A Rant, and a Rave

I am getting so frustrated with French class lately... today we were talking about a certain way to phrase certain ideas, and there was some tiny nuance of when you used one form and when you used another, and I just couldn't understand it. I guess it's just one of those things unique to a language that you have to memorize what goes with what. The most infuriating part is when the teacher acts SHOCKED that you're having trouble b/c "it's so logical!" OF COURSE it's logical to you, this is your native language!!! I swear she's changing up the way she explains things. And then there's things like how yesterday we talked about a certain vocab word for a while, and explained it one way, and then today when a girl who had been absent asked what the word meant, the definition the teacher gave was completely different. Maybe the word has multiple meanings... I guess I'll have to go look it up. I'll be done after this week, but I'm so temped to just stop now and not go the last few days. Except one of the other women in the class is gone this week and I promised her I'd send her the notes of what we covered each day. I guess it's only 3 more days. I used to like this class so much... what's happened?

After class I met up with 2 gals for lunch, and we had a really great time. We went to Chez Ma Cuisine (which will from now on be known as "the chicken place") in Old Town. Their signature dish includes a half a roasted chicken, french fries, and salad for $15 (a STEAL in these parts). One of them, Kathy, is thinking about going into teaching, and started asking me questions about Montessori so I got to go into my whole schpiel on how much I love Montessori and why. =P She seemed to really like what she was hearing. I offered to lend her some books I have so she could read up on it more, and she gladly accepted. Yay! I'm always happy spreading the Montessori love around. =)

Our lunch was very much a European one-- after finishing our meal, we sat there talking for so long that the waitress had to come up to us and ask us to pay as I think her shift was ending! All 3 of us being Americans, used to waiting around for what feels like forever for a waiter to close out the bill, we had a pretty good laugh about it. We then made tentative plans to get together for lunch again next week, gave each other 3 kisses goodbye, and were off.

As I was walking back towards the bus stop I stopped into a small "papeterie" and bought a cloth-bound photo album, the kind with the black pages that look all artsy and cool. Shortly after we got married my mother-in-law sent me a manila folder filled with Zach's old baby pictures. They're all adorable, and have been sitting in said folder for years... which seems like an awful waste. I think I'll put them in this album so they're displayed and organized a bit better.