The french language

So I had a small revelation this week.  I was freaking out about my embryology class, because I'm not always understanding the French, and the final exam, 100% of my grade, is in two weeks.  I talked to the section prof, who always insists on speaking to me in English with a perfect British accent.  She was extremely nice and said I could have an extra month to study, and/or take the exam in English.  The truth is, I really want to take it in French.  I also really want to take it at the normal time.  So I'm going to try to read the entire 250 pg textbook before the exam.  Around the same time I realized my French is not where I want it to be, so I've started looking for ways to speed up the learning process.  I've stopped reading the one English book I was reading, I bought a radio adapter for my iPod so I can listen to the news, and I'm going to try to write maybe a page in French everyday.  The key is getting to be able to think in the language.  Anyways, in another week I'll probably have given up on half of those projects, but I really do want to come out of this fluent.  Anyways, news: I went to the Salon de l'Agriculture Friday, which is an incredibly big thing here.  Producers from around the country come to Paris to showcase their products.  We saw horses, ponies, pigs, cats, and lots and lots of wine.  There are a lot of free tastings, but it wasn't really enough.  We left kind of wishing we had been a little less cheap: there were so many things we wanted to try but didn't.  There were two really awesome things, though.  First, there were these little cooking class things that you could watch and then eat a little bit of what the chef made.  We got to see and taste this really good turkey dish.  The best part was actually a T-shirt.  Last weekend, Sarkozy came to the Salon and of course he was videotaped the whole time.  At one point he tried to shake this guy's hand whose response was something like "Don't touch me-you're dirty".  So Sarkozy slams him with a really awful insult that I won't translate.  It's on Google Video if you want to see it, and Sarkozy isn't even close to discreet.  In any case, one stand was selling t-shirts with the Sarkozy quote and a little picture of a cow.  It was only 5 euros, so Glennis and I both got one.  I'm not sure when I'll wear it, but it would probably be best to wait until I get back.  Speaking of getting back, I now know that I'll be working at Mudd over the summer, probably starting the first week of June.  Hopefully I'll see some of you then!  I haven't put the photos from the Salon on my computer yet, but I'll post them soon.