Well this week I was pretty excited to start school at the university! I had the whole "first day of school" nerves, hoping to meet some cool french friends. Unfortunately, I must have misunderstood how my two classes at the university would work, because I actually only have ONE class there, just twice a week, for 3 hours each day. I was confused because it's a six credit class so I kind of assumed it would be two separate french classes. Another disappointing thing is that I was told that the students in my class would be from all over the world; however, 15/17 in my class are from the U.S., and most are pretty much struggling in their french, so I felt a little out of place. It was way too easy; I'm hoping I can switch to a higher level class. : ( I got a little discouraged after the first class, because now I have all my classes with only United States study abroad students. That's fine I guess, but I was hoping to never speak English if I don't have to.
Other than school starting, I had kind of an uneventful week because I got sick! How great. I had a fever and sore throat for a few days which kept me in bed a lot. My host mom was so nice, I thought she must be wondering why I was in my room for 30+ hours so I tried to get the energy to stand up to let her know I'm sick. Upon hearing this, she hustled into the kitchen to get me some medicine for my fever, cough drops and also made me a homemade tea with honey and lemon juice. It was so sweet! As far as the home stay is going, it seems like I'll basically be on my own all the time. The mom and daughter are not the type to hover or ask questions about my day, which I wasn't expecting but it's okay because all three of us are very independent, busy people.
Yesterday I went to the Père Lachaise cemetery, a very famous french cemetery which is home to Édith Piaf, Frederic Chopin, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and many more famous names. It was by far the biggest, creepiest, awesomest cemetery I've seen. If you ever want to feel like you're a character in Harry Potter being chased by Lord Voldemort…this is the place to go.
is that a house or a grave?
Jim Morrison.. many people had honored him by throwing their cigarettes or empty whiskey bottles on the grave.. ha
Edith Piaf and family
Oscar Wilde
After the cemetery, my friends and I were planning to get some dinner and then go to an opera at L'Opera de la Bastille. We have been told by many that if you go within 15-20 minutes of the show sometimes you can get tickets for only 5 or 10 euros. Well we did that and were told to buy them for 30 euros otherwise the 5 euro tickets are only to hear the performance, not see it. So we didn't go. But normally the tickets to this specific opera (which was a Puccini performance) cost 180 euros, or about 250 dollars!!! That's more than I'm paying for my spring break trip!
I figured my dad and brother might appreciate this. Funny thing is that under Harley Davidson it says "fashion shoes and clothes" … yeah because that's really what Harley is all about..
This weekend I have a four day weekend, so I'm going to Lyon, France with a couple friends to do more exploring! Until next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment