20.3 - The DALF C1 exam

When my alarm rang, I woke up from deep sleep but when I remembered what day it was today, I didn't feel sleepy at all anymore. Today I had the DALF exam, listening comprehension, reading comprehension and writing production, I had been working for a long time. I got up first of all and tried to be as quiet as possible. Soon though Anthony got up and woke also up the girls. I was downstairs having breakfast and suddenly Clé came running to me. She wanted to see me and wish me good luck before I left. Very cute of her. I saw Anthony too before I had to leave to the bus that left at 7.35. Céline was today still staying at home with Martin. 

I got some messages from friends wishing me good luck, whick really warmed my heart. At Gare Lille Flandres I took the metro line 2 to Fort de Mons and walked to the university. When I found the right place people just started entering the classroom. I got just in time, which was good so I didn't have time to get too nervous. Everyone had an own seat number and next to me I had a girl, Eva, who's also an au pair. I have never met her before but some of my friends know her. She did directly recognize me and asked if I'm Amanda. We changed a few sentences before the exam and wished each other good luck.

The exam began with the compréhension orale. I understood almost everything but in some points it just went too fast so I didn't have time to answer and memorise everything. In the compréhension des écrits i believe I did pretty okay but I took a lot of time to do it. The last and the most difficult part was production des écrits, where you had 2h 30min to write an summary of two documents and an argumentative essay, both around 240 words. The documents were about the success of novels and the influence different kinds of litterature has on our emotional intelligence. The essay excercise was to write to a website about the pedagogical importance of litterature and the importance of reading many kinds of lecture. For the essay I didn't have enough time so I started just writing without doing a plan. I finished all parts but didn't have enough time to read through everything. 

After the exam of four hours and having handed in the exam, I felt very lighted. It was difficult but not impossible. I really hope that I passed the exam.

We had decided to meet up with Iara and Pat in Lille after my exam. We went to café, So good, close to Gare Lille Flandres. I had a raclette burger with breaded chicken and lots of cheese. It was heavy but delicious! We had a lot to talk about since we hadn't met for almost two weeks. Last weekend the girls were to Berlin and I was joining the film shooting project. Pat had to leave to ge to work but Iara was also off the whole day so we still stayed for a while. We went to carrefour to buy some snacks and went then home.

The bus took me 45 minbecause there was lots of people. At home I had an hour to prepare everything for sleeping over at Tia's place and go to Amsterdam tomorrow, take a shower and eat quickly something. My family was going to Pizza Pai and they dropped me on the way at Tia's.

At the Moulin's everyone came very welcoming to say hi. I had a dessert here, my favourite yaourt, natural fromage frais mousse. Tia, Ann-Cathrine and I sat downstairs at the kitchen table for a long time chatting. Ann-Catherine fed me with chocolate and speculoos.

Upstairs in Tias room we were googeling and planning for tomorrow and just calming down. There was a madras and a sleeping bag for me to sleep on. We went relatively early to bed because we have to get up at 4.30 tomorrow morning.