first Franglish language exchange experience

Last night I essentially did a form of platonic, language-oriented speed dating. A group called Franglish hosts events several times a week at different bars around the city, and during the two hours you speak with eight people, splitting the conversation time between French and English. They make sure that you're paired up with a native speaker of the language you're trying to practice, so I got two hours of interaction with real French people! The best part for me is that everyone I met was legitimately looking to improve their English - it wasn't like talking to the other students in my program who all speak perfect English - so this made it much less intimidating for me. The conversations are inherently slightly repetitive; at some point during each one I said that I was in Paris studying law, that I'm working in London next year, etc. But beyond that, you have 15 minutes to talk with each person, so you can talk about all sorts of things! I found that I started speaking with much more animation and confidence after the first conversation, and I left having had a genuinely enjoyable time and feeling much better about my French! Several of the people I spoke with said that my French was good; I just need to build my vocabulary. Yay! All sorts of people were there, too - I met a French woman my age who works as in-house counsel (I told her how to say that in English) to a transportation company, a high school chemistry teacher (we discussed the various challenges we had both experienced in the classroom), a politics student from Albania (who was delighted by my interest in the Balkans), a Brazilian lawyer (who told me she thought I was Brazilian when she first saw me, aaaahhhh!!!!), and a few guys who were all studying business. The whole experience was surprisingly not awkward, and I'm really looking forward to making this a regular part of my week! It's only six euros (I get a student discount), and that includes a free drink, so essentially you're paying to buy a drink and then practice speaking your foreign language with native speakers for two hours. Really, really awesome! And hopefully I'll be seeing some of these people again - I came prepared with contact cards. :) It feels great to have made some progress!