Class Schedule and a Bit of Shopping

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I didn't write yesterday because not much happened. I stayed home in the morning and tried to rest so my cold would go away. Now I am no longer congested but still have a bit of a cough. For lunch, I set off to find the CROUS in this neighborhood. It was kind of tricky, had to go inside Université René DesCartes, but I didn't know that at first. When I figured out that it was the right number, I went inside. I found the place to load my carte CROUS, but didn't see the restaurant. Instead of asking someone, I was feeling shy, so I wandered all the way up and down the stairs to see if it was on another floor. It was not. But then I happened to glance out a window and saw it was in another building in the courtyard.

I went inside and it was close to closing time, so there wasn't a ton of food left, and barely any silverware, and no glasses, so I have to keep that in mind for the future. I did however, have some good soup and a couple of interesting salads and some yogurt. I was wayy too shy to ask to sit with any of the French students...I don't even go to that University, although I would have had some things in common with them, it was the Psychology building!

After lunch, I walked to the second hand clothing shop I had found on google maps. Unfortunately what the internet hadn't told me was that it was only kids clothes! They had some handbags, but they were all designer and very expensive, so i didn't get anything. I did wander by an Office Depot, so I picked up some notebooks for school. They all had graph paper, or very close horizontal lines with vertical lines too.





Last night I watched a House mini-marathon, dubbed. The first one was new here, although a season behind the States. The dubbing was hard to follow, the characters on the show speak quickly in English, plus it takes longer to say some things in French, so it was extra fast to keep up with the events of the show. The voices also don't fit the people so it seems strange.

This morning I accidentally got some towels wet while I was showering and got chewed out for it. However, when I apologized she said I didn't know so it was okay. I still feel bad and I am going to ask at dinner if I can take them to the laundromat to have them dried (there is no dryer in the apartment). I don't think I should just take them...it might make things worse if they just disappeared.

I went to get my schedule today...instead of having 2 hours of French 5 days a week, which I thought I would, I have 2.5 hours 4 days a week and Wednesdays off (except I will probably take a conference on Wednesdays). I don't mind an extra morning to sleep later, especially since it starts at 8:30, and I should leave at least an hour to get there. However, the cours phonetiques are usually for an hour, half an hour before or after the French classes, and that would mess me up taking 2 classes at noon that I wanted. I tried to have it changed and they said there was no room in the 10 oclock 5 days a week that I wanted. There are no phonetics classes before, which I probably wouldn't want to get up for anyway. I can't fit it in another time of day, because the conferences I want to take are at different times on different days, I have at least one in each time slot. So unless I can take phonetics on different times different days of the week, which I can't imagine I would be allowed to do, I will have to be half an hour late to 2 of my conferences twice a week. Christelle said the professors would understand, but I would miss a lot of information! ISA told us there are books you can buy later in the semester with all the course's contents, so I guess I will be stuck doing that. I also don't even know if my phonetics class would be 4 or 5 days a week, and if it is 4, if it would be an extra 15 minutes. I will have to find out on Friday at the phonetics test. I can also try again to get it changed, or take only 2 or 3 conferences, but I don't want to do that.

At least I got into the Intermediate level, which is the one I wanted. Some of the students got into advanced, but they are scared because they think it will be too difficult. I am glad because most of the conferences I want to take are for intermediate, advanced, and superior, but one is beginner, elementary, and intermediate, so it is the only level where I can take all the conferences I want. Another plus is that the textbook was free/included! Unheard of in the States, that's for sure. It is also fairly small, so easy to carry to class.

Afterward, I went to lunch with a bunch of the other ISA kids, and we found the nearest CROUS. it was hard to find in this big university complex, but eventually got there and had a good lunch. I had previously looked up some second-hand shops nearby so I could check them out after lunch. The first one was very close to school, and I think I may visit it again in the future. It was very small but had interesting things. I liked some of the jewelry in the window, but I didn't buy any. I was looking for a purse because as much as I love my Paris one, it was becoming too stuffed with my map, my ISA handbook, a book for the subway, umbrella, and waterbottle. So I wanted to find a bigger one, and it had to close all the way with a zipper to deter pickpockets. Carolin and Arielle have very nice ones from Galeries Lafayette, but they were 60€ and I did not want to pay so much for a bag. There were several nice ones at the shop, and I settled on a large purple one for only 26€.

It may be secondhand, but someone took very good care of it or didn't use it much 😊

I am glad that it has a nice over the shoulder strap, the short straps on my Paris one like to slide off my shoulder, so I have to hold it up, which can get tiring.

nifty pocket for my carte navigo! I never have to take it out, because the machine can read it through the bag 😊

Room for all my books, my umbrella, and my water bottle! Yay! Also a good place to hook my keychain for easy access to keys.

2 zipper pockets and an open one between them...good for little things that would otherwise get lost in the big part of the bag.

perfectly sized cell phone pocket, and pocket for my change purse and chapstick, the 3 things I had been keeping in pants pockets, although I brought some pants and a skirt with no pockets, so it is good to have another option. There is also room for my wallet in the purse, but I have been keeping my money under my clothing, but it is good for future notice!


The second shop was extremely disorganized. I looked through the clothes, maybe for some jeans, but I'm not sure what European size I even need. I was going to leave when some scarves caught my eye, and i crawled through the piles of clothing on the floor to get over to them. I bought 3 for a euro each.






I got a beret for only 2€ as well 😊.




I decided not to go to the third store because the weather was quite miserable and it was not very close to these 2. This evening I ate alone again, this time because M et Mme are having family over tonight and I apparently am not invited. It is an early night for me tonight, class starts at 8:30 tomorrow! After class I will visit le Louvre again with Catherine and get a feeling for the layout. I plan to discover more of it on Friday night as well!

Bonne nuit!

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