Jill ne sais quoi

Yesterday I had my first Fac class (which means that it is through the actual Universite, and not through the international program). I was supposed to have it last Monday, but the professor never showed up, which was pretty disappointing/stressful.

But it went great yesterday! The course is basically an Intro to Syntax, and we're starting off by reviewing just basic linguistic info. The professor speaks slowly and clearly, which is awesome, and when Monica and I went to talk to her after class to let her know that we're foreign students taking the class, she was really nice and seemed really excited to have us in her class.

Last night Sam and I had dinner with our fam, which was super fun. For the appetizer we had this delicious pumpkin soup (I'll admit it, I was pretty nervous about it, as I'm not really into the whole creamy-soup thing, but it was amazing.) and then for the main course we had this omelette-esque thing with potatoes. It was uber-delicious.

After dinner Christine and Claude showed us a film called Plein soleil. It was the Frenchest French film I have seen yet. So much angst and death and love and craziness. It was actually a really good film, critically, but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. Although I think I would like to watch it another time with English subtitles.

Apparently it is called Purple Noon in English. Here is the trailer (in English! Hurrah!):

Today I ate lunch with my French pen-pal Marion in one of the cafeterias on campus. It's fun to chat with her because whenever I can't find a word in French, I can explain it (slowly) in English and she understands. And she can do the same, but vice-versa, obviously. She says she has a hard time understanding the American accent because all the English teachers and professors here are British or Australian, so she's not used to it.

It's really funny hearing professors here speak English (especially the translation professors, because their English is almost perfect) because they all speak with British accents, which makes sense, considering the proximity of the countries. But it's very strange! The translation professor for the other class has almost a Cockney accent, but my professor has this lovely upper-class way of speaking, and sometimes I think that he's actually British, his accent is so perfect. I hope one day my French accent will be as flawless as that.

Tonight we're eating dinner with Claude and Christine again! I'm very excited! But now I must go do some homework.