C’est mercredi!

Ce matin, il faisait un peu froid – 47 degrés! J’ai porté mon manteau d’hiver et une écharpe de laine!

Mais dans l’après-midi, il faisait un peu chaud and I was wishing I hadn’t worn a sweater because I was up on the 3rd floor with the sunshine streaming in. Spring is a legit season here — it lasts a long time.

It’s day one, but I can tell I have two great teachers, and both of their classes were excellent. It makes for a long day having 6 hours of work, but it goes by pretty fast when you’re enjoying the subject.

My morning class has only 4 students, so we get a lot of practice, and that’s what I’m here for. It’s all grammar, which I love. Two of the students are nuns, and I was paired with one of them for a few exercises. For the first one, we had to write about each other using our imagination, since we hadn’t met beyond introducing our names to one another.

La prof said it’s amazing how accurate this exercise can be! She said we were to use our imaginations, so I went with that. Among some of the things I guessed about Sister Mimoza were:

Je pense que Mimoza aime lire… CORRECT

…et elle a un chat, chez elle. WRONG

Elle parle français, et aussi Italian, et elle aime voyager le monde entier CORRECT

Elle aime aller se promener au jardin du Luxembourg, mais elle joue aussi au tennis en été, et elle fait du ski en hiver. CORRECT

Elle aime voyager le monde entier, et elle est professeur de mathématiques au lycée. CORRECT

That was really funny! And unexpected. And now I cannot get the imagine of her skiing downhill out of my mind — dressed in full Habit!

During our next exercise, I was able to tell Sister Mimoza that j’ai visité l’église du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre et j’ai allumé une bougie et j’ai dit une prière à la statue de la Vierge Marie. Why did that feel like Confession? I worried she’d think I was lying and saying it because she’s a nun, but it was the truth. (The Catholic guilt just kicks in automatically.) I was ready to pull out my photos to prove I’d really visited the church. Lol! She’s quite young and sweet. I’ll have to ask her what country she comes from because I couldn’t get past the skiing.

Lots of grammar homework, but it’s worksheets — alors, ce n’est pas trop difficile. It’s good practice for me! Plus, my second class will never have homework because it’s all about SPEAKING.

In between classes, I enjoyed a nice lunch in the cafeteria that’s when I noticed they were posting the month’s cultural events. I made my way to the poster, and registered for FIVE events this month:

• There’s a film on Molière
• A guided walk/talk about the civil unrest in Paris 1968, when France’s economy came to a halt because of it and the strikes
• Another guided walk around Père Lachaise – the famous Parisian Cemetery
• Some works by trompe l’œil artist, Louis-Léopold Boilly
• Street Art and the Second World War – visit sights made famous by street artists (indoors and outdoors) highlighting the resistance fighters

Il y a beaucoup d’américains dans le deuxième cours! (Finalement, Je les ai trouvé!) Lol!

À bientôt!