La Famille

Living with another family undoubtedly has its awkward moments, and when you add in a major language barrier those moments seem almost inescapable.  During the past week, as I have settled into my schedule and gotten to know my host-family (famille adoptif) better, conversations are slowly become increasingly natural and I feel like they're slowly starting to see more of my personality. While I am nowhere close to having the ability to make jokes in French, I have started to become comfortable enough communicating in French to make the family laugh at something besides my lack of language skills. After being offered free-reign of the chocolate drawer today, my host dad seemed to find it hilarious when I said j'aime le tiroir du chocolat (I love the chocolate drawer). While definitely far from wit, at least it's something.

Earlier this week all of the students and host families got together for a traditional raclette dinner. Raclette is a Swiss speciality and is basically melted cheese over potatoes, and if you're feeling extra adventurous you can throw in some baby pearl onions and pickles. Honestly, It's a weird meal to consider a "specialty," and I really think they could benefit by sticking to fondue. Nonetheless it was so much fun to get all of the host families together, especially since all of the families seemed to know one another. My host mom's doctor, colleague, swimming buddy, and several other friends were all there, and everyone was eager to get to know one another. During dinner I was sitting across from two of my friend's host sisters who speak very good English, so I would ask them questions in French and they would answer in English which was the perfect balance. My favorite new vocab word I learned that night was le cornichon, which means pickle. It was so nice to see my host family in their natural element, and have them see a little bit of my "normal" english-speaking personality come through.

Last night I got to see even more of my family's life come out when my host dad's parents came over for dinner. They live in Geneva, so they tend to see each other at least once a week, and they are definitely a very close family. I had gotten home a little later than expected, because I had been hiking with some friends in Mount Salève (Amazing hike that I'll talk about later), so I showered really quickly and then went upstairs to say hi to the fam. The grandmother immediately started chatting with me, asking me about myself and telling me all about Switzerland. Luckily she spoke slowly enough for me to understand most of what she was saying. The rest of the night was so much easier than I had initially expected, and while there was definitely some smiling and nodding due to confusion, I was able to grasp enough of what was going on to participate in the convo every now and then. It has definitely been a fun two weeks getting to know the Girardet Fam, and I can't wait for it to become increasingly natural and for the awkward moments to slowly decrease as we get to know each other better.