je ne comprends pas

so. i am in nova scotia - "nouvelle écosse." i`m doing a 5-week french immersion program at université sainte-anne in church point, nova scotia (pointe-de-l`église, nouvelle-écosse). i left edmonton at 1:00 a.m. on sunday morning, when my parents and jordan saw me off. i will interrupt this post on nova scotia to give an update on jordan:

he is a dreamboat and i like him a lot. on saturday we went to his opa`s in beaumont and weeded a row of carrots. his opa is a gardener by trade. afterwards we went inside, and on the way, jordan`s opa presented me with a bouquet of freshly-picked flowers from his garden. adorable. he invited us inside for some "cool watermelon," and then jordan and i had to leave to make it to hobbema in time to catch the end of the afternoon session of the powwow there. jordan had never been to a powwow, and so it was super, super nice to bring him and have him enjoy it as much as he did. we liked the dancing, but especially liked the powwow food. i had an "indian taco" (a regular taco, but ON TOP OF FRIED BANNOCK!!!) and he had some amazing fresh corn on the cob. we drove home and i finished packing, and he came over so we could watch the final star wars together. then my parents came over (calling half an hour before they arrived to say, "get your clothes back on!" ha.), and all four of us drove out to the airport. they saw me off, and my parents told me later that my mom had asked jordan on the way home what he planned on doing for the rest of the summer, to which he replied, "you mean aside from pining for your daughter?" cute. i think that`s a good sign. anyways. we are not e-mailing or calling each other while i am gone, but plan on writing and sending letters frequently. like we`re in 1908. cute.

anyway. now i am in church point. look it up on google maps, or mapquest if you prefer. on sunday we settled into our rooms - i have my own room in the "beaulieu" residence. i am relieved to have my own room. most of the people here are a lot younger than me - some are 13 or 14! - but everyone in my residence is my age or older. whew. the reason i chose this university for the program is because it is so isolated, and i really need to go somewhere rural and quiet every summer to recuperate from being in the city. as a result, i am remaining kind of antisocial. i just need some space for my own mental/emotional/spiritual well-being. luckily, the person i like hanging out with most is my next door neighbour. she is a girl named andrea who is 24 and from regina, and she is taking international studies. we are at about the same level in french, so it is nice to be able to talk (or not talk) with her.

on monday night we signed contracts saying we would not speak english until the last night of our stay here (august 8th). if we get caught speaking it 3 times, we get sent home. eeks! it is mostly hard for me to remember to speak french when i just get up from a nap. my brain is not working yet even in english, so to make it think in french is next to impossible. after that, we had a "vin et fromage" party, but andrea and i didn`t stay long because we were so tired.

on tuesday we started classes. i am in "débutant 1," because i have forgotten most of the french i learned in the 7 years leading up to my last french class, which was 7 years ago. it is definitely the most appropriate class for me, though. we have just done simple sentences and the verbs "avoir" and "être" yesterday and today, and they are good refreshers. i have class from 8:00 a.m. until 9:30, and then we have a half hour "session dìnformation," where we find out what activities are happening later that day. then i have class again from 10:00 until 11:30, and then lunch, and then free time until 2, when we have some activities. because i am a beginner, i am in the "conversation" class, which means that my group rotates around through the other activities and gets a taste of each of them. this week i am working in "le petit bois" - the little woods/forest. there are a series of pathways that the first missionaries here built, and we are helping to maintain them and some other little gardens. today we helped weed some flowerbeds, which i usually hate doing but found surprisingly enjoyable, probably because it wasn`t boiling hot out and there were a lot of us helping out to make the job go quickly.

this is getting very long. i will write more later. here is a reminder to myself of what to write about: "les olympiques comiques," "balle-molle," english-cree-french.