Au Revoir Francois, Hello World

Francois left on Wednesday morning. It was a sad day. We all had a good experience and I think the boy from France who didn't want to come ended up liking it here.
When we left the house to drop him off to his airport shuttle it was raining and I said I was sorry he was leaving on a rainy day to which he replied, "I think the heavens are weeping for us because they know we are sad."

On Tuesday, after their last foreign exchange field trip, many of the students wanted to spend more time together and so I let five of them come over to my house until the farewell party that evening. French teens are a lot like American teens. They got out the Karaoke, played DDR, listened to music on the computer and except for the one hundred french words flying out of their mouth a minute, it seemed pretty normal.
I am intrigued with the French culture. Did you know that French toast is not French at all? And French Fries - they've never heard of them. They are a quiet, reserved people. They don't smile at strangers, but love very affectionately to those they do know.

I decided to learn the French language and signed up for a class at our local community college. It's sort of a dual purpose. BYU lets you opt out of math if you fulfill the language requirement. It's three language classes as opposed to two math classes, but with my skills, it would be the same in the end. Aside from the college aspect, I want to know what the heck those kids are saying to each other. It's an expensive spy class. You could also call it foreign exchange eavesdropping 101, but either way you look at it, I am pretty lucky because in the end I will be able to speak another language when I visit France and while I am there I know there is a boy with yellow American crocs who will be glad to see me.