I never, ever, ever want to introduce myself again.
Yesterday was my first day of classes (forREAL classes) and after going to four classes last Wednesday and another five yesterday, I was really itching to say “Yes hello my name is Heidi yes I’m from Germany ja, never been to the USA” because after my name and my place of birth and my favorite things to do and my favorite movie (you can’t win with that one) nine or ten times, I start having an identity crisis. Not to mention that even when I do say these things, it’s to a sea of uncomprehending faces (“elle dit quoi ?”) and maybe, if we’re lucky, some halting questions about how old I am. I don’t mind it, too much, and I know that it’s really hard when you’re with a native speaker to have the confidence to try meeting them on their linguistic plane — but after three consecutive class periods of fifteen year olds giggling and whispering to each other and deer-in-the-headlights silent to my direct, monosyllabic questions, I start to think perhaps what I will learn the most here is patience.
However, I did get to have a very cool class today with the 17 year olds, wherein one of them asked me about AIDS. This led into an impassioned and extremely poorly white-board-illustrated explanation of the difference between HIV and AIDS, of the importance of CD4 cells, about how HIV is transmitted and how it can be prevented, and about the American pharmaceutical industry’s economic oppression of the poor, especially in Africa. Amazingly, even though I slipped into dual syllables sometimes, most of them seemed to get it, and in fact seemed interested enough that we kept the conversation going for an hour. And it was a moment of self-discovery as well, that even at 5 pm on a rainy Tuesday, that’s what gets me hyped up.
Other things I’ve noticed : even the gym teacher and infirmiere smoke. French reality television shows have the strangest playlists — it’s basically just 30 second clips of American top 40 hits, with little to no relevance to what’s actually happening in the scene (for example, Katy Perry’s ‘This is How We Do’ cheerfully sang “chilling laid back straight stuntin’ yeah we do it like that” as two blond ch’tis screamed obscenities at each other on the deck). French commercials also advertise sliced bread as “American sandwich bread!” There is STILL, incredibly, honeysuckle along the path on the way home. If you sit at your window for long enough, someone will inevitably invite you for a drink of homemade wine with their 82 year old father. I’m addicted to Kinder country chocolate bars. And Clamecy is, indeed, getting smaller by the day — though with vacation coming up, I hope that it’ll turn cozy instead of stifling.
Emily Wolfteich 