Parlez-vous l'anglais?!

Picture 1: At Pier 6, some posh club with Marc's Friends, Me, Jean, Marc de Bechade, Victor

Picture 2: The pier in Arcachon down the street from Marc's beach house

Picture 3: My new friends! Marc de Bechade, Me, Antoine, Marc Bailly, Thomas, Jordan, Jean

Picture 4: Jordan and I on Marc's boat!

So I started class! The day that was supposed to be the first day ended up being a holiday, which is not shocking considering the French take Holidays pretty much all of the time! lol So on Monday Melissa took me to Thiers where her dad, aunt, and grandma live and where her mom and step dad have there plastic factory. It was a really cute town in the mountains so her aunt lived up high with a beautiful view of the city and thats where we ate lunch. Her house was really cool and eclectic because all of the people in Melissas family are really good paiters, I had no idea! At lunch I tried saucisson for the first time and thought it was good! As long as I didn't think about what it was made of lol sort of like a hot dog! Melissa has two cousins who live in Thiers, a girl whose 14 and a boy whose my age so it was cool to hang out with them for a little bit!

After lunch Mel took me around Theirs and we walked in a church that was built in like 1400 or something, it was pretty neat. Then we went to the plastic factory her Step-dad owns and it was really cool to see all the stuff they make and the cute area around it. Apparently some really famous knives are made in Thiers and that's there claim to fame. When we walked around though it was pretty easy to see the recession there because so many shops were closed and the town was sort of dead. It's pretty sad.

But one place that wasn't dead was the French version of Wal-Mart where Mel took me next and it was pretty much the same but all in French, I was pretty suprised! Then we visited Mel's friend who had just had a baby who was less than a month old, he was so cute and I tried to speak French with the two of them but it was pretty hard.

My first day of class my mom here parked and walked me in just like elementary school lol it was pretty cute. I found Jordan and we took the placement test where I proceeded to accidently miss a whole section of listening comprehension so I'm pretty sure I had a horrible score for that and thus I ended up in a class that is entirely to easy for me with Jordan. It's pretty fun but we will most likely transfer to another this week.

The classes are cool because there are all different nationalities like Libian and Mexican and American and Japanese and Korean. So the only common language is French so the entire class is written, heard and spoken in French. I love it! I told the Japanese girl my one phrase of Japanese and she got so excited lol it was cute and we're best friends now.

So basically the class is fun and I'm really enjoying it. But what was even more fun was to go to Mel's moms English class today and see the reverse. It was pretty cool and I realized English would definitely be hard to learn! The teacher is from Ireland and I talked to her before class and from what I could tell she seemed pretty nice but definitely had that proper English air about her and in class during the text she asked me a few questions about America and differences and it was sort of clear that she thought our English was inferior to their way lol. Which was fine but when she started teaching the ladies the words corpulent and gangly and stout I asked if those were everyday words where she came from and she said yes and that the use of those words for me would come with age. I looked at Mel and we both sort of laughed and realized this lady was a total salope! (the b word in french) Then she talked about how great her son was because he spoke perfect English and French and his English was way to proper for when he studied abroad in Iowa. I sort of laughed and said that I could see that, and I understood why only because being to proper in America seemed snobby, but she clearly was snobby so that was probably a compliment for her! I told her that in the south we are much more relaxed and warm and welcoming which some people like and some don't and she thought that was sort of intersting.

At the point I really felt like putting on my best hick accent and saying, "Well ya'll it's been a real treat to get to know ya! But I'm only from America and can't really understand what you guys are sayin' so I think I'll head back to Texas now with my 6 shooter and cowboy boots!" lol It was quite and experience and I really enjoyed it because it's so interesting to see how different people really can be!

Besides that nothing really exciting is happening so I'm waiting longer to post so I will have more to say! I will put up pictures of Melissas house and the town as soon as I take some! haha

Until my next adventure!

Love you!