Our 10 day holiday was great! A really good chance to take a breather and try & catch up with all we'd learned in the first 7 weeks. 3 of us went to Lyon together for 2 days: Marina who's Ukrainian, & Alessandro who's Italian. We checked out some of the sights and I was amazed at the ancient buildings! NZ is so young. The highlight for me
was eating frogs' legs. We went to a great restaurant for lunch and at last I got to eat 1 of France's traditional food. And I enjoyed it! Next on my "food to try" list is snails.... yea, not so sure I'll like them but you don't know til you try!
I had to go to the Dr last week because my shoulder's still sore from when I hurt it playing volleyball. I think that 1 of my tendons is inflammed - nothing too serious. I had to ring her and book the appointment - talking on the phone is 1 of the hardest thing to do when you can't speak the language properly! I'd written down some phrases to tell her what had happened and how I'd been resting it but doing stretches every day. I also decided to take my French-English dictionary in case she said stuff I couldn't understand - but I didn't need it!! I managed fine without it so I'm stoked. I need to go back and see her this week cos it's still not 100% although it's improved heaps.
My nursing skills came in handy this week - we went on a school outing to an Abbey about an hour away by bus. The Abbey was built in the 12th Century and is massive! We had lunch there and then went to a coppersmith. He showed us how he uses his lathe to make stuff; it's a dying art and he makes some beautiful things. I had to use the facilities at one point, and a French lady in her late 40s came out saying that she didn't feel well. She was pale and sweating & it looked like she was going to collapse. She didn't collapse because she was leaning against the wall and I was holding her arm, but she did pass out. When she came too, I asked her if she had any pain, cos I was thinking it could be her heart. She didn't answer me so I repeated myself but she still didn't answer so who knows what I was doing wrong?! I'd called for help and a staff member came, and then so did Jamie, another student who's also a Dr. But Jamie has only been learning French for 8 weeks! Jamie asked me questions, which I would then try to interpret so it was a challenge alright! In the end we decided that she was dehydrated and that caused her to pass out. Big dramas!!
Autumn has hit in the last few weeks & the mountains surround
ing us look beautiful with the snow on. Sometimes it looks just like icing sugar! I'm hoping for a white Christmas! I'm also going to celebrate Thanksgiving for the 1st time, and I've asked my language partner and her family to come too. It's a good way for us to say thanks to our language partners who volunteer their time so we can practice French. And on Monday week our exams start! 6 exams over 3 days: written and oral comprehension & production, grammar, & dictation. Pretty thorough huh!
I've just completed reading my 1st French book!! It was in simplified French - but it was cool, a good way to learn new vocab. It's a buzz being able to read & understand another language. A couple of weeks ago in church the pastor asked me to open the service in prayer!! No warning, he just looked at me. I actually didn't understand what he'd said but the lady next to me told me what he'd said, and told me I could pray in English. I decided that I'm already competent at praying in English so why not give it a go? It went OK but I think I thanked God that we love him - I meant to say thanks because he loves us! Oh well it could've been worse!!Il grandit petit à petit (it grows bit by bit).
