I've survived my first full week here in Paris!
Even though I still don't know a terrible lot of people here, I have met some people at the language school I'm attending and I've made friends with some of the other YSA peeps.
In class this morning, we listened to the news, and a lot of it focused on Bin Laden's death. Some think killing him was a bad play, apparently. Lots of people are celebrating, but then there are also some friends I have on FB who think that, while his death may be a good thing, people in general are glorying too much in his death because, as bad as he was, he still is one of God's children. Personally, I'm glad that we don't need to worry about him running around anymore, but I do worry about the ramifications this will have, particularly if it intensifies the Al Qaeda's hatred and efforts against us. On verra/vamos a ver...
Later, we did some activities with the passive voice in French. Having had experience with teaching, I can see some of the good points of my teacher's style, but I also notice the faults and discrepancies. This class definitely assumes previous knowledge and practice. I don't know what I'd do without having learned these concepts before. At least I get in a lot of French practice because the teachers have used almost no English and English can't even be assumed as a common native language which is effective in getting us to persevere when we struggle to express ourselves in French.
At lunch time, I felt like I should go over and talked to a girl who was sitting by herself whom I recognized from one of yesterday's classes. It turns out that she speaks English and has a really hard time with French. I think she needed a friend; she's new here, too. I invited her to the YSA activities, and she will probably come!
It turns out that we had our afternoon phonetics workshop together, which was fun! The teacher was really good and had a variety of ways to help us practice. We practiced the nasal sounds ɛ̃, ɔ̃, and ɑ̃. Thanks to my education in French and in Spanish phonetics at BYU, I think I was already on a good track, but I have practice to do, that's for sure. At the same time, I must not be doing so bad, 'cause I've been asked if I was Spanish and Italian and my host mom told me that I don't really have an accent! Wahoo!
Tonight, I went to institute. It was odd, 'cause I kind of felt like my arm was being pulled back as I neared the church building, but I took that as Satan wanting to prevent me from going, which meant I needed to go and hear something intended for me. The lesson ended up being about a few parables Christ shared (The convidados, another similar parable, the Good Shepherd, and The Husbandmen/Workmen). For the longest time, I didn't even know about the first two! The lesson was really interesting and I do understand them better--it's amazing how many treasures are stored in such short cuentos!
Afterwards, I hung out with some of the YSA and we went for a walk around Chatelet les Halles near the Notre Dame and the Seine. It was actually quite pleasant. Hah, and the two guys with us took a photo of a sign that was intended to show where a walkway was, but someone had placed red tape over the parent figure holding the child's hand, which really confused us and seemed amusing. A short while thereafter, while we were hanging out on a bridge over the Seine, a drunk man approached us, asking for a cigarette. The Parisienne with us answered no, he left, and then he came back! He was clearly drunk, which made us laugh and was a new experience for me, but then once we decided to move on, we couldn't get rid of him. Thankfully, the two guys with us blocked the drunkard from following us girls as we booked it back toward the church building. Let me just say that it is VERY attractive when a young man my age is able to stand up for something and protect others. Yay for Priesthood holders, too, who protect spiritually and physically!
I know I've written a lot, but I want to mention a couple of sweet moments I've seen at the metro. As dour as the Parisians may seem and may be made out to be, they still have hearts. The other day, a Parisienne helped an English-speaking man with kids to figure out the metro, just in time to catch her own metro. Also, a man gave up his seat for a small boy so he could sit by his brother. Then, today, a man gave up his metro seat just after having sat down because he saw an elderly woman who was having a difficult time merely holding onto a pole as the metro swayed and jerked. And then, tonight, a woman on the metro and I told each other what stops we were going to and I got a bit confused with the direction of the metro, so if it weren't for her pointing out that we were at my stop, I would've missed it and would've had to have waited even longer to get home. There's good to bee seen all around!
Before I forget: Today's my Daddy's birthday, and I sang to him in Spanglish and talked to him, ma maman, and ma petite soeur. I love you guys!
Song of the day: Etre à la Hauteur (I thought of it yesterday when I felt really discouraged, particularly a line where it says that to reach higher, you must overcome your fear and have the heart to be at the height.)
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