(no subject)
-Mercredi: I slept until 11, which was wonderful. I didn't realize how tired I was. And a lot of that was stress, but it still felt nice. Then I was off to a fantastic Breton meeting. It was the complete opposite of the Spanish meeting from Tuesday. There were only 4 of us and the professor was hilarious! He would start an idea, remember something, run out of the room to get a paper or ask a question, then come back in and start a completely new topic. Plus he was like "if you have any problems at all, school, personal, whatever, let me know and I'll take care of them. You shouldn't have any problems. I'll fix them all!" He was hilarious. Even though he won't be my teacher, I'm definitely taking Breton and Celtic Culture now. At some point I got to talk to Katie, which was really nice because, don't tell her this but, I miss her. Apparently she's got a new computer and I'm a bit jealous. Especially since mine has been having some minor issues. Mostly just "what? you want me to do something? But whyyyyyyyyyy? *whines* Ok, fine. If you insist." But still, not very happy with me. Then it was downtown to do some window shopping in the hopes of finding some sweaters, but we were not successful. Back up to school for another interesting dinner, I'm sure, then back downtown to go to "Soiree Erasmus" and Paparazzi, a bar. I met my French boy again there and I did the bis-thing, the kissing on the cheeks, and he either told me that this was good and French, or that he only does it with his good friends, so I shouldn't do it at all. I'm not quite sure which. He also lectured me on only hanging out with English-speaking people, because I wasn't practicing my French. And there was a guy at the door, greeting us and apparently he's Kevin's friend and Kevin showed him my picture and they looked me up on Facebook, but didn't friend me. I'm a little sketched out. Because I walk in and the guy, Antoine, was like "You're Kevin's filleul, aren't you?" and I was like "what? who is this weird guy and how does he know me?". It was very bizarre. So I'm not sure I like my parrain. But whatever. I've managed to do pretty much everything without him, so it's all good. A bunch of us left early because it was really hot and loud and smoky in the bar and none of us wanted to go through what Kerryann and I did the night before (walk home), so then it was home and bed. Yay.
-Jeudi: In the morning, there was a forum/greeting-type thing for foreign students, so I went to that. Got a lot of free swag including, but not limited to: 3 free bags, 2 CDs, and a 6E discount coupon for an 8 month charge of my Korrigo carte. Which, when you consider that it initially costs 186E, doesn't seem like a lot, but that means that it cost 180E, which breaks down to 23E a month. Which is about 20 rides or 10 trips a month. Which is worth it. Look back at my entries. How many times have I gone downtown in the last week or so? Yeah, I'll use my card more than 20 times a month. And now, it's taken care of. I don't have to worry about charging it every week or month or anything. It's done for my entire stay here. Then it was back here to drop off our free gifts, and back downtown (noticing a pattern with this downtown thing?) to "meet the mayor". But since we were late, it was more of a "listen to the mayor talk and not understand anything because it was really noisy in the room we were in, get weird free drinks and leave". One of the drinks had unknown berries floating in it, the other one was green. I was a little worried. After we left, it was back up to school to cook dinner. I don't even remeber what we ate that night, all I remember is the wine bottle. We bought a bottle of wine, forgetting that we don't have a corkscrew. So I took it upon myself to try to open this bottle with whatever I could find in my room. This included: a knife, pliers, a fish scaler (on my Leatherman), a pen (which broke), tweezers, and a crochet hook. It was pretty special. Half an hour and one very confused French boy later (he came in when I had the crochet hook stuck in it), Katie finally came to my rescue and gave me her corkscrew. There was much rejoicing at that point. After dinner, it was back downtown to go to Le Pym's Discotheque for a live salsa band, although no dancing on my part, and hanging out with friends. It was a lot of fun, even though I was pretty tired. I met some new people, practiced some French, then came home quite early (11pmish) for a date with Amanda. We ended up talking until about 1am, maybe even 1:30, but it was worth it. I have no problem admitting that I miss her tons. Or tones as Dweezle would say. After that, it was time to pass out, only to lather, rinse, and repeat for the next day.
-Vendredi: Up early-ish for the Lettres meeting, which includes all French lit classes. Kinda boring, very hot in the room, I wasn't feeling too great. Onset of migraine-like symptoms. Then I ran around and got times for ALL my classes, which was great. I was really excited. Then it was lunch time at the RU. Delicious, as usual. Then I went to the office of international relations to get my student ID card, and is it ready? No. They said it'd be done Thursday, but "oops, I didn't go yesterday. Come back Monday" is the answer I get. In the meantime, they still owe me 8E, and I have about 0E50 to my name in cash. Fantastic. Plus I find out my stipend won't come through 'til NEXT Friday, so I have to keep using my own money to buy things the stipend should be paying for. Like food. And Metro tickets. And health insurance. It really sucks. I'm NOT pleased with the French at this point. At least, not when it comes to money and paperwork. After this great upset, it's time for a Library tour, which was useful and somewhat interesting, but I'm really feeling dead at this point. The stress just all sort of built up, so I left early, went back to my room and slept for 3 hours. I needed it. It hurt every time I turned my head. It was bad. After my much needed nap, it was time to make up my schedule. So, being my father's child, I opened Excel and plotted out all the possible times for classes and then chose the ones I wanted. I have 19hours/week and 7 classes. It sounds like a lot, but two of those hours and classes are only once a week for one hour. So it should be doable. After that was done, I went out to this bar called Funky Munky. I love it. It's a very mellow place, not loud and crowded like other bars I've been to. It's run by this nice British guy, whose name I do not yet know. But there are comfortable couches to lounge about on. It was a lot of fun. Also, the drinks are pretty large, compared to other places I've seen, and pretty strong, compared to others I've tasted. But, they cost about the same. All mixed drinks are 5E, which is cheap, considering what you're getting. Haley, Katie, and I called it an early night so that we could get up to go to Mont Saint Michel on Sunday. Which is the next post y'all will get.
Oh, also, Bobbie has informed me that you can call my cell. It doesn't cost me anything. But for you folks calling from the States, it might cost an arm and a leg. Or two. And since I'm lazy, you have to look up the calling codes. I think it's something like 011 33 6 59 19 06 93. But look it up. Or don't call me. I'm planning on getting a calling card soon, so I may call you instead. :-D
-Jeudi: In the morning, there was a forum/greeting-type thing for foreign students, so I went to that. Got a lot of free swag including, but not limited to: 3 free bags, 2 CDs, and a 6E discount coupon for an 8 month charge of my Korrigo carte. Which, when you consider that it initially costs 186E, doesn't seem like a lot, but that means that it cost 180E, which breaks down to 23E a month. Which is about 20 rides or 10 trips a month. Which is worth it. Look back at my entries. How many times have I gone downtown in the last week or so? Yeah, I'll use my card more than 20 times a month. And now, it's taken care of. I don't have to worry about charging it every week or month or anything. It's done for my entire stay here. Then it was back here to drop off our free gifts, and back downtown (noticing a pattern with this downtown thing?) to "meet the mayor". But since we were late, it was more of a "listen to the mayor talk and not understand anything because it was really noisy in the room we were in, get weird free drinks and leave". One of the drinks had unknown berries floating in it, the other one was green. I was a little worried. After we left, it was back up to school to cook dinner. I don't even remeber what we ate that night, all I remember is the wine bottle. We bought a bottle of wine, forgetting that we don't have a corkscrew. So I took it upon myself to try to open this bottle with whatever I could find in my room. This included: a knife, pliers, a fish scaler (on my Leatherman), a pen (which broke), tweezers, and a crochet hook. It was pretty special. Half an hour and one very confused French boy later (he came in when I had the crochet hook stuck in it), Katie finally came to my rescue and gave me her corkscrew. There was much rejoicing at that point. After dinner, it was back downtown to go to Le Pym's Discotheque for a live salsa band, although no dancing on my part, and hanging out with friends. It was a lot of fun, even though I was pretty tired. I met some new people, practiced some French, then came home quite early (11pmish) for a date with Amanda. We ended up talking until about 1am, maybe even 1:30, but it was worth it. I have no problem admitting that I miss her tons. Or tones as Dweezle would say. After that, it was time to pass out, only to lather, rinse, and repeat for the next day.
-Vendredi: Up early-ish for the Lettres meeting, which includes all French lit classes. Kinda boring, very hot in the room, I wasn't feeling too great. Onset of migraine-like symptoms. Then I ran around and got times for ALL my classes, which was great. I was really excited. Then it was lunch time at the RU. Delicious, as usual. Then I went to the office of international relations to get my student ID card, and is it ready? No. They said it'd be done Thursday, but "oops, I didn't go yesterday. Come back Monday" is the answer I get. In the meantime, they still owe me 8E, and I have about 0E50 to my name in cash. Fantastic. Plus I find out my stipend won't come through 'til NEXT Friday, so I have to keep using my own money to buy things the stipend should be paying for. Like food. And Metro tickets. And health insurance. It really sucks. I'm NOT pleased with the French at this point. At least, not when it comes to money and paperwork. After this great upset, it's time for a Library tour, which was useful and somewhat interesting, but I'm really feeling dead at this point. The stress just all sort of built up, so I left early, went back to my room and slept for 3 hours. I needed it. It hurt every time I turned my head. It was bad. After my much needed nap, it was time to make up my schedule. So, being my father's child, I opened Excel and plotted out all the possible times for classes and then chose the ones I wanted. I have 19hours/week and 7 classes. It sounds like a lot, but two of those hours and classes are only once a week for one hour. So it should be doable. After that was done, I went out to this bar called Funky Munky. I love it. It's a very mellow place, not loud and crowded like other bars I've been to. It's run by this nice British guy, whose name I do not yet know. But there are comfortable couches to lounge about on. It was a lot of fun. Also, the drinks are pretty large, compared to other places I've seen, and pretty strong, compared to others I've tasted. But, they cost about the same. All mixed drinks are 5E, which is cheap, considering what you're getting. Haley, Katie, and I called it an early night so that we could get up to go to Mont Saint Michel on Sunday. Which is the next post y'all will get.
Oh, also, Bobbie has informed me that you can call my cell. It doesn't cost me anything. But for you folks calling from the States, it might cost an arm and a leg. Or two. And since I'm lazy, you have to look up the calling codes. I think it's something like 011 33 6 59 19 06 93. But look it up. Or don't call me. I'm planning on getting a calling card soon, so I may call you instead. :-D