The weather here is absolutely incredible. The sun is actually warm and I wonder if it really is mid-March. I have this feeling of wanting to go out and catch some rays.

The language learning process is a tough one. Most of the time is a mental challenge everytime I go out, speak or am caught off guard. Every once in a while though, a ray of hope springs through the brain-strain: like for some reason, the phrase you just concocted sounded different but more natural and was accented correctly. That happened this morning as we went off in the car. I said something quite insignificant, I am sure, and it had a refreshingly smooth and flowing feel to it. One small ray for this "Picasso"...

I was asked to play a few songs at church today. Thierry and his wife played along with guitar and flute. It was extremely nice to play again, though unrehearsed and a return to unfamiliar songs for me. No longer are the chords written out in A, B, C etc... but they are suddenly transformed on a strange formula, which any good American would recognize if they looked hard enough and reflected on "The Sound of Music". That is to say, 'Do, Ré, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, Do...." All the same it was nice to finally prop myself up to a keyboard, aided by my WorshipTogether books, to play "Dieu a une armée".

I am trying to review the grammar we were to have learned this past month. Tomorrow is the test that will determine whether I move up or not. I really want to move up and I only need a score of "dix sur vingt" (ten out of twenty) to pass. This may seem crazy to an American that a score of 50% is passing but here in France, testing is tougher and normal people usually get about 13-14/20 on tests and it is considered average. My test will ask me to work in the area of pronouns and the subjunctive tense as well as the conditional. As my prof says, "The french hate to repeat themselves" so they have created an elaborate collection of pronouns ranging from masculine, feminine, plural and neutral pronouns to replace every possible concept on the planet. Not only do we need to know the collection but the order you are to use them in in any given sentence.

bonne chance...they all are telling me.