France is playing Cyprus tonight…tomorrow we should have a good idea of how its going to go. Some French guy tried to tell me this last week, of course, but he kept saying they’re going to play “Chypre” and kept explaining it was this little island between Turkey and Greece and I felt like such a dumb American…

Today I went to a group called “Tandem,” intended to help people learn French and English by pairing French primary-school-teachers-in-training with English- speaking assistants such as myself. We’re supposed to build up to spending 45 minutes of the 90 minute session speaking each language and writing notes on how we could improve.

My partner looked like so many other cute blond girls at home. She said she’d come from Caen and was quite happy to get out and study where we were—I guess not much happens there. But she was incredibly nice and helpful. However, English didn’t seem to be a strong subject with many of the students there, so communication could be difficult…It’s great they make people take more than one language in general here, but sometimes I think when they cram so many subjects into so little time, students don’t make as much progress. I mean, they may study English for many years, but that’s many years for two or three days a week, wheras my four years of highschool Englih were for five days a week. Frequency is very important for a foreign language.

Apparently I’ve been pronouncing “en” the same as “on” all this time…I’m quite self- conscious about it now but maybe I’ll improve quickly then.

Met Aruther and Amelia there, along with Elizabeth, one of the Polish Canadians. I asked her why there were so many of them and she could only figure it was a complete coincidence. She didn’t know any of the others (except, I’m sure, through all the information they’d exchanged trying to figure their particular situation out) Apparently Poland is supposed to join the EU in 2010, but she still has to brave the medical exam.

We all ended up eating in this crêperie, something I’d wanted to do since we got there. Walking around, you pass one about every five minutes. We all ended up with desert crepes. I mean, when you see something like “chocolate sauce, brownies, and vanilla ice cream” on a menu, can you resist? I mean, without hiding the menu and/or the table tent under the table. I ordered the “croquant,” a crepe with almond brittle, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream (chantilly, like the lace). We all tasted each other’s. Arthur had rhum flambée. Very different. It must have still been burning a good three minutes after he got it, just a little haze of fire that kept disappearing and reappearing each time you thought it had gone, with a taste that seemed to change just as fast in your mouth from sweet to bitter to burning.

But it was the cider I’d really wanted to go for…
Sparkling. Cold. In what looked like a coffee cup. Only it was bigger than a shot glass and so wouldn’t have passed for a coffee cup in France. The other assistants asked if it was hot. Oh no. Just served in a big coffee cup. But it was wonderful. Bolée Doux- I recommend it.

On a whinier note: The prefecture, where I’m going to get my titre de séjour, tells me, oh, you should get an appointment- except when I go in to get one they don’t have any until January the third. Guess I’ll just have to get there at six in the morning after all. Also need an official translated birth certificate. And why can’t I just get a friend to translate or someone to approve it somewhere? Because then it wouldn’t be official, of course. I need to call the palais de justice about it.

Also, I go to the bank to find out what happpend to the bank card and/or code which was supposed to be sent to me last Friday. Don’t worry, come back Saturday, we’ll figure everything out. No problem. I’m sure whatever got lost on the way to the school will come pack by then.

Sat next to a lady from Virginia today in the internet café.. kept asking me how to find the periods and @ sybols etc. on the French keyboard. It’s nice to be the one answer the questions about how you get around. My keyboard there, on the other hand, kept switching between French and international. Time to learn to switch between the two, i guess

Good news: I’m walking without a limp now!
Bad news: I lost my voice.
And I’m falling asleep. It’s been a long day. Goodnight.

PS France won, 4-0!

and everyone send me the addresses to your blogs...especially you, sweetie!