I have been here one whole month today and since it is the first time in a week that I have had real internet access you will be given a few blogs that i've been saving up. This first one is of my time here and the people that I have met.
I really enjoy the other assistants that live here in Dunkerque and the surrounding areas. In all i think that there are about 17 or 18 of us, the number keeps changing as people come out of the wood-work. There are a few canadians, germans, spaniards, dutchies, americans and one girl who is chinese. i think once a week i meet someone else new. out of all of us there is one lone man, joel, the canadian who is 2nd cousins with pamela anderson. and last night on his 24th birthday he had the most to drink in his life. but we still all had more than him. i feel like he has kind of become our brother, that we've all adopted each other and made this little family. We are all in the same boat, away from home in a foreign country. we have french in common, and for the most of us english too. right now, english seems to be what we speak the most. when the chinese girl is with us it is french, since she doesnt know english. but her french is far beyond any of ours. slowly we push each other to speak in french. sometimes it is just single words, and other times its every other sentence.
i feel that my french is slowly improving and i am getting more and more confident in using it. i talked completely in french today at the store with the woman who sold me boots. and i think for the most part she understood me. i was able to explain that i have small feet and short legs but that my calves are larger, proportionally and that had a hard time finding boots. people know right away that i am not a native speaker, because once a few words come out of my mouth they end up asking me where i am. I tell them that i am from the US and then i have to explain why i am where i am. They are all so shocked to see an american in Dunkerque. Like, why are you HERE? out of the whole country, why Dunkerque? It is a little frustrating to have the Dunkerquois constantly excusing and forgiving their city. they are pretty negative, but it really is not that bad. They have a beautiful beach, and as long as you don't look to the left (to the factories and nuclear plants...) it is still beautiful.
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Helloooo, lovely. It sounds like you're at right about the right spot. It'll start to feel like home soon, I promise. Roundabout New Years, or just thereafter.
ReplyDeleteAlso, that's interesting about how the Dunkerque people deprecate their city; the Perpignanais did it too. I think that no matter where you are, if it's not Paris, there will be French people talking crap about their hometowns. It's sad, really, because even the little provincial towns in France have so much culture and so much to offer.
p.s. I am 100% positive that your French is better than you think it is. You are living and France and getting by just fine. You're doing a great job.