Day 42 - Trois Riviéres - Day 19 - GRADUATION DAY!

The last day of institutional food and our bonne apartément. I just put the accent in there at random. It is tres important to put accents in. Forward, back, it doesn’t really matter as long as you chuck some on - like sprinkling salt on your fries. 

I think its part of maintaining French independence. No matter how much we learn they will always be able to spot the pesky anglais by our inability to grasp the whole accent thing. Some letters even have hats on them ‘ê’ like so. I even saw an o with two dots once ö. And check this one out ‘œ’. This one must have driven the early typewriter manufacturers dotty.

Anyway, I’m sure you are dying to hear how grad went... Well we had a little grad party last night. We played spoons and animal snap - trës drõle. This morning, with everyone leaving we are getting everyone’s left over food. It will keep us going for ages.

This morning I had a bit of a shock! Mdme Paradis has given us marks. WOT? I would have made more of an effort the past two days. I was blatantly copying Jenny’s homework. Still, not that much different to my college days back at Pad U (Paddington Technical College, London) And YES, Paddington is a real place! Not just a place cooked up by Michael Bond in a kids story book. 

I have no idea what my mark is but it had me wondering if I was going to graduate? We all met up in the special lunch room at 11:30. We still had to buy our lunch with our little rations slips and we sat and ate while waiting patiently for the festivities to begin. I figured out early on that Emilie was calling names out in alphabetical order which sucks when your name is Waterman. I almost had a fit when Jackie WONG was called out before me. What! I’m not graduating? Will I be passed over just like yesterday when Mark was handing out blue cards?

Blue cards are given to people who openly speak French. The idea is that surrounding businesses, seeing that a student is wearing a blue wristband, are recognized for speaking in French. They are the exact opposite to a Carte Rouge which you DO NOT want to get. I would probably be up to 150 by now if they were applicable to me.

Anyhoo, Mark, our host on all of the filed trips, was handing out Carte Blus yesterday and he looked at me and then said ‘Non’ and carried on handling them out to everyone else. Jenny thought it was very funny. It’s fine with me. I get it. My french is not that great. A true Quebecois would, after about ten minutes, detect that my accent isn’t quite from this region.

With all this going through my mind, Jackie goes and get’s her certificate. There is one left! Were there any other Ws in our class? I didn’t have to wait long. Emily called my name and she even had a robe and hat for me to wear. How did she know my innermost thoughts? Is EVERYONE reading this pesky blog? I thought it was a private, online journal? 

Our last lesson outside in the sun. No, Alan is not asleep.

I understand the cheering but the laughing?...