Well, it always rains here I've learned, and I've resorted to just carrying my umbrella around everywhere even if it doesn't look like it will rain. I went to do my laundry on Monday with sunny skies and ended up running back from the bus stop after a long downpour commenced! I'm actually staring out the window at the rain at the moment. I also have the same face when the internet is slow...as it always is. I made my first trip to the laundry mat only to discover that the internet works perfectly there! I decided to download all the movies I could get my hands on, upload some pictures, and do anything else on the internet that involves a lot of usage such as updating my phone! I will probably start doing my blog on laundry days as well because I am having an incredible amount of trouble uploading the pictures that I want to show everyone!
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| My face when it rains EVERY SINGLE DAY |
I miss Ginger this week for some reason. I have the unbearable urge to pet every dog that I see here in France, but I honestly don't know how to ask in French to pet someone's dog! It's also interesting to see how many people just let their dogs walk without leashes. People are much more tolerant of dogs here, and they are even allowed in most grocery stores, bars, and shops as long as the dog is on a leash. All the dogs seem very friendly, and as soon as I build up the courage to ask to pet one, I will let you know if my suspicions are true ;) I thought about finding a stray cat on the side of the road and keeping it for company, but I figured mom wouldn't like me bringing home a random French cat!
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| My address in case anyone wants to send me goodies :) |
The laundry experience was fun. I'm learning how to condense every article of clothing I have into one teeny little washer. The dryers are HUGE, so that's not a problem; I just wish the washers were bigger and cheaper. One more thing I'll be grateful to have once I get back to Emory...free washing machines and dryers! I do love the Wifi though. It makes me anticipate laundry day, and it motivates me to do my bed sheets so that I have to stay at the laundry mat even longer ;) I downloaded Inglourious Basterds, Entre les Murs, and Amèlie. Amelie was such a fantastic movie! Everyone needs to watch it! I also am starting to figure out which washers work and which ones don't.
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| Pri and Henry being funny while we dry clothes. |
We went to the Cathedral this weekend as well
because this weekend was the Journée de Patrimoine—we were able to climb to the
highest part of the Cathedral, which took FOREVER! If you’ve ever been to the
Notre Dame of Paris, this Cathedral is even bigger! And the staircases felt
even smaller (maybe because I’ve gotten fatter in the past two years). I had
just played soccer that morning for a solid two hours, so I was already worn
out before even climbing all those stairs! The view was well worth the trip up
the tour. I am a bit more directionally oriented now that I know the layout of
the city. If I ever get lost, I just know to look for the Cathedral, or the
really big colored tour (I don’t know what it’s use it), and I can always find
my way back to Castillon from those two locations.
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| Glad to be finally walking DOWN the stairs instead of going up! |
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| The view from the middle area of the cathedral. It was hard to get a good picture from the very top. |
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| Our group before ascending the cathedral |
My schedule this week has been a little hectic with trying to
figure out which courses to take, which courses are too difficult, which
professors just stand in front of the class and read off the paper, and which
ones will interact with the class and make it interesting. I will be glad to
get back to the States so that I don’t have to deal with three hour-long
classes! I only have one class each day, and I don’t even a class on Mondays,
but I would rather have class every single day than have to sit through three
hours of French and try to process everything they say. Most of my courses are
from the third year Political Sciences courses. I was planning on taking
certain courses at the beginning of the semester, but after week one, my entire
schedule has changed!
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| Third year political science courses to choose from |
I was so incredibly excited to go to class this Tuesday. I
was to have Portuguese on Campus, which is a good 15-minute bus ride from my
residence. It’s a pain in the butt to have to take the bus that far because you
never know if the buses will arrive on time or not, and most times, I don’t
even know when the bus will arrive because each bus schedule is so different.
(This is one thing I appreciate about Paris—there will ALWAYS be a metro within
5 minutes of you needing it, and they are NEVER late!) Anyways, I spent an hour
trying to find my very first class of the semester. I went to the languages
building (reasonable since I was looking for Portuguese) only to find out that
it was in a different building completely! I went to the other building to look
for the Room A-4, but ended up walking into the wrong class. I then resorted to
making a trip to Melanie’s office (the international director) in order to
demand where I was supposed to go. She informed me that it wasn’t A004 which is
what I had found, but rather A MOINS 4…the room was in the basement, but any normal
American would assume that the (-) was a dash and not a minus sign! Anyway, I
arrived at the room to find this sign on the door, which reads in English… “The
course of Madame Forte will start next week.”
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| The class schedule for languages |
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| Stupid sign >:( |
RAWRRRRRRRR. Why couldn’t someone have sent me an email?!?!
At least the bus was free and I didn’t have to worry about paying for another
ticket! I made another trip into campus that evening for the class “Body
Combat,” which is like an aerobics class with different moves. Needless to say,
I never got to do the class because the professor was so incredibly late on
getting everyone signed up. That made two trips in one day all the way to
campus to do NOTHING. I went to bed that night hoping that my next day of
classes would be better.
My first class went well…Politically Sociology. I think I
will drop it. Haha The professor was nice. She spoke fairly well, and it was
easy for me to understand her, but she read off a sheet of paper the entire
three hours. It is just an odd way to learn, and I don’t enjoy sitting in a three-hour
class packed with all the information I’ll need for the next week. It’s hard to
process that much information, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. The class also
wasn’t what I had expected it to be. I expected a more general introduction to
political sociology, but it was focused on the police force and the prisons.
There was no indication of this on the class schedule, so I never would have
gone if I had known this!
My time here has been spent well though! We cook meals for every
lunch and dinner—I’ve been eating a lot of spaghetti and rice. We have been
making a lot of new friends from all different cultures, but us Americans (as
in North and South Americans) have learned to band together most nights for
dinner! And we are going to start playing soccer on Saturday mornings so that
we get out of bed and get some exercise! Today is our friend Marcelo’s
birthday. I will post pictures of our dinners and of this birthday party later
on in the week!
