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Published: January 13th 2010
Salut mes amis!
The last three days have seemed like three weeks. It’s hard to believe that I haven’t even been here one week yet! Although my sleep schedule is just barely adjusted—this morning was the first day my alarm woke me up at 7:15. Sunday and Monday I woke up around 4 again (but stayed in my room away from the creaky stairs) and yesterday I only woke up maybe a half hour before my alarm—now I just need to work on actually being able to stay up past 10…
Sunday I went to Catholic mass with the family, in a huge Cathedral that was beautiful! The service was held downstairs, in the crypt for St. Martin (of Tours). I guess the service is held in the crypt because it’s slightly smaller (and while there were a fair amount of people it wasn’t enough to fill the entire cathedral) and since it’s smaller, they could heat it—even though I don’t think anyone took their coats off throughout the entire service—it was kind of cold. I didn’t understand everything that was said in the service, but the words for the songs were printed on a handout, so I could read those. Also, the beautiful thing about Catholic mass is that it’s pretty much the same anywhere you go—so having been to Catholic mass in the US helped me understand what was going on (thank you Katie and J-high).
Later on Sunday I met up with the 8 other Bucknellians, our professor, Mme Fazalley, and a kind of crazy eccentric tour guide who showed us around Tours, but pretty much all I remember is that it was freezing and I felt like my toes were about to fall off. Then we all had a gallet together and I got the fieve again! (And then, we had another galette after dinner, and I got it a third time!! My family told me that it must mean that I’ll have a good year—queen three times, who can complain?)
Monday was the first day of class and it was kind of intense. We met at 8:45 (everyone else was exhausted from jet-lag, but me, I’d been up for hours) and we had a surprise placement test at the institute. (The institute at the university is only for international students who are learning French. In general they give people the placement test, put them in different levels of French, and watch them move up which is why we all had to take this test. However, Bucknell’s special program causes us to all stick together no matter what, and we’ll only be at the institute for 2 weeks regardless, so I would say it was close to pointless for us to take that test, but apparently it’s given to everyone who walks through those doors.) I’m pretty sure I failed it. But it doesn’t really affect anything, so that’s just fine.
We went out to pasta for lunch and then regrouped for “les phonetiques” where we went into a room where we all had headphones and microphones, and we had to repeat the sounds of “ou” “u””i” in various words after our teacher, then listen to what we had said and correct ourselves.
So the classes are long and exhausting, but probably overall good for my French although not very enjoyable. It’s only 10:30 here, but I feel like I’m going to fall asleep (This could be the latest I’ve stayed up yet…) I’ll try to post a few pictures of the city tomorrow! And…Paris this weekend!
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G.Irene/G.Walt
non-member comment
class schedule
Are your classes going to have a regular schedule? Hope it will become easier and more pleasant for you. You have a wonderful knack sharing your trip and life in France and we are enjoying it immensely. We love you. Grandpa and Grandma.