Today is the first day of my 3 week French language intensive and I'm pretty excited about learning the language in this environment. And the sun is fully shining in a beautiful blue sky today, just to add to my joy :-)
Having prepared well last week in terms of taking the Metro and finding the school (yes, yes I hear you laughing.......), I feel very relaxed and confident about today - not so sure about my capacity to learn the language but I'm starting at absolute beginner level and that suits me fine!
I set off just after 8am as I'm not sure how frantic the Metro will be at that hour, but I needn't have worried - the trains come very frequently and although one is just leaving as I come down the steps, the next one is only 2 minutes later and isn't full.
It's 7 stops 'til my station and only takes about 10 minutes so I have heaps of time (yes, ok, those who know me - I like to be organized, there's nothing worse than........ oh never mind...... ) ;-)
So with time up my sleeve, I find a café and order a coffee - "un cappuccino au porte, s'il vous plaît?" - see, I'm halfway to fluent already!!!! ;-)
At the school the students are starting to arrive, some brand new beginners like me but others who have been learning for a few weeks and it's inspiring to hear them having conversations with each other in French. As for me, I'm actually enjoying having proper English conversations - other than with my beautiful husband via Skype, these are the longest conversations I've had for over a week! Everyone is very friendly and helpful, and the school is warm and inviting! The staff are fun and they invite us all into the "grand salon" for an introductory session where they tell us, in both English and French, what we can expect as well as some tips on making the most of our stay in Paris.
Then it's time for classes to start. There are 5 students in my group and we're from all over - Russia, Japan, Brazil, India and Australia. Our teacher is Stephanie and she's very helpful and patient with us beginners! We spend the morning learning how to ask and answer "get to know you" questions, and then we learn about the verb "to be" and its conjugations. My linguistics training serves me well here, as does my knowledge of the international phonetic alphabet which means I can write pronunciations phonetically as a help for when I practise later.
It feels like we've only just started and the session is over for today. So now I can ask "comment tu t'appelles?" and "tu habites où?" and "quelle est ta nationalité?". And even better, I can also answer these same questions - "Je m'appelle Sue","J'habite à Perth en Australie" and "Je suis australienne"!!! I can also now recite the alphabet en français, conjugate the verb "to be", and describe some feelings. I'm quite pleased with that start, and particularly that I didn't find it too overwhelming (at my age)!!!
With school over for the day and since it's still such a beautiful sunny day, I have no second thoughts about my plan to walk back to the apartment after school, and I'm also quietly confident that I can follow my nose and find my way home without referring to a map. I predict that it will take about an hour, and that's pretty spot on. The sun is so lovely that I even shed my coat, scarf and gloves for a while. I stop on the way to buy a "first day of school" treat at the patisserie on Rue de Rivoli - une mille feuille, s'il vous plaît?
This is especially to please my Bali travel girlfriend who has been saying since I got here that I should "eat something yummy today" for her. So lovely girl, this one is for you! But because you know me so well, you won't be at all surprised when I say that I'll only be eating half of it today!! :-)
So I head home to do my homework, Skype my gorgeous husband (12 more sleeps!), have a FB chat with my lovely youngest son, cook my dinner - tofu and vegies tonight - and write a couple of postcards (yes, even with all our 21st century technology I still like to send postcards)!
All in all it's been a very satisfying day for me. I guess I could probably say "Je suis heureux!"
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