Oranges and French

I love oranges :-) A few days ago, I was eating some while studying and had left the peels on my desk. When my mother came in and noticed the peels, she told me to throw them in the kitchen's garbage because bibittes will appear. My mom uses the french word for bug, bibitte, although she doesn't speak the language. However, she often surprises us when she understands what is being said among the francophone at home. I used to speak in french when I didn't want her to understand something she might not be pleased with.. but have since then matured enough to understand that it ain't polite ><  We all have our moments when we were young right? Another reason behind such childish behavior is that my siblings and I were much more comfortable speaking in french up to the end of high school, except for the youngest who is completing her last year at the moment. The reason being that we have all attended french education institutions up to that level. Upon graduation, we all switched to english education institutions (College and University). Although my brother is now enrolled in a french university, he much prefers to converse in english. Thankfully, it has allowed him to improve his french from which he was drifting apart. However, my second oldest sister sticked to french all the way threw the 3 years she spent in an english college... She doesn't get to practice it as much anymore nowadays as she lives in England now with no french speaking people around her! She manages quite well I think :) There is always a reason behind everything. She refused to speak english unless she had to her, but now she is forced to all the time. Perhaps her long faithfulness to french while in Quebec will enable her to keep the language stored up for future use. And she does practice with us whenever she calls.

As for me, I have always had difficulty conversing in only one language. I tended to hang out with bilinguals and switched languages back and forth (including when talking to siblings). However, I did mostly speak in french. It was quite a challenge to adapt to speaking in english only. And I still have difficulty, especially under stress... this weird accent comes out and I stubble upon pronunciation of certain words.
A very clear example of what I mean is that certain words in english have the exact translation in french, but only in written. The pronunciation is quite different sometimes.
My english does look impeccable in writing as I've been told by some english teachers and they seem surprised when I speak the language. Writing is easy because the thoughts run over in my mind slowly and I can think of the right fashion in which to present it. Whereas talking is spontaneous and I sometimes need a moment to get my head together...
I don't avoid speaking it though, practicing is key right? Yeah I get laughed at sometimes, but I learn from my mistakes and never repeat them :-) or at least try not too :P
Also, I drifted away from the subject at hand again: "oranges", my bad. What I wanted to say is having noticed that I was consuming a lot of oranges while studying, my mom bought a whole box of oranges when she went to do the groceries today. How sweet right? Just for me, she said :) I'm not the only one enjoying them though haha. They are quite juicy and sweet, perfect for perking myself up while completing a difficult math problem.
Sometimes writing thoughts down helps you realize things you wouldn't realize had you thought about them only. That probably made sense to me only haha.
I like this blogging habit I'm developing, an adventure to my coming of age. How lightening, I think while reaching over to the orange on my desk that I've been eying during this entire post :-)