Let's Bowl Instead

What a day! I?ve never spoken so much French before.

I finally took a quiz for my version translation class. It was the last assignment for the class and probably the last time I will see my version Professor. When I was done with the translation, Mme Christine Lacoste asked me if I needed a grade for the class. I told her that I didn't really need it, but it would help raise my GPA. She didn't know what a GPA was so explained to her that it was a way to measure how well a student performs in all the classes the student has ever taken. She then told me that if a 14 was good. I told her if that's what she thinks I deserve then that's fine with me. She explained that she would give a 12, but since she knows my work ethic and how well I work she bumped by grade to 14. Out of a scale of 20, 14 is really good. I would be later told in the day (by Pierrick), that 14s are really good.

Well, she then asked me what I was going to do for the break and I told her that I was planning to go to Lourdes to pray and probably then Marseille. Of course, I made mistakes while I told her my plans and she corrected me. I finished telling her what I was going to do, so then we finally left the room. However, as we were walking out, she told me a list of extremely nice things. She told me that I was a good student, intelligent, "agréable," and so many more nice words. She concluded by saying that I was too timid though and that I should be more confident because the more confident people will be more successful. I told her I will try and she wished me "bonne route" or rather a rough translation, good luck in life.

It was about 1 and I had a lunch date with a French girl, which was initialized by Mme Lacoste. She had given my number to a couple of her students, so that I would go out and meet some French people. Well I met Alice waiting for me at Le Sirtaki and Mme Lacoste explained to her that she had kept me a bit late. Well, we had our lunch and we were joined by one of Alice's friends, who will be studying in Oklahoma. I was bit surprised that she had chosen Oklahoma, but she said she was interested in the Native Americans and that Oklahoma had a good program about that topic. Well we talked about all sorts of stuff...how I was enjoying Bordeaux, the strike, about me, and such. We finished lunch and I told her I would keep in touch so that we could do something later. Hopefully, I'll keep to that.

While we were eating, I received a text from Pierrick who is yet another student of Mme Lacoste. He had invited me to go karaoke-ing tonight. I waited to reply, but I said yes, since I should really go out and practice my French.

Well, the next thing on the list of things to do for the day was meet with somebody I had met on the couch surfing website. The lady that had messaged me on couch surfing had sent me a message about a month ago, but finally I responded about three days ago and I told her I was still interested in having a café with her. The time came and I made my way to the Grand Théatre stop. Melina saw me instantly and she gave me a bisoux. She said Alesix (her French boyfriend) that he couldn't make it and then she said let's go to McDo. I was a bit surprised by the proposition, but I followed.

We ordered and to my amazement she paid for the McFlurry I ordered. She said she invited me so she was okay with paying. I accepted and we went upstairs. She was expecting another person though, her colleague, so she was a bit unsettled when I was talking to her. The colleague finally came and he went outside and sat next to her. Her colleague, Ingrid, is a fellow classmate of hers in the Spanish department at Bordeaux 3, so they both at times spoke Spanish with each other. To my amazement, I understood almost everything they were saying. My Spanish has been out of practice for so long, but my listening comprehension has improved. Weird I would say! Maybe it's because of the French. Since they're both romantic languages, I guess that helps out a lot. Anyway, we talk for a while and about all sorts of things. Long story short, Melina is a Mexican who now lives and works in Bordeaux because she had worked for the Mexican government to improve French relations with Mexico. Ingrid was born in France, but her grandparents are from Spain. Ingrid also complimented me on my teeth. She said the were so straight and so white. I thanked her and I kept on smiling. She wanted to see them. She said I could be in a Colgate commercial. And she asked me what was my secret to keeping my teeth so white. I just told her I just used tooth whitening toothpaste.

After that, Melina and I went to a wine bar to meet the other person she met through couch surfing. I stayed with her a while and I met some other foreign people. Then after an hour I left and went to go meet Pierrick at Hotel de Ville.

I was a bit late, but he was just sitting there with one of his friends, Audrey. We talked a bit and went towards Gambetta to meet up with some other people. There we met, Ian, an ERASMUS student from the UK, and Marlène. Then two other friends of Audrey came. Once we were all together, we headed towards the karaoke place. I spoke to Pierrick and he asked me if I've ever been to France. I told him I came a couple years ago for about four days. He replied, did you learn your French in those four days because you speak really well. What a compliment. I thanked him and actually told him how I learned. He said, I spoke so well that it seemed like I didn't even have an accent.

Well we got to the place and they didn't have karaoke that night. We tried finding another place, but we ended up bowling (right at the same place as April's birthday bowling party). We bowled and I practiced my French. Pierrick and all his friends were really great and I'm glad that Mme Lacoste was so inclined to share my e-mail and phone number.

So three sets of French speakers today! I've never spoken so much French before in one day, which is a bit sad, since I've been in France for about 4 months now. When I got home it was rather late, but it was worth meeting such great people today. :)