I think they're on to me....

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Day 18

Sunday I woke up tired again, but was able to make in time for Relief Society or, La Societe de Secours, albeit, a little late. The lesson was difficult to follow because the lady teaching it didn't really know French so it was some sort of mix between French, English and whatever third language she speaks (Spanish? although she was Asian so maybe it was an Asian language mixed in--you can imagine the difficulty I had). After relief society I enjoyed a nice Sunday School lesson taught by an American (in French). I was entertained the whole time because his accent was pretty bad and it sounded a lot like the outrageous French accent you hear in movies, such as the Pink Panther, or the frog from The Swan Princess. I laughed on the inside.

Oh, and quick sidenote! I felt really French when we were all sitting down for the class because Algon/Algernon/sldfjlsjlskjf (I don't actually know what his name is, so I just say it fast and hope it sounds right) sat in front of us, who we had met last week at la soiree familiale and so I said hi and we did a very casual French exchange that went something like this:

Me: Bonjour

Algerwhatshisface: Bonjour, ca va?

Me: Oui, ca va bien, et toi?

Algerwhathisface: Oui ca va.

Yeah, that's about it. But it was so casual and normal I felt super French. Don't laugh. It was legit. Really, I promise. Of course, I have to admit my cover was blown at the end when we were leaving because he leaned in to do a bisous (the kiss on each cheek) but I didn't realize he was leaving and that's what he was doing (it looked like he was going to whisper something to me) so I just asked him "what?" thinking he was trying to say something. Ha. He was like, "Bisoux." and initiated it for me. Awkward. Commence embarrassed blush and look of shame. Dang it. I was doing so well, I thought I had them all fooled by my suave Parisien-ness! Zut alors! But how was I supposed to know he was doing that? They hardly ever do! I've only done the bisoux two or three times since I've been here, so I just wasn't expecting it. France: 1 Brittney: 0

Next time I'll be ready...

After church I was so tired I just went straight home...and may or may not have slept from *ahem* 3 to 7:30 *cough cough* At 7:45 we had dinner with Frederique, and here I have a funny story about a cultural misunderstanding....

So with every meal we have a cheese course. Frederique puts cheese on a cutting board and we cut a small block for ourselves and put it on our little cheese plate. Sometimes we have bread but sometimes we don't. The bread was on the other side of the table and she didn't give us forks so all we had was a knife. Both Marissa and I were unsure of whether or not to eat the cheese straight or use bread (because we've eaten just cheese before). Marissa chose to eat it straight. From her knife. I luckily had grabbed some bread and spread the cheese on it, but I had some extra cheese and ran out of bread so I tried to sneak eating it with the knife. Frederique noticed Marissa using her knife to eat the cheese and asked if it was an American thing. Hahaha. No, we definitely thought it was a French thing to eat with the knife--we thought it was weird but it seemed like the only option at the time so we figured maybe the French were just different like that. Nope. According to Frederique the French "never never put their knives in their mouths." Great. This is what happens when you try to look French. Zut.

During dinner I asked Frederique about the French opinion on Napoleon. She said that the French admire him because of the wonderful things he did for France...even though he was an egotistical dictator who crowned himself Emperor--twice. I thought it was interesting...although I guess every country has their Napoleons in some ways.

After dinner I then proceeded to have a stressful night of trying to coordinate our plans for the travel weekend. We finally worked it out to buy tickets to fly to London from Friday to Monday. We're (Meridith, Andrea and I) are staying with Mer's brother's old mission companion. He'll be out of town most of the weekend so he's just going to give us a key to the house, but I guess he's meeting us at the train station Friday evening. Yeah for saving money on hotels! ...oh, and yeah for LONDON! I suspect we'll have a jolly ol' time.