Always a little lost, but never completely

It feels strange to post on a Saturday, but yesterday I was so caught up in a flurry of excitement that I couldn't bring myself to sit at the computer and blog about it. Classes wrapped up yesterday at 9 a.m., and I am now on vacation for a week! It feels very undeserved to have a vacation already, but hey--I'll take it. So I went back home and checked my email and found out that my boyfriend bought a ticket to visit me in France! I am ecstatic. He will be here December 14-24, and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

In further news, I finally have heat in my apartment. This may sound anti-climatic, but I have been absolutely freezing since I arrived. When I told the concierge that my heating is broken, she laughed and said that it will work when it's winter. I envisioned another month of wearing 14 layers of clothes, sniffling, and huddling over a pot of boiling water (yes, I actually did that).

Yesterday I was invited to eat lunch with the professors, and it was so great. I find that I am often a little lost in the conversation of a large group, but never completely. It was a pretty elaborate fete, in my opinion, with fondue, wine, beer, salad, and two mind-blowing desserts (apple tarte and some delcious creamy coconut concoction).

After, I went with my friend Astrid (art teacher at the school) to Vichy for the night. We did some shopping, of course. I have been pretty frugal so far, so I rewarded myself with a beautiful cream-colored boat-neck sweater. Her friend Damien came over for dinner, and we had "un repas typique" consisting of pasta, baguette and yes--wine. Over dinner I dabbled in more complex conversations, Damien practices Tai Chi, so he told me about that, and I talked about my undying dedication to yoga. Then somehow we started talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which required a dictionary. Still, I am becoming more and more comfortable expressing myself and my views in French, and I'm proud of that.

Then we went to see a film, The Artist. It was incredible-- a silent film in black and white. The story commences in 1927 and is more or less about a famous actor fading into oblivion when movies with sound became more popular. It was so well done, I am always impressed by films that can take a simple plot line and make it intricate and complex. We returned to Astrid's apartment, drank a little more, and then, much to my horror, I was given a salsa lesson. Yes, my first lesson of salsa in French.

I fell into an exhausted sleep and for the first time since I arrived, I had dreams in French! Ah, that is the best. That's when you know you're mind is really working hard, when a language drifts into your subconcious. My primary goal is to become fluent in French, and I am working tirelessly at it.