Théâtre

Day Forty-One

This morning went to my French culture classes (news/media and francophone).  Both were very interesting.  For the first class, we went over caricatures and political cartoons (same teacher, so a little bit of repeat but still a lot of fun) and then there was a group who did a presentation on the current horse meat scandal in Europe (where horsemeat was advertised as beef and sold to restaurants/consumers).  50% of our grade is from our presentations and 50% from our participation/homework.  These presentations should take 10-15 minutes in groups of 3-4 people who present a current event news article and then lead a discussion afterwards.  Well, having SS357 (International Relations) a year ago helped my confidence in preparing for current events-based discussions but this'll be interesting to do in another language!  In the francophone class, we learned about the OIF (l'organisation internationale de la francophonie) which acts as a network connecting all of the francophone countries/territories together and the founders.  The "grandfather of francophone" is Léopold Senghor, the first president of Sénégal after it gained independence.  It's cool because in SS366 (Comparative Politics), I wrote about Sénégal for the my 15-page paper and about whether it really is a democratic government--so I read up a lot on Senghor.  It's always nice to see that you actually retain something from a previous class, lol.

Then came back and met up with Sarabeth, a friend from the international church, to go on a run.  Then rushed to shower and grab dinner before meeting my francophone class in Place Bellecour to watch a theatre performance on language.  It was a 1.5 hour show on poems from around the world, spoken in probably 15 different languages, with a few songs included in French and was performed by fellow students from various universities/acting programs in Lyon.  It was pretty cool.  I'll admit that I nodded off a couple of times when there were languages being spoken that I had no idea what they were saying so I couldn't follow the acting, the theatre was dark, and it was past 2200.  Not my fault!  But it was still cool and gave me a chance to speak a lot of French today because on the bus to & from, there was a lot of time to kill so we had lengthy conversations.  :)

I'm so excited for tomorrow!  Having dinner at a couple's house from church and then going to bake Andes Mint cookies for Bible study on Friday!  YESSSSSSSS!!!!  I absolutely LOVE these cookies, and can't tell my mom thank you enough for sending the cake mix and mints in a care package!