Volcanic Water & Four-legged octopus

Well today was quite a day.
I woke up bright and early at 7 a.m. Marco and I had le petit dejeuner (breakfast), and Lionel drove us to school, explaining the route to us.

The Cavilam representatives welcomed us and promptly started our placement test - listening, reading, writing, and comprehension. It was a hard test, but the proctor said not to worry because the purpose was to see what level of French we could go up to. They posted where are classes were, and we were off.

The schedule is as follows:
lundi - morning class: 11 a.m. to 12:30, lunch, afternoon class: 2 p.m. - 3:30
mardi - morning class: 8:45 to noon, lunch, afternoon class: 2 p.m. - 2:30
mercredi morning class: 8:45 to noon and the afternoon off
and then jeudi et vendredi follow the same schedule as mardi.

Seems like a good plan to me!

In my first class, we worked on passe compose by learning a list of phrases and then asking our classmates questions with the phrases. They were questions like have you ever ridden a horse, fallen asleep during a movie, been given flowers, broken a bone, etc. During that class, speaking French started to feel natural.

So far, of the names I can remember, I've met Kan, Woo Jung, and Yukiko from Japan, Vera from Brazil, and Sala from Saudi Arabia. Everyone is very friendly, and people you don't know greet you on the streets in Vichy! Yukiko was in my tour group in the afternoon, and so we got a chance to get to know each other. She is a ballerina! She's already graduated from college too.

Hannah, Kacie, a friend of Hannah's, and I all got lunch together at the one restaurant we could find that was open. The waiter offered us a choice between ham and cheese sandwiches and cheese sandwiches. It made it easy to choose. I'm amazed by the upper hand Kacie and I have after only 3 days in Paris. We let Hannah in on the carafe secret and how to order in a restaurant.

In the afternoon, we listened to conversations in different markets and broke them down sentence by sentence until we really understood them. Then we pretended to be vendors or clients in a made up shop. I was trying to ask for strawberry perfume at a magasin de parfum by saying "Est-ce que vous avez le parfum de fraises?" But I didn't pronounce the r in fraises and ended up asking for butt scented perfume - "parfum de fesse." My teacher just stared at me for the longest time. After I got over being embarrassed, it turned into a great story! This makes the fourth time I've told it today. :)

After school, I tried to walk home to drop my stuff off before the tour, but I got lost. I wandered around for a while, assuming something would look familiar before I got out my map to try to make sense of things. That was when I realized I didn't know where the house was on the map. I asked a man for directions in butchered French, and when he heard what street I was looking for, he immediately asked if I was staying with Marie and Lionel. He's a friend of theirs! Such a small town. I understood most of his directions and made it home.

By that point, I knew I was cutting it close but I figured I could do it. I hurried up the stairs and managed to trip up them and land on hard cement. Then when I got downstairs, I'd left my key on the bed. After all of that, I got lost. Again. Even with the map. This was when I realized I was going to miss the tour.

I didn't know what to do because I'd told my friends I would be there, and I had no way of getting in touch with them. Was I supposed to turn around and go home? Give myself a self-guided tour? Run to school and try and catch them? I settled for grumpily power walking and trying not to cry from frustration until I got to the school - only 7 minutes late. I asked where the tour had gone and a nice man showed me on the map. I easily caught up with my tour and everything was smooth sailing after that.

We saw the park and the river. Our tour guide told us a lot of things, but it was entirely in French, so what I understood at the time, I no longer remember.

We tried Vichy water, what people know the town for. It's created by volcanic pressurization, and so it tastes almost like carbonated earth.

It wasn't bad, but we didn't finish our glasses. It's also not something I care to taste ever again. 

The best building was le Palais des Congres/ Opera. Known for it's fan shaped entrance, it was truly beautiful.

I do remember what the tour guide said about the statues. There were two more on the other side, four in all, one for each season. The winter woman held her shawl tightly around her and the summer woman clasped grapes. These are the autumn and spring women, with the harvest and flowers, respectively. Finally, the clock-looking object above them is actually a barometer, telling the weather. 

After the tour, I arrived home to a family I could suddenly understand almost entirely, (without getting lost,  might I add.) Apparently, one day of school (and wandering around) can really make a difference. I talked so much at dinner that I then had to make up for lost time and eat my food quickly. It's amazing to be able to express myself more easily now. 

After dinner, Soni and Mila came to play with me. Mila picked up my journal, a book I'm reading, and my French-English dictionary and asked me in awe if I had written all of them. I explained that no, I was only reading those and that my novel was on my computer. Then Soni invited me to draw pictures with him. Mila and I drew the ocean full of fish and octopus with only four legs. (Merriam Webster says the plural of octopus is octopodis, uhm, no. Alissa says it's like the word sheep.)

Then Soni and I had the bright idea to try to draw Marco. When Soni was finished, we went to get Marco, giggling profusely. He was good spirited about it but didn't seem to find it as funny as we did. He soon went out with friends, and Soni whispered in my ear "Marco aime Alissa" and giggled some more. We all found this very funny, including Marie, who understood my explanation that Marco was too young for me. But Soni wasn't dissuaded from his theory. 

It was such a pleasant evening compared to a day of having to pay attention and be on time. But overall, I am really enjoying Vichy. It is so much more calm than Paris, and the weather is gorgeous - sunny and warm.

A demain,

Alissa