First Week of Classes

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I have had quite a busy 3 days! Thursday was my first day of class at 830 AM. I went to bed at 10 pm to try to fall asleep by 1030, but I was not successful. I still managed to get up on time for school, though I may have to switch to showering in the evening.

Class went really well, I like my professor a lot. The class is entirely in French, if we do not understand a word or concept, it is explained in French, which I think is better than just getting an English translation. At least for me, it sticks better, so I think I should buy a French dictionary with definitions of words in French, and just use my French-English one for words in English I want to know the French equivalent for. The class is made up of people from all over the world, so if the professor were to provide translations to things, she would have to do so in 8 or 9 different languages! While she probably speaks English, I doubt she speaks that many different languages.
In class, I found out that while one of the books was included, others are not. One I was supposed to buy at school, and apparently I should have gotten a paper telling me that the day before when I picked up my schedule, and that I should bring the exact change for it, but I didn't have the paper beforehand. Luckily I had a bunch of change, and paid all 17€ in coins, but it left me pretty broke cashwise. At least the books are a lot cheaper than ones I need for French classes at home! They are also smaller which is good news for my back and shoulders.

After class, I took the bus to Catherine's and we had lunch downstairs at a coffee and tea shop. While I don't enjoy drinking coffee much, the place smelled heavenly from it. We had croques monsieur, which are ham and gruyere on bread that is dipped in milk and then fried in butter. I've been looking for a recipe online, but all the ones I have found so far don't include milk, and some are baked instead of fried. They are quite delicious, as was the rooiboos tea I tried for the first time. For dessert was a macaron (quite different from American macaroons) which was creme filled and had raspberries. Quite yummy.

We then went to the Louvre via the Carrousel du Louvre which is basically a mall underneath part of the museum. There is an interesting looking food court (which does unfortunately contain a McDonalds, but I think the controversy of a "McDonald's in the Louvre" was a little blown out of proportion as it is not actually in the museum, and how is it any worse than a starbucks being there? or a Virgin Megastore?), several retail stores including the biggest Apple store in France, a chocolatier that Catherine says is the best, and an interesting store I forget the name of but has all sorts of odds and ends. I bought 3 books in the Virgin store, Le Petit Prince, a novel that is supposed to be good and a book about communication that was the only one that looked to be worth reading on the list of the buy 2 get 1 free options. We entered the museum and walked through the history of the Louvre section, and part of the French painters until we reached the part that is closed on Thursdays. At that point we returned to chez Catherine for a cup of tea and conversation before I returned home for dinner. I ate alone because M et Mme went out again, and I cannot for the life of me remember what it was.

Yesterday morning was class again. I got a little bit of homework, but it was not too hard or tedious so I didn't mind. I like that professors here believe that more learning is done IN the classroom. Class is also less tedious than French classes at TCNJ so I don't mind that it is long. After class I took the bus to Boulevard St. Michel to buy my other book at Gibert Joseph. It is an amazing bookstore that has books on any subject you could ever think of. I want to go back there as well as check out Gibert Jeune. I bought the grammar exercise book I needed. There was an optional book of verb conjugations, which I decided would be good to have, and I went for a 3 pack that included that, an orthography, and a book of grammar rules.

After my bag became considerably heavier with my new purchases, I headed over to take the Phonetics exam. The line was long but moved pretty quickly. It only consisted of repeating back sentences the administrator said. I was placed into the anglophone class, no surprise there. Unfortunately I had to sign up for the 1130-1230 class, which would make me over half and hour late to 2 of my lectures every other week, but there was nothing the person could do.

I was quite hungry after the test, so I went to CROUS with several ISA people, and then to the ISA office. I had not received the mail I am expecting yet, but I hung around and used the computer. Annamaria came to talk to me, and I told her about my scheduling problems. She said she would send an email and see if she could get it changed. I may either be in French at 8 AM 5 days a week, which would be tough, but it would mean no more conflict. It would also be sad because I do like my professor, hopefully the other ones are just as good. The other option would be not taking France of Today as a lecture, and taking both Art history and current artists, which would free up a timeslot for phonetics in the afternoon, if there is any space left. I am going to continue with my current class this week, and Annamaria will let me know when she does. After that I went home, and stayed in for the evening because I was very tired. I ate dinner alone again, very good meatballs with rice and veggies.

Today I went to a synagogue in the 15ème arrondissement. I found it after searching online for a while. It wasn't too bad of a metro trip. The service contained mostly Hebrew, but I didn't know a lot of the prayers, and the ones I did were in a different tune. It was 2 hours long, and afterwards was an amazing kiddush and oneg which consisted of lox, little sandwiches, little pastries, and vegetables. It was a good lunch. I wanted to talk to the Rabbi, but she had disappeared. I would like to find out the time of the service for the one that is in Boulogne, within walking distance, and possibly attend that next week to see what I like better. I also plan on attending an event with one of the Jewish Student groups eventually.

I came home for a bit afterward, then went to Catherine's for another trip to the Louvre. We finished the French artists' wing and bought chocolate cake for dessert. Agnès came over and we had a great dinner of steak, peas and carrots, salad, cheese and bread, and of course the chocolate cake, which was quite good. Tomorrow I will go again for lunch, and Agnès will take me through the Egyptian art at the Louvre, which is her area of expertise.

I was a bit homesick the past couple of days, but when I go see Catherine, it always goes away 😊. I have now allowed myself to stay up very late to talk to some people back home, so it is now time for bed!

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