Le mot m'échappe

[Picture: Alleyway to my host family's house, at the very end on the right]

The end of this week marks the end of my first month in Paris. It feels like I've been here forever, and yet not at all.

In orientation, the staff warned us that after a "honey-moon" period, there was likely to be a steep drop in our condition. I think I experienced a bit of that this week. One has to be very humble to learn a language. I consider myself a fairly intelligent individual, capable and independant. But I run into challenges in all kinds of mundane tasks because of my language barrier. At the grocery store, on the metro, in class. It's hard not to wonder if everyone I encounter thinks I'm an idiot, because I certainly feel like an idiot the majority of the time! Even when I just want to tell me family here something about my day, I have to think so hard. It takes humility, but I am growing weary of humiliations. BUT, I do consider that, after all, I am in PARIS! I want to soak up every minute here! There will be challenges up to the very day I leave, because the process of learning a language is so immense and 4 months is such a short time. I am making progress, and if I get a little embarassed along the way, so be it.

On Sunday I tried to get into Bach's B Minor Mass at La Salle Pleyel as I had done the week before for Beethoven, but no such luck this week. Tant pis.

Monday it was back to class. I dropped my Modern Art class, now that I'm taking music classes at ENM. It was interesting, but unecessary. Just because I overload my plate at Southwestern doesn't mean I should do so in Paris. In my Theater class we are looking at a play called 'Art' by Yasmina Reza. It's a very well known play, not just in France but worldwide. It takes a comedic look at various reactions to modern art as one of the characters has purchased a white monochromatic painting. My phonetics class I think will help me not only with my pronunciation, but comprehension as well. We've been focusing a lot on the rhythm of speech and intonation. 2-3 times this semester we'll meet with the professor with a cassette for an individual lab. Apparently she lets you take for a few minutes, then tells you everything you're doing wrong. Intimidating, but very helpful I'd imagine (I haven't had mine yet).

Tuesday after my language class (which is a struggle for me!), I took a leisurely walk along the Seine, toute seule. It was nice. That night I had chorale rehearsal. I think we'll be doing some minor staging next week.

I don't think anthing worth noting happened on Wednesday...

Thursday I had my language class and then solfege: double whammy! As I said before, my language class is a challenge for me. And remember how I said the language barrier had me feeling incompetant? Well my solfege class has me feeling incompetant linguistically and musically. No, I'm beginning to catch on to the French terminology. I'm working on the whole 'fixed do' thing. Mostly I am just out of practice and the class is slightly above my current level. But this is a good thing, because it will help me grow. Thursday night I had some wine at a cafe with some friends. We talked for a few hours. How Parisienne.

Friday was sighreading which, again, makes me wonder if I'll ever be able to think in fixed do. But Like solfege, I know that this class will make me a better teacher. And on a side note, there is a French musical called 'Emilie Jolie' (Pretty Emily) and everyone sings me the song, especially ENM. "Je m'appelle Emily Jolie..." (My name is Pretty Emily - actually I don't know if Jolie is her surname, or if she's called pretty Emily). Friday night was spent at a cafe/bar where we met some French people and talked to them about politics. A lot of people here like Obama- yea!

Saturday I had my voice lesson again. I am working on some Reynaldo Hahn, and Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate. Mme. Dumas says that withing a month she thinks I'll be singing higher in the coloratura range... I hope she's right! I bought the book "Mille Soleils Splendides" (A Thousand Splendid Suns) by Khaled Hosseini. Hopefully reading it in French will help me increase vocab and fluency. I've wanted to read either of his books for a while, and now I'll have something to do during long metro rides.

Today I went to a Taize service at the American Cathedral. It was very nice and I think I'll go weekly. I met the priest afterward, althought I can't remember his name right now. We sat in the choir area for the service, and it was part in French, part in English. Afterwards, I met my friend Stephanie for dinner at a cafe just off Champs Elysees. We struck up a conversation with some Paisiens who complimented us on our French. It was exactly the affirmation we needed after this week!

Alors, I should update more often so these posts don't become novels. I think of my friends often, and I send you all my love!