Two Weeks In

Eating a kebab, the French equivalent of cheap Mexican food with mystery meat, while listening to Sweeney Todd is not a very good idea.

Anyhow. Not much to update on this time, though I do feel like it’s necessary to check in every few days here. I’ve been keeping myself plenty busy, I certainly haven’t had much alone time since arriving in France… which is nice on one hand, because it means that I’m doing things, but on the other hand it’s nice to just relax, read, take a nap, and have some free time. I’ve been drawing plenty since I got here, though admittedly most of it is on my notes while I’m listening to my professor squawk. Though I’m nearly finished with my old sketchbook, and ready to move onto the next… Lots of little new drawings to show everyone when I get back, though. Another interesting life update is that I went running today for the first time since arrival. Bad that it’s taken me two weeks, but I suppose I’m allowed some settling time, what with all the walking and stair-climbing I’ve been doing (have I mentioned I’m on the 4th floor?) it might have killed me earlier.

Speaking of the fourth floor, move-out is on Friday. Which means that I have to drag my giant suitcase all the way back down those lovely stairs… Better than dragging it up, though, I suppose? I already moved part of my things over to the apartment, so it shouldn’t be that bad. It’s only one suitcase and a backpack, assuming I can fit it all back in there. I’ll just be glad, very very glad, that the ILP class will be over by then. This week our original professor returned, and I realized how much I dislike her… she speaks with what sounds like a German accent, though she has a very high-pitched, jerky voice. Listening to her speak for four hours with no break is a bit strenuous. Not to mention once she yelled at me for five minutes (no exaggeration) just because I was looking something up in my little pocket dictionary. She always nitpicks every single thing that I do, and leaves the other students alone, even if their pronunciation is enough to make me want to commit French suicide. Two days left, two days… And then I get to start the real big adventure: actual French classes! The lack of organization is driving me absolutely insane. There’s not even class lists up yet for most of the departments, and classes start on Monday. We have to register ourselves by going and talking to about five different people, and doing about a million other things that just make my mind spin. I will be totally screwed… and all this is even BEFORE classes actually start! Oh dear god, what have I gotten myself into?

I’m going to talk about pizza because that makes me happy. For our weekly picnic given to us by the lovely ladies at the Centre de Californie, they had pizza! And the usual cheese and bread and juice. But the pizza was heavenly, even though there was only a small slice per person. Mmm.

Something else that creeps me out intensely, but is slightly interesting as well: the gypsies. People told me that they would be here, begging for money and whatnot, and I was ready for that. What I was not prepared for was them to move into the little park across the street about a week and a half after move-in, and then every couple of nights at three or four in the morning, come into the dorms and knock on everyone’s doors and trying to get into people’s rooms to steal their money. I have slept through these encounters, I’m not sure how, but I have. Probably a good thing, though. There are numerous horror stories, none of which I’m sure are true, such as them coming and looking under people’s doors while they’re showering. There is definite proof that they’ve been using the showers, though, and the most annoying thing: They pooed in our staircase. Our staircase now smells like ass.

For anyone who is wondering or concerned, I am not only hanging out with Americans. Starting Monday, the area has been FLOODED with international students from all over the place. On Monday, we had a four-hour test for placement in the DEFLE classes, and I just talked to people (in French, which was interesting when people had different accents). I have talked to people from: Libya, South Africa, Argentina, Algeria, Germany, Russia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, China, Iceland, Australia, and Poland. The list keeps growing. But naturally, I’m also hanging out with French people. From parties and bars and whatnot, we’ve all made French friends, and hung out with them several times. It’s also nice to just run into people I know on the tram and have chats about strikes in French. I’m liking the French people very much, not to mention going out with them gives me an excuse to not hang out with some of the loud, annoying Americans that I happen to know here.

And that, my friends, has been my life. I feel a little bad always going out and draining my battery down every night, but hopefully it won’t do too much damage… I don’t think we’ll have internet as soon as we move into the apartment, but I guess that’s what McDonalds is for. We’ll see how often I’m on after that, until people figure out how to get organized. Starting to look into different travel plans. Still definitely looking into Italy for the break, but also thinking Lyon in early December for their lights festival (and snow!), Paris relatively soon, in the next month once we get settled in… We’ll see, we’ll see. There definitely isn’t enough time here to see everything that I want to see, but that’s what life is for, eh?