De la Nouvelle!

Every morning on my way to school I pray that God will bless the day. Because my days are numbered here, I can’t afford to have a day that could be easily forgotten. Each day must be valuable. This morning on my way out of the door I started to pray saying, “God, why did I even get up this morning? It’s just another day! I have been here for four weeks and have yet to truly make French friends!” I honestly said to God, “God, I’m mad at you! What is my purpose here?” I then got on the tram and went to school.

At lunch I ate with my friends Amanda, Helena, Marie, and her Brazilian friend who only knows Portuguese and French. We therefore spoke in French the entire time. This was ok except for the fact that it was so unnatural. There were so many times when the English speakers would turn to one another and spout out entire paragraphs in English. I was eating, but yet I was SO hungry! I wanted to be with the French so much!

After lunch I went home and took a nap. I also ran by the bank to pick up my debit card. I then returned to the university for a class that made me want to jump out of the fifth floor window. The professor is VERY nice and very funny, but he never keeps his thoughts strait and he acts like we’ve never spoken a word of French in our lives. At the end of every sentence he would say “Ça va?” (In other words, do you understand?) He would then want us to respond with, “Ça va!” At one point nobody was saying anything, so he got frustrated and INSISTED that we proclaim, “ÇA VA!” I wanted to scream. He then said, “Ça va?” one more time and I responded with a forceful, “UH HUH!” Marie turned to me and gave me a funny look, but I didn’t care. I may not be the greatest French speaker in the world, but I’m not an idiot. I would hope that four years of high school and two year of college would somewhat prepare me to understand what someone says when they’re speaking at a pace of ten words a minute. I thought I was going to cry, but then my friend Esther from Ghana handed me a peppermint out of the shear kindness of her heart! She didn’t hand any peppermints to anyone else, just me! God always provides!

Rachel called me earlier on today to tell me that she and the others were planning on going out tonight. I decided that I would go just in case I might be able to meet some cool people. We went to a pub by the port, but decided it was too expensive and went to one closer to Centre-Ville. We met our Australian friends, looked for a table, decided to sit outside, and ordered some drinks. After the waiter brought us our drinks and I paid for mine, I stood up to let Linden and Rachel sit down who were previously inside looking for a table at which we could all sit. Right when I stood up, out of nowhere a French guy by the name of Romain came up to me (a bit tipsy) and said, “You’re American!” (In English) I was caught off guard, but VERY pleased that I was speaking with a French person. Before I knew it, Rachel and I were surrounded by a group of (tipsy) French people who were fascinated with us. One girl, Mandy, grabbed me by the arm and begged me to take her back to Texas with me (don’t worry, her boyfriend was standing near). I couldn’t believe this was happening! The French group then decided that they wanted to go to McDonalds®, so they began to say goodbye. At this point Rachel looked at me and said, “Should we go with them?” I was much obliged! When I asked if they minded that we join them, they all but lifted us on their shoulders and carried us to the good ole’ MacDo. When we got to McDonalds®, we all sat around and talked about American bands. They were in awe of Rachel and me! I felt like a star! We were then told by one of the workers that it was closing time, so we had to leave. Rachel decided to go home, but I wasn’t leaving these people until they knew that I was serious about this French thing! I guess you could say that my name, Cole (aka Colle – which means glue in French) was very appropriate.

I followed this group of people until Linden gave me a call and wanted to meet up with us. We all waited, and she joined us as we went to a resident hall at the university. We sat in the room of a guy named Bastien and talked for over two hours! It was 3h30 in the morning before I finally left! We exchanged numbers and they promised that they would call us again! It was a miracle! I hope I wasn’t dreaming! This morning I was mad at God, but He proved to me yet again that He always provides!