The hill from hell.

Still walking the bike up that hill to my tutor's house. Maybe soon I'll be able to do it and not think my heart's going to beat so hard that it'll beat it's way up my throat and spill out of my mouth when I try it either. Wish I were Floyd Landis sometimes. Wish I were him when I try to bike up that darn hill. Don't wish I were him when they show his parents holding up religious signs for all the world to see. Today, a British friend asked me how religious the USA is after seeing Landis' parents being interviewed on the TV. "Are all Americans like that?" Fabulous.

I'm thoroughly enjoying my sessions with my private tutor. I do enjoy learning the language in a 1:1 setting. It's all about me and my struggles with the language. It's what I needed right now with my progression with French. Slowly but surely, I'm feeling more and more comfortable. This week I was able to pick up our house phone and tell a friend of Darin's that he won't be home until Thursday because of work and to call back then. And I thank his friend for not switching into English as he listens to me pause and struggle endlessly on the other end of the line. Last weekend, I called the hotel my in-laws were staying in and said, "Good evening, room 33, please." That's it. But my accent must have sucked so bad that they responded to me in English.

Earlier this week, my tutor asked me if I'd be interested in doing an English/French exchange with her son. "Bien sur! I'd really like that. But, are you sure he'd like to sit and talk with a 33-year old girl for a whole hour?", I asked. What the heck are we going to talk about? The kid is 16! Two of him make up one of me...almost. Today was our first session. His mom was so cute about it. It was like we were on a date. We sat in their backyard on a picnic bench after my tutor put a tablecloth on the table. "Tres formal!", I said. They both looked at me like, "Huh?" She brought out 2 glasses of water on a tray. The kid's English is fantastic, by the way. I asked him questions like it was an interview fearing that we would be sitting in silence for an hour and we probably did for only maybe a total of 10 minutes. And I was totally proud of myself when there were some words he didn't know in English and asked me if I could translate the word from French to English and I could! He talked about his love for freestyle skiing and that he's making a movie with a bunch of his friends. I told him that my husband has a bunch of movies like that at our apartment and has it heard of one of them...the only one I could remember the title of. His face lit up when I mentioned it...points for me! When it was my turn to speak French, he would respond to me in English...uh, not helpful. In due time...