So tonight everyone in my class Français Langue Étrangère (FLE), French as a Foreign Language, got together for an end-of-semester dinner. It was so nice–we went out to a crêperie (crepe restaurant) with our teacher, and everyone had a chance to destress during the exam period, talk about what they were doing for February vacation, and just chill and unwind.
I really like my FLE teacher, she’s so awesome. Most of my professors here build up a distance between themselves and their students. You can definitely sense the academic hierarchy here–from the use of “vous” versus “tu” to the lack of office hours (or offices, for that matter. Many professors live in Paris and travel from Paris to Poitiers on the days they give class). However, my FLE teacher is different. Now, that’s not to say she’s buddy-buddy with her students, but she knows how to be authoritative without being cold or condescending.
She’s the teacher who told us which grocery shops in town were the cheapest (Leader Price, LDL) which had the best meat (LeClerc) and which to avoid if you didn’t want to break the bank (Monoprix). She also had no qualms against explaining to us the meaning of all the slang we heard–from la vache to Que dalle! to the differences between les bêtises et les conneries–because she has a no-nonsense attitude to learning the language. A language can not be taught strictly out of a textbook because French people and the French language are not restricted to textbook terms. I had never heard the verb bosser before, but it’s thrown around everywhere here, when the only word I had been taught to mean “to work” was travailler. On the other hand, according to countless textbooks, comme-ci, comme-ça means “so-so” when answering the question “How are you?” However, the first time I replied using that phrase, my (Franco-British) friend Vanessa burst out laughing. “That term is 50 years old! My grandmother says that!!” I’ve learned since then that the adjective moyen will do.
I’m looking forward to another semester of FLE with my teacher and my classmates. It really is one of my favorite classes. Our teacher makes the environment stimulating and challenging, but comfortable and friendly at the same time. Also, all of us FLE students can all relate to each other–a good number of us are exchange students, while the rest are simply bound by their non-native status of French. And trust me–that last factor has a pretty strong bonding factor. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve made friends with–at school, in my dorm, or even in passing through the street, etc–just because we both don’t speak French fluently or are foreign.
It’s so different being in a country where I’m the foreigner. Like, today I went to the préfecture (kind of like an immigration services office but it also deals with citizens’ issues as well) to inquire yet again about my carte de séjour (French version of a green card), which I have been striving towards for four months now. And while I was there, waiting as the government agent shifted through my file with copies of my passport, scanned my récépisée for errors, and looked over my medical report and X-ray results, I just kind of thought, Is this really me? Am I really jumping through hoops just to be considered a legal resident in a country that probably won’t even have my green card ready before the time I leave?
Then the official looked up at me, stamped my renewed récépisée*, and told me to wait two weeks, I should get a letter, and then I would need to come back in and collect my carte de séjour. I thanked her. What I really want to do was ask why did I have to wait another two weeks, couldn’t she just laminate a card for me right then and there??! But I held my tongue (and in any case, I don’t think I would have been able to get as far as “laminate” in that sentence in French). I hope it comes before I travel in Europe. My Brazilian friend Maria says I should just go into the prefecture next week and ask for the card because usually it’s ready before they even send the letter out. Honestly, between studying and not wanting to walk all the way from my dorm to the prefecture in the cold (it’s too close to take the bus…but too far to walk when the temperature drops below 30. It’s a few miles further than the Safeway on M Street is from the Leavey Center), I can’t really find it in me to go all the way there, take a number, and wait in line for 20 minutes to 2 hours (most likely closer to 2 hours) just to find out that maybe my carte has come… We’ll see.
This week, I have no classes because it’s study week. I’ve been preparing myself for my two major exams–Grand Questions of Law and Latin American History in the XX century. Here in France, exams are essays. And when I say “essays,” I mean there is one essay question that you are given to answer, which somehow manages to cover everything that was ever covered in class (it sounds impossible–it is not). Basically, I need to memorize and know everything that has ever been said in lecture and in conference. Ever.
Sadly, I didn’t get to write last week because I wanted to upload a post that had pictures, but, alas, there are problems with the picture-uploader on the site :(. I’ll let you know how exams go next week! And I can’t wait to go to Italy–and tell you all about it! I bought my ticket from Paris to Milan today (50€), and I’m going to work out hostel arrangements with Maria tomorrow (or later on today, rather, seeing as it’s 2:01 am here). Well, back to studying for History. Good night!
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* An official receipt showing that I am in progress towards getting a visa. They are legal for about 4 months. I got my first one in October. As it expired in January–despite the fact that my visa was still not ready by this time–I had to get it renewed.
