Sans Titre

We start in the past:

Had a presentation last Wednesday (May 4). Presented a passage from Horace, a seventeenth century play by Pierre Corneille. After finishing, the professor, Madame Calvet, said "Vous avez presque tout dit", (you said almost everything), which from her was (ach I'm already writing in past tense where I can use present) a giant compliment. She then proceeded to talk about the piece for about fifteen minutes, lecture complete with citations from other works, quotes from contemporaries and everything despite the fact that we hadn't told her in advance what we were going to present on. In fact, no one in the class had, and she was always able to provide in-depth background information regardless of what students presented (it was because of this that only half the class had the opportunity to present, and we were obliged to stay after our final Wednesday the 11th for an additional two hours of presentations). She literally seems to know everything about French literature from the seventeenth century, if not earlier, on. Obviously, this can't possibly be true, but she didn't confess a lack of knowledge once this semester. Though she did admit that she isn't good at planning parties for the last day of course. I'm glad she knows she has a weakness.

Friday, I went to an absinthe liquoristerie, tasted versinthe, found one of their other products tastier (Mélopépo), and wound up with a third as a souvenir (free with the degustation, or tasting). Then I went back home.

Saturday, a bunch of us went to Marseille to picnic on the plage. There was some debate about trying to find a grill, which most people seemed to implicitly agree would be too difficult, but all those people just wandered around a supermarket the size of, I don't know, a small bakery for about a half hour trying to decide what to buy. Silly, indecisive shoppers. Finally, we made it to the beach, where we did beach things, like not go in the water because it was too cold, both air temperature-wise (too much wind) and water temperature-wise (too much cold). On the other hand, we made a dramatic escape at high tide when a wave broke the tideline and sloshed a few people. We ran a few yards away and sat down again. Looking back, I have a blue fear that we picked up this behavior from of fleeing pigeons.

Interluding, before I forget, I have a note on Carcassonne. And French language in general. "You're welcome" in French:

• Je t'en prie or Je vous en prie
• This is very hard to translate directly. It comes close to "I pray this of you", and at one point must have been an alternative to please (s'il vous plait, which is "if it pleases you", which I accidentally said once going for the literal meaning)
• I'd been told in the USA that this form is only used to be extremely polite, but I've heard it used much more often then the following, which I had been informed was ubiquitous
•  De rien
• Literally "of nothing", "It was nothing."

And at Carcassonne, my favorite:

• C'est moi.
• Short for C'est moi qui vous remercie, or "It's me who thanks you". Apparently used in a narrow regions of France, because my host parents or my program director - I forget which - warned me against using it in Southern France. Not that I'd be hanged for it or anything.

Cassis

Sunday, we went to the beach at Cassis, and did more beach things, which included (spending an inordinate amount of time in another super market) entering the numbing water. There was some sort of festival that day, so here's some obligatory pictures:

People in costumes interpretive dancing on boats

Interpretive air dancing?

Quick catch up to today and yesterday: Last night was our last happy hour, so I of course closed it out with another Kir. Then our program paid for us to go to a movie theatre and see the Cannes film festival opening ceremonies live, which was immediately followed by Minuit à Paris, all in French.
You know what? Watching dubbed movies is even harder than just plain French ones, because watching the actors' mouths throws you for a loop. But I understood.
I don't appear to be making it to Cannes in person. I almost picked a program that would have let me actually intern at the festival, but I think courses were in English there or something. Or it was ridiculously more expensive. Whatever the case, I'm content with my choice.

Today, I completed final 4/5. Nothing until Monday.

I've done my last load of laundry in France.

My host dog got a haircut. She seems ridiculously small now, and I don't think I took any pictures of her previously. So know I'm going to remember the cocker spaniel with the buzz cut. A(las/wesome).