Talk the talk

Peur du jour- 28 Fevrier 2012: Talking to a French classmate

So let's just pretend it didn't take me 8 weeks to rack up my courage to do this. (Yeah, that's right; I've been here for 8 weeks. I only have 12 weeks left in Europa!) I guess to be fair to myself, it's really 7 weeks because I didn't have class my first week here. And if I really want to be completely accurate, I didn't have class at le fac for the past two weeks, so I guess it's only like 5 weeks. It took me five weeks to do this (welcome to the mind of Kathleen, where everything is rationalized and over-analyzed).

So I know I've already complained about my French class which is basically a two hour dictation. The week before I left for Provence, a student I met at la Source (my worship and fellowship group) informed me that it is some sort of requirement for professors working with ERASMUS students to post their notes online. She figured that there might be something already in place to help me out.

In France when you ask the professor anything they say "well, did you ask another student about it?" before they'll even answer your question, so I knew I had to ask another student about it first. I left for class earlier than normal this morning so I could scope out my prey. I ended up just asking the first student to take a seat near me. After about thirty seconds rehearsing in my head what I was going to say (along with lots of Just do it, Kathleen. Don't be a big baby.), I broke the total silence in the room with my awkward American demeanor.

And I lived! Unfortunately, the girl I talked to said there was no online component. I also asked her what she thought of the professor of which I am so very fond (sarcasm) and she called him nul (which is what the French love to say when they think that something is garbage). She also said that she barely even attends that part of class because it's not interesting. This gives me slight hope that if I am at least there and making an effort, maybe the professor will cut me some slack.

If I can muster up enough courage, I'll probably approach the French professor again tomorrow. This is despite the fact that he already fed Jason and I the line that he uses copy-written images and therefore can't post his copiously detailed power points online for students. Only a tad frustrating, but that's life in France for you (the pastries and bread make up for it, je vous jure!)

You guys are probably tired of hearing about my fears of approaching natives, but this one was a long time coming, so I figured it was legitimate. I promise that next time I'll have gone sky diving or eaten the world's hottest pepper or maybe even a more culturally relevant activity.