Après une semaine

Allô tous!

So I have been in France for a complete week now. It has been filled with baguettes, lots of cheese, delicious tarts, new friends and of course, French. I am really enjoying it, as you can read in my past blogs, but the only thing that is making me sad is that I am not yet fluent. Not even close. Now, I know that you are all thinking, "You have only been there one week! Of course you are not going to be fluent yet," but I tell you that it is still very hard for me to understand when I am spoken to in French and when I try (try) to speak it. I am getting really frustrated. =[ I just want to be able to convey everything I am thinking and feeling without taking minutes just to think of what vocabulary word I know best, or without having to say half of my sentence in English. =[ I feel really bad for Anne, my house mom, because she will say something to me and I wont understand her at first and she will have to repeat it a couple times and say it slow. I feel like I am mentally challenged or something. (I'm really sorry Anne, you might be reading this, but it is my chance to tell you that I feel really bad and I hope hope hope that I will be able to communicate with you in French much easier in the future! =[ ) I also feel bad for my "little sister" Zoe. I want to talk to her a lot and learn about her, but again, it is not easy for me because of the language barrier.

Okay, I'm done with my complaints...

So today some friends and I bought some food and took in to the park with the zoo and had a picnic! It was a lot of fun, and very filling (you know, baguettes and cheese) The cheeses we had were absolutely amazing!! There was brie, ash cheese (?), pepper cheese and this sweet raisin cheese. The names should probably be much classier than that haha but seriously, they were the best cheeses I have ever had in my life. haha. Here is a picture of some of us at the picnic, minus one because she was taking the picture:



In the picture from the left is Alexandria, Me, David and Etta. Behind the camera is Veronica.

Tonight I think that a bunch of us are either going to someone's birthday party that is in the Immersion program at Lyon or explore some more in Vieux Lyon, I don't know. I just really enjoy hanging out with my new friends lol.

Some FABULOUS news apart from my times in France is that my baby girl (dog) Sadie has given birth successfully to 5 pups!!! =] YAY!!! I am so happy for her! From what I have heard, the process went well and they are all healthy! Gosh, I am so sad I missed it. =[

OK... well, I must go now.
Until then, Au Revoir!

Mallory

Hier soir et aujourd'hui

Désolée Désolée. (Sorry Sorry)

I didn't write yesterday because I was out too late, but I am getting complaints! haha (mom, aunt Lisa?) I will fill you all in, don't worry.

2 Septembre 2009

After school we spent most of the day in Bellecour, running errands and such. My new friend Katie and I, who shares a lot in common with me, went into H&M and of course were dying because we wanted to buy everything haha. There was this one dress that stood out to me, I loved it and wanted it so bad. It wasn't that much money and since we had planned to "go out" that night, so I bought it for the occasion. Katie found the same dress in a different color and bought that one haha we were twins. But we liked it.




We went out to dinner in Vieux Lyon at this super cute restaurant that had seating outside on the cobblestone streets. So French, right? I love it. =] After dinner, more friends met up with us and we hung out really late, too late in Vieux Lyon. But here are some pictures from that.

This was at dinner.



This picture was taken from my seat at dinner. I just wanted to take a picture of the angles of the street and buildings. The guy leaning against the wall is smoking. I thought he added a nice touch to the photo!



I know that this picture is a bit blurry, but you can tell we are having fun =] This is me, Drea, and Katie in fron of the cathredral in Vieux Lyon.

I posed with this guy because he and a bunch of friends had "Free Hugs" signs.



From left to right: Andrew, Mike, Drea, Katie and Me. Again blurry. But we are having fun =] Look at mine and Katie's dresses! haha love her.



3 Septembre 2009

I did not do much today. We had class of course early in the morning, which I had to rush for! Not fun. I napped. I ate dinner. And then I wrote this blog, so that is about it. The weather was really great today! =] Overcast, just the right temperature. Not too warm, not cold. Similar to San Francisco weather in the Fall. My favorite =]

We have end of the week exams for class and tomorrow is my first one. I am so nervous. =[ The hardest thing for me with the French language right now is understanding the native speakers, and I am pretty sure we have to listen to native speakers and write down what they say. AHH!! Its almost impossible for me =[ Ils parelent trop vite. (They speak too fast.) Anyway, wish me luck. I will let you know how it goes.

À bientôt,

Mademoiselle Mallory.

Comble de la joie

I am overcome with joy, my friends!

All I really have to say for today is that school was very long, our professor was pretty cute for an older man ;) and it is raining.. hard. Thundering and lightening. I love it =] I have my window open and I think that I am going to sleep with it open!

Beacoup de choses excitant pour le futur! (Many exciting things for the future):

1. New Moon premieire is a possibility in Europe.. if not though, it comes out Nov 18 in France, 2 days before the USA, so I will see it before all of you! MwAhahahahaaaaa. =]

2. Robert Pattinson made the cover of a French magazine called "Premiere" for the september issue. =] He looks good, as always.

3. Coeur de Pirate, an excellent young singer whom I adore is on tour in France during October. My friend Katie and I are going to see her! woo!!! I am going to see a French music sensation in France!! C'est incroyable! Love it love it! P.S - You should check out her music (www.myspace.com/coeurdepirate)

and

4. I am on my way to fluency! maybe... haha

Okay.. that is all. Bonne nuit, au revoir, A demain! =]

-Mallory

Comme une étudiante française

Salut!

I woke up at 7:00 this morning, had my pain grille du beurre (toast and butter) and coffee. I met my friend Veronica at the bus and we rode to the school together! School started at 9:45AM, but it is different almost everyday. We arrived very early to the school so we walked to a cafe where we had cafe dans une petite tasse (espresso, french style!!) and it was very good! =] hehe I liked the whole idea of the outside cafe with the espresso and the french waiter! =] And it is true!! We had to ask for the check without him assuming we were done and I totally understood what he said for the total. haha Funny, I get excited over things like that.

I added some pictures to this post, but they added in the opposite order that I wanted them to, so sorry about that. The pictures are of the students (moi of course) in the classroom, the group in front of the school, La Rhone (which is one of the rivers that runs through Lyon), and a picture of the Bellecour (shopping area. It is the picture with the flower boquet).

Today was such a long day... so long! We met at 9:45 for a meeting first, at 12:00 we had lunch and then at 1:45 we came back for class. Class was fun! It is so great to get back into the grove of learning French! I love the language, gosh! haha Class was not too difficult either, so that was great!!! The only downside is that is was 4 hours!!!!! And the room was as hot as a sauna!! I was like sweating the whole time haha. I am so pleased with our Professor. He is very nice, he has a sense of humor and he articulates his words so it is easier to understand him. I also love the students in the group! We have already became good friends!

Tomorrow the plan is to go see Harry Potter after class. This will be my 5th time seeing it in the last 2 months haha but this time it will be in French!!! Come on now, I CANNOT pass that up! ;)

A demain, ('Til Tomorrow)
-Mallory

Look at the pictures below! =]

Le jour dernière devant l'école

Bonjour Bonjour Bonjour!!

Today was my last free day before school. Tomorrow school starts! I am happy though because I currently suck at French, reaaallly bad, and I want to learn something! haha My "house-mom" Anne is so nice, she speaks English to me right now so we can communicate haha but she said, "starting tomorrow, NOUS PARLERON EN FRANçAIS !!!"

Today Anne took me around the city to show me where I take my bus to school, the school itself and le Grand Parc. The bus is not far, so that is good, and the school is absolutly beautiful! In Le Grand Parc there is a zoo, a free zoo, which is pretty cool. I saw giraffes, flamingos, monkeys, and some other creatures I didn't know lol. I had an ice cream bar, like a haagndaz or dove bar with a chocolate shell and vanilla ice cream in the middle, but it was way better here!! The vanilla ice cream was so tasty! Better than in the states.

Well, currently I do not have too much to say, but wish me luck at school tomorrow!! eeek!!

Au Revoir,
Mallory

Le deuxième jour

Bonjour a tous!

Last night, my first night in Lyon, was very fun. It is great because I met all the people in my programe (19 of us) and they were all very nice. About 8 of us went into what is called "Vieux Lyon" last night. It means "Old Lyon." It was so pretty! Cobble-stone streets and beautiful cathedrals. We hung out on this strip where there were shops, pubs ect. Many young people were there, so it was "poppin" haha. We had to take a couple trains and the metro system to get there, which by the way is so modern! The train looks like a super futuristic monorail tram at Disneyland!

I didn't want to leave my new friends to meet my new family because I was so comfortable speaking English with my friends. I practically had an anxiety attack this morning before we met the families because I was so scared to not understand the French. My family actually was not there to pick me up though. Anne, my "house mom's" name, is friends with another one of the ladies, Sylvie, that is housing a student, and so Sylvie picked up me and another girl. It was nice going with another girl from the programe because we were equally uncomfortable and it made the situation better lol. Let me tell you though, French is so hard!!! I feel like I am a baby and I can't convey anything that I want to say. I better get improve quickly!!

I had the chance to go to Bellecour this afternoon. It is a big shopping area. There were so many people there!! It was like walking the streets in Union Sqaure in San Francisco. Crazy! I had to buy some things that were essential and I ended spending lots of money =[ It sucks because my money is dissapearing, but it is not because I am being a "tourist" and buying lots of souvenirs. Listen to this. This morning my friend let me use her plug converter so I could dry my hair, and it blew up!! Huge *POW* It was pretty scary. So the blow killed my dryer and I had to buy a French one. Apparently the voltage was too high. For those who may not understand why I am talking about this converter, Europe does not have the same plug/voltage as the US, so you have to bring a converter for the US plugs. In addition to the blow dryer, I of course had to buy a converter for my other electronics.

When I arrived from Bellecour, my family was home! Anne, Jean-Marc and Zoe. They are extremely nice and very flexible. I feel comfortable already! Great right?! Still, the language is super hard though. The picture at the top of the page is of the house I live in. It is so cute inside! The French know how to decorate for sure! =] I would love to post more pictures from last night and today, but I do not have a USB cord yet, so I cannot. I will hopefully be able to do that later.

Well, I still have jet-lag, so I am super tired. Extremely tired. Im going to bed.

À bientôt

Mallory

Je suis arrivée

Bonjour à tous!

I have arrived in Lyon, as my title says =] yay! I am here to study the French laugage and culture at the Universite de Lyon 2. It is for a semester, so I will not be back until December 20.

Getting here was one of the most stressful experiences, however. Of course I had to wait until the last minute to pack (seriously, like midnight before I left) because I procrastinate with everything, so my parents and I could not leave for the airport until morning. We woke up at 5AM to leave, giving us 4 hours to get to the SFO airport, but two accidents on the road and a really slow Bart train later, I missed my 11:00 flight. Ridiculous! There was a flight leaving at 11:55, but 20 people were on the stand-by list, therefore my chances to get on that flight were slim to none. Thanks to the Lord, I was the last one called for stand-by and made the flight! =]

It has been such a long trip, tiring and stressful, but I am so glad I made it! I talked to the taxi driver (in french) on the way to the Centre International de Sejour de Lyon =] That was a good start! Wish me luck with my French studies here! I must must must (dois dois dois) be fluent when I come back in December! I am about to go to our orientation meeting, so I have to close out. Exciting news for tomorrow: I get to meet my host family! Anne, Jean-Marc and Zoe Bernard.

Ill post again soon!
-Mallory