A tour of Tours

Before going to bed the first night I examined the bookshelf next to my bed. There was a large collection of children's books (although mostly comic books like The Adventures of Tin Tin), some Moliere, Voltaire, a few Agatha Christie books, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (in English), and to my wonder and surprise, my favorite book, Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson, in English. This was an omen.

The first day of class consisted of two hours of Isabelle, the short, plump, bubbly owner with the voice of a smoker and a laugh to match, giving an introduction to the school and playing the role of travel agent, peppering us with more brochures than we could carry on castles to visit, bikes to rent, and tours to take. I think she may singlehandedly be keeping tourism alive in the area. The next two hours consisted of a placement test on our oral and written comprehension and speaking, and writing abilities. After that we were done unless we wanted to go on a tour of Tours with Herve, Isabelle's husband. Figuring it couldn't hurt and would probably be useful, I went along.

Herve was tall and quiet with an authoritative presence, the exact opposite of Isabelle. He must be as knowledgeable as anyone around on the history of Tours, but he spoke so quickly and fluidly that I got at most 10% of what he said on the entire 2 1/2 hr tour. It went something like this - "Tours is an ancient city, dating back at least 2000 years, and became part of the Roman empire during the first century A.D. In the 9th century A.D. the Vikings came and destroyed the town. When it was rebuilt they used sandstone, because it was easy to dig up, but as you can see it is very soft and comes off right in your hand [he wiped his hand along the wall and came up with dust, and then dragged his fingernail along the wall and left a visible scratch]. The Vikings ruled for several hundred years, but they eventually died out or returned to more northern cities. After the Vikings left the Wizards, accompanied by Charles IX and his court, came in and fancied the place up a bit, planted some gardens, and made the houses look like gingerbread huts so that lots of tourists would come and stay. There was a bit of a problem with dragons for a few years, but once they were banished to Romania everything was alright again."

Dinner that night consisted of cantaloupe, green salad, beet salad, sliced tomatoes with homemade mustard-olive oil-garlic dressing, bread, a beef patty (with no bun), a potato and tomato fritatta baked with mozzarella, parmesan, and feta cheese, chocolate mousse, raspberry/pistachio/vanilla custard, ladyfingers, and a choice of camembert, swiss, and two kinds of goat cheese.

That night I tried to read about Tin Tin's adventues, but fell asleep after one page.

The next morning I was placed into a class which was obviously the beginner class, and within a few minutes had determined that I was officially the 3rd worst student in the school. I saw the results of my placement exam, and I did poorly on oral comprehension, poorly on speaking, mediocre on writing, not too shabby on written comprehension, and disastrously on grammar. The good news: grammar is just a lot of rules and I'm stellar at memorization. The bad news: I have a long way to go. My class has six students, including one dark-skinned Lebanese woman, one mousy Austrian girl, two middle-aged German dikes with colds, and one English Alzheimeric grandpa with corkscrew glasses and an accent that even makes me cringe.

One of the other new students, Gregor, has been my saving grace, mainly because he'll speak English to me. He's Scottish and works as a language analyst for the Air Force in the UK. He speaks English, Russian, Serbian, and Croatian, and convinced the Air Force that learning French is an integral part of his job, although he admitted that's basically a load of squat and he just likes the language and country. He's been in the military for 18 years and only has 2 more left before he can retire and start a second career. He looks and sounds like one of the drunk hooligans you see at football games and could pass for 30 although he must be pushing 40.

I learned more about my roommates as well. Barbara is going to be a teacher of German, French, English, and history (?). I suppose those countries have been at war with each other so many times that it just makes sense to add history as part of the curriculum.

Yuishiro studies fashion in Paris (but is not gay from what I can tell). He hardly ever speaks, and only when spoken to, and then talks quickly and quietly in one or two word answers. It's the weirdest thing to hear French spoken with a thick Japanese accent, and, in fact, I have yet to understand anything he says.

Dinner that night was green salad, beet salad, cucumber salad with the homemade dressing, bread, whole trout (but salt water trout I think?), roasted potatoes, rice (with butter), assorted custards, and cheese.