Piaget should have been French...he's halfway there

I bought a phone on Monday. This is an achievement. I find it hard to do this sort of thing in English. This was actually one of my first experiences in a French store. I offered the obligatory "Bonjour" upon entrance to the store and then went on to explain that my friend and I had just arrived in France and needed new phones that were not expensive. When asked, I told her I wanted the red one, and then we made conversation about where we came from and why we were studying in Tours. She was especially impressed (as is everyone whom I've ever met anywhere - England, Pennsylvania, Tennessee) when I said I was from California. Then she asked what my address was, and in response I told her what classes I was taking at the university...sometimes it isn't helpful to form understandings based on the greater context.

Language class at l'Institut Tourraine is great. If it makes sense to say this, our class both reassures me in showing me my proficiency in French, and discourages me in showing me all that I don't know. Vive la paradoxe. And, I am pleased to report (to my education-minded readers), our teacher does an excellent job at activating our prior knowledge, using graphic organizers, and pushing us to develop our understandings in collaboration with each other. "Je ne vais pas vous dire les règles de grammaire..." she said ("I'm not going to tell you the grammar rules"). She had us construct them ourselves from our study of a text.

Two things are clear right now: 1. I will miss cheese terribly when I return to the states. 2. I will be content with California wine (it's not that it's BAD here, you just can't taste the earth...what is a human being if he isn't tasting the earth?)

And my rambling attempt at philosophy tells me it's time for bed. Bonne nuit, tout le monde! A très bientôt.