I plan to cover a range of topics with the next few posts, as I've been lax in the past months and a lot has been happening.
To start off with, Saturday marked my two month warning -- I only have two months left in Germany. In some ways the year has felt so fast; leaving me with much to experience in not enough time. In other ways, it has felt long and exhausting; giving me a sense of happiness at finally being able to go home. I have a lot scheduled before I leave. I'll be visiting Prague with GIVE, Berlin with all of CBYX and London with my friends (not to mention side trips to Dusseldorf, among other plans.) So I don't think a second of my remaining time will be wasted. But now to catch up on what I've been doing.
In March I visited Paris with my French class. We left extremely early on Friday morning, and got home just before midnight on Saturday night. The six or so hour drive was done by bus; a boring journey that passed through Belgium, somehow staying in the middle of empty countryside for the majority of the trip. I was excited to see Paris again, as it's one of my favorite destinations from my previous trips. Apart from that, France is always a pleasure to visit, no matter where you go. France is the only place I've ever visited in which the food is always good. You might think that this is a generalization or an exaggeration, but I have not found a single shred of evidence to the contrary. Restaurants do not survive if their food is not great, and I fear for those who try to sell sub-standard fare.
It was altogether a quite normal trip to Paris. We visited Notre Dame, took a tour of one of the canals, visited Montmartre, went shopping and even saw a movie in French. What stood out, to me, was my specific challenges during our visit. I was, of course, in a group of Germans. I was friends with a few of them, and got to talk to some others on the way there. I was surrounded by the German language, and actually feeling quite confident in my abilities. However, we were soon challenged with speaking French with waiters, shopkeepers, and other Parisians. For the Germans, this was fine. They've been learning French for years, and are capable of conversing in the language if need be. I was, too. However, that was before German. Learning German, living in it, immersing myself in it has seemingly rewritten how my brain communicates. Whereas I once had 'English' and 'French' (a simple enough choice for my brain to make) I now have 'English' and 'Other'. With enough time I can choke out a French sentence, but under pressure my brain presents me with a German response, often vocalizing it, generally without the consent of my conscious mind. Paris was fun, but also painful. I'd like to say that I learned to separate the languages in my head through practical training, but I think the exercise left me more damaged than improved.
EDIT: I'd like to add an edit here to point out that this problem with French didn't begin in Paris. All year I have noticed that my French is getting more and more inaccessible with each passing week. Whereas I was perfectly capable in my French class at the beginning of the year, I now have a quite difficult time answering questions and participating in class. I'm sure that the problem will become better once I am away from Germany, but for now it presents a massive headache.
