So it's been awhile since I last blogged and I've felt like I should post one but I've had the hardest time thinking of what to write about! All the crazy stuff that happened in the beginning is pretty much just normal living for me. When I’m walking down the street or riding my bike and I have to dodge a cow or a goat that’s in the middle of town, I don’t even think twice about it. When people pull out their phones to get a photo of me because it's so rare to see a white person, that's just a normal trip into town for me.

Right now my real focus has been on learning French. We finally got a consistent teacher, Timothée, and he speaks English very well. So since he's started teaching us, our French learning has just been taking off. We have class with him in the mornings at Ecole Baptiste and most days he takes us into town and shows us around and teaches us about culture. Also some days we meet him somewhere in town or at the university for class. And when we go into town it's a great opportunity to practice French because no matter how many hours you spend in the classroom, what you learn doesn't stick until you practice it.

It's just so exciting when I can actually talk to someone in French instead of talking through someone who is translating! It makes me so happy when I can do it! And the best part is being able to laugh with people when they're joking around, not only being able to laugh after someone translates the joke for me! The things I do know how to say well, I can just say without having to translate in my head, which is awesome but there's still so much more I need to learn. But I'm not stressing about it, because "ça va aller" or "it's going to go" and it will.

So basically now when I'm talking to somebody, instead of saying "Je ne comprend pas, je ne parle pas français" (I don't understand, I don't speak French) I can say "Je pense que je comprend mais je ne parle pas bien français” (I think I understand but I don’t speak French well).