When I said sorry, she almost threw a cushion at me.
I gave Elena COVID. I felt really terrible. But she said, "Don't say sorry! It's not like you wanted to get COVID."
A morning with Sofiane Pamart
I woke up at 10, earlier than planned. When I went downstairs, my host mom had prepared breakfast.
Today's music was the album Planet by Sofiane Pamart. I felt like I'd heard it somewhere before, and it turned out Elena had added the track to our playlist. For some reason, a song you recognize makes you feel closer to it and like it more. All the songs I've discovered recently are thanks to Elena.
Breakfast was bread with butter and jam, coffee, a mandarin, and the bread we bought at the bakery yesterday. I'm really sorry that I caused trouble for everyone by getting COVID.
Elena and her mom went to the hospital to get tested for COVID. While they were gone, I had breakfast and did the dishes. When Elena came back, she was, amazingly, positive.
I felt apologetic again. When I said sorry, she said, "Don't say sorry!" She was shocked about missing the very first day of the semester. So whenever I said sorry, she kept saying, "Don't say sorry!!" When I kept saying sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, she almost threw a cushion at me.
But she really said it jokingly and positively. I thought she was really warm and funny.
There was a cat outside the house. Apparently it always comes into Elena's garden. It must not be a stray — it's fat. Maybe it doesn't like where it lives and comes to Elena's house instead. The cat was just too cute. I'm totally a dog person, but I realized cats can be great too. Still, I'm a dog person.
Do you have siblings?
Elena went back to her room and was researching universities to apply to for a master's.
Speaking of which, I asked if she had siblings because there was a kid in a photo on the album on the wall who looked like a brother. Elena doesn't have any siblings. Childhood photos are really cute. They're lovely now too, of course, but children's smiles are pure and innocent.
I wanted to say that I wanted to talk more, but I couldn't. Talking is so much fun. Since I have to leave tomorrow morning, I packed a little.
Salami and chestnut cream
Lunch was salami, Emmental cheese, baguette with jam, and salad. It was very luxurious.
Later Elena brought a sweet chestnut cream. It was really delicious. When I was sitting by the heater, Elena gave me a warm thing like a tampon. She said she always uses it to warm her stomach during her period. When I put it on my stomach, it really made me feel like I was pregnant. Warm.
An elegant afternoon with jazz playing
I wrote in my journal the whole time and it became five in the evening. In the room I had John Coltrane's jazz on. Next to me Elena was doing university research. Downstairs, her mom was making beef braised in wine while playing Doris Day songs.
What an elegant day. I really loved this atmosphere. Not being together all the time — when I felt lonely I went downstairs to talk, and when I wanted to be alone I listened to music and had personal time. I really like families like this. I really am like that too.
Before dinner, Elena took out an old album and showed me. Her university grades and drawings from when she was little. Like my mom, Elena's mom had kept her childhood works. They were really cute.
Then she showed me the textbooks from when she was studying Japanese five years ago. There were really like a thousand pages of material. I was surprised — I never imagined she'd studied that much.
There were lots of grammar mistakes, and when I laughed about them she got really grumpy. When I tried to run off with it, she'd go "Wait~~" and grab it back. She's really a perfectionist. It's impossible to be perfect from the start. But the good thing is she doesn't force that on other people. It's her issue, so leave it alone, kind of thing. That's really wonderful.
The last supper
For the last dinner I requested beef braised in wine. I made it when I was a university student and it was so awful I threw it away. I knew it was actually tasty, but I couldn't make it because I'm so bad at cooking. Her mom made it with mashed potatoes.
Elena and I both had COVID, so thanks to that we could eat together. While we were eating, we were more open with each other than ever.
The red wine and mashed potatoes were so good I got drunk quickly. Elena told me about a job she had in the summer — at a farm about a five-minute drive from here, crawling into really tight spaces picking corn flowers from 6 a.m.
By hand, wearing gloves. If there was a spider along the way, they'd avoid that flower and not pick it. She worked six hours, got really tired, and would sleep all day after that.
She said she absolutely has to find an internship this year. Her university is private, and since there are lots of rich people in her faculty there are also many unpleasant people. There are attention-seeking drama queens, she said.
With people like that, she avoids eye contact to end conversations quickly, laughs "ahahaha", and doesn't seem willing to talk. I was 100% the same. I also don't make eye contact with people I don't like, don't get close, and act cold. Then they don't come near. It was exactly the same.
Because COVID meant they couldn't celebrate her mom or other problems came up, I said in French "je suis désolé." She said, "I told you not to say sorry!" I said, "But Elena said don't say sorry, right? So I'm not saying \"Sorry\" — I'm saying \"je suis désolé\"." Then she said, "you are also annoying." I really liked that about Elena.
She said, "Then I'll say 'Sorry' too," so I replied, "Say whatever you want. Hmph." She sulked and threw a napkin. It was just too funny.
While I was folding the napkin I wanted to fold origami, so Elena looked for some but said they were at her place in Toulouse and not here. She gave me A4 paper and I folded a crane.
She was really talkative. Elena says Introverted ≠ not talkative. She becomes very talkative with friends but with strangers she just listens. I totally get that. The quieter people at school talk a ton at home. I'm exactly the same — but she outdoes me.
At the piano, I played "Singing in the Rain" and "Fly Me to the Moon," which Elena taught me first. Also the music from Ratatouille.
Finally on the sofa we talked about scholarships. I have to pay back €16,000 and it will take about ten years. So I told her I'll get rich and pay it back right away. Elena has about the same loan and has to pay it back until around 2031. But we'll be rich, so it's fine.
We also talked about countries we want to visit. Elena and her mom want to go to Cuba, Argentina, and Japan. I told them whenever they come to Japan they can always come to my place.
Tomorrow's an early day too. I had a shower, said goodnight to everyone, and then began writing letters to Elena and her mom.
