Cinquieme semaine

Cou cou!!
(Ah….I love that phrase…)

I hope everyone is doing well and has had an amazing Welcome Week…I wonder who won the UNolympics…I hope ERC got something…!! Make me proud!

So, last week, I had my first week of real classes. It was a bit annoying because I had to go to about 13 classes to figure out my 4 classes that will work for me (in other words, upper division, more than 4 units, and having to do with France or something French). It is pretty hard to do that here, especially because the French university system likes to break up classes into smaller classes…in other words, one class may be split into two parts and each part is worth 2.5 but together they are 5 units. Unfortunately, UCSD doesn’t accept classes like that, at least for my major, and so I have to find really big classes (a lot of hours) which is extremely hard to do. But I managed…it did take a while though.

So my first day, I went to a music class in the morning that didn’t work out because it wasn’t about France. I just asked one of the students before class if it was a general class or not and he told me it covered all regions. It was a history of music class. So then I went to my art history class which I am actually enrolled in. That worked out well and I met a cool Italian named Dario from Erasmus. The next day, I tried to go a class at 9, 9:30, and 9:45. It was lucky because the class at 9 didn’t work out so I could leave right away and the class at 9:30 seemed pretty promising (History of Theatre/Cinema) and so I didn’t bother to go to the 9:45 one at the Science Po. I still need to talk to the other professor though (because it’s a two part class) to see whether the cinema aspect is about French cinema/European cinema, or world cinema. I hope it’s the first one. Wednesday I went to a Solfége class (music theory), but for second years. I was very confused (especially because of a lack of knowledge of vocabulary), but it was still really fun. I talked to the professor and he recommended coming into the Solfége License 1, first year music theory. Then I went to my geography class where I barely understood the professor, especially with all those numbers he was rattling off, but met some cool Irish girls. It seems to be a lot easier to meet international students than the French students. Not that I haven’t tried! I tried to talk to the French students, really I did, but they are either not interested in conversing with me, or have their own friends to chat with. Even in the first year classes…it was kinda sad. I really thought that first years would be more open to make friends and talk to people on the first day…but no. They don’t really care.

Thursday I went to the Solfége 1 class and the theory was a little easier, but I still struggled with vocabulary. I mean, afterall, I don’t use musical terms on a daily basis in French…you know? And there was a girl sitting next to me who was really really good and so that didn’t help my self esteem because her sight reading was perfect and mine definitely was not. I have to relearn notes again! They use different names for the notes…I’m not used to that! I feel like I’m in elementary school again…learning the names of the notes, and the rhythms…ahhhh….I feel like such an ignoramus. Bugger. I tried to talk to the first years in that class too….and we went a whole 10 minutes without them even asking where I was from. Again, they just don’t care about international students. But one guy was pretty nice and so I was talking to him the majority of the time. It took him forever to actually ask where I was from, and even so, he did it indirectly. But I saw him the next week standing outside a classroom and waved and said, “Bonjour…ça va?” which he responded to with a smile…so I think that means....”friends.” Or at least, “I recognize you” (which is totally fine with at this point). We had to sing individually in the class at the end which I was nervous about and I totally rushed my rhythms…soo bad! But I was scared and nervous! My prof was really nice though and allowed me to chante en anglas (sing in English) instead of French…because the French say different letter names than we do. That was very nice of him, but we have a placement exam this week and I don’t think it’ll be that easy…so I need to get crackin’ on French music theory!

I went shopping in the morning on Friday and bought 2 pairs of pants at Zara’s…yay, French style! And got some food for lunch, went to the fac to continue my research for my architecture paper. I am having trouble finding sources on my topic though (Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d’Angers) and there is this one book that I’ve found at the art history library which is pretty good, except I can’t take it out. I could photocopy it, but I need to get money on my student card before I can do that and I can’t do that until I can go the administration office because I don’t have a French bank card…ahhh complications. It amuses me so. Not really actually…kinda makes me mad. Anyhow, I went to dinner that night and then to hang at a pub with my friends later that night which was fun, especially because this pub has been dubbed the Centre de Californie because all of the California students hang out around there, apparently. Them and English/Irish/Australians. We met a cool Brit there from Brighton and were talking with him for a while until some of our French friends showed up.

Saturday, I stayed inside and tried to research and study…but was pretty unsuccessful. I can only look up every other word so many times, just too tedious. I wanted to go out that night, but was unsuccessful with gathering a number of people to go. Fortunately, my family was super nice and was having a dinner party with their friends and so they invited me! We drank wine, talked (Spanish and French!), ate good food, and had fun. It was quite a nice evening. Sunday I stayed inside as well since everything is closed in France on Sunday and tried to finish up the book I had for research so I could return it on Monday.

Monday, I went to the fac early to study at the library, since the library is not open on the weekends (ridiculous! I know! What…students don’t study on the weekends…!?), and got some café at the student cafeteria and read the paper. I had a TD (travaux dirigée) for histoire de l’art and sat with my new Italian friend and talked. Then I went to lunch and because my art history class (cours majestral) was cancelled, I tried to go to the administration office to get money on my student card so I could finish my research and make photocopies, but it wasn’t open. I did, however, meet two really nice French students (first years) who study English and Spanish. I was with my other friend and the Frenches were really excited that we were from California (their exact response was “oh là là!”). So, we exchanged numbers and said we would call each other the next day so we could meet up and they can practice their English and us, our French. That made my day…I love making new friends!

Today, class pretty boring and apparently I fooled some girl sitting next to me into thinking I was French because she kept asking to see my notes (which I nervously showed her seeing as I don’t have very good ones (obviously I can’t understand everything the prof says)). During the break I talked with her and it was only when I told her that I was a foreign student did she realize it…it was pretty amusing. I’ve found out that freshmen die in 3 hour classes, especially history of theatre ones, and they start falling asleep about 1.5 into the class….then get really distracted during the last half (after the cigarette break…yeah. It’s NOT a bathroom break…it’s definitely a cig break…). After class, I went to lunch with a friend and we tried to meet up with those French students we met the day before to converse in English, but they were unavailable. We’ll try again tomorrow I suppose. I went home early, practiced music, went to the mall with my family for a little bit to look at coats, and here I am now…still practicing music but need to move on to reading my books. Insane.

Anyway, I am getting a bit upset because my parent’s birthday present I sent home seems to be taking a little longer than I expected and I need to it to get there in time…oh well. Boo French post. Tant pis.

À toute à l’heure!
Sherilyn