I have been a bit slack at posting of late. Last week was my first week of full lessons, it was somewhat more intense than I am used to, earlier starts, and the fact that I am having to learn in another language which is in itself something I am trying to learn, sussing out the timetable took some time, one day I found I turned up at 8:30 to realise that I didn't have a lesson until 10 and then that was an exam so infact I didn't need to rush in at all. It wasn't easy. But also I have survived that first week and I have come out of it to a two week holiday which is a bit strange but does give me some time to take a breather as it were, to reflect a bit, to try to finish off work for Wimbledon (essay anyone?) but also hopefully to continue discovering the ins and outs of life in Tououse and in the south of France and to travel a bit. Next week I am for example hoping to spend a day or two with a friend in Montpellier, I also hope to make some journeys with my new German friends, fellow erasmus students who are also studying at the ecole. At first I found it hard being the only English exchange student (though to be fair the Germans speak very good English themselves, far better than my German) however, I am enjoying the fact that through our differences in nationality we spend most of our time speaking in the language which sits in the middle ground between us which is of course french! While this can be tiring, it is also really incredible to think about the amount of time we spend actually speaking to each other in French and how it almost becomes normal at times. Thought is often required for grammar and vocabulary being wrenched from the depths of memory but also I am finding that speaking this strange and beautiful language can sometimes come quite naturally. It is an encouraging thought.
I am rediscovering the challenges and the joys of speaking another language and learning in the process. I am also still really surprised and pleased when French people compliment me on my French, perhaps it is not always my ability but the fact tht I am making an effort to express myself, one French student said to me that she didn't think there were any french students at the ecole who could speak english in the way I was speaking french. I suppose I am getting perhaps a bit overly proud of myself now but it's nice and gratifying to remind yourself of these small boosts to your confidence.
I also discovered this week again on the language front that yes it is true, as propmised to me by my Toulouse exchange predecessors, that when drunk and confronted by an english person french people will indeed break in to streams of poetic sounding but not always coherent english. All the while they are sober, they will speak en Francais (I think there is in fact only one french student who speaks to me consistently in a melange of French and English, the others speak very fast, very fluid French, they will sometimes slow down if you ask them nicely!) But it was very funny and quite touching to have them suddenly all speaking to me in beautiful French accented English. I really do like it when French people speak English. I spoke to one girl who said she didn't want to have a french accent when she spoke english, even though I tried to convince her that actually english people really like that, and I think it is the same vice versa when English people speak french (I hope). She introduced me to someone who she said spoke perfect English and had "such an English name: Charles", he then procceded to introduce himeself as Charlie, and it turned out he is (officially British, of British parents) but French in every other way, it is strange, he is the second person I have encountered who is French in every way except for the fact that they also happen to speak perfect English in a very English accent, and have English names and come from Wandsworth or Dover. Anyway that was all at a party put on by the ecole because it was nearly the holidays and us exchange students had just arrived. We drank huge cup fulls of wine and I couldn't work out why I felt light headed until I realised the wine was being served out in the same manner as the beer. The night started slow and it had been a long day but by the end of the night I felt as if I was positively brimming over with happiness, I felt like beaming because I think I felt a part of the school for the first time, I felt relaxed and I felt welcomed.
The next day added to this feeling because I was greeted by three separate (French) students for the first time with the obligatory double barreled kiss (here in the south it is just one kiss on each cheek). It is a gesture that in my English way I am still not used to as it seems so intimate and yet is used here with such abandon and so casually. I was really happy to be greeted in this way, because again it felt like I was becoming part of something, that I wasn't just a tourist looking in, but someone who was part of the ebb and flow of daily life at the ecole and in Toulouse.
Bisoux. A bientot.
Laura
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