The morning session was the written portion which included four pages of listening and comprehension (which I completely failed...I didn't understand any of the conversations! really.) as well as about 20 pages of other written testing (did much better on this portion except for the more advanced verb conjugations).
The afternoon session was an oral exam with a teacher. I did okay telling the examiner about myself and about Josie....well...except...I said that Josie was 60 years old instead of 16. The examiner said "soixante"??? Your daughter is "soixante"??? I said "oooh, oui"...yes, of course. She asked again..."soixante"??? She is "soixante"??? I laughed and smiled thinking she was complimenting me...saying like you're too young to have such a grown daughter. Finally, she turned her notebook around and said "Gigi...soixante"...and wrote....6....0... "OH!" I said "seize! she's 16!! 16!!". We both got a great laugh out of it.
My french school is called the Institut d'Etudes Fracaises pour l'Etudiants Etranger (IEFEE - http://www.iefee.univ-cezanne.fr/) and is now located on the Boulevard Gambetta in the same building as the Avis rental car place...not really so lovely as its old location. To get there, I have a ~10 minute walk from our apartment through the Passage a Gard, down to the end of the Cours Mirabeau and up the rue d'Italie.
Today, Josie and I met for lunch and had pizza from Pizza Capri in the Place Richelme where we discovered yet another farmer's market! And, we learned tonight that there is a flower market in that square on Saturdays!!
Then, we went to the english bookstore where we had tea and explored the selection of books in english. It's a lovely bookstore and has a 2nd-hand section upstairs. I'm sure it will become a refuge when we need a bit of english in our busy french lives. Also, we learned that they can order anything we need and they have great tea too!
Speaking of tea we found two more tea stores and bought some delicious sleepytime-ish herbal tea....in addition to our staple black and green teas. I am really enjoying living in an urban area where all of this delicious food and drink is so easily accessible!!! Did I mention how good the olive oil is!?!
Josie got a tour around Aix with some teenage girls this evenings...crepes and the english bookstore again. Then one of her friends came over for dinner.
Another fun and full day in France!!
