Someone's Having the Best Week Ever

Before I start this amazing blog post, I just want to point out that my secretary is acting hella weird right now. She has been acting kind of funny all week but today she poked her head in my door and said, Meena, don't be afraid of the man in the bathroom. I assumed she meant the cleaning person so I said OK. Then when she left I looked in the bathroom to see who it was and no one was there... I'm a tad creeped out.

But anyway so listen to this: Yesterday night I was trying to hale a taxi but they were all full so I had to stand in the pouring rain and wait. Meanwhile a man came up to me and stumbled through the most awkward English sentence ever saying, "You have you have parap..parap...uh...you have umbreya? you have umbreella??". I assured him, in French, that he need not speak English to me and that no I did not have an umbrella (I was in a bad mood). He then took out his and gave it to me and started asking me where I was from, how do I like Cote, etc. After talking with him for 5 minutes he says, wow, you speak French really well. And then he haled a taxi for me and gave me his umbrella to keep. On the ride back it hit me that he wasn't slowing his speech or dumbing his words down at all for me and I understood and responded. Yesssssss.
So today I was taking a taxi to work, praying to sweet Jesus the driver wouldn't talk to me, when all the sudden he turned around and said, are you going straight or do you need to turn? I stared at him blankly for a good 3 seconds before I realized that I actually understood what he was saying. He told him I had to get off at the next light and he nodded and started driving. Another yesssssss
Finally, I get to work and my boss says to me, you know Meena, when you first came here you didn't know what I was saying when I asked how you were, and now you understand everything I say. That's great improvement, and then he gave me an ear of corn. I am rocking this shit.

Of course this causes me to think a lot. I went back and reread my first blog entry after coming to Cote and I remember thinking that this language was insane and I would never be able to master it. Granted, I hadn't taken French since high school, but I would talk with my mom and be fine, and then I come here and I know nothing. But now I can comprehend and respond. Comprehension is probably the greatest feeling ever, in any subject. When I understand everything on an exam I feel kick ass. And it's the same here. Now I can watch movies with my brothers and sisters and laugh when they laugh bc I actually understand. Although I still can't understand a word the Dragon Ball Z characters say. Way too fast for me. But it's ok because I feel like even if I understood I would not really care haha.

And little Roxanne is still my favorite thing ever. She can get SO annoying sometimes but yesterday she said something to me that blew my mind. She asked me if I was leaving to go see my friends and I said no I was going to stay at home and play with her. So we started playing and then she took my hand and looked at me and said, you are my big sister, and Liza is our mommy. And the look on her face said a million things to me. It said how much it meant to her for me to come here and give her the big sister she never had, someone who would yell at her brothers when they try to hit her, and do girlie things with her all the time. It also told me that I was going to have a serious impact on her when I leave. Even when I leave for work and come back at 6pm, she runs out of the house and jumps on me and tells me she missed me.I hope she remembers me when she is 10, 15, 20 years old. But I try to think back on my childhood and I can't remember anything that happened to me when I was 4. Kindergarten is one big blur to me. I really hope she remembers me even just a little bit, because I am going to remember her for the rest of my life.