Reclaiming my mother tongue

Today was a day of firsts.

I heard someone swear for the first time since I've been here. So... I immediately lifted my unconsciously-self-imposed swearing ban. And it felt GREAT.
I hadn't realize how carefully I've been talking, but honestly everyone speaks such beautiful British (even the European international students!) that I've been trying really hard to sound like them. So yeah, I've been saying "knackered" for "tired" and "skip" for dumpster and "loads" for "lots of" and "SOR-ry" with that inescapable British intonation, and I was pretty psyched about it. When in Rome, right?
Wrong. I sound like a moron and a fake, and though my cussing at dinner today raised some eyebrows it sure liberated my speech. I am proud of my swearing skill and my ability to speak slang with the best of American high-school students, and I've had enough of this uber-polite Pride-and-Prejudice language bullshit. I'm American and I'm going to talk like it! What a relief... though I will try to reserve my swearing for the proper occasions...

Another first- I talked in class! We had a fantastic lecture about the evolution of wonder as an emotion, and there were questions afterward, and after seriously about 10 minutes of sweating and shaking and racing heartbeats, I asked my question about whether wonder is contagious, so can it be a social phenomenon like fear or anxiety. It wasn't very articulate, but people talked after I did so that seemed like a good sign. Unfortunately, my body was too busy being in fight-or-flight mode for me to hear what they said... sigh. Maybe next week.

Another first- a professor said something HILARIOUS during another class. Sure, that happens all the time, especially in the History & Philosophy of Science when we're studying things like the historical significance of ancient collections of pickled alligator feet or whatever. But this time no one laughed and I don't think it was meant to be a joke, but I almost died of half-suppressed giggling...
So the prof was talking about the change in medical education during the French Revolution, from doctors studying Latin and reading books about medicine to actually doing dissections and practicing clinical treatments. He said that the motto of this reform was "Read little, see much, do much." To clarify this complex motto, he said "It's like the opposite of what you'll be doing this year."
?!?!?!?!
Is a professor supposed to admit that? that we'll be "seeing little and doing little"?! What a downer!
And how can he say it with a straight face? and how can NO ONE laugh? They just accepted this sentencing to a year's hard labor in the library! Time for a revolution, I say. :)

Wishing you a day of firsts and pride in your mother tongue!!