Classes in Versailles

Classes here in France don’t seem to be so bad at first. A couple even seem like their American counterparts. My civilization class is taught by Monsieur Sinniger, an adorable old French man who walks with a cane and seems to chuckle at everything. His wife, Martine, teaches our drama class (20th century French drama) and is this cute little woman who wants to make sure we understand every single word that comes out of her mouth. I think she already likes me, since our first class covered the 17th century writers, and I was the only one who had taken French 32 already, so I knew most of what she was talking about. Grammar and conversation will be more difficult.

Madame Vedel takes grammar for our group, and she’s a good teacher, but very frank (typically French). I like her so far, though. I think the first class was just the hardest one -- once we kind of got the hang of it, things went much easier. Conversation for our group goes to Madame Chauchat, who is actually originally from New York and is still an American citizen. She moved here 18(ish) years ago when she married her husband and teaches English at the middle/high school. Conversation will be difficult simply because it’s speaking French for two hours straight, about anything at all. Today’s class was a little painful, but it's also the first class. Eesh. On top of that, we accidently miscalculated how long it would take to get back to Mme Chauchat’s house from Dr. Maiden’s hotel where we had lunch, and we got there 15 minutes early. She was a little peeved with us and gave us a little lecture about how to not come so early. It was kind of scary. But she seems really great-- she's already offered to give us French cooking lessons!

More to come as classes unfold (because I know you are all so interested).