Things I've Learned Here

I've only been abroad for a pinch of time, so I'm not going at this like I'm all-knowing in terms of this kind of thing. These are the things that I think I've learned while being here.

Things I've Learned While Studying Abroad

-------------------------------------------

A lot of problems are so universal that I can't even stand it. 

Examples: breaking a phone screen, failing a drivers test, boys, angst with the government

Clothes aren't nessecarily dirty just because you've worn them once.

There are always going to be times where you feel unwanted. In your home country, on your trip abroad, at the pool, at the dinner table- that's what's going to happen. I don't have any advice to associate with this. Bonne chance.

Other people don't have the exact same mindset as you.

Just because your society values something doesn't mean that everyone else's does too. And some of the things you find most important are not very important at all in actuality. 

You can find people similar to you anywhere. Anywhere.

It doesn't matter if you expect to never see anyone again from the get go, saying goodbye after spending time with someone for weeks suck. It sucks a lot, no matter how real you are about the situation.

Shyness comes in a lot of disguises. People who are afraid will do a lot of things out of fear- be mean, act pretentiously, sleep -shyness is not just nail biting, silence, and crying.

Let people wear as much makeup and as little clothing as they want. Because, you know what? It's not deeply important.

Having someone to talk to that understansd completely is indispensable. This is what I miss about Americans. I miss having someone who can grasp all my awkward idioms and knows the connotations I'm implying with the words I'm choosing. 

It doesn't matter how many people think you're stupid. Their opinions of you have no influence on the person you are in actuality.

The knife goes on the right and the fork goes on the left.

In A State Of Language Fluency?

I'm going to start off this post by saying that one does not need to speak the language of a country to live there.

I'm saying this so that you don't start off reading this post with the assumption that I must speak French well because I've been able to be here for almost 6 weeks.

Supporting Example: I met a woman who had lived in Toulouse for 20 years and never learned French. (Yes, she was American...)

***This is all about my French speaking, so it might not be particularly interesting. If you want to know about how my French is going, here you go.***

Educational Background:

(In case you were curious)

Okay, so I've only taken French for about 3 or 4 years in school. I started in middle school, where I learned only bare basics. Then I took French freshman year with a class combined of multiple levels of French (this was bad, because there were three entirely different classes in one trailer with one teacher). Then I had French my sophomore and junior years of high school, junior year French being fairly intense.

So that's how I studied French. Was I fluent? Ehh. Listening was almost impossible for me and my accent was horrid.

Before coming, I would Google things like "how long does it take to become fluent in a foreign language" and the answer was always that it takes quite a while. But, I've studied it so I should be good right? Right, actually.

How good am I now, here:

Lots of people say my French is really good. They tell it to my face and every time I respond that I'm not so sure. These are usually adults, who realize that it's actually important to give me motivation.

Some people tell me that my French is better than their English. That does make me feel better.

Some people just get extremely excited when there's an American trying to speak French for once (as opposed to the French who are consistently amazing at English).

On the other hand, I have heard people say my French is not good. 

This is so frustrating and rude, to be honest, mostly because I genuinely don't think it's true. Also, I'm sure they don't think I can understand them when they say that my French is not good. What irony. 

See list below-

When is my French bad:

No, my French is not good when we're in a group of teenagers speaking slang.

No, my French is not good when there is loud music playing. 

No, my French is not good when I've just woken up.

No, my French is not good when I'm particularly stressed out.

When is my French good:

But if I'm having a one on one conversation, I understand it. Point blank. Sometimes I ask the person I'm talking to what a word or two means because I want to learn, but if I need to I can generally actively converse without additional clarification.

Also, I can comprehend a lot of reading. This is because of school. For instance, if I put French subtitles on a French movie, I understand exactly what's happening because I can read instead of listen. (Reading is easier than listening for me because that's what I've practiced more.)

I almost always know the vocab words for whatever I want to say (but to be fair I only ever want to talk about so many things). However, it often happens that I can see the spelling in my head but can't say it the right way because of my accent. 

I can pull the words for umbrella and watermelon and a lot of other random stuff out of my head.

This makes me particularly proud.

So, it's really hard to be secure in a language when you're constantly in situations that make your French look bad. Here are some other reasons that I seem less proficient that I actually can be-

Things that I do that make people think my French is bad:

I'm going to look confused a lot because of the things that people say to me (not because I can't understand them).

Examples: Hey have you ever drinken so much that you passed out

Or

So tell me more about the bee crisis in Indiana

Or

Hey isn't Virginia close to Arizona

These kinds of questions warrant a jaw drop and a slight eye roll in any language.

I'm going to be quiet because I have nothing to contribute to the converstaion a lot, not because I don't understand what you're saying.

Laughing. If I laugh at you joke I am in fact laughing because I understand your joke, thank you. It might have been a dumb joke- but in every language I laugh at those. Oops.

All in all, I speak English well. So, hey, that's not so bad. Plus, I speak French well enough to conceivably be a functional human in France without help.

One cannot quantify one's own abilities... I guess.

No one ever said living abroad wouldn't be frustrating.

In Cahors

No, I didn't go home. I just left Toulouse.

I'm here in Cahors now, about an hour and a half north of Toulouse. 

(The blue dot is Cahors.)

The family I'm staying with is two (very chique) parents and two (very pretty) daughters. Their house is just outside a country-club type place- imagine high school musical 2 mixed with dirty dancing.

Yesterday, I want with the crew to see Le Peitie Prince (shoutout to Madame Flowers).

Today, I went with the crew "walking". Their version of walking turned out to be hiking, but I like that so it's okay.

We "walked" 12 km this morning, around Cahors. (Just over 7 miles, Americans.)

I have blisters, but it was worth it.

In The Going Away Party

For the last night in Toulouse, we had a party on a boat. We all expected this to be an uncomfortably small boat for the quantity of people that were attending, where we'd end up needing to overflow onto the dock. Contrary to our expectations, the boat was amazing! There were two levels and the lower level was big enough for all the program kids, teachers, coordinators, and attending host family members.

It was also ideal for Titanic pictures.

Anyway, I got a chance to take pictures with all my people finally. 

Here's my FAVORITE person from the program. He's the tour guide I keep talking about and he's perfect. His name is Eric.

"You'd rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable. Trust me."

-Grandpa Vapes (AKA Eric)

Here's my professor, Marie. She's essentially a hippie. If you can't tell from the size of her bun, she has hair the length of her thighs.

Here's my program coordinator. There were three, but I got assigned to (chosen by) this one- thankfully. Her name is Meg, but we just call her mom. I love her. She lives in Florida.

This is Arnaud. He was in charge of my life; I'm not sure what the official job title was. We call him No No.

I don't know... you might have noticed that there is this one girl who keeps showing up in all of my pictures. Her name is Victoria and she is my person. She lives in North Carolina, the next state over from me. Unlike most of the summer friends I make, I might actually see her again. That's a big deal to me.

Au revoir à CIEE et à Toulouse, et un grand merci à tout (les profs, les coordinateurs, etc.). Mais- le plus grand merci est à ma mère d'accueil. Merci, Céline. Je te remercie vraiment. (Et vous, Ty/Karina.) And honestly I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with life without Karina.

PS I love my squad; please enjoy: