14 September 2008

First Week of Classes

Monday was without anything exciting. Still going to the comp room for internet. One interesting thought... is there and should there be a universal language? Guillemette new about the street youths! She is going to get me an article... -yay-

Tuesday... missed half of class because I didn't feel well, and then walked to the meeting to sign up for courses. Can you say Chaos?? They put up a schedule from each department on the wall, and then turned loose about 100 students to try and find the times for the classes they wanted, and make a schedule. It took a long time, and was absolute insanity. Plus, we had to pick courses which only had half the title up there (like "french history" what KIND of history???). So many classes conflicted that I ended up choosing a lit class at random just to fill the space, because I didn't have any more classes on my list. Complete insanity. The french need to learn about this cool thing called the internet :D
In the evening Jen and I met some other international students on our way back, and they were from about a zillion different countries. We ended up showing a girl from Jen's school around Lille. We took her to CarreFour, and helped her figure out what the stuff she was buying was, and then we swung by the Grand Place to show her where all the other necessities and cool sights were. And I got the eiffel tower earrings I wanted for my sister. Now only 1 to go... And I got a cheap pan, so now i can cook! Hurray!

Wednesday was my last class for the summer course, at long last! I'm going to miss the talking, and Guillemette, but I'll be glad to move onto some new material. Next to no one was there. Lunch at the Rue again. A guy asked me something, and it was loud and he talked fast. When i asked for him to 'repetez moins vite' he just switched to english. Grr! Orientation turned out to be a great time to catch up my journaling, lol. And kendall and I managed to lose the tour. They were going up to the computer room, and we thought they'd be right back, but they apparently left a different way... oops!
Wednesday evening was the welcome dinner at the residence. Jen and I got bored quickly, so she dragged me off to find this tiny, creepy alley she had discovered on her first day in Lille. We couldn't find it for the longest time, and decided it must be a magical harry potter-esque alley. We did find this cool Roman/Greek esque cathedral though. It looked more like a greek pantheon than a church, the carvings on the front even looked like greek gods. It was HUGE, and had another of these random, red brick clock towers that are near a bunch of the churches. Behind the church, we found a fenced in area with giant army trucks in it. (it can't be fun driving those down the tiny lille roads!) We wanted to go play with them. There were lots of old, pretty buildings in that direction. The coolest one had to have been the headquarters of the French Bank. I'll try to get some pictures of it. And a pizza place where you can get all the toppings you want for 10euro.
We finally found the alley on the way back. And it was tiny! Just enough for me and jen to stand side by side. And dark, and creepy. Jen kept coming up with these strange thoughts, like a butcher could be standing in that doorway, with a big knife! I was SO tempted to grab her and scream, just to see what she'd do. I restrained myself though. Gold star for me! lol.

Thursday was... depressing. I had my first class at 8am. Which meant I was up at 6. Yuck. The class was... scary. It was the randomly chosen class. The prof was really nice, but it's a 300 level comparative lit class (i didn't notice the 300 part when Bray told me to take it). And it's on theatre, which I only understand in Dr. Borgstrom's classes. lol. I understood about 70percent of what he said. He went over all of this stuff about spanish theatre... I was well and truly overwhelmed. I don't think this will be one of the classes I keep.
The placement exam for the FLE class was quite easy though. I wish we got to see the results though, because i just wanna know what i did wrong! I am trying not to be nervous about the results, as I will be happy with either the middle or higher level class. Guillemette teaches the middle class, and she rocks. But I would like to be in a lvel high enough that i learn something new.
Something I learned Thursday... apparently PC's set off the library alarms here. Sorting that out was interesting. Trying to talk to people here has quite lowered my faith in my french speaking abilities. Also, apparently pop machines need exercise too. This one had the moving shelf do-hicky that makes sure the pop doesnt get shook up, and it ran it up and down randomly every so often. good stuff.
I got to talk to my momma! i haven't done that in, like, forever.
While my french speaking has been depressing, my social skills aren't failing me. I have met so many cool people here. From all over the place, and all kinds of cool experiences. There's always something to do or people to see. It really is a great experience. Hell, it would be fun even if i came to take english classes and just experience lille.
J and I got to talk for a decent amount of time, which was really nice as we talk for all of 5 or 10 minutes most days. I lvoe webcams :) Especially as i get more used to talking to a computer in a room full of other people. lol I just wish you could get hugs over the internet! :)
Also interesting- class rooms are ALWAYS locked. Every prof locks the door when they leave, so you can't get in until your prof arrives.

that's it! All the back entries are done. I'm gunna take a break, and then I'll get friday, sat and today done.

~LeeAnna

1 comment:

Bill Chapman said...

You wrote: "One interesting thought... is there and should there be a universal language?" I would like to argue the case for Esperanto as the universal language. It is a planned language which belongs to no one country or group of states.

Take a look at www.esperanto.net

Esperanto works! I've used it in speech and writing in a dozen countries over recent years.