Feeling Less Like A Foreigner, Until I Speak...

On Sunday, I started out the day by church hunting. I went to the church which I had gone to the previous week only on a Saturday called Saint Paul, I found it to be closed, but it referred me to another, Saint Pierre. I thought this was a little weird, but I didn't even know any mass times, I was just walking to where I saw churches on the maps in hopes that I would stumble across one close to a mass time. (I didn't have Internet til Sunday night) Saint Paul was a very modern and simple looking church. They had the lyrics to the songs written out, so it was nice to understand that. The people were very friendly, but on the older side. Their priest was leaving so after church we had wine and quiche. Anyways, after searching I found Saint Pierre and it was a very beautiful, bigger church, but it was a little cold inside and empty. There was a woman who was very welcoming. She gave me her book which has all the scripture readings for each mass in French. It helped me a lot to be able to follow along and understand more. I was also excited because I understood some of the main key points of the homily! Whenever I understood a complete idea I got very happy! Listening to a foreign language over a loudspeaker is a lot harder than a one on one conversation. I haven't decided which church I will go to yet because they each have their strong points and their weak points. I do prefer my church back in the U.S. though.

After church, I spent the day with my host family. They took me to what literally translates as empty attic, or a big community garage sale. It takes place on the lawn of a castle called Franqueville and loads of people bring things to sell. It was pretty fun!

Next we went to downtown Pau and walked around some more. It was a beautiful day outside and we brought the kids to a park to play. Then we walked along the Rue des Pyrenees where one can see the Pyrenees all on one side. The handrails has the names of different peaks and cities with a carved line so that when one looks in that direction they know the name of what they are looking at.

We ended the walk with some delcious ice cream. Something about ice cream here is just better. I got dark cherry and rasphberry flavored. Once we got back to the house I played with Juliette for a while. She put on a dress which looks like that of Cinderella (Cendrillon in French) and danced around to music from the Jungle Book 2. It was soo cute and we had fun. Then we played a family game of soccer since the boys love it and I do too of course!

Courtney and I cooked another meal for her family today. We made Hawaiian chicken (cooked in pineapple juice), peanut butter cookies (My host mom does not like peanut butter- it is not very popular here in France) along with rice and salad. 

I also cooked my first French chocolate cake, although I can't take much credit for it because it was a premade batter that I just put in the oven. The cake is different here, flatter and without frosting and of course there is the French chocolate.

I am loving my phonetique courses here. For the group ones we just go to the computer lab and listen to a CD, repeating everything we hear. Each class we are assigned a paragraph to practice and read to the teacher the next day. They are tongue twisters designed to challenge what we need to work on. My host family helps me, although I think I frustrate my host brother sometimes when I just can't make the right sound, but I have my revenge since the th sound in English is hard for the French! Based on how we read the paragraph, the teacher then decides which lesson we need to do for the next day. I also have individual phontetiques classes which are one on one speaking. The professor has really explained a lot of the basic things, that no one ever told me. Thanks to her I am improving so much on my French r's. I think it is improving my pronunciation a lot! Or at least causes me to think about it more often!

I am also take an art history class which is taught all in French. The teacher is great and speaks nice and slow for us. I am learning a lot and it is increasing my vocabulary by a ton! Especially the names of animals. 

I'm finally to the point where I can walk around without a map and I feel more confident in my surroundings! It is a good feeling!