Thursday, July 14, 2011

France is cool, trying to speak French with a bunch of other foreigners is cooler

In May, I posted a blog about my upcoming trip to France, but I did something odd to it and it vanished. I loved that post, and since it is gone and I can't replace it, it has become in my mind the funniest, cleverest and most thought-provoking thing I've ever written. I won't even try to top it in this post. I will say that my 4-week stay in France was amazing. Not just because France is a beautiful country and Toulouse is warm and sunny, with warm, sunny people. I also went by myself. I stayed in a cute little apartment, slept late on occasion, and wrote a poem in the morning at my tiny desk by the window, rather than late at night while simultaneously folding 3-day old laundry. Best of all, I took French classes and had classmates from all over the world. Lovely people. Yukari was from Japan, but had recently moved to Toulouse with her French husband, Paulo was an adventurous student from Paraguay, Annick a Belgian woman who is sassy in several languages, and Jose was escaping the Spanish economy and looking for work in France. Nothing creates instant friendship like the inability to communicate well with anyone else. We were all foreigners, not fluent in French, and as nervous as we were excited. Individually, trying to get directions to the used bookstore or order a vegetarian meal we felt laughable and stupid. As a group we still felt laughable and stupid, but didn't care so much. We'd chat in broken French and figure out what the hell each of us was trying to say.
I was going to write about the joys and trials of leaving my family for a month, but lately, I find myself missing my classmates, wondering what adventures they are having and what godawful verb tense they are studying now. I left France happy for the experience, for the chance to fulfill a long-time dream, and so wildly grateful to have met people I never would have had the chance to meet before. I'm not sure if I'll ever see any of them again, but I'll keep them with me forever, their stories, their support and the way no one laughed (too much) when I accidentally ordered a giant plate of goose gizzard on lettuce instead of a green salad. Aah, les bons moments. 

1 comment:

  1. Je parle le Francais un tres peu et tres mal. Nes pas?

    Sounds like a great trip. Check out the post for May 8th on my blog for my experiences learning French. d chadwell

    ReplyDelete