Pleasant Surprises

This morning I arrived at phonetics class, obligingly 15 minutes early, feeling not one bit together. Perhaps it was only getting four hours of sleep, perhaps it was from drinking too much wine (and consequently smoking several cigarettes...and several for me is several too many), or perhaps it was because my hair was on day three of not being washed. I walked slower than normal, ate a vionnoise as well as a plum on my way, chugged down a bottle of water, and slightly dreaded the idea of making only the slightest sound distinction noises for the following 75 minutes. My professor, who has only had one session with me, greeted me with a huge smile and a hug. And I felt instantly better. I wanted to do well. I wanted my mouth to move correctly in forming the difference between "e" ouvert and the "e" ferme, the "a" anterieur and the "a" posterieur. And just when I thought my palette had become accustomed to the different movements and no longer felt sore, I found my cheeks aching and the top of my mouth stretching in new ways. Again. Who knew that phonetics would be such a workout!?

My class requires one textbook, which incidentally was written by a woman who worked at the Alliance. The bookstore (it's actually the cafeteria, but that's where they also sell the texts) didn't have the accompanying cassette, however, and the man wrote a woman's phone number on a small slip of paper saying I had to call her in order to get the cassettes. As if it wasn't enough that I have to use cassettes to do my homework (who even has cassette players anymore?), I then had to call a woman who may or may not speak English to somehow get them. So, I did nothing. Which means that today, my "tres gentille" professor called this woman for me (although then handed the phone over to me, so I learned my lesson right there). I received directions to this woman's apartment, and after class I set off to find her. When she answered the door, she had her gray hair up in a towel but was formally dressed, and she stood about 4'10". She invited me in and asked me to sit, and we proceeded to talk for the next 3o minutes or so. She's probably 75 years old, no longer works at the Alliance, but she wanted to know all about my family, my stay in Paris, my reasons for learning French..and even what I found most difficult about phonetics (that was nearly impossible for me to articulate in French!). She finally sold me the tapes, took my name and phone number, and we said our formal good-byes. As I walked downstairs and out of the courtyard I couldn't help but marvel at this system. I think she keeps the cassettes on purpose so that she has regular young visitors. Yet I loved that I had that moment, and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, difficult as it was at times. A friend suggested I call her again and ask if I can join her for tea to practice my language. Afterall, she can certainly help me on my pronunciation!