Tuesday February 5, 2008:
Colette told me that I am the one of her students who understands her the best. "You understand everything I say don't you?" she asked me. "I can tell because of your responses." Yes, I told her, I can understand everything, but I'm not very good at French, so it must be because she speaks slowly for me. But then I thought of when I've heard her on the phone (speaking to other French speakers, obviously) and I can understand her well then, too. She told me it's because she has a Northern accent because she's from Northern France by Paris. That's probably why I can understand her so well, because that's the accent we are taught to listen to in the United States. I was feeling especially low in my French skills lately, so when she said that it gave me lots of confidence. But then, only a few hours after she told me this, when we talked to her friend tonight, I was terrible at understanding!
Tonight there was a soirŽe for American and French students to meet each other. But I didn't go because Colette and I were invited to dinner at her friend's house.
Her friend is a neighbor in the building who also lives alone. They are both such sweet and kind women. Colette brought flowers and wine and we walked over to Madame Broussard's apartment. I saw pictures of her family and asked, so she walked me through each and every family member she had, which was a lot. Their family follows a strong military tradition, so they were each in uniform in one picture or another. We had aperitif, which is liquor and a snack, before dinner. The liquor is usually a really sweet and very strong liquor that I can't stand, so I had martini instead, and so did they. Mme. Broussard asked me lots of questions about my family and about 'mon copain' when she found out I had one. I had trouble understanding her accent at times, and when the two ladies would talk I would get lost because I couldn't understand, so my mind would start to wander. Sometimes I'd listen in for a cue from Colette because I can understand her well, but other times I'd let myself drift off.
For dinner we ate fondue, and it was delicious. We had wine and salad too, and then ice cream. During dinner the news was on television. I think a lot of French people do that. Colette and I listen to the news radio at dinner, which seems odd, but not as odd as watching TV which a lot of them do from what I hear from other students. We talked about the different happenings as they would appear in the news, and after futbol came on, Mme Broussard turned the TV off "because futbol is worthless," she said. She started to ask questions about my American life...my school, and then more political things. She was shocked that we Americans can't rely on social security for retirement. "And what about the sick?" she asked "Do they get help from the government if they can't pay their hospital bills?" and I told her it depends, which shocked her more. And the money we had to pay for university surprised her, too. Colette said I must study well to help make the world a better place, and the two women started to tell me about World War II. They were in Paris during bombings and they told scary stories about being scared for their lives. They told me stories about having to talk to Germans and sometimes they laughed about the things they did to sneak around the Germans while there were soldiers occupying Paris. They told me about so much and the night was getting later and later, but it was great to hear this perspective on the war, something I had only seen on the History Channel or read in class. Then Colette said that is why she likes Americans so much, because the day when she was free, she opened her door and an American soldier told her "vous tes libres" and it was the Americans that saved them from World War II.
