As previously discussed I do not have internet in my home. It is also applicable to let you know that they keep us very busy here at the Universite de Moncton. That is my explanation for the gap between posts. I'm still trying to figure out how to make this work best.
When I talked to you last I had just completed my placement exam and who would have guessed it, I am in the beginners level, along with almost all the Albertans I arrived here with (go figure).
Monday afternoon we had our meeting in English followed by a countdown for us to only speak French. It was rather informative, you may do this, you may not do this. Just your average orientation meeting, it just happened to come mid-way through the second day. Monday night we had a tour of the campus, this proved to be of limited use to me mostly because it was entirely in French. Although from what I’ve heard from my French speaking roommates it wasn’t that great either way. Because we had already been on campus for two days we had to have figured out where all the buildings were before that. After the tour I was exhausted and didn’t end up doing anything exciting except watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall that one of my roommates had on her computer. We cheated and watched it in English.
Tuesday started early because our classes began at 8am. Breakfast was equally early and had me leaving the house around 7am – that is outrageous. We did some pretty basic things, greetings, alphabet, sounds, etc. What you really need to know to get started. We were given some basic homework and sent out for lunch at 11:30. Lunch at 11:30 is awfully early, I am more accustomed to lunch around 2pm, and this is not just because of my month in Mexico, this is very much a schedule I was used to prior to that.
After lunch I was exhausted and as much as I wanted to go try out the gym or work on homework I ended up napping on my bed. Don’t get me wrong, naps are great but we have so little free time that napping almost seems like a waste at times. The problem is our home tends to get very cold or very hot. We’ve yet to establish a great middle ground. I woke up cold, which is never a nice way to wake up.
At 2pm we had our afternoon activity – this was ‘ice breakers’ the worst kind of activities, but the ones that always happen at any gathering of this nature. This wasn’t too painful because you, mostly, were not required to speak and some instructions were given in English. We were split up into 4 groups of 25. The human knot, a card game that involved sitting on others, holding hands and getting through a hula-hoop were the basics. We also had to see who could yell the longest on with one breath. Believe it or not I won. It was an elimination process where half of the group was eliminated every time. I’ve never known myself to have any ability to do such things, I cannot hold my breath very long. But beyond some shaky legs, dizziness, and feeling like I was going to pass out I would say it was a major success on my behalf. Today, however, I am rethinking my victory because my throat feels awful.
We were once again released for free time – this time I did do my homework. It didn’t take too long, we were conjugating verbs and writing a short journal entry. Mine was 3 sentences. I don’t really know much about sentence structure in French, or even how to form basic sentences, or how to talk in the past tense. For all these reasons as well as a general lack of understanding of the language I kept it short.
Then it was time for our evening activity. We had a choice between dodgeball outside (it happened to be pouring rain) or tea and board games inside. I’m all for tea and I do enjoy a good board game now and then, but board games in French are a whole ‘nother ball game. It was ok, it lasted about an hour, we played snakes and ladders, which equates to counting to 6 in French, a skill I feel I have mastered.
After a group of us debated going to see a movie but because it didn’t start until 9:30 we decided it would be better to save it for another night. Being up early and very busy is exhausting. Instead we went to WalMart to find a few essentials we felt we were missing out. For me this included buying a sweat suit to sleep in as well as an additional blanket, some pencils, erasers, and other small things. By the time we got home it was late, well it was likely 9:30 but it felt late. I made a phone call and headed to bed.
In order to create some sort of order I will leave out what I accomplished today thus far and hopefully I will post tomorrow morning about my day today. That might seem confusing but just stick with me.
Weather: Cold and rainy
Today I learned:
- I can yell forever!
- Yelling forever makes ones throat hurt, a lot.
- Sleeping in a sweatsuit is great, for the first few hours then it is just damn hot.
I am grateful for:
- Umbrellas
- Peppermint tea
No comments:
Post a Comment