One morning I woke up to the music of a saxophone soloist serenading "me" in the park outside my window. Another day I showed Soka and Christine how to make smores in the microwave (a gigantic hit!). One evening I went out to eat with some friends at a fantastic Indian food restaurant, enjoying curry lamb, tandoori chicken, and house-made nuts and spices flavored ice cream. I spent one of our many recent jours féries (holidays) eating fabulous curry chicken tacos made by Soka, followed by a dessert-fest in which Soka, Christine and I made American chocolate chip cookies and a Swedish chocolate-orange cake.
Our creative writing class gave a public reading at the local bookstore, to an audience of over 100 Bisontins (citizens of Besançon). I read (or more accurately, performed) my piece, "Journal des champignons" (Mushroom Diary), from the balcony of the bookstore, with much enthusiastic laughter and applause at the end. We gave an encore reading at the end-of-the-year party at school, again with a warm reception. Many people performed at the party, including a 40-something year old man who sang and played the acoustic guitar, and who surprised everyone when he did the full splits- twice- while singing and strumming his finale!!
One of the highlights of my time here was going home with Soka to visit her family in Switzerland for the weekend. Her family is Serbian but her parents and aunts and uncles all moved to Switzerland over 25 years ago, and Soka was born in Switzerland. Still, they all speak Serbian and Swiss German, and then Soka speaks French and understands English (better than she lets on!). So it was quite the language potpourri when we all got together! Her extended family is incredibly large, warm, and welcoming- I had a wonderful time with them even when we couldn't directly communicate. Of the future trips I am planning, one will certainly be to go and visit her again.
I also had the chance to watch Soka play handball in Besançon, which was fascinating! She plays at the professional level for a french team. Handball is like soccer, only they use their hands and never their feet. It was a close game- Soka's team lost by just two points, 39-37. It was short, too- two halves of 30 minutes each. The crowd was great- cheering and chanting along with a tiny pep band which consisted of a drummer and a trumpet player. One of their favorite songs was "When the saints go marching in".
Today I officially finished my last class at school, with little fanfare. It is hard to believe that my time in Besançon is coming to a close. I have enjoyed discovering this city in my adventures of daily life. Some days were more difficult than others, but overall the challenges were enriching. This experience has truly been a blessing and I will continue to reflect on it for years to come.
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