Sep 30, 2007 23:59
So I haven't updated in a week. Sue me. Here it is. Better late than never, right? I'm not going to talk about classes too much yet, that will be a separate post. Don't worry. So here goes...
-Lundi: 9h15 I had an awful Spanish class. I'm not going to keep it. I understood very little and what little I did understand, I wasn't interested in. To top it all off, first thing in the morning, lecture of 200 people, someone's cell phone starts going off. Me, I put my phone on silent. Or so I thought. Yeah, that's right. It was my phone. So I'm awkwardly fumbling, trying to get my phone out to turn it off and one by one the whole class falls silent, including the teacher and they're all looking at me. Or at least my general direction. It was so embarrassing. So yeah, that class is gone. I had 19 hours planned out to begin with, and that's a lot. François seems to think we should only have about 15, which is what I do at UVM. I'm down to 17 now, and I think that's doable. After that disastrous class, I trudged home, well actually, I took the metro, since I was really feeling sick. Maybe that's why I didn't understand anything in Spanish... And upon my arrival at Guyenne, I had a letter!!! From Amanda!!!! Honestly, that made my whole day better. Seriously people, letters make me so ridiculously happy, you have no idea. So spend the 90cents and send me one. I'll love you forever. With this letter happily in my possession, I went back down to campus to get my student ID (FINALLY) and to open a French bank account. Where I broke the bank computer. They tried to enter my information and the computer just decided to give up. It was done. Sorry, not going to work anymore. So a line of about 7 people built up behind me while they filled out the paperwork by hand. Oh the horror! Having to do something by HAND!!! But it all worked out. I have a French bank account with no money in it, because I haven't transfered any yet. But I will. And my stipends will be deposited into there. That night, it was back to campus for the CIREFE test. It's a placement test to determine which level of CIREFE classes I'll be taking this semester. CIREFE is basically just the language classes so that I can learn to speak French. It reminded me of Ste Anne, for those of you who understand what I mean. At some point there was dinner, then a movie, Dogma, and bed.
-Mardi: I got up in the morning and heard people talking outside my room. I open the door, in my usual groggy morning state, and there's the cleaning lady babbling away at this poor Italian girl who doesn't understand a WORD of French. She's asking her if she's done her Etat des lieux yet. Basically, the room evaluation done at the beginning of the semester. Then she turns on me. And I hadn't done mine either, but I really had to pee. But after that I did my Etat des Lieux and all is well. They now know that everything in my room is crap, so if there are any damages, I shouldn't have to pay. Which I approve of. I don't like paying for things. Then I had two classes, Littérature Française and Theme. Lit. Française is pretty self explanitory, it's French Lit from the 19th century. Theme is a translation class from French to English. The opposite, English to French, is called Version here. But Version is REALLY hard. I know this from UVM. So I'm avoiding that class if possible. I snuck a nap in there somewhere, then more French Lit, since there's two parts (I'll explain later). Dinner was french toast, because I'm sick and was feeling gross and really wanted french toast. So I made everyone else eat it for dinner. But the stupid grocery store on campus doesn't have maple syrup! I was so upset. Instead, we got cinnamon, caramel sauce, and apples and made a sort of sauce out of them. It was good, but syrup would have been better. *Update* I have since found maple syrup, but it's from Canada. It says it's 100% syrup though, so I have decently high hopes. It won't be VT syrup, but it shouldn't be awful. Then, as usual, it was movie and bed.
-Mercredi: Wednesday started out very badly. I was running late, it was raining, the crazy cleaning lady attacked me, DEMANDING to know where her sign was. I didn't even know there was a sign. I still don't know what this sign business was about. Then, to top it all off, I took the metro because I was running late and wouldn't I slip and fall in the station because of my stupid shoes and the wet floor. It was pretty embarrassing. I don't think anyone saw me though. It hurt nonetheless. Thankfully, my classes went well. I had Techniques of Translation, which is mostly Version, so I may take it just as an auditor (I'll explain later). I also had Celtic Civilization. I think that class will be really interesting. I also think my professor is a linguistic hobbit. He's small and hobbit-ish. I'm not sure I can explain him. He also speaks about 400 languages. I'm really impressed. Upon my return from class, I had a new sink pipe-thing! I discovered the other day that I had a leak in the bottom of mine, so I didn't splash as much as I thought while doing laundry. My sink was just leaking. But no more! Then, to make things even better, Brierley gave me drugs, so my cold finally started to let up and at least allow me to concentrate in class, rather than having my head in a fog all the time. And that's about it for Mercredi.
-Jeudi: Happy Birthday Mom and Haley!! Thursday was more Celtic Civ, but that was it for classes. I tried activating my student account, but apparently, my information on the sheet the school gave me doesn't match their database. Explain this one to me please. This sheet was printed from their database. I don't understand how they can't match. I talked to a computer-aide-type-person and it should all be worked out. I haven't checked yet. Mostly because I haven't been on campus again since Thursday afternoon. I had a brief meeting with François to go over classes. He thinks I'm taking too much, as I've said before. He also told me that if I decide I'm going to fail a class, just to tell him, and he'll write that I was just auditing. Which should mean that I never enrolled in the class, don't take the tests, I just went for my own enjoyment and interest. However, what it means here is that I enroll in the class, take the tests, fail, and François sort of eliminates the grade and says I was just there because I was interested in the topic and not actually taking the class. As I said on Wednesday, I might do this with Techniques of Translation. Back to the dorms for a nap, in which I passed out (I think I need to sleep more at night). When I woke up, I walked down to the nearby bakery and bought a little fruit tart for Haley's birthday, then met up with Tiffany and Brierley at Carrefour to do some shopping. I don't think I got anything too exciting, except for a hand towel with giraffes on it. It make me happy. But that's not hard to do. After dinner, Haley, Tiffany, Katie, Brierley, and I went out to Funky Munky for birthday drinks. Apparently there was some party for another foreign group going on that night, so the bartender, Loic, passed out free shots to everyone. It was pretty exciting. Then, because it was Haley's birthday, she got a free shot that was chocolaty and strong and delicious, according to her. I liked it because Loic put a sparkler in it before serving the shot to her. With a nice buzz and a lecture from Loic that Rennes is not always safe and girls should always travel in packs, it was time to go home for bed.
-Vendredi: I got to sleep late, as I have no classes on Fridays. Yay! I didn't do too too much. I went down to Champion to get some food and it turns out there was a really cool spectacle going on with traditional Celtic music, bagpipes, flute/fifes, etc... I wish I had my camera with me. But of course, I didn't. I think they were celebrating the re-doing of the square. But all I've seen them do is put up some new posts on a pavilion-type thing. Maybe they've been working on it all summer. I don't know. Later that night, I went out with some friends and discovered that kir cassis is quite tasty and cheap. I don't really know what it is, but I'm okay with that. Cassis is black current, I know that. I think the kir is white wine mixed with a flavored liqueur. In this case, cassis. I didn't stay out too late though. I was tired. I didn't get a nap, I don't think. Amusing thing: On the way back to the metro from the bar, a man passed by me and said "Bonsoir, tu est très belle". ("Good evening/hello, you're very pretty") I found it amusing. He was very drunk. I will admit that I did look fairly nice. But I've officially been hit on by my first drunk, old man. I'm under the impression that if you stay in France long enough, this is bound to happen at least a few times. Often, if you're really pretty.
-Samedi: As with every Saturday, there was the Marché!!!! Yes, the exclamation points are necessary. There I bought lots of fruit including a mango, which makes me think of Kushboo (yum), some bread, and a bottle of blush, fruity wine. For dinner we went out to a Chinese place. Apparently this was decided the night before, but I wasn't paying attention. 10 minutes before leaving Brierley stuck her head in my door and ask if I was coming. My response was "Coming where?" I had no clue what was going on, but went anyways. While waiting to meet up with the rest of the group a man tried to talk to me and tell me it was his "fête". In France, you celebrate two days, your actual birthday and your saint's day. Saturday was St Michel, so everyone named Michael should have been celebrating. I told him I was American and didn't understand French very well. A lie, perhaps, but I think he was going to ask for money, which I wasn't going to give him. I only have about $5/day to eat, so I can't go around giving my money away. The dinner was really quite good. I had beef in satay sauce, I think. The menu was, of course, in French and I don't know most of the translations for specific sauces and whatnot. Meats, noodles, rice, vegetables, I get. But sauces and preparation, no. The meal lasted from about 8pm to about 11pm. At that point, I went home and went to bed, thinking that I need to clean my room, as my floors were getting gritty and gross.
-Dimanche: Not a whole lot to report for today. It was a fairly lazy day. I did some work for the coming week, cleaned my room, organized my clothes and papers, etc... The most exciting thing that happened is that I accidentally broke a glass. I knocked it off my desk and it shattered into a hundred pieces. The I had to sweep my floor. Now it is lovely and grit (and glass) free. I lied, I'm sorry. The most exciting thing today was/is my date with Amanda. I miss her. A LOT. I've said that before and I'm sure I'll say it again as the semester goes on. The good news is that we'll see each other at Christmas. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I'm going to RI. End of story. After I post this and finish talking to Amanda, it will be bed time. I may or may not have a class Monday.