So this is like full immersion then?

I met up with my host family yesterday for the language program part of my trip.  Improving my french was really the whole driving force behind this trip. Don’t ask me why but I have a weird desire to be fluent in this language that is not really super prevalent. Something to do with so many wasted hours in school for a language that I can’t do more than ask to go to the bathroom in.  I was a little apprehensive about meeting up with my new family for three months but my day today went pretty smoothly….

Hailed a taxi at 6:30 in the morning- check

Rode the train to from Clermont Ferrand to Montpellier without any delays – check

Manhandled two bags that probably weigh more than I do up numerous flights of stairs – check

Met up with a total stranger in a crowded station based off a crappy picture – check

Managed to pull off the French greeting with ease (note to self – 3 air kisses not 2) – check

And then she started speaking….. oh shit. 

I had been emailing back and forth with the mother of my french host family for a few weeks. Which thanks to google translate had been going fairly well aside from one accidental comment on my horniness. FACEPALM. However it is a whole different ball game when someone is pelting you with full on sentences and expecting some sort of response. Apparently when she said that they didn’t speak English…. She meant it. There really is no lifesaver that someone can throw me when I’m drowning in confusion as they literally don’t know the English words to help. The best reprieve I get is when met with my blank stare or my completely incorrect response to a question they start throwing out a bunch of synonyms until I clue in to what they are trying to ask/ tell me… Le mer, nager, le plage, …. Ohhhhh… the beach!!. Sometimes really embarrassing hand gestures and full on charades have to be played.  I thought I had at least a decent grasp of French vocabulary but this is quite humbling as triumphantly picking out one word in a sentence of 20 REALLY doesn’t help with the overall comprehension of the topic.  I also alternatively want to scream or cry when I spend a 2 minutes formulating a sentence that might be remotely passable French only to find the conversation is now onto a completely different topic. On a good note I am developing a full repertoire of “smile and nod”s as I felt bad giving the same one over and over.  God only knows what I am agreeing to though. 

I was very encouraged to find some constants like 11 year old boys are still obsessed with pokemon in France and that most people here listen to English music and even have it as their ring tone. Never thought I would be so glad to listen to  Taylor swift shake it out. And yet, unless they are punking me and secretly understand English, they have no clue what the songs are about.  Je ne comprends pas. I was also saddened to learn that the French mosquitos like me just as much as the Canadian ones, if not more. 

Not to rub it in or anything but Montpellier is pretty much like a French palm springs. It was 26 degrees out today and there are palm trees and cactuses (cacti?) in the yard.  They keep talking about how it is the rainy season right now for the fall but I get the impression that their rainy season involves a non sunny day with a few little raindrops here and there. I keep telling them I am from Vancouver however that does not seem to mean anything to them in terms of being used to rainfall. Perhaps they like most of the world assume we live in igloos up in Canada. Ah well at least I know how to say rain and umbrella in French. Winning.