Just kidding! :D
This week has been pretty normal: wake up, go to school, learn a few things, come home, laugh at dinner, talk to my friends and do homework, and then head to bed.
So this week I got kidnapped and had to escape using my awesome hidden martial art skills.... Just kidding! :D Actually, this is me promising that more interesting posts are coming! (And to let you know that I still am alive;) This week has been pretty normal: wake up, go to school, learn a few things, come home, laugh at dinner, talk to my friends and do homework, and then head to bed. God has blessed me, again, in making me feel at home where ever I happen to be. Thank you for all your prayers!
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After dinner the other night Immanuel, Elvira's younger brother, Jessie, and I played Skippo. It was fun because we didn't really remember the rules exactly, so we ended up making it up and then figuring it out by the end.
Elvira (Ely) joined us then after she had finished work, and we played a few more rounds with her. The best part was the goofing around and singing that happened during and after. It reminded me so much of home. Today, then I went over to Ely's apartment to help put plastic up over the windows in Immanuel's (Imy's) room. I've decided that Ely is my long lost older sister. We can joke around and understand each other really well. It's definitely a blessing to have her here. When I signed up for the semester program run by the Jacques Lefevre institute, part of the requirements was having an internship. I didn't know what that would consist of until I got here. But there is pocket money involved, so it sounded good to me!
Last week we started out by making up the beds in all the other rooms at the institute. We made up 16 beds in about two and half hours. This week we cleaned all 6 bathrooms, vacuumed and remade the beds that were used this week from 10:00am until around 12:00pm. Then after lunch I ironed the pillow cases that were used this week as well as a two table cloths. That took me about another two hours. Jessie will continue the ironing tomorrow. Today she had a school project (that I'll be doing Wednesday) to attend to. Other than cleaning, the internship consists of going to Church on Sunday and Globale Bible Universitie (GBU) on Mondays. GBU is the on-campus bible study. So far Jessie and I haven't understood a lot of what the french students say, but they're all really nice, and it's good. Also, starting in March the Institute will have groups from the States, or elsewhere, come stay for about ten days. While they're here we will help with the language, culture, and history lessons and the morning worship. It's a perfect opportunity for Jessie and I to incorporate our teaching desire with French. And there's more! We might also be able to help out in the nursery or children's church on Sunday mornings. We won't know about this until later though. The cool thing about all this? We basically got to chose what we wanted to do (well other than the cleaning). If I had brought my trumpet with me, playing in the morning church service would've counted as part of the internship. As long as we're experiencing the French life and learning/working at the same time, it will count! Today was a long day with four classes. I had my second test right at 8:30 after catching the 6:47 bus (woot) and then the other classes went well, but I was really tired afterwards. I also had about 40 minutes before the bus back home left, so I decided to hang out in William the Conquer's castle. I am ever so glad that I did. Beautiful. God never stops reminding me (us) that He's here. In the storm raging within us, in the business of our lives, in the quiet breeze, in the rain, and in the moments where our souls are at rest: He is there. Oh, and I guess I was there too;) You know, just chilling in a castle... with a cannon... And then there was this: "I love you one time I love you two times I love you more than Bananas and Chocolate" <3 It's the truth.
There's Stomp, there's the Blue Man Group, and then there's this..... The idea of the performance was to use every day objects to create different sounds. It was actually pretty interesting, but Jessie and I both walked away thinking "what it the world did we just witness?" They did a great job though, you could tell everything was timed to the second and practiced a lot. They also used whistles, water, crackers, violins, vacuums, screams, sighs, wigs, wooden bowls, etc.
Definitely an experience. It was almost 60 degrees Fahrenheit this afternoon so after Danielle and I went to get yarn for the blanket I'm making her, I went to the post office to get more stamps and send people post cards, and stopped to grab some more snacks for our room, Jessie and I played some volleyball on the grassy area by the house. It was lots of fun, and I actually didn't play as bad as I thought I would. The real fun started when we decided to head to the beach. The tide was so far out, so we decided to attempt to build a sandcastle and then, in honor of Valentine's day, we wrote Love (l'amour) in the sand. We were going to attempt to make it taller, but it just crumbled. Instead we enjoyed smashing it:D And then, because we're girls, we had to pose with them:D
Tonight we went to a worship concert at a church in Caen. I was really cool to worship God in French and just be in that kind of setting again:) Plus I got pictures with Elvira and Danielle. Check out my facebook page for a video of the event. Sadly, I am unable to post it here.
What's more fun than speaking French?
-Speaking French with the most horrible American accent you can come up with -Speaking French with a poor attempt at a Italian accent with all the hand gestures, of course -Teaching Danielle to say English phrases like, "it's raining cats and dogs" We had another American at dinner tonight who has been teaching English for 2.5 years in Cabourg. She was a ton of fun and we laughed so much. She also played the piano for a bit. Have I mentioned how much I miss music and singing? Alright, I shall now explain to you what I am actually learning at the University of Caen.
I waited this long to fill you in because last week I was on a different schedule than Jessie, and we were waiting to see if I could join her class. Luckily I can! Which means only four days of classes and only one early morning (rather than three)! Lundi: (Monday) 12h45 Communication orale et écrite 14h30 Société et culture françaises 16h15 Maîtrise du système phologique Mardi: (Tuesday) 10h15, 12h45, 16h15 Communication orale et écrite Mercredi: (Wednesday) 10h15, 12h45 Grammaire Jeudi: (Thursday) 8h30 Communication orale et écrite 10h15 Grammaire 12h45 Maîtrise du système phonologique 14h30 Société et culture françaises Communication orale et écrite: This is our main class (evident by the five sessions that we have). It's a interactive class where we learn about a certain topic---apartments and houses being the first one--and then have conversations with other classmates. We'll have written and oral tests as well as a final. Société et culture françaises: How do the French live? We shall find out with this class. So far we've discussed French stereotypes as well as stereotypes from other countries and how sometimes they are false and sometimes they are a bit true. Next we'll be learning about geography... which probably means I'll end up knowing more about where cities are in France and Normandy than in the States.... oops. Maîtrise du système phologique: Phonics! Where we get to sound like monkeys. Seriously the difference between the vowel sounds are soooooo minimal. Sometimes it makes all the difference between what you're trying to say though. Gammaire: French grammar=confusing, and then I think about English... both have their difficult moments and positive aspects. We will also have tests in this class, and we'll use the same book that is used in communications. The hardest part, of course, is trying to comprehend what I'm supposed to be doing. As soon as understand what I need to do though, I can normally do it decently well. After a long week of classes, which I promise I will explain to you eventually, Jessie and I went to Cabourg yesterday to do a bit of shopping and then to watch a movie. Reading is always a good way to learn vocabulary, and reading out loud is also great practice for pronouncing French words. So, naturally, I was drawn to the book stores. There were a lot of Disney books, it was hard to choose. I also bought some souvenirs and would've gotten some boots, except they didn't have my size. It was sad. Jessie and I enjoyed each other's company. We're getting along marvelously because our hearts are very much the same. Meaning although we don't live the same (she's way more active and stylish), we both love God and people, work hard at what we're passionate for, and enjoy the time we have to relax in silence or talk about our lives. Basically, I'm really glad that she's here with me. The only unfortunate thing about yesterday was the movie... Next time we will do a bit more research. So, in case you ever want to watch Yves Saint Laurent, don't. We knew that the fashion-designer world is a rather horrible, but we had hoped they wouldn't show it. We left early and read Le Roi Lion instead.
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AuthorSalut! Je suis etudiante de francais. Well, I'm doing my best to learn French at any rate:) Je suis Son (I am His) is the documentation of my semester in Normandy with the Chez Vous Institute and the Universite de Caen. Categories
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