Sigh. Just can't win..okay, maybe a little.

Well, it would seem that while in France, Americans and I are not exactly compatible. Or at least that is my situation with the AHA group that I met yesterday. The more I am with them, the more I realize that practicing speaking French isn't a big interest for them. They prefer at this point to speak English with Americans and follow a very structured schedule provided for them by their organization which plans excursions, lunches, dinners, and other activities to fully guide them through Angers and UCO. I have enjoyed being in their company but today I found myself not as warmly welcomed to spend time with them as yesterday. An American student who is studying for her equivalent to a Master's degree in Arts Management at UCO shut me down as well when I was explaining that often the logic of the French confuses me (there is, of course, no logic to how things like buildings and addresses here are named and organized) and said that this was one thing I actually do wish was more like home. Then I added with a soft laugh that I hoped their confusing organization didn't make me miss class and fail (insert grin and laugh here...like I'd actually be serious about that. You'll see what I mean soon.). The girl stared at me and said that it was impossible to fail just because of the way they happen to do things of which there is nothing wrong at all. I will fail though if I don't bother to put any effort at all and that she could guarantee me. (I italicize the words she emphasized here.) My response was an honest-to-goodness straight response and I quote,"Well, that seems to make sense to me." I was stared at and became a pariah to the Americans for the rest of the day. Wow. Can ya feel the irony of not getting along with my own nationality? Actually, the French are fully aware of how illogical they are and I don't think they have taken any offense to my comments. I have pleasantly chatted about it with both the UCO administration office and my host family. C'est la vie as they say about it.

The semester hasn't really started yet and maybe I will find students to talk to next week.

As a result I'm kind of lonely socially as a student. I look at AHA with some envy. They have each other to hang out with. It is just me with me. I'm really lucky to have a host family that at least seems to like me and is patient and willing to let me practice my French with them. Oh yeah, and the rest of Angers is willing to have me practice, too.

A woman at a boulangerie I was having my daily petit cafe at said to me sympathetically,"Learning French. It can be difficult, no? But it can be done. By your small accent, you're at least very good at English." (Credit my new "petit accent" to my host family) I didn't know how to politically explain that it wasn't her words that were confusing me. It is these dang euros I was trying to pay her! Argh! Who needs a 2 euro coin? It is like handling a 2 dollar bill. It should only be used when you want to frustrate and tease the user of such currency and the E.U. must have it out for all of Europe to have created such a thing. Yet the French shopkeepers love those things. I keep on getting asked if I have coins instead of paper when I am in desperate need to break a 5 so I ironically do have coins to please all the other coin-loving stores in Angers. I love the bills though. America needs tomorrow from that part of the system seriously.

God must like me or something because even though I can't get along with some of the American students, I can get along with the French quite well and that truly makes me feel good. I am so thankful that I came here advanced enough in my language skills to talk to my host family about my situation. Actually the last American student that stayed with them had a similar problem with her American classmates.

I want to be clear here that I'm not trying to be a snob about wanting to speak French all the time. It is just I only have four months to spend in an only French-speaking atmosphere and I refuse to spend almost all that time speaking English. With this blog and communicating with all of you is of course different as writing this blog in French misses its whole purpose.

I hope for all of you as my readers that that will hopefully be enough drama for a bit, because I have so much fun stuff to write about. I won't bore you now but I shall return with pictures of where it is I'm living and more of what I'm eating. If there are two things that interest me most about French people they are the language and the food. I know those of you who have been in France are thinking about all the bread and, yes, I have truely NEVER eaten so much bread in my life. It must be filling up my blood veins by now and I shall return to the states as a baguette.