goodbye friends, hello snow

This weekend marks the end of my first session at Mission-Langues! The time is flying by.  We said good-bye to 7 of my classmates and have welcomed 8 new students from Colombia, Brazil, Japan, Poland and the Philippines.  There is a little "fete', or party, every time a session ends so we have a chance to celebrate and say good-bye to the people we have shared life with for the past month.

This was our class for the first session, including our professor, Nathalie.  We said good-bye to Marlene (standing next to me).  Her community is in Quimpir, another town in Western France.  

Rita, from Brazil grew to be a close friend.  I didn't think I would be sad to say good-bye after only four weeks, but it's amazing the bond that is built in such a short time.  In a sense, we are all children growing up together in the French language.  There is something about being so vulnerable and sharing  many mistakes and triumphs together that imprints people on your heart.  

The good-bye dinner.  I am sitting across the table from Nikola and Hazel, the only other North Americans in the program (both from Canada).  They will not be returning for the next session, so now I am the only North American remaining!  I appreciated having people here who understood my home culture for my first month of transition.

For the good-bye celebration some of us dressed up and shared dances from our home culture.  Dora, one of my favorites, danced for us in this beautiful sari from Bangladesh.

The day after our friends left, it snowed!! This is very rare for Angers to have snow like this.  Usually, if  it snows at all in the winter, the snow doesn't even stick overnight because of the warm temperatures.  It has been 10 years since Angers has seen snow like this! Lucky me.  But fun for my southern hemisphere friends.  This is Prudence from Central African Republic, enjoying the cold.

And Ernesto, a Priest from Colombia working in Chad.  This was the first time he has ever seen snow in his life! 

I appreciate my friends here.  Ernesto and Prudence have excellent French, so it's fun to talk with them and be able to learn so much at the same time.  I am thankful they are patient with my mistakes.  One thing I have learned well here is to laugh at myself!  I have a tendency to be sensitive, but I'm finding that's not an option when you're learning a new language.  

A snowman named "Monsieur Ernesto" made by Theresa, Dora and Prudence.  This is the baby, we'll work on making the papa snowman when we get a few more inches.

We also went to visit the chateau in Angers today because it's free the first Sunday of every month.  Unfortunately, it was closed due to potentially dangerous conditions of falling snow and ice.  Maybe next month we'll have better weather.  

Bon Hiver!