The rain, o the rain

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Need to buy an umbrella. Really. I keep thinking that it’s just a little water, but no, it’s bucketfuls. Luckily today, I wasn’t going to class, I was just going to prepare lessons. But I can see myself turning up to class looking like a drowned rat—this would do nothing for my control over the classroom.

After a morning of running errands and an afternoon of lesson planning, I returned home, soaked, and changed quickly to go to Alain’s for an English teacher dinner. Two Françoises, one Beatrice, Alain, and I made up the party. We had a local sort of almost-wine for aperitif—forget what it’s called now, but it reminded me of cider, but sparkly and slightly alcoholic. Walnuts, pistachios, peanuts. Then started meal off with a homemade pumpkin soup, rosé wine. Main course: cooked vegetables (potato, tomato, peas…) and some sort of game meat, complete with sauce. Cheese platter—two of cow milk, one goat milk. Dessert: tart with two different fruits, kind of like big grapes but softer.

Conversation was completely in French, often fast and always animated. It was all I could do to just keep my attention on the person who was talking. I picked up on the part where the government of the region Centre is giving money to high schools to take their English students to England. There’s a new album out by Sting where he has reworked various songs from the Middle Ages. Apparently, Alain’s son plays in a band called Arcadya, and they’ve produced several albums. Might need to look them up!

Lots of gossip about various teachers at the school… One of the Françoises has a daughter who is studying near Madrid this year. There was a film out that everyone was excited about, revolving around the Algerian war. That was about as much as I could pick up. Literally sat there and just stared, trying to keep up listening. If anybody addressed a question to me, it took me time to just switch from listening mode to speaking mode.

Tomorrow I’ll have a whopping 5 courses, from 8am to 5pm. Oy. Can’t wait for that to be over.