I have finally made it to France! I am currently in Cannes (home of the film festival but currently home of a bunch of Americans). I just finished a placement exam for our two week long French orientation. During this exam I learned that I speak no French. A fact I was pretty sure of but one that was made crystal clear to me during the oral section of the exam in which I sat and smiled as the girl next to me spoke rapid French to the instructor.
With a lot of xanax and a nice girl from my program beside me, I made it through the plane ride from Chicago to London despite a five minute period in which I felt fairly confident we were going down over Lake Michigan. On the flight I attempted to sleep and maybe would have had the sixty year old Indian woman next to me not woken me up to spend the duration of the seven hour flight telling me how her husband, who was sitting on the other side of her, didn't love her and she cried herself to sleep about it and did American boys smooch. She was coming back from visiting her daughter in Seattle and I suggested that maybe she divorce her husband and move to Seattle and look for American men to smooch. I felt really sad for her but also really sad for myself.
When we got to the airport at 5 am London time we had the pleasure of waiting three hours for students on other planes to arrive. When we finally got to our hotel (which was really very nice), we were sent out into the cold, pouring rain until our rooms would be ready at 4 pm. Exh
austed and cold we made our way to a pub where we ate fish and chips, drank beer, and took naps. The next day, when we had slept and it was sunny, we went on a lovely tour of London and then were sent off on our own. We went to the Portobello Road Market which was full of amazing clothes and little knick knacks all of which I didn't buy (proud, mother?). I managed to find some other Harry Potter fans and we journeyed to Kings Cross to take pictures at Platform 9 3/4 (an adventure long in the making since last time I was in London the tube was bombed and it seemed in poor taste to go take pictures). It took all my self-control to not actually try to run through the wall and make it to Hogwarts, mostly I didn't want the people on my program to think I was a complete lunatic. I also went to see Wicked in the West End which was really, really amazing - and the British sell ice cream at the theater!We woke up really early yesterday to fly to Cannes and again, all xanaxed up, I made it here alive. I'm really happy to be in a country where the dollar is slightly better than in London (where it cost $8 to ride the tube!), but sad to realize my total inability to communicate. We are staying at a college right on the Mediterranean Sea. It is cold and rainy today but is supposed to be 60 on Friday and I plan on attempting to go swimming.
That's pretty much it for now but I'm sure there will be adventures a plenty up ahead as I struggle to communicate above the level of a two year old (if even that). My current technique is to pronounce words I know in Spanish or Italian with a French accent, but it's quickly proving useless.
I hope you are all well and that things are great in the States. We are supposed to have internet all the time from today on, so if anyone has Skype, holler at me. My Skype name is a-mish.
Love,
Alice
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