Language School and Walking Around

Today was the fifth day of language school.  There is just the three of us who meet with our French teacher.  We meet on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9am to 12:45pm.  French is a lot harder than I thought because of the way they say certain words.  The good thing is that my Spanish is helping me figure out what certain French words are because of the similarities.  My apartment is starting to feel more like home but it is still weird to wake up in France.  I think I will feel better when I can walk around and talk to people in French and know people around the neighborhood and in my building.  

I was walking home after class today and an old man stopped me to ask me (in French) what time it was.  I stuttered for a second and finally said something like "un heure".  I was trying to say one o'clock even though I messed it up.  The old man figured it out though and said back to me in a funny way..."one o'clock!"  and went on his way.  I was shocked because most people here in Marseille do not speak English or don't know enough to feel confident using it.  The manager here at McDonald's tonight knew English and helped me when I got stuck while speaking French to order my meal.  Who would have thought it would be so hard to order a Chicken McNugget Meal in French.  It is harder than you think with all the options.

We have Wednesdays off from class because most people or kids have Wednesdays off I think because of the old Catholic tradition.  Some of the students in France then have to go to school in the morning on Saturday.  

On facebook, I got into contact with someone here in the city who gave me a website to find a football (soccer) team to play on.  My friend, John, called the manager (coach) for me and he said I just needed to come out to practice and they would sort of give me a tryout.  So, I will keep you updated on that.  Our team here is leaving next week for a retreat to talk about what the time here will look like and how our team will function together and separately.  

My apartment is located in the Castellane area of the city.  It is one block from the awesome round about with the pretty statue and fountain in the middle.  There are also tons of cafes at the circle.  My apartment is one bedroom with a living room, bathroom, and kitchen.  It is nice and all that I could need.  We still don't have internet at our places so it is hard to be on the internet except when we go down the block to McDonald's or over to our team leaders' houses.  

More to come later.  On the football front,  I went to two Olympique de Marseille games when I first got here and they did awesome, winning both.  They have continued to do well.  They won again last night to move from 10th place to 5th.  They will play Spartak Moscow from Russia here on Wednesday in the UEFA European Cup game and again here for the French league on Sunday.

Manchester United have struggled the last two games.  They tied and lost the last two games.  Hopefully, they will right the ship.