So, I feel like my French fluency has reached a plateau. I will admit that part of the reason that things are getting easier here is that I'm discovering more things that are accesible in English. Not to mention the many shopkeepers and waiters that insist on speaking to us in English. My favorite discovery is the library which has a plethora of English language books for me to peruse. Today I visited the Real McCoy, an American food store. It was chock-a-block with all sorts of delicious (note some sarcasm here...) treats such as fruit roll ups, peanut butter, marshmallows (4 euros a bag! And they weren't even the white ones! Luckily I had already seen coloured ones at the Franprix for 1.55), complete with a friendly, English speaking salesperson. We've been to one of the Canadian bars (yes! There are two Canadian bars here!), and have been to an Irish one (they spoke English there too). I've also been watching the BBC (not too much choice in English language tv--BBC or CNN, it was a pretty easy decision really). The annoying part about these channels though is that they are news only, and repeat the same headlines and documentaries throughout the day. I have watched the same soccer (football) highlights three times today, and have had a good laugh at the 'business weather' segment, which highlights the weather in cities that I guess people would travel to for business. The only two cities that they had in the Americas were Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. I don't know what kind of business people are doing, but it's apparently not in the States! I've had the channel on most of the day, and they are very good at covering the weather for almost the entire world (Europe, North Africa, all of Asia, the middle east, etc.), but they always seem to 'forget' about North and South America. It's like they forgot there were two more continents across the ocean! But Erik (who is watching it now) has just mentioned that they finally covered Canada (-14 in Edmonton! Brrr!)
Hmmm...I just had to scroll up to the top of this post to remember what I was supposed to be writing about. The dum-dums.
We went for dinner(sushi! Yum!) last night with my friend Zoe and her French roommate Aurelie. Aurelie lived in Montreal for a year, so some English was spoken, but it was mostly in French. I still get frustrated not having a large enough vocabulary, but now it seems that words that I once knew are leaving me. When talking about the food that we had at our wedding, I mentioned that we had "les végétables grillés" and didn't even realize what I had said until I noticed Erik and Zoe staring at me like I'm an idiot. For anyone who is wondering what I said wrong, its 'les legumes' not vegetable with a french accent. Erik and I have both asked for 'un limon' at the market, and I was so confident that I thought the person helping me just didn't hear me, so I repeated it louder and pointed, only to notice the sign clearly marked 'citron'. To make matters worse, the more I learn about French, the more words I learn that are exactly the same or very similar in French and English! Patientez, manager, rhyme to name a few.
So, by now you might be wondering why I was looking for marshmallows.
Erik decided that he wanted to bring them to his work party tomorrow as a kind of "Canadian" treat. Aurelie, assured us last night that Rice Krispies were readily available, but she wasn't so sure about the marshmallows. On my way to the library today, I stopped in a grocery store to see what there selection was. They not only had marshmallows, but two varieties! Not the plain white ones that we're used to, but one of the packages had white and pink, and actually tasted quite authentic. Feeling quite pleased with the discovery, I headed for the cereal aisle, to pick up a box of Rice Krispies. Cereal in France is a funny thing. For all of their appreciation of 'good' food, and enjoying the natural flavours of things, its surprisingly hard to find a cereal that isn't sugar coated, or loaded with chocolate bits (or both!). Needless to say, there wasn't a box of Rice Krispies in sight, and I figured the closest thing would be Special K. From what I could remember, they looked just like flattened Rice Krispies. Thats kind of what they looked like on the box. I was quite surprised when I opened the box (after my marshmallows were partially melted, of course) to find out that these were actually brown flakes, vaguely reminiscent of Bran Flakes. I had no choice at that point but to make them anyway, and the result was pink-ish goop covering brown flakes. Not terribly authentic, or very attractive, but they tasted alright. Hopefully Erik's colleagues won't be as traumatised by them as they are at the mention of poutine...but that's a whole other post.
An update on our banking problems...
Erik left work early today to visit our branch of Societe General, in Lozere, to figure out the whole money transfer thing, and to sort out the PIN problems that we've been having. Turns out that the number that we should be entering on the computer insn't our PIN, but our client number. When Erik asked where he could find that number, he was told he couldn't find it, you have to ask for it at the bank (which raises the question: why would they give you the PIN in the first place if they knew you wouldn't be able to use it without another number that they weren't giving you....!!!!). So they gave Erik the number, and he asked the teller to try the number and PIN combo right away to make sure it worked. Of course it didn't work, apparently because she was using my client number, but Erik's PIN. When Erik pointed out that we have the same account, and should therefore have the same number, she said no, and looked up Erik's number in the computer. Guess what? It's the exact same number as mine (who trains these people?! Or as Erik asked when he was trying to be mad in French "are you a new bank???"). Anyway, apparently something happened when my name was added to the account, more excuses, more excuses, they'll send a new PIN and client number next week. And they gave Erik a card for 10 minutes of free calling time for when he calls them to ask where all this info is when it doesn't arrive next week. On the bright side, apparently it is free to cash an international cheque, and it only takes a week. But, we really have no reason to believe anything they tell us, so we'll find out the exact situation when the cheque actually goes through...
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