Ma première semaine à Vichy

My first week in Vichy started with a somewhat embarrassing test of my French capabilities... however after being put in the "debutant" class I felt a little more reassured that I was going to be able to understand what was going on. My class consisted of seven other people; two from Lybia, one from Spain, one from Saudi Arabia (living in New York), one from India, one from Japan and one from Angola! Because of the diversity of students (and because of our reason for being there) the classes are conducted in French. This made for some interesting moments during the week when we began trying to explain things to each other through broken French and mime. Things like "take" and "want" and "boyfriend" were particularly interesting to explain to the other students.

My teachers are lovely and I think I am learning French quite quickly considering it is my first week of speaking it! The classes run from 8:45 till 12 and then lunch is from 12-2 then the afternoon classes are from 2-3:30. The day, although not long, is quite exhausting! I spent the first three days speaking entirely in (terrible) French with my class mates during lunch and after classes. Thankfully though a lot of the students speak a little english so when French fails, our common language becomes english.  

On Wednesday night, when boarding the bus to Lyon (more on that later) I heard Australian voices so I asked; "is that an Australian voice I hear?" Turned out it was and I now have two gorgeous Australian girls from Melbourne to spend time with.

The walk to and from school is about 10 minutes past the main shopping area which is good for local business, but bad for Margaux's budget. There are bread shops every thirty meters and cake or chocolate shops every ten. The town is all dresses up in Christmas garb and the shop windows all have a Christmas theme so it is a very nice way to start/ finish my day. After school I usually go for a walk around the town which consists of me walking for thirty minutes or so until I feel completely lost, getting out my map and then working out how to get home. After four day of this however it is getting hard to feel lost as I think I have covered every street in the town.  

I set myself a little task everyday whether it be buy something from a grocer or ask where something is or order food in a cafe. All tasks, I am pleased to announce were a success however nine times out of ten they notice my accent (or my terrible French) and ask me where I am from. Today however a woman carrying her daughter stopped me in the street and asked me where the cinema was. I replied that I thought it was around the corner in the building next to us but I was not sure because I am Australian and only visiting Vichy. The little girl said "Merci Madame", I replied "de rien" and the whole affair was delightful.  

I have been eating so much food! I have had crepes, baguettes, salades and copious amounts of bread! And everywhere I seem to go people want to give me chocolate. Perhaps it is because of the Christmas season? 

Anyway I will post my "adventures by night" tomorrow as I am about to have dinner with my family (on Friday night I made sushi with Murielle, my host mother so I am excited for dinner tonight)

xxx M