Seems that waiting for my rejection letter to arrive has meant that I’ve missed the enrolment dates for 90% of available French language classes. Further disappointment arose on realising that the remaining 10% are considerably above an au pair’s meagre salary! I finally received the official response yesterday though – the class is full – handy, considering it started two weeks ago!

In absence of a language class, I’ve decided to take things into my own hands. After three months of lazing… ahem… I mean, non-academic immersion method, I’ve got myself a copy of Cours de la Sorbonne: Langue et Civilisation Françaises. I’ve started from the beginning (seemed logical) just to refresh for any greeting conversation that might pop up, in which I have to recite my name, age and nationality like a chirpy automaton.

The Sorbonne method embraces intimate interaction with the characters of the text, and great pains have been adopted to introduce you to the players in the evolving saga. By the by, Guillaume has just started a new job, so of an evening he tells me about this day and his colleagues. I reciprocate with fantastical tales of François’ birthday party, how Alexei and Takeo attended, and how Marie presented François with a cat, which caused some friction between Marie and Angela, the Brazilian photographer.

“Who… the? What… the? Where… the?” Guillaume splutters in amazement at my action-packed day and new-found thriving social life.

I have to admit that they are only fictional, from the pages of my textbook. In reality my day has amounted to a big fat zero, except a new-found knowledge that Egypt is linguistically regarded as feminine in French. (Well, you learn something every day!)