Forrest Gump was right

In a foreign land every day follows an up-and-down trajectory. "You never know what you're gonna get."

Some days, I can almost express myself in a satisfactory manner. Like the other night, when my roommate's "friend," who is a guy, but spent the night -- interesting story for another day, ask and I'll tell -- was basically hitting on me, saying I speak really good French. When I told him it's a constant struggle because I don't know a lot of really simple colloquial words and I choke them down with a truly American accent, he replied that it's part of my charm.

So I'm a cute foreigner?? I'll take that one.

Or yesterday, I was in the salle des maîtres (teachers' room) when one CE1 teacher asked me how my first few days have been going. I didn't want to complain too much, but I told her classes are very fun, yet simultaneously challenging because none of the younger kids understand my accent. Again, she said that's a good thing, because I'm a real Anglophone teaching them English and it's something they're going to have to appreciate. And then she told me I need to bring a French man home with me when I return back to the States, but again, that's a whole different story.

Or last week at the bank. I understood nearly every single word about the transaction. He only had to translate "transfer funds" to English for me, but other than that I ordered my FREE debit card and checks. He asked me if my family's French -- everyone over here recognizes my French last name and obvious first name -- and if that's the reason why my French is so good.

But then there are other times that make all those prior moments seem worthless and trivial.

Like when my phone was stolen. For two days I had no idea how to describe the incident other than making insane amounts of hand gestures. I guess it was a traumatic moment because I got too worked up to even slightly express myself.

Or when I'm in a class full of 25 French students and I tell them something in French only to have them all have to look at their teacher for clarification.

Or when my roommate makes me repeat words three times before she understands what I'm saying.

Or when the people at the phone store don't understand me, so they speak to me in English -- which I have a hard time understanding in their thick English accents. But I'm the one who's in their country and should be speaking their language clearly.

But then again, I do have exciting moments where I remember to correctly use the subjunctive tense. Like when I let slip a word that seems even shocking and advanced to me. And times when I can speak fairly quickly and not worry too much about minor grammatical errors.

All of this in time will come more naturally, but until then, I'm extremely self-conscious about my up and down intonation, horridly thick American accent, and child-like vocabulary.

As for the being in France part, a really big, exciting holiday vacation is coming up in nine days. And I'm only two decisions away (I still have to pick the train station and times of arrival) from booking both a hotel and a train ticket to Tours in the Loire Valley. My friend Oana and I really want to go and do some châteaux and wine-tasting tours the first weekend of November! I can't wait, it's going to be sooo much fun.