April 8-12, 2024 French Conversation & An Interesting Encounter

April 8-12, 2024

It seems like my class routine is becoming a routine. I leave my place at 8:30 and arrive at school at 8:50. I put out as much brain power as I can to understand and speak French, then when I’m completely brain dead, class is over and I’m off to the adventure of the day.

I’ll start out with a photo of a little something in the middle of the sidewalk that I came upon on my way to school. Someone covered the critter with a leaf. Celine says it’s a kind of special animal that lives in the river—a cross between a beaver and a rat BUT it just looks like a rat to me. HUGE!

Here’s a brief overview….

Monday: It’s the beginning of week 2. I still don’t exist on the roster. Oh, well. I received my test back from last week. I got a 41 out of 50 questions correct. Monday evening, I had “Conversation Circles” which is an event at Alliance Française (my school). Ordinary French people who live in Strasbourg come and have conversations with the students at the school. It’s a voluntary activity and there were about a dozen or so students who showed up. In my group there were 4 students and 2 Strasbougeois. I understood most of it and had a good time speaking. The woman from Spain said that she started learning French last November and she is now really really good.  Oh, the value of a youthful brain!

On my way home, a young man with a plate of cheese invited me to take a taste and we got to talking about cheese. He invited me into the store (fromagerie) and I taste-tested many kinds. Oh my, it’s nothing like the stuff I buy in the supermarket-marche. This is to-die-for! I didn’t have time to stay and buy but I’ll go back. I took a picture of the store as I left so I could ask google where it is, since I was taking a circuitous route back home. (Ignore the people…)

Tuesday was cold and rainy so I didn’t do very much. I wanted to take a tour near the Cathedral but it was too …yea, cold and rainy. I was wearing a wool winter coat. There was something interesting that happened in class, though. Well, interesting to me. I don’t remember what we were studying in class but, the woman from India (the luxury consultant) told everyone about her sister’s recent wedding. She said that there were 2000 people there who partied for 10 days. She showed us photos and a video. They were in a fancy schmancy hotel ballroom with tables upon tables of food and there was live-band music. And this went on for 10 days???? THEN, the man who speaks Russian and is a lawyer who I think is from one of the “….stans” said that when his son got married, there were 500 people. He showed us a professionally-made video of the wedding which ran like a soap opera drama with the happy couple showing all the emotions of fear, anxiety and joyous union. It was quite the production. I guess my classmates are people of means. Well, it is rather expensive to go there.

On Wednesday afternoon, I went to Fabi’s to do laundry. There is a washing machine where I live but there’s no dryer and I needed to wash everything so I didn’t have time to wait for something to dry.

While the clothes were washing, Fabi and I went to a forest to have a walk. It was another really nice place with lots of nature. I loved it! Beer garlic was in bloom—yes, it’s thing. There were signs describing the birds, which I don’t think exist in the Pacific Northwest (but what do I know??) and there were exercise stations. 

We also came across a compound of sorts that was really old. I think it was a fort from the late 19th century when Alsace belonged to Germany. I don’t know exactly what this is but on Sunday we’re going to take a tour.

The aperitif was beer and chips. For dinner, Fabi made a delicious quiche. How does she get it so perfect? 

After dinner, Francis showed me his stamp collection. The postal system started in 1849 in France and he has stamps from then until now. I was impressed. Some of the pages have letters with stamps on them. Really really old letters. Really really old stamps. I like old stuff. (Appreciating “old” makes for good self-esteem, eh?)

On Thursday, as soon as class was finished, I went to lunch with Celine and Fabi. Celine went to Spain on Friday to go on a horse-riding tour for 10 days so we got together before she left. We went to a very traditional restaurant and sat outside. I had some sausages and French fries. It was a perfect day weather-wise and the food was great. (These two photos look like “Beauty and the Beast.”  Ha!  It was a fun afternoon.)

After lunch we went to l’Orangerie which is a humongous park—sort of like Manito park in Spokane. That was really really nice. 

I couldn’t stop taking pictures. It was such a nice green place. Here are some random photos but you can find *a fountain built in 1895, *the chateau that Napoleon built for his wife, Josephine, *one of the oldest, best and most expensive restaurants in Strasbourg (ooh la la!), *an insect hotel, *a night sky dome, *some koi, 

We also came upon some American tourists from New York who were in Strasbourg for a day as part of an 8-day tour on the Rhine.

We even stopped for ice cream. I can understand why it’s the best ice cream in Strasbourg….maybe in France….maybe in the world. Fat grams??? nah!

This park seems to be a haven for storks so I took lots of photos of them. They were even flying overhead and Celine told me about the time she was riding her horse, and a stork was flying overhead, and the stork let loose with a…. well, I guess it was difficult to get that stuff off of her horse’s rear end. Take a moment to imagine the scene…. (LOL!)

After l’Orangerie, we said g’bye to Fabi who got on her bike and went back to Bischheim….a little more than 2 miles. Then Celine and I went to Centre Ville. The only coffee shop that was open in the area we were in, was Starbucks so that’s where we ended up. Then we went “window shopping” and I learned a new expression for “window shopping.”  It’s “lèche vitrine” —lick the window. Ha!

On Friday, I had a very interesting and serendipitous experience. I had just left the school, when a woman stopped me and asked where the train station was. She was lost. WOW! If you imagine that the school is at 4:00 on a clock, the train station is at 11:00 (not a digital clock of course). She was really lost. Since I live near the train station, I said I’d walk with her there. I discovered that this woman didn’t speak French!!!! She did speak English. Here’s her story. She is a teacher/professor of German in Stuttgart Germany. She is Albanian and how she came to be in Germany must be quite the story. Her husband and children live in Budapest Hungary….another story for sure. She said that she had been in Basel Switzerland to catch a plane to Budapest for the weekend to see her family. She had found a cheap flight—€50–so she took the train from Stuttgart to Basel on Thursday and stayed with her brother. That is when she realized that she accidentally had booked a flight from Budapest to Basel, not to Budapest. OUCH! She decided to take the train on Friday from Basel to Strasbourg and then on to Stuttgart. She wanted to check out Strasbourg for a few hours before taking the train, since she had never been here before. Well… her adventure continues. After visiting the Cathedral and other wondrous places, she decided that it was time to go to the train station to catch a train back to Stuttgart, BUT! she discovered that her phone was completely dead. So, she was in a strange city; did not speak French; didn’t know where she was and didn’t have google to help her. Oh, my! She just started walking but was going in exactly the opposite direction from the train station. Thus, I came into the picture. I gave her my small portable emergency phone charger to use while we walked along the river to the train station. We had a lovely chat and really connected. I sent her an email later on that evening. I hope she made it back to Stuttgart without any more onerous adventures. She gave me one of her old business cards.

On Friday evening, I went to another speaking activity called “Parlons Française!” This was at a library called Mèdiathèque Andre Malraux. This is a huge place that is more than just a library—more like the downtown library in Spokane but way bigger. There were about 10, French-learners, who showed up for an hour and a half of speaking. The leader of the group happens to be a professor at Alliance Française but the event is not  sponsored AF. It was really fun and interesting with some games and activities for getting to know each other while practicing the language. Because most of the people in attendance knew only a bit of French like me, the leader/teacher reviewed the grammar structures before each activity. I understand the explanations but using the grammar correctly seems to be another thing entirely. Oh well, at least I can talk a lot and people seem to understand me…. 

An anecdote…I was really really really tired on Friday evening and had to really really concentrate to understand and speak French. When I arrived, I sat with others who were waiting for the leader/teacher to show up. There were 3 people having a conversation and I was amazed at how well they seemed to speak French. I got the gist of what they said but I was a little nervous about the level of the group. They seemed so advanced. THEN! To my shock, I realized that I was listening to 3 people speak Spanish and I was catching the gist of their conversation in Spanish. WOW! I was tired.

Here’s a pic of the huge building but not the group…

So, now I am half way through the French-study portion of my adventures here. I’m experiencing a bit of “down” since I don’t think I can produce the language that I’m learning. And writing it ….ha!  Not!  I studied French grammar in high school so on my own, I’m reviewing some simple stuff like present tense, and pronouns, but the learning is happening slowly… It brings new meaning to “brain dead.” I seem to be in a normal stage of culture (and language) shock. (Yea, I read that book, too.) Oh, well. At least I’m having loads of fun.

And that’s where I’ll leave it…