Taking stock

For the first time since I got here, today I've felt a bit homesick. But I don't think the hangover and tiredness are helping matters. It's not mega bad but I've been thinking a lot about the NE today, and it's places and spaces. I'm also missing my UK social life and support network :o( I'm a bit concerned about what I'll do when the course finishes, but that's not worth worrying about now and I'm under no real time pressure to make any decisions so I'm trying to just go with the flow.

So, we had a phonology test yesterday morning (that gobbledigook you see after a word in a dictionary that tells you how to pronounce it). I quite enjoyed it - we had to translate said gobbledigook into English and vice versa. We were also tested on intontation, the organs of speech and how we stress certain words in English. I didn't realise but there's a different phonemic chart for every language in the world, so the English one differs to the American one even though English is spoken in both countries (obvious when you think about it). These phonemic charts look a bit like the periodic table of the elements, with each sound represented by a different symbol. In the English one, for example, there is a sound and corresponding to the 'a' in 'car' and a different sound/symbol for the 'a' in 'cat'. It's more like the alphabet we learn when we're little where we say the letters as they are pronounced: a (like cat), b (like ball, not like 'bee'), c (like 'cat', not like 'see') etc. But the symbols correspond to sounds, not letters. So 'cat' and 'king' share the same sound, and if, for example, you're writing 'coffee' in phonemes you only need to include one 'f' as it relates only to the sound, not the letter. I quite like stuff like that!

We've also been learning about the stress we put on certain words/syllables in English - saying the sentence 'CATS CHASE MICE' takes a similar amount of time to saying, 'the CATS that CHASE the MICE' because we put the emphasis on the key words. This means English is a stressed-time lanaguage and is what gives it its 'sing-song' effect. This contrasts with say Italian or French. In French, the word for banana is 'banane'. It's said in a very flat way with no stress on any particular syllable, whereas in English we say, 'banARna'. Imagine how difficult all these nuances are for someone learning English! As well as the fact that the words 'comb', 'bomb' and 'tomb' only have one letter of difference between them but the pronunciation of each is completely different to the other. Anyway, enough on phonology...

When the test finished at 10.30am, we were told we were free for the rest of the day so I headed to the beach with three other girls from the course. It was nice having some company outside of school as I'm beginning to get a bit lonely being on my own all the time. I'm totally used to living alone now, but it's not the same without my network of friends and family to break the monotony of being just me, myself and I. I didn't brave the water this time, but did spend a good couple of hours laughing at people trying to get in and out the sea. The shingle, big shelf and big waves are a really bad combination, but do make for entertaining viewing! The techniques people adopt crack me up. One woman leaned forward and walked like neanderthal man (either that or like she'd just got off her horse). Some people got in as quickly as possible. The hesitaters tended to get knocked over. Some couldn't get back up. That was funny! People clung to each other, thinking there was safety in numbers but then a big wave would come and they'd both get knocked over. Some people tried to get in then chickened out and sat back down on the beach. Some tried to look like they were just paddling but you could tell they were weighing up their options. But you have to understand that I was really laughing with these people after my experience last weekend, they had my sympathy and I was secretly pleased that it's a common occurance (although boobgate wasn't copied by anyone - some women were topless. I reckon that could be a tactic!).

After a few hours chilling on the beach I came back home, got changed and went back into town to meet the others in an Irish bar. The Italian girl was craving a burger so we all had burger and chips! (I can't believe we're in France and all I'm doing is speaking English and eating and drinking in Irish bars - it's a travesty). From there we headed to the prom where there was some live music and some carnival action. We drank far too much wine and stayed out into the wee small hours. We knew it was bad when we tried to get into Wayne's Bar and were told we were too late and they were closing; not sure where the night went. We went back to the bar we'd just come from where we befriended two Glaswegians. The poor American girl couldn't understand a word they were saying which illustrated the phonology stuff really well - they were all native English speakers but struggled to communicate with each other!

I stayed in town with two of my classmates so avoided the lonely commute back to my apartment late at night. Today we woke up late, nursed our hangovers then met two other classmates and went to the Matisse Museum. I loved it! I knew very little about Matisse but now I'm loving his work. His stuff is so varied and really simple but effective. We had a stroll around the park, watched a wedding, had a gelato (Kinder and ginger/caramel for me - dee-vine!) and then I headed home. I made my trusty favourite: carbonara, spoke to my parents and now I'm going to hit the hay ready for a day at my local beach tomorrow. I'm going to hire a lounger and an umbrella and just chill out. I'll read my book, snooze, swim (if it looks like I can get in and out of the water without incident), snooze, read my book, swim ad infinitum. It would be nice to share my day with someone, but I'm going to just get on with it and enjoy myself anyway. I could arrange to see my classmates again but, as much as I like them, it's quite tiring being around people you don't know that well 24/7. I'm looking forward to seeing Chri again on Thursday when we're off to see Jamiroquai.