I was first to arrive in class this morning – even before mon professeur – making up for yesterday (in my own mind).

What a great class! I am learning a lot, and gaining an appreciation for all the years of French grammar I learned in the USA. It was worth it.

My new friend and seat mate is from Spain. She’s been here for a long time, and I am so impressed with how she understands perfectly every single word spoken by the teacher (who never speaks in English). However, her French pronunciation is absolutely atrocious. I can say that now because we’re friends. I can barely understand a French word she says sometimes. But we actually make a good team because she can explain things to me that I might not QUITE understand — and I can correct her pronunciation. LOL. She’s also brilliant – an engineer who speaks 3 languages and is now learning to speak French. Please. Amazing. Switching between so many languages surely explains why her vowels are all mixed up en français.

Anyway, we are the two eldest students in the class, so the professeur likes to call us « jeune filles » (She’s adorable, and I’m not being sarcastic!) Today — she stopped by my desk to listen to me read a passage, and literally started to clap and sing my praises for my accent and pronunciation. It’s fair to say I’m officially over the moon. My weakness is in comprehending native speakers, but if they slow down, I manage well enough. My strengths are reading and speaking/pronunciation.

So Far. Stay tuned. It’s only day 2.

After class, I was happy to smile for my official Alliance Française ID, which doubles as my student cultural pass. My friend and I signed up for four cultural events — including the tasting of wines from the Bordeaux region. I don’t recall the other three. Kidding! We signed up for « Bienvenue à Paris » which is Thursday (jeudi) at Alliance Française, and « La Conciergerie et la Sainte-Chapelle » and the « Bourse de Commerce Pinault Collection » (François Pinault’s collection, currently housed in the Bourse de Commerce.)

Another small grocery store trip, and a visit to the large everything type store « FNAC » for some school supplies, etc. The guard told me I could find what I needed on the 3rd floor (troisième étage), and after looking everywhere for 10 minutes and not finding the items, I remembered in France the third floor is actually the fourth floor. They don’t count the rez-de-chaussée (ground floor) as one. I also bought a new hairdryer because mine doesn’t work here even with an adaptor, and I don’t want to be the American who blows a fuse in the building. When I was checking out, I tried having a little conversation, and had great success. She said she was impressed by my French and accent! WHAT? Twice in one afternoon? I floated home – well, as best I could, because I was pretty weighed down with my book bag, purse, phone, groceries, and other purchase — while wearing a mask.

C’est tout for now. I have homework to do.