Le prèmiere semaine d'école

So today is Friday and as of now I have officially completed my first week of school. At school a lot of people are interested in me because I am foreign but it's still really difficult for me to communicate. I can say quite a few things I'm thinking (mostly incorrectly of course) but in a conversation I usually need the other person to repeat what they say very slowly or rephrase.. and obviously that makes talking with people hard. However and I try and smile and once in a while act like I understand when I don't (because it's really obvious to me that people don't enjoy talking to someone who doesn't understand) and things are going, I think, as smoothly as can be expected.

I have met some nice girls, Agnès and Martine, who ride my bus and this Saturday they invited me to go with them to a music festival in Romont, so of course I said yeah. There are a lot of nice people at school, people ask me how I am all the time and if classes are going okay, and in the morning also 'As-tu bien dormi?' ('Did you sleep well?' - a very common thing to demand here.)

So far I have found that my favorite classes are Art and English because I can participate and my lack of French language skills is really not a problem. German is nice because for me it's free time, Economie is suprisingly easy because the professor talks the whole time about sports, IT (Information technology) I can't really judge yet because I only had it one time and there was a fire drill for half the class (I was explained to many times that it was just a practice, there was no danger), and geography seems straightforward enough. I am way behind in math, and even when I understand the notations used here are different than at home. But luckily this is made up for by the fact that I am way ahead in both biology and chemistry, as I took a full year of each already and for my classmates it's brand new. Also scientific writing is surprisingly easier for me to read than, say, a popular culture article in the paper. History is not a problem yet but I get the feeling it will be. For French classes I have no chance of understanding complex French literature so I work independently on language skills. And gym here so far, for the two classes I've had, is great. The first day we did l'escalade en salle (indoor rock climing) and ping pong, the second day was trampoline (doing flips onto a mat) and badminton.

It's hard for me because I still can't understand a lot of French. I keep telling myself that I will get better, that in just a month or so I will understand at least 50% more and probably plus, and that by Christmas I will be speaking and understanding tons of French without even thinking about it, but right now it's hard for be to believe. However on the bright side I have caught myself a few times using words that I didn't even know I knew in the correct sense, so that's good because it means I am slowly adjusting.

And now I have to get going because I am really tired. I'm sorry if this post is very short but I don't really know what to say about my week or about school. If you have specific questions you can write them in a comment and I will answer them soon.

à bientot