Look, Mom- I found a friend!

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to announce that I finally have French friends! It’s taken long enough, but I have achieved the impossible.

Ok, not impossible, but very difficult. Since I've been here I have made a lot of friends, especially through my engagement activity, but many of them aren't actually French. Fortunately I met and have actually been hanging out with some French people for a few weeks now, but I was afraid that by mentioning it, I would jinx it. But I think it’s actually happened. It’s not a fluke. I’ve been out for coffee with a girl named Jessica twice in the past 3 days. Both times, we’ve had a great time and chatted for hours in a mix of English and French. I love being able to be one of those people that switches back and forth between languages!

Really though, it’s not like we switch back and forth for no reason. For the most part I speak in French and she speaks in English (both practicing our second language) until we try to say something that’s too complicated and we revert back to our native languages.

The other day we met up for a much needed quality coffee (About once a week I get a serious craving for something better than Nescafé). We were sitting in the fnac café and as I was sipping the delicious caffeine, I realized that the people at the table beside us were doing the exact same thing as us. A language exchange, that is. The girl beside me was speaking French with a strong English accent, and the guy across the table was speaking English with a French accent. I think all four of us realized around the same time and starting eavesdropping on the other conversation. Finally someone initiated cross table conversation, and it turns out it was a British girl and a younger French boy. The girl had been volunteering at the boy’s school as an English teacher and the boy was really interested in improving his English, so he approached her about meeting up for conversation practice.  Unfortunately the girl, Fiona, will be going back to England in a couple weeks and the boy will be left without a conversation partner. This is where I come in. We’ve agreed to start meeting up Monday afternoons. Between that and hanging out with Jessica and her French friends a couple times a week, I look forward to some serious improvements in my language skills!