After roughing it for a little while on vacation, it is just so nice to come back home, especially after staying in a youth hostel.  You have all of your stuff at your fingertips; you are not sharing a room with 15 other people, etc etc.  I've been home for a few days, but I am still enjoying my privacy, having access to more than two pairs of shoes, etc, etc.

Another week of classes down, and I'm still having trouble getting them to talk.  Several people have told me that students don't like to talk because often French teachers will ridicule students who make mistakes, but I am never ever mean to someone who makes a mistake, and at this point in the semester the students know that. 

Another problem I've been told is that in French schools, the teacher is the master, and the students are just supposed to sit back, take notes, and just absorb his plentiful knowledge.  This strategy doesn't work for language learning seeing as how you actually have to participate and make efforts to speak.  So when I ask them to speak, they are somewhat bewildered at the concept of participation.  And since so many of my classes are focussed on oral comprehension, a lot of the classes are like pulling teeth.  

The result is that I've been giving more horrible "teacher speeches," the "I work so hard and you don't appreciate it; I only ask that you participate," but this is slowly but surely destroying every ounce of dignity I have so I am no longer begging them to talk.  My new strategy is that if they don't talk, I will just wait for someone to answer.  I will wait 5, 10 minutes, whatever.  But I can't learn English for them, and well if they don't do well on their exams, it is not my problem.  

I'm about 3/4ths of the way done with classes--the end is in sight!  I will officially finish with one of the classes tomorrow, and for some of the others the last classes will just be oral presentations so they will finish  up soon.  Exams start in May and last through June, but that shouldn't be too much work for me so I can focus on learning Spanish, generally being lazy and whatever else suits my fancy.  Not knowing when my exams are (due to the horrifyingly unorganized university) means that I don't know when I finish and therefore don't know what I am doing this summer.  Hopefully I'll make it to Almeria so I can have some beach and Carlos time.  I'd also like to be there for the feria, which from what I gather is basically just a week-long citywide party.  

Speaking of Carlos, he has bought his ticket to come visit me in April!  He'll be here about 2 weeks, which will be so wonderful after 3 months of not seeing each other.  My friends in Nancy are also excited about meeting him after hearing me talk about him for a whole year.  

My friend Sarah is leaving Nancy because she has an internship in Paris.  Our little group is getting smaller and smaller, but well now we will have a floor to crash on in Paris and another excuse to go.  I talked to Jordan the other day, who is getting married on Saturday (!), and I am going to meet up with her and Jodain in Paris next week for a day of their honeymoon and hopefully  I'll be able to crash with Sarah and spend a little more time in the city.  I'm getting spoiled with all of this travelling--my half week in Paris with Mattie, Angela and Parks is in about 3 weeks.