Aujourd'hui, I met a few more students. The way this school works, you can change levels or professors whenever, and a new group of students come each week. Last week, about half the class was Swiss/German or Swedish. This week, native English speakers are dominant. Even though I feel like some of the activities are ridiculous, or at least when it comes to what the formatrice expects of us, and that it seems like she isn't very good at catching when we don't follow her instructions because we don't understand, I do think that my comprehension is improving. And today's atelier, "workshop" if you will, was culture and civilization and, unlike last week, we went outside! Last week was more indoors talking about stereotypes, but today was taught by someone else, the same woman who did my atelier on Friday, and we went walking around in artistic Montmartre, which used to be a banlieu (suburb) of Paris. It is well known for the Sacre-Coeur cathedral, but we didn't actually go inside. Even though it was a lot of walking, it was fun to just chat with another girl in French and see a more countryside-ish part of Paris that not as many tourists seem to know about.
I returned to my host apartment with just enough time to eat some crepes au jambon et fromage (crepes with ham and cheese) and then head on over to Chatelet les Halles for Home Evening (HE) with the YSA. We had a lesson about the Book of Mormon and how we know it's true and how we can constantly learn new lessons from its pages. I immediately thought of the scripture I read on Saturday and annotated here. :)
For the activity, we played the knot game where everyone just reaches in and grabs to others' hands, and then the entire group has to untangle itself together. We played to rounds and were successful the first time and almost successful the second time. (Apparently avoir le vent en poupe is a common phrase for talking about having success, which phrase I learned today because poupe sounds uncannily like something in English that's not so tasteful as success!)
If you're wondering what happened with my new young Japanese friend, she didn't come to church yesterday, nor did she come to the activity today, but she is planning on coming to Institute and she even asked if she could bring a friend she'd invited!! Um, YES, s'il te plait!
Sadly, the boost of confidence I felt for most of the day from having spoken and understood a lot of French had to end sooner or later, I suppose. My time came after the HE activity when I went with some of the jeunes adultes to hang out--I couldn't understand almost anything they said, I didn't talk much and when I did it was terrible because I lost my confidence, and I felt apart. Part of that was me for not buying the pizzas with them and for not talking much, but...yeah. I told a couple of the guys there of my frustration, and they were sympathetic, in a guy way, I suppose: I tried speaking to me in his broken English (which made me feel dumb, but I think he was trying to accommodate me), and the other told me that he didn't think the others thought I was stupid, contrary to my expressed fear. Yeah, did I ever mention my dread of being considered dumb, bete, stupid, inept, incompetent? I should just face the possibility and deal with it. I think Satan was trying yet again to discourage me.
At least I know some Spanish. :) I helped a colombiana new to ACCORD today, I wrote some FB-ness in Spanish, and I spoke to a YSA girl from Chihuahua, Jessica. Also, an older guy called "Juliette" out to me as we walked by each other. That's not quite the marriage proposal that some of the BYU study abroad students have gotten, but it still made me feel good. Speaking of marriage proposals, I saw one today in chalk in front of the Sacre-Coeur! It said, "Isabelle, veux-tu m'epouser?" So cute! I guess that sort of proposal isn't unique to BYU. :D
With positives such as the aforementioned, I should have been okay, but instead I wanted to cry and call home. You'd think, too, that I could take my own advice: "It's okay, it takes time, don't worry, talk to natives, just spit it out and speak 'cause that's how you learn... It's all about the people." Go figure that just after I talked to a new sister missionary here I would feel frustrated and lose perspective. Thankfully, my host mom came in to check on me soon after I entered chez moi, and she insisted that I work at home in French and review with a textbook a previous exchange student had left. I think I'll do just that; there are some things I've had questions about. Heavenly Father knew that, and he is here for me.
Song of the Day: Nearer, My God, To Thee (Más cerca, Dios, de ti/Mon Dieu, plus près de toi; I know that my God is near me, and as one of the verses point out, all that I have received was given in mercy, including this trip to France.)
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