're green/brown and I love their eyes because they're nearly black.
Sorry that this post is long overdue and really unorganized, but my brain is fried. Today I had three phonetics classes and then I drank wine with my friends and thinking all of the time in French is really starting to mess with my English. Merde. A bientot toute le monde.
25 September 2009
27 August 2009
Pre-Departure Two
"Are you nervous?"
As my days in the U.S. continue to dwindle...(ten days now)...this question multiples, and multiples. The question leaves little room for conversation about my upcoming adventure. If I answer honestly (yes, of course! I'm fucking terrified), then their response is, "Oh, don't be worried! You're going to have a great experience! You're not going to want to come back!" Thank you for your reassurance, but it really does nothing to change the way I feel about leaving. And if I answer with humor/insincerety, the response tends to be one of utter disbelief, "Really? You're not nervous at all? Do you speak French?" Why, thank you. If I wasn't nervous before your reaction to my not being nervous, I'm certainly going to have doubts about why you're doubting my lack of anxiety.
I know I'm going to hear this question approximately fifteen more times, or more, before my plane takes off (and maybe I'll even hear it from the elderly man I'm going to sit next to and make conversation with aboard the plane), so leave any witty responses you can think of so I can have a bit of fun with people who decide to ask the standard question about studying abroad.
As my days in the U.S. continue to dwindle...(ten days now)...this question multiples, and multiples. The question leaves little room for conversation about my upcoming adventure. If I answer honestly (yes, of course! I'm fucking terrified), then their response is, "Oh, don't be worried! You're going to have a great experience! You're not going to want to come back!" Thank you for your reassurance, but it really does nothing to change the way I feel about leaving. And if I answer with humor/insincerety, the response tends to be one of utter disbelief, "Really? You're not nervous at all? Do you speak French?" Why, thank you. If I wasn't nervous before your reaction to my not being nervous, I'm certainly going to have doubts about why you're doubting my lack of anxiety.
I know I'm going to hear this question approximately fifteen more times, or more, before my plane takes off (and maybe I'll even hear it from the elderly man I'm going to sit next to and make conversation with aboard the plane), so leave any witty responses you can think of so I can have a bit of fun with people who decide to ask the standard question about studying abroad.
19 August 2009
Pre-Departure One
I was fighting starting this blog before I'm actually IN France, but my pre-departure activities/preperations and feelings/attitude are becoming increasingly important. How I prepare myself is going to have a huge impact on my first week abroad. There are seventeen days left.
My schedule is going to be as follows (as far as I know):
Work until the 26th
Camp from the 27th to the 29th
Packing from the 30th to the 1st
Saying goodbye to Plattsburgh 2nd to the 4th
Boarding a plane on the afternoon of the 5th
The interesting thing is that I'm not nervous about living in France. I'm nervous about how living in France is going to change my life. How it's going to change me specifically. How it's going to stress my relationships with my best friends. How it's going to alter my perspective on people and the French culture. How it's going to be incredibly frustrating and wonderful to improve my French.
My schedule is going to be as follows (as far as I know):
Work until the 26th
Camp from the 27th to the 29th
Packing from the 30th to the 1st
Saying goodbye to Plattsburgh 2nd to the 4th
Boarding a plane on the afternoon of the 5th
The interesting thing is that I'm not nervous about living in France. I'm nervous about how living in France is going to change my life. How it's going to change me specifically. How it's going to stress my relationships with my best friends. How it's going to alter my perspective on people and the French culture. How it's going to be incredibly frustrating and wonderful to improve my French.
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