Summary

French school started back up in January, and additional students joined Sedaris’s class. For the first class, everyone had to introduce him or herself and recount their Christmas holidays. When Sedaris said that half of his family came and stayed for 16 days, his classmates “audibly drew in their breath” (378). As the month continued, Sedaris remained focused on his French and vented about how he has spent eleven and a half hours on his homework with no end in sight. “Every word is checked in the dictionary, every verb tense is reconsidered, and it takes forever. I still have eight questions to answer, three personal sentences to write, and a story to finish” (382). Ultimately, Sedaris ended up spending seventeen hours on his homework, yet still feels uncertain about how his teacher will respond.

At the end of February, Sedaris had his last day of French...