Trains, Plains, and Chrysanthemums

Yesterday was the first day of my translation class, which I was really looking forward to! Turns out half our group is going to take it; Grant, Joel, Aaron and I all walked over to Rue des Tanneurs together. When we got to the room, we went in and specifically sat down in different parts of the room, hoping to mingle with the French. Unfortunately; a couple of them kept looking in, and they assumed that we were part of a different class and didn't come in. Finally Grant went and opened the door and let the teacher in; her name is Martine Pelletier, and she came to Moorhead in October and met most of the Concordia students. (I had the flu at the time, so I didn't meet her myself.) Then the rest of the students flooded in after her; the class looked like it had 30-some students. The class itself went well; she had the anglophones spread out in groups with the French students, and we started trying to translate a news article about the earthquake in Haiti from English into French. I'm looking forward to that class next week, especially with how little homework they give you here.

After our class, Grant and Joel and I went to Monoprix and made sandwiches again for lunch. Mathias invited us to come watch him at his Judo class, but we were already eating. I think it'd be really fun to go next week, though, and I can post pictures on facebook! Once we'd eaten and washed dishes, I went and napped a bit, having nothing else to do that day. Almost everyone had either classes or choir until late, so it was just Aaron, Luzé, Jacqueline, Mathias and I for dinner, which was chicken and broccoli.

This morning we had to get up early-ish, since we had to go to the CUEFEE building on Rue des Fromonts for our placement test. We're pretty much all taking four CUEFEE classes, but there are three levels of classes you can take based on your skill in French. The test was at 1:30, but it's a half-hour walk from our house. When we got there we met up with another girl from the States named Kate. The test itself took 3 hours, which was ridiculous. There was a listening section and a reading section, and then a break. And then there was a short grammar section and two short essays. It really wasn't very hard, but there were a couple of tricky questions. We get our results next week, when we find out what classes we can take.

After the test, we walked up to Rue des Tanneurs to try out the school cafeteria, which is supposed to be both really good and really cheap. Unfortunately, it was long closed, so we ended up going back to Delhi's again. Those guys must think we don't ever go anywhere else! I got a croque poulet, which was a kind of baked cheese and chicken sandwich thingy. It's really really good. After stuffing our faces, we came back to the house. Dinner was way too soon for us, after having such a late lunch, but we rallied enough to eat anyway. We had salmon on toast with sauce, and then the actual dinner was ravioli again, with caramel flan for dessert. Tonight I think we're going out with some girls from the CUEFEE and some people the choir kids met there. Should be fun!