Le dîner de l’enfer

I am finally able to blog after a couple busy days here in Bordeaux. I have been trying to find info about my classes in Paris. It is very confusing and I am still in the process of figuring it all out. The French university system is quite different from our system in the US. I’ll explain it all later once I get to Paris and get a feel for it myself.

I got to Skype with my hockey team back at Hamilton early this morning (1:30 am my time)! It was so fun to see all the girls and I actually felt like I was in the meeting. Technology is so amazing. I haven’t said that a whole lot in my life because sweet gadgets and gizmos have always been a given for my generation but I love Skype. It is going to be really hard rejoining the team mid-season when I get back in January but I hope that I won’t feel too separated if I can Skype into an occasional meeting and maybe even one of coach’s famous pre-game speeches while I’m here in France. Like I said, technology is great.

This is my last week in Bordeaux with the Marlier’s, ma famille d’accueil. I am really enjoying staying in a French home and I now realize why my program insists on home stays. After a long day at school and speaking French out in the real world at cafés and stores, it is really nice to come home to a family and a nice dinner. I am definitely more comfortable speaking French at home with the Marlier’s than out in the real world. I have picked up little phrases here and there too that I wouldn’t have learned if I was staying in a dorm with other Americans. There really is no better way to learn the language and learn how to talk with real French people. It will probably be different in Paris, where I am considered to be more of a renter in a French family’s home than an exchange student, so I’m trying to enjoy this last week with the Marliers.

I have only had one incident where staying with a host family has been a problem. It was le dîner de l’enfer (the dinner from hell). My family was gone this weekend, visiting their oldest son Paul and friends in Paris. It was no big deal, I was gone all day Saturday at La Dune du Pyla (biggest dune in Europe, see picture of me!) and Arcachon, a beach near the dune that wasn’t nearly as fun as Le Porge. The Marlier’s only got home around 9 o’clock Sunday evening so by then I had already raided the kitchen and scrapped together a dinner of bread, yogurt and some random cheese. (It’s not as bad as it sounds, I had eaten around 3 o’clock in a café with friends so I was good for the evening.) However, when my family came home, I think they saw me as the hungry puppy they left alone for the weekend. Marie started getting out pasta and ingredients for sauce and asked me if I wanted to eat. I politely told her that I had already eaten but I would join them in the kitchen and eat a little bit (or at least that is what I wanted to say…). I assumed of course, that the family hadn’t eaten yet, given that as soon as they got home Marie started preparing food. Well, as it turns out, they had already eaten and Marie was preparing dinner just for me after I told her I had already eaten (I don’t have a problem with that part of the vocab)! Of course I couldn’t decline any further at this point, a plate of pasta and sauce with bread was sitting in front of me. I politely ate some of my pasta but did not force myself to finish it. I thought I was going to hurl. Je suis trop polie.…

Waiting until 8/8:30 to eat dinner without a snack after lunch (the French don’t snack): check
Eating my fruit with a knife and fork without looking like an idiot: check
Putting le pain (bread) on the table instead of on the plate (bizarre….): check
Politely declining a second diner: raté! (failed!)