Start French classes, learn how to say "Invalides"

Last Thursday I began my intensive French courses. After being in France for over a month, I can finally say, "Je suis americain."

Since I've only learned one foreign language in my life, it's been pretty difficult to gauge if this is how things are done at the collegiate level. I'm even majoring in Hebrew at Wisconsin, but before I went to college I had already taken the language for about 12 years. Starting French at age 20 is a bit different.

I'm taking my class at La Sorbonne, which, for those of you who aren't familiar with the French education hierarchy, is the top school in France. I, however, am taking my class with all foreign students, making it quite a diverse group. In my class alone, there are students from Saudi Arabia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, China, Korea, Japan, Russia, and I'm sure many more places that I have forgotten. So, obviously, not everyone speaks English, and our professor is forced to speak strictly in French.

Now, for someone like me, who has been around the language for more than a month, it isn't terribly difficult. I'm also proficient in a very difficult language that differentiates between gender, which many other languages do not. For the Swedes in my class, they have been having some difficulties getting used to it, but I'm sure they'll pick it up soon. Already, we've learned how to conjugate some verbs, and while I don't get everything my professor is saying during class, I get enough to be able to do the homework with relative ease. For a two hour class, however, it's pretty amazing how much Madame Lizska can get through. Today, for example, we went through conjugating verbs ending in "er," negation sentences (i.e. I do not like ballet = je n'aime pas le ballet), and we started learning prepositions. Yes, all of that on the third day of class. I think I'll pick this up pretty quickly. I hope.

Here's the rundown:

• Je m'appelle Jonah Braun
• Je suis étudiant et journaliste
• Je suis americain
• J'habite à Los Angeles, aux Etats-Unis
• Je suis célibataire
• J'ai vingt ans

In other news, Jon and I went to Chabad on Friday. It is really different from any other Chabad I've been to, simply because of the type of people that were there. Like my French class, seemingly everybody was from a different part of the world. Even the rabbi is from Rio de Janeiro. The food was excellent, and it was nice to finally meet some other Jews and get a little Shabbat in this otherwise secular city.

On Saturday, we went to Invalides, which is a huge, gold-domed building that houses Napolean's tomb as well as the military museum. We got there a little late, so we were only able to see the tomb, and like everything else in Paris, it didn't disappoint.

For such a short guy, Napolean has by far the biggest casket I've ever seen. Here's a picture of it, although it was very difficult to get a picture that really shows how big the thing really is. I don't really know much about the building other than what I just told you, but it's one of the French national landmarks, and it is definitely worth seeing. Especially if you're a student — it's free.

On Sunday, we once again went to the Marais (it never gets old). This time, I brought my camera, and we went to Place de Vosges, a sort of hidden park right next to the Jewish quarter. Victory Hugo lived there, and so did Louis XIII. It's a beautiful, perfectly symmetrical square with a big statue of Louis in the middle. It is surrounded by art galleries and cafés (where we were refused service because we didn't want to get food, only coffee).
That's about it. It was a long and fun weekend, and we ended it with our new tradition of going to La Taverne de Cluny, a little jazz bar near the Luxembourg Gardens. There, a guitarist named Christophe Brunard and his band play for free all night, and it's one of the most relaxing and entertaining venues we've been to thus far.
OH, almost forgot: Pitchers and catchers report in six days. Woohoo