Blog Abroad

Hey again! First day of classes so I thought I'd let you know how it went. First of all, I ran out of "minutes" on my dinosaur French phone last night so I went to the Tabac to recharge. The phone says "Orange" on it and has a lot of "Orange" apps, but apparently my sim card is SFR and not Orange, and the Tabac cannot exchange or return... so I lost 15 euros this morning. Soooo I'll have to try again tomorrow. Then before today even started, I had my alarm set at 9 AM because my first class was at 10:45, and I got a text from Mami (the student on the floor below that I take the bus with) sent me a text at 8:30 asking if I was ready, so that scared the daylights out of me. Also, surprisingly one of the women who work with the AUCP read at least part of my blog about my language partner liking the parties and the drinking, so she gave me a new partner today which was nice of her.

The first class was French Cultural Patterns and it wasn't bad. First day so, you know, don't really know a whole lot about the course yet. But the professor is Jean-Michel (sp) and I like his teaching style, so I think it'll go well. Also he said that Mondays will be more like lectures (which is good because I think we're all too tired to be talkative) and Fridays will be more interactive. And we already have our homework for Friday AND Monday...

Then we found a little cafe that wasn't very expensive where you can get a meal a dessert and a drink for 7,50 euros.

The second class was Translation, but I have a little backstory: we took a test to tell us how comprehensive we are in French and how good our grammar is and I didn't do nearly as well as I was expecting. Out of A1, A2 (beginner low and high), B1, B2 (intermediate low and high), and C1, C2 (advanced low and high), I scored B1 in grammar and written and A2 in oral comprehension. While I still don't completely believe that it accurately represents my level, it's an exam and I have to respect the science behind it. Which admittedly makes me feel incompetant but I guess everybody has to receive lower than average sometimes. So based on my score, I was told not to take grammar (which is for the lower half of the scores I think) but also not to take Translation (which is for the upper half I think), but I didn't get a chance to talk to the director about why I was told not to take either, so I sat in on the translation course. And I liked it. And since that's where I want to go with my life, I'm hoping I can talk to the director at some point tomorrow about possibly taking the course. We decide officially on Friday.

The final course was French Society, which I may end up taking for my last social sciences credit at Winthrop. It seems challenging, but I like a challenge.

And now I don't know where my host mother is... sooo.... I think I'll be a good student and start homework.

Talk to you later!