I woke up early this morning (7, ungodly!)to go to my host mother's 2nd grad class. I should probably clarify that she teaches this class, she isn't a student in it. ha. I helped them finish up some Christmas presents that I worked with them on last week. The students are absolutely adorable, they always say "'ello linzee" and today when I left they said "Merry Christmas!" Since they knew me already, they all ran up to me before class this morning to give me hugs, which is even more adorable than it sounds since nobody hugs here. And of course pretty much every student draws me a picture each time I come. I have an entire future apartment wall-papered.
In class, we did a little bit of work and took a very easy oral exam. Then we watched a French film, "L'auberge espagnol" (Spanish hostel). We watched it completely without subtitles, not even French ones, and I completely understood! It's nice to be reassured that I really am making progress when on certain days it seems like I can't speak this language at all. For instance when Benedicte (host mom) talks to me and I'm like "yeah, I totally get all this!" then she turns and talks to Thierry (host dad) and talks about 10x faster. Awesome...
Since I'm leaving Thursday and my friend Zack won't be back after the break, it was our last time seeing each other. I was sad to say goodbye to such a good friend. We had a lot of good laughs while not paying attention during class. We acted like 1st graders and surely drove all of our teachers crazy, but it was fun. I'll probably learn more next term, but I'm certainly going to be bored. It was surreal to be the one staying and not leaving. I'm both jealous of my friends that get to go home and content to stay.
After saying goodbye to Zack, I met up with Niki and Ella at the metro for "un derniere repas" (I'm going to skip the accents, get over it). Again, surreal. Especially since we ate at one of the very first restaurants that I ever ate at in Lyon. We had a lot of laughs though and some mostly great food. My adventurous side got the better of me and I ordered the Tripe (intestines...) I had exactly one piece. I don't consider myself a picky eater but I just could not eat more. It was furry. And just, ew. The smell is still a little bit in my nostrils and I don't think that I'll ever forget that texture. But the soup and dessert (Ella and I shared our mousse au chocolat and creme brulee) made it worth it.
I like to procrastinate goodbyes, so Niki and I are going to see each other again tomorrow, thank goodness. I'm glad she lives in Portland and that we'll surely see each other again. Until then, I don't know what I'm going to do without her level-headed boy advice and funny stories.
The day after tomorrow (Thursday) I'm off to Barcelona with Allegra. I can't wait!
Until then!
