3 Weeks and It Still Hasn't Sunk In? And Fun Random Recollections.

3 weeks have slipped by so quickly. I know I keep saying time is going by fast here, but it really seems to speed up everyday. It feels like I've been here 3 days. There is still no sense of awe or excitement within me. I think it's because I've been so focused on getting fully registered here, making sure I have enough food to eat, and applying for grad school. Also, finding a proper church close enough has been a bit of a struggle. I miss church so badly! My prayer life seems to have been all the more enhanced for it, though. :)

*insert wistful sigh here*

And now, a series of unorganized blurbs of things that have happened.

I picked two optional courses, which are literature and French sociological and economic life. In the latter class, I sat with a bunch of friendly Chinese students. The professor gave us a blank map of France and told us to help each other label the different regions. One of the girls I was sitting with whipped out a book that we have that had a map in it of the regions, and we all proceeded to kind-of-sort-of cheat. We hid it when the professor passed and looked at what we were doing, then looked at each other and just burst out laughing after she had left. She caught two of the girls with it open later, though, and simply told them to not look at it. It wasn't a test, so I doubt she much cared. It was still fun to sit and laugh with them about it, though.

Everybody is put into classes according to a level that they've tested into out of six levels. Within that level, you are then put into a group and you're given a predetermined schedule of courses. Because of this, you wind up going to all the same classes with the exact same people everyday. As a result, our group (B1, group three) has become quite friendly and we've all gotten to know each other. I wasn't expecting this, since these are people who aren't in the ISEP program with me. These are students from Sweden, Malaysia, Spain, China, Great Britain, and some other Americans. It's amazing how nicely people from different cultures can come together!

We've all been really interested in each other's countries and cultures. I've learned a lot of fun stuff!

Being bilingual is tons of fun, and listening to the people who are trilingual is amazing. The people from Spain can speak French, Spanish, and English, so we'll often have Frenglish conversations, which probably sound a little crazy. The other day, our (very French) professor came back into the room after we'd had a break, and we were all speaking either Spanish, English, or Chinese to each other, so she said in perfect English, "Oh, everybody's speaking French! How wonderful!"

Je parle français comme un enfant.

For the record, all courses are conducted completely in fluent French by French natives. I've had people ask me about that.

French keyboards are different. We have a lab class on Mondays where we work on computers, and I had to adjust my brain to operate the keyboard.

I found myself hitting "q" a lot, and it took me a bit to recognize that all my periods were in fact semi-colons.

I saw a green lizard today! Usually they're brown. I'm trying to take a picture of the birds here, since they're gorgeous, but they move too fast. Also, the sirens on police cars sound different here. They're deeper and less shrill.

I'll be posting about food next time! Om nom nom.