Bonjour, Kelly!

That's Madame Petite to you.

The infinite paperwork continues. Today I talked to the secretary at the school about getting my social security number. I also have to drop of a bunch of documents at the mayor's office because...uh, they asked me. Just so they know exactly whom to round up when the nationalist party takes over, I guess.
I definitely wasn't looking forward to it, since it involves talking about official stuff with people (difficult to understand) and making many copies (difficult to keep straight). Well, I did it, as much as I could, and it wasn't bad. Tomorrow, I'm going to drop off everything to get my social security number, then drop off everything at the Mayor's office. I have to go back there, once I get my SS#, as they want a copy of that as well, but I want to get as much of this stuff out of my hands as I can.

The best part about this morning was that, when I went to the see the secretary, I understood EVERY WORD. We CONVERSED. This is a very big deal. There's been a sort of shift lately -- the language continues to get easier for me to speak and understand. More importantly, I've gone from being the "amusing foreigner" to the "charming foreigner." In the last week alone, the following things have happened:

1. The woman who made the photocopies for me said that I have a pretty accent.
2. One of my students, when talking on the street, repeated the way I say "vendredi" (friday). I asked him what was so funny, and he said, "Nothing! I just think it's nice how you say that. British and American accents are so cute."

Plus, I found out that the students do, in fact, like me, from this embarassing moment: I was walking to class, and passed by a group of my older students on the street. I said hello, and they said hello back. One of the boys said, "Wait! Now, one, two, three!" They all said hello at the same time. From the back, I heard one of the boys saying, "Bonjour, petite." While this is not a rude thing to say, it's definitely not something you'd say to a teacher, as it's the equivalent of saying, "Hi cutie" or "Hi sweetie." I immediately demanded, "Who said that?!?" and they all laughed.
Punks.

Weather: still crappy, in case you were wondering.

Pictures: Frosty moss!


frosty mosty. fross moss.

posted by kelly @ 1:02 PM