Third and final trimester begins

We just concluded exam week here and thankfully were all given the green light to begin the next level of French learning. Thus the third and final trimester of French language school begins. I thought I'd share with you a few recent anecdotes and perspectives from my life of language learning:

1) On the oral interview part of my exam, I talked about my first trip to Kenya as a medical student and substituted the word "nightmare" for "warthog" when describing the animals I saw on safari. No, the words aren't that similar, but I had learned both recently and just got mixed up. The teacher looked at me funny but was gracious in her grading. 

2) I'm enjoying reading the Chronicles of Narnia in French. That's actually where I learned the word for "warthog" - when the animals are listed in the Magician's Nephew. I've learned a lot of vocabulary through reading those books thus far - and it's great because I know the stories so well in English that I rarely need to use the dictionary to figure out the word - I just search my brain for the English translation of that part of the story! Plus it's just encouraging to return to such an entertaining, inspiring, gospel-rich, eternity-focused story. 

3) My current reading material also includes a Burundi travel guide in French. I'm only a few pages into it, but I love that they keep emphasizing that the beauty of tourism in Burundi is getting to know the people. Partly that's because there are not a lot of places that would be considered prime tourist attractions, but I also appreciate the encouragement to discover the richness and warmth of Burundian people and culture. That's what I'm looking forward to! 

4) My English spelling and grammar are worsening as I learn more French. It's especially confusing when a word is similar in the two languages, but not quite the same. I'm thankful for spell check!

5) Interactions with French people continue to have their ups and downs. I'm encouraged when I'm able to successfully communicate - especially as I attempt more complicated requests and sentences. But it's discouraging when people laugh at my accent or immediately switch to English. Thankfully, that does seem to happen less and less frequently. 

6) Being three months from the end of French language school is scary! I really want to maximize my time here and learn as much as possible. But I'm thankful to know that language learning is also a long term endeavor and I will thus hopefully continue learning French (as well as Kirundi) once we get to Burundi. 

7) The smallest words in French are the hardest to master - the prepositions! Yesterday I asked my teacher to proofread a sentence I'd written to some doctors in Burundi and she completely missed the meaning of the sentence until I realized I'd forgotten a "de" between 2 verbs. Without those 2 letters, the sentence was evidently unintelligible. 

8) Most common French misspeak: substituting "I am finished" for "I have finished" - the first one means "I'm dead!"

Team & Pfister Voyages

Winter break is here! Language learning doesn't take a break - especially as we have 4 days of exams starting next week - but it does take a more interesting form out of the classroom. I'm enjoying reading Jane Eyre and the Narnia books in French and taking advantage of free days to travel in the area.

First, our team enjoyed three fabulous days together at a missionary retreat center a few hours south of here. This required some logistical gymnastics - renting cars and arranging 17 people's schedules - but it was totally worth it for the chance to just have fun together after some stressful months.

Travel was not stress free after some rental car fiascos, traffic jams, and then a huge snowstorm that made mountain driving without snow tires or chains a bit treacherous, but thankfully we all arrived safely and then just stayed put in the house that slept all 17 of us! 

We enjoyed meals together...

games and kid time...

and we loved playing in the snow! 

Awesome sledding!

Town of Sisteron near our retreat center

Exploring a castle - always a fun thing to do in Europe!

After the enjoyable days with the team, I headed off on my own adventure to explore my roots a bit. My Pfister ancestors came to the U.S. from the Alsace region in Northeastern France and so I was interested in visiting that area while I'm living so close. I discovered (via a cousin of my dad's) that Francois Pfister immigrated to the U.S. from just north of Strasbourg in 1853, so first I explored Strasbourg. 

Amazing Gothic cathedral built between 1176-1429. I assume Francois saw the same cathedral as it had already been finished for 400 years before he immigrated. I wonder what he thought of the Indiana farmlands when he got to the U.S. - certainly they don't look anything like this! 

Famous astronomical clock in the cathedral - functioning since 1843 - tells time but also the date and the solar/lunar eclipses, etc. And at 12:30 every day, the 12 apostles (at the top of the clock - see below pic) rotate around Jesus and a cock crows (top left of clock) in addition to some other moving pieces. It was quite impressive considering it's been functioning with such precision for 170 years!

La Petite France region of Strasbourg - quite distinct architecture compared to the Rhone-Alpes region where I live

Johannes Gutenberg had his printing press in Strasbourg in the 1400s. I also saw the house of Albert Schweitzer (medical missionary, theologian, and musician who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1952). Other notable former residents of Strasbourg include John Calvin and Louis Pasteur. And the European Parliament convenes there. I also really appreciated visiting the Alsatian museum which explored Alsatian culture over the centuries - interesting to consider my ancestors as I learned about various cultural practices. I especially enjoyed Alsatian cuisine throughout my travels - delicious! 

From Strasbourg I headed south to Colmar - near where my great-grandmother's family lived. I especially wanted to visit Maison Pfister! This is a historic home dating back to 1537 but named for the Pfisters who lived there in the mid-1800s. Maybe distant relatives. :) Even if not, it was nice to be in a place where my name was not unusual, where lots of businesses/restaurants began with the letters "Pf", and where my name was pronounced without difficulty! 

La Maison Pfister behind me above and in the 2 pics below

Petite Venise in Colmar - quite picturesque

Famous Isenheim Altarpiece in the Unterlinden Museum painted by Matthias Grunewald - Crucifixion scene followed by Resurrection scene originally painted for patients in a medieval hospital in 1515 with severe skin diseases like ergotism (which we suspected a patient at Tenwek with gangrenous hands and feet had). The artist has actually painted Jesus to appear as if he had a skin disease so the patients would know that Jesus understood their suffering. This is in contrast to the rainbow like, luminous Resurrection scene with Jesus' healed, perfectly smooth skin. John the Baptist also appears in the Crucifixion scene with his quote: He must increase; I must decrease. The whole altarpiece (in three sections) is quite a powerful statement and seeing this masterpiece was definitely one of the highlights of my visit to Alsace. 

After three days on my own, I headed to Basel, just across the Swiss border, to visit my friend Rosalie (from the Gorgas tropical medicine course in Peru). We visited almost exclusively in French for 2 days, so it was excellent to catch up and also to get some good language practice in!

Indoor tropical garden in Basel

Basel Town Hall built in the 1500s (tower added in 1899)

I felt like Rapunzel should be imprisoned in the tower here - it felt and looked just like a fairy tale. It's actually still a functional government building where the Cantonal Parliament meets. 

As Basel lies on the border of three countries and I traveled from France, I couldn't resist crossing the third border and stepping foot into Germany. Rosalie was a good sport. :) 

Crossing the Rhine River on a water taxi

Traveling back to France through western Switzerland by train was quite interesting as certain towns were French-speaking and others were Swiss German-speaking. So it varied town to town as to whether the train announcements where in French or German. I understand no German, so it was always encouraging to me to hear the French announcements and confirm again that I was on the right train headed in the right direction! And arriving back in France was comforting, too, knowing where I was and how to communicate if I needed directions or assistance - that definitely wasn't the case 6 months ago when I didn't understand any more French than I do German. So it's encouraging to see progress! Now, back to studying! 

Spontaneous fun!

 My friend Christine, from Scotland, decided spur-the-moment to come visit me in Albertville last week. This time last year, we were together in Peru, so we've now shared adventures together in three countries. It turns out that spontaneous fun and friendship was providentially ordained for both of us last week. It's been a more stressful time here lately, and thus it was a blessing to seize the opportunity to explore the area more and share life with Christine.

 Sarah and Kathryn joined us for a hike up to Mercury (about 2 hours away) on Sunday after church. You may remember an early blog post from my time in France about this hike (here). Unfortunately, though my French has improved since then, my directional awareness has not, and thus, once again, we got lost. And being that it was February and snowy, there weren't many people on the roads to ask directions! But we took the long way and eventually arrived - to be greeted by the below view. Mount Blanc is the snow capped peak just above my head.

 The singles (plus guests) enjoy dinner together every other Tuesday. This time it was Kathryn and my turn to cook. Christine graciously and cheerfully helped. We decided on a Chinese New Year's theme (but without snakes :)) and thus Kathryn expertly led the cooking process (as I've never made Chinese food before).

 Making scallion pancakes

With only a couple minor mishaps, we succeeded in creating egg drop soup, scallion pancakes, beef and broccoli stir fry, and rice. The beef we purchased at the butchery was actually beef bourguignon - probably not what Chinese chefs would use, but a nice French twist. I think my Chinese brother-in-law would be proud! And our guests seemed to enjoy the feast, too. 

While I was in class, Christine explored some new hiking trails around Albertville and discovered the start of an interesting hike to Fort du Mont. We followed the trail on Wednesday and ended up hiking for 7 hours! We ascended about 2500 feet in the course of the hike - it was quite steep! At first it was a nice hike through the woods:

But then it got progressively more snowy:

And the view got more and more majestic:

 Until finally we arrived at Fort du Mont

 This fort was built between 1871 and 1881 to protect France from a feared Italian invasion. It remained occupied by the French military until after World War 2. 

Drawbridge entrance and gate behind us

 I left my signature at the Fort :)

 

 Like I said, the ascent was very steep and snowy - which made the descent a bit tricky. We creatively decided on alternate modes of descent besides walking. Christine demonstrating above. 

What a spectacular day! I'm so thankful for adventurous and caring friends from around the world!