Hooray for France. Classes. and Salsa.

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So it's been exactly one week since I've last written, and so much has happened!

Last Saturday, Amber and I went to the outdoor market just down the the street. It's held every Saturday morning in the same place, and locals bring everything from funky smelling cheeses to antique livres. It's really cool. I was so mad that I didn't take my camera...the colors, textures, and shapes were incredible. Except for the meat and seafood section...gross!... Anyway, rest assured I will go back tomorrow. And yes, with my camera.

On Sundays, very few places are open. Even the vast majority of tabacs are closed...which are like the center of French communities! Ok...maybe that's a bit exaggerated...but not too terribly much! However, you can find a few random cafes that are still open, along with unexpected things such as cinemas and bowling alleys. Anyways, Amber and I got coffee at our usual cafe and then just walked around town for a while, which honestly didn't last too long because it was freezing!! Later that afternoon, I went to an art exhibition at a museum that's practically across the road from the foyer. It was really cool... and alas no pictures; taking pictures was interdit (forbidden), as it is in most art museums. But nonetheless, it was awesome.

Monday, all students in the CIDEF had a rendez-vous (meeting) at 9:30am at the university (which people call the Catho), and everyone's placement was thus revealed. Lucky me, I was informed I had to take yet another placement test that very morning at 10:00. So...I did. It was a pretty good examen. I mean, it didn't take too terribly long, and it wasn't overly difficile. But for the last part of it, I was asked to write an essay... and the topic was really odd, so I didn't enjoy writing it that much. We had to read an article about "smart houses"... in other words, the house of the future in which almost everything starts and stops itself automatically. For example, the article said that when you wake up, your warm shower would start on its own, and then when you turned the water off, your daily cup of coffee would brew itself. Anyways, the essay had 3 questions to cover: (1) advantages/disadvantages of the Smart House, (2) if anything like this exists or is being developed currently in your country and (3) if you were able to design your own Smart House, what would it be like? So yeh...that was interesting...

Tuesday I finally got my placement results, and this week everyone in my level had a set schedule with a few choices every now and then. We're supposed to be testing some of the classes to see which ones we want to start officially taking on Monday. I think I now finally have my schedule figured out (thanks to Dr. Mann-Morlet's sagesse , of course!). I really love every course I've attended so far...so I'm super excited about the semester. Though I already have a lot of homework. Lame! Tuesday night I went out with a few girls from the foyer...it was really fun. We just hung out, talked, took crazy pictures, etc. I don't know...it's just nice to finally know a lot of the girls with whom I live.

Wednesday was a day FULL of classes. I started a 8am. I finished at 7pm. Of course I had breaks in between (and breaks in France are GIGANTIC), but it was nevertheless a long day. Dinner in the foyer, which is about a 10 minute walk from campus, is at 7:15, so when I got out of class at 7pm, I walked as fast as my poor legs would go. And I made it in time 😊 That evening, I got to talk to Dr. Mann-Morlet about finalizing my schedule, which made me extremely happy. And Amber and I went to Falstaff that night, which is a bar where the students from the Catho (remember, that's the university) were having an early Valentine's Day party. So we just went and hung out... and no, we didn't do anything stupid! No fear.

Thursday was once again a day full of classes, though not quite as badly as Wednesday. I got back to the foyer around 17h10, set my alarm for 15 minutes before dinner, and slept like a baby. I was exhausted. After dinner at about 9:30, I went to a salsa club with quatre other girls from the foyer. Each Thursday night, this place gives a free, one-hour salsa lesson, and then after that, you use what you just learned and well, dance... Anyways, that was really fun, and once again, it was nice to spend more time with the students in the foyer.

Well, since I was a bit dumb this semaine and decided to go out three nights in a row, I am a bit tired today. But off to class I go! Today I have two hours of langue, one hour of grammaire and two hours of littérature. After that...who knows what I'll do. On Fridays, all classes end by 5...so I'll have roughly deux heures to kill before dinner. Hmm...another pre-dinner nap, anyone?!

Well, as you can see, this past week has been amazing, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in this world. Classes are starting up, I'm getting to know a lot of people, and I'm starting to know Angers like the back of my hand (<-- that's such a weird expression...). Well, I hope everything is going well at the fabulous CC! Later!

Bisous
HM

French Expression:
Avoir le gosier sec = to be thirsty (Avoir soif)

This is an expression that we learned in my français familier course, which is a course where we learn familiar French, meaning how young people express themselves, how people talk in the home, and general slang terms/expressions. Let me explain this expression: a gosier refers to the throat area, but in standard French (formal French...what you study in school), it refers to the throat of an animal. Sec simply means dry. Thus, a dry throat...thirsty...yeah... Anyways, when animal terms are used for people, the expression becomes slang...therefore, never write this expression in a paper. And in general, you'd only say it to people on your level...friends, close family, etc...NOT professors, elders, and the like. It's not a rude expression by any means. So it is not a matter of saying something bad...it's just more a matter of politeness (la politesse). Do we have any expressions in English in which we use animal anatomy terms to make something slang for humans? I've been trying to think of one...

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Comments

[Matthew Lloyd]

Foreign uni
I often wondered what it would be like going to a university in a different country and blogs like yours have given me some insight, thank you

[Christine DeFilippo. (from CC!!)]

sounds like you're having fun! re: animal/slang... reading that, one came to mind but typing this... I've forgotten. hahah. Something to do with a bird/beak? I fail at the english language, lol.