OMG! The first week of classes, can you say

Terrifying??

So I was quite convinced that this may be the worst semester ever, after going to the two classes I had last week. thankfully, I feel a lot better now.

I had a bunch of classes already this week. I understand ALL of them better than I did the lit and writing class I took last week. Which is great. It makes me feel SO much better. Even more impressive, it seems that I won't have too many papers this semester. It seems that most professors just use the midterm and final for grades. (I suppose this could backfire, but for now, i'm happy to have less work to do)

One of my classes is an Islamic Civilisation class, that I think is going to be really cool. Plus I'm having my notes from Judiasm and Islam sent over from home, as I think they'll be a big help. And the french history class sounds cool, as it is 16-18th century, which I think is an interesting period of time. Then there's old french... which is terrifying. Yet fascinating. I think I may stay in it for now, and drop it RIGHT before the final, so I can learn stuff, but not have what will surely be a crappy grade on my transcript. Also, I have 2 more sociological classes, which is absolutely wonderful, as I'm excited to see a different (non NU, non american) approach to such issues. This is me being REALLY excited. (yes, i know, i'm a nerd. But name calling isn't very nice. lol)

The professors seem to be very aware of international students here. This is good and bad. On the one hand, I've had several professors tell me there is a special exam for Int'l students (a 'lite' version), and they seem very eager to help, etc etc. But on the other hand, I've had a couple that seem to think I'm a complete moron just because I'm an international student. If they allow my actions to change their minds, it won't bother me, but for at least one of them, I'm fairly certain it will be more difficult than that. And I can't stand being smiled at condescendingly and essentially patted on the head and shooed out of the room. -grumble-

But i'm not upset, not yet anyways. I'm too excited for that! Now that I feel fairly certain I'm not going to fail, I am really hyper excited for this semester. The professors aren't NEARLY as mean as all of the study abroad people (at both universities) tried to convince me. They're approchable, so long as you don't argue, etc. (i am going to miss dropping in to bother professors for no academic reason though!) The classes aren't nearly as big as I thought they would be, and out of 10 prof's I've met so far, I could understand nearly everything that 6 of them said, a great majority of 2 or 3 and at least 65% of the rest. So I'm not as entirely behind as I feared.

So I think more people should come here. It isn't a terrifying perfect students only program, like I feared it would be. In fact there are a few students here who have taken all of 2 or 3 years of french. Plus there are classes in english, spanish, and a few others.

Now I just need to find a french person to bother. Almost every international student I've met is way more comfortable in english than french (and that counts asians, russians, dutch, germans etc) so.. that's more or less the official int'l student language. My current plan is to choose an afternoon to just sit at a cafe for like, ever, and pick someone at random who looks approchable. Well, other than making friends with french students that is.

And poor Stu!! He still hasn't gotten his money/bank card, etc. Hopefully tomorrow. I have a feeling he's going to self destruct if he doesn't.

And I've discovered that phone cards are extremely obnoxious. I've tried 3 brands, one of them doesn't know how to count minutes and blatently steals them, another only works 50% of the time, and the last isn't bad. Which wouldn't be a problem, except that the last time I needed one I tried about a dozen tabac's before I found one. I may order one off the net... I think it would make my life simpler.

I'm STILL going to the computer room to get internet, and the connection seems to break with more frequency now. yay........ If it gets much worse I'm going to have a lot of trouble getting my thesis started, and doing the extra work I'm sure i'll need to do to keep up in some of my classes... :/

i'll post again soon!
LeeAnna

ps.. omg, I'm in FRANCE (i have this random thought at least 3 times a week.)