"Bull. Bull. Bull."

In one of the 2nde (equal to freshmen) classes yesterday, after the typical Q&A session, the teacher had me read words out loud for a phonetics lesson. Some words were cat, bull, bee, and hippopotamus. First of all, I felt a lot like Ted in the clip above. Each time I repeated a word (slowly and enunciating of course), it started sounding weird to me.  Secondly, it's pretty amusing to hear all the students try to pronounce hippopotamus with zee French accent.

Speaking of French accents, one time, a student asked me: "What do you hate?" But of course, with their accent, they didn't pronounce the 'h.' So I immediately responded with, "What did I eat?" The teacher then quickly corrected me and I felt stupid. I hope that the students didn't really catch on to what had just happened.... oops!

Le beffroi (belfry)

This weekend, there was a medieval fair in the centre-ville, complete with jousting and the smell of fresh horse poop. They had some animals-- lots of different birds, some sheep, goats, and donkeys. They also had various tents showing some artifacts from the medieval times. The best part, of course, was the jousting- with a good team and a bad team. Of course, we had to root for last year's champion who was apparently from Béthune. Of course all the fights were staged, but it was still pretty awesome to watch.

jousting!

I also discovered a bookstore that's right across the street from me. It's called Le furet du nord, and I think it's a chain because I remember seeing one in Lille. It's interesting because furet means ferret... so ferret of the north? Also, I'm pretty sure that jouer au furet means the same thing as playing monkey in the middle. I'll have to go there sometime soon to get a folder to fit all my papers, since all the paperwork I have is slightly too long for my UVA folder.

I finally went grocery shopping today after my last class (which is from 5-6 pm!) and finally stocked up on food and bought a bottle of wine (so cheap!). Also, at Carrefour market, they sell liquor too. So unlike in the US, you can buy liquor at your local grocery store... interesting. I'm excited to finally have some sort of real food to eat... I'm tired of eating yogurt and sandwiches all the time. I'm going to the bakery tomorrow to get some freshly baked bread! Every time I walk into the bakery, it's so hard to resist buying all the delicious looking sweets they have!

nomnoms!

I'm thinking about doing a lesson on American slang/more familiar phrases. Any suggestions of (appropriate) phrases I should teach them (ex: bromance)?