I would just like to apologize in advance....

....to anyone who will have to listen to me speak after I get home. This is really just a disclaimer blog, that you will probably all get really frustrated with me, and probably very quickly. And for that I'm sorry.

This is because I feel as though my head is permanently stuck in two different languages. Whoever said that spending a month in France was going to help me learn a lot of French...well they were right. How about that? I feel like I have learned SO much French since I've been here. This is a very good thing, obviously, since that's why I came. Before, I considered speaking to be one of the "easiest" facets of the language...but now I realized that that was because I didn't really realize how incorrectly I was saying things. Now, I get hung up on conjugating things into the plus-que parfait tense...which is such a good sign! Before, I wouldn't even have known when to use it, so I would have just used present or something like that. I have made a lot of progress...yesterday, my host mom actually pointed it out. They have been gone the past few weeks (in ISRAEL! I think it's amazing that everything that I've been studying in every single subject - except American History and maybe math - is now within arm's reach here...it's so cool!) and she said that in the time they were gone, I must have learned a lot. I was very proud of myself.

But it also causes the problem that I honestly don't know what language to think in anymore. This results in me blurting out sentences in half English and half French (whenever I'm not focusing on speaking in one or the other, that is)all the time. It's actually mostly hilarious/entertaining, and right now, this actually functions just fine...because if I'm not speaking with my host family (who know no English) or, say, my friend Hannah's parents (who know even less French haha) then I'm speaking with other American/French students who know both languages. Which means I can speak Franglish and it totally works with them, because they understand either way. With my fellow IES-ers, I don't even notice when someone says 'avec' instead of 'with' or 'j'ai fait' instead of 'I did.' For instance, I was emailing my advisor the other day regarding class scheduling, and I started my concluding sentence with 'Alors,....' and not 'so...' I only caught it when re-reading the email, otherwise he would have seen how crazy I have become as well. Also, you should see all of our facebook statuses (stati?), which are constantly being updated with Franglish. I'm quite enjoying it, actually! I can only imagine, though, what it will be like when I'm surrounded by all of you...who do know the difference. And for that, I would like to apologize, in advance!

In other news, here are some random stories from the past few weeks:
- Last Tuesday, I arrived at my class at the universite (or the Fac = faculte), which is on Constitutional Law. I have been doing alright in this class, solely by copying notes from the girl who types them on her laptop in front of me, and asking every day if we have any work/tests coming up just to make sure. Well apparently, the week before, something must have been miscommunicated, because I walked in and everyone was sitting studying notes (frantically, mind you) and picking up blue books. It was very much a test atmosphere and I kinda sorta panicked. I went up to the professor and told him that I had not understood and was not prepared whatsoever. He and I are pretty tight by now, so he told me to stop panicking, and that if it was a catastrophe, I could re-take it. Thank goodness! It was not a fun experience though!

- Also, my friend Hannah's parents are here this week. They're from a suburb of Chicago (Naperville) and this is their first time in France. I had brunch-ish food with them yesterday, and then I went over to Hannah's host family's house (they are gone on vacation right now) and her mom made us some delicious chicken noodle soup. If you believe in such a thing as soul food, this was it. It was so good, and it made me feel so at home...and it was so American! In a way, the meal pointed out lots of things that are different here (i.e. they don't eat bread DURING dinner, it's always after...and also, they use their paper towels EXTREMELY sparingly here, and I was shocked when Hannah's mom used them as napkins and to wipe the counter, etc.) but also, it just sort of combined the two worlds. It was very pleasant :-)

- It was midterms this week, which I had three of (grammar, Phonetics, and Construction of a European Union). They are all done now, which is lovely, but it was the first week of real school-work that I had to do. I haven't had regular homework, or papers due (they're all due at the end of the semester) yet...so I was sort of shocked into work mode. It was abrupt, and I didn't like it. Thankfully (or unthankfully, I don't know yet) I can put my confidence behind the fact that I just have to PASS these classes...they won't transfer into my GPA. Don't worry, I'm not going to go about purposefully failing them. It's a lot harder when it's in French though.

-MOST importantly...TOMORROW I LEAVE FOR MY EUROPEAN ROAD TRIP! I am leaving Nantes for Brussels, where I'm meeting my friend Nina (who went to SL for our senior year) and we're going to her school in Maastricht, which is on the border of Belgium and the Netherlands, and then to her home town near Cologne, in Germany. I'm SO excited. This also means the next blog will be about that! Can't wait!