stoopeed americans, puh

After spending a good amount of time switching between shutterfly (the online photobook maker... such a nifty site for anyone who wants to make custom calendars, albums, and more with their own pictures) and a few wedding dress websites (hey, an engaged girl can look and tell now, right?), I got ready for my afternoon with Corinne and company.

I hadn't gone outside much this weekend, as I was making myself stay in and rest up, so it was a nice surprise to feel the warmer weather and sunshine on my face as I walked to their house. Luc was in the garden and Corinne was doing house work. Lucie swung open the door with a big welcoming smile. Before Julien and I got to work they all came to see if I had brought any pictures from my trip and to hear all about it (too bad they can't read my blog!). I'll have to send them some pictures, but I did get to retell some highlights from our trip:)

Julien and I worked on pronouns and verbs for a bit; he was amazed that we used "it" for so many nouns. In French, every noun is either feminine or masculine, and therefore is replaced with "him/her" in certain cases where pronouns are used.... although it sort of depends on the situation, and to make it more confusing, the pronoun may need to be placed somewhere else in the sentence. English, however, is much simpler. Anything that isn't a person or living thing with a gender identity is called "it." When given the sentence, "John put his pen away," Julien tried to replace the nouns like this: "He put him away." Although this is nice poetic personification for the pen, in non-artistic language, we would normally say, "He put it away."

During our little grammar exercises, Julien asked me if all Americans were like a girl he saw on tv, who when asked if she could find Iraq on a map, said, "What's an Iraq?" I laughed and said.... no, I guess there are ignorant people everywhere, but we aren't all that stupid. He then asked, "Do you know where Libya is?" I said, yeah of course.... it's that little country in the middle east off of Saudi Arabia. He laughed as I was saying this and it dawned on me that, huh, do I actually know where it is? He went to get his globe, and sure enough, it is not a small country but a rather large country situated between Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria. I guess I was getting it confused with Qatar or Yemen or something... Now, had I been given a map, I would have found it fairly easily, but I had to say to him, "Nope, guess I'm just like all the other stupid Americans haha." He said he doesn't really think we're stupid.... but from the sound of it, they learn a lot more world geography than we do. He could name and place every African country I named off on a map he drew! Wow!

After our lesson, I got to feel a little bit smarter when I was able to answer tons of questions by all 3 kids about English song lyrics. They sing all these American pop songs, but have no idea what they're saying! Our song session was interrupted by the parents who said, "Enough bombarding Lindsay with song lyrics! Let's go on a bike ride!"

So we all went out, except Julien who went to a friend's house, on a nice Sunday afternoon bike ride. While we were riding, I passed a few students who yelled out my name from across the street. I felt a little bit like a celebrity;)

When we got back, we had a nice chat and cookie tasting. They asked me questions about Victor and if he had fun seeing where I lived. They asked if he was surprised by Lyon or Saint-Priest... and I said, actually he was slightly surprised by where I lived. They said, you know, we were surprised by where you live too. I said, I was surprised when I first moved in, but I've never had a problem or had anyone hassle me. I don't put myself in a lot of unsafe situations by going out late and I keep my head down, walking with purpose if I do. It's been a really nice living and working experience here overall. They said that they really haven't minded living in Saint-Priest because there are some really nice neighborhoods, but they're about to start looking for a house to buy. The one they are in is rented because they are still in the process of selling their house in Marseille. They said unfortunately there aren't many houses for sale in the neighborhood they live in now and are thinking about moving to the north side of Lyon, closer to the parc de la tête d'or (and understandably so, I'd want to live up there too! Who wouldn't want to live within a few minutes drive to the zoo?!). But they also have concerns about moving the kids out of their schools again and Corinne likes being so close to work.... so it sounds like they're still trying to decide what to do!

Luc drove me home on his way to the Apple store to look at macbooks, lol. I did some video chatting and am just about ready for bed. That bike ride wore me out!

Hope you all have a nice week:)

Reste cool!