Classes again and now: weekend!

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Well, yesterday was my 3rd and last day of classes for the week.

Classes don't start until 11 on Thursdays which is nice. I have Latin first so I left early to scope out the building. Instead of saying Kimpel 101 some of the buildings have their own name and then a name for each room. The schedule of course only gives the room name but luckily it didn't take me too long to find Salle Ulysses.

I ran into one of the Czech girls on my way and she has the class too. We stood outside the room up until about 5 before class and there was no one in sight and no one in the building. We started to walk off to the secretary for Lettres to ask if it had been changed and finally saw a group of students heading out the same direction so we asked and sure enough they were headed to Latin.

The first thing we did was read a paragraph in Latin, each person reading about a line. I read it and the professor looked a bit confused and said "Good, but you read Latin with an American accent."

"Oui, je suis Américaine." The class had a good laugh.

So then the Czech reads and he looks up and just says "And where are you from?" He was really nice and said welcome to France and we should find Latin easier than French. Latin does however use the case system that I detested so much in German, but at least I already understand it from German so that helps.

I also googled around and found a great site to explain French grammar terms, so I'm feeling much better about that class plus the things I learned in the first day of that class were important for understanding the explanations given in Latin class, so I think it'll work out ok.

After Latin I had Roman History. It was really cool when we got the first handout and I could pinpoint on the map where I used to live. That professor is the hardest to understand so far but is very very nice and is letting me write a paper instead of doing a 20 minute presentation.

I didn't have my elective today, those start next week. So I had a nice break and then French for foreigners in which my professor did a great gorilla impression, jumping all around the front of the class like a monkey. As most students don't speak English as a first language (though many speak it very well anyway) he either describes things in French or very often acts them out to explain words and ideas.

After class Sarah and I went to eat and met the Italian and one of the Brazilians. Then last night the university sponsored a welcome event for international students at a bar/cafe across the street. Tuyen finally got to dance.

That was also fun and I got to meet the new Polish girl, the other Brazilian, the Dutch guy everyone mistakes for an American, and visit with the Germans I'd already met.

To give you an idea of one difference between the US and France: the university sponsored party came with one free drink per person. Some kind of fruity rum thing I opted out of (everyone tasted Eugene's first and it had an unusual aftertaste of the mystery fruit).

You can also buy beer in the building most my classes are in. There is a little café on the first floor. My favorite part though is that all the food on campus is government subsidized so even the hot chocolate and coffee are cheap. Not sure about the beer though, it may be regular price.

Its been raining the last two days, which is actually nice as the buildings aren't airconditioned. I never thought about it, but the same sort of architecture we have on campus would be awful here. Kimpel at UA for example has at most a window about a foot wide up the side of the room. I don't know how we'd have made it through some of my classes if all the windows didn't swing out wide open.

Well, that's all for now and if you try to get ahold of me and don't hear back, the computer places are closed weekends and I can't sit outside and use the wifi if its raining.

Hope all is well back home. Thanks for the comments and emails!

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Comments

[Sam]

My son in Le Mans
Check out my son's blog. http://zacinfrance.blogspot.com/ ,he is a UofA grad teaching at the University in Le Mans for a year. I am enjoying your blog. Have fun and be safe.