Settling in
Whew. Alright. What have I been up to while not writing in my journal?
Well, classes finally started, which is nice to finally have a set schedule. Also, I'm in a fairly good level. There's 19 groups of students, divided in numerical order by proficiency in French. Therefore, the first group knows practically no French and the 19th knows the most. I'm in the 16th, which really surprised me, but I'm able to follow everything in class and contribute, so I think it's the right level for me. My favorite aspect of the class though is that there are people from about a dozen different countries. Yesterday, I sat next to a girl from Bosnia-Herzegovinia and today I made friends with a German and an Estonian. I impressed a few Japanese with my shitty imitation of their language and I'm hoping to make friends with the girl from Moscow so I can practice my Russian.
Speaking of Russian, with my Russian classes, that makes a little less than 19 hours of classes per week. Not terrible. And I don't have class Wednesdays or Fridays, so that's rad. Then I find out this week what is going on with the internship at the newspaper. Apparently there's all this paperwork to do before I can start, because the French love bureaucracy, even more than Americans. But I'm kinda thinking it'll only be a few hours per week, I'm not sure though.
*****************
I went to a football (soccer) game on Friday. That was interesting. We won 4-0, which is an amazing score in football. But the game didn't interest me as much as the spectators. To start, the entire floor, seats, everything were covered in at least two inches of shredded-advertisement confetti that people would pick up once in a while, through some signal unknown to me, and toss it in the air. That was pretty fun. The other thing to mention is that the cheerleaders were male with a platform and a loudspeaker and would actually lead cheers and direct the crowd. I told my friend that in America the cheerleaders are only ever girls and just prance around in short skirts. "Oh yeah?!" he said, "that'd be pretty cool. But it'd be distracting, huh?"
*****************
I finally talked with my brother two nights ago after not hearing from him for two months, and guess what?!? He's getting married!! That's what happens when you don't talk to your sis' for two months: go off, propose to a girl. My older brother living a married life, can you picture it?
But I kid, I think it's great. I really like his fiancée, Emily, the few times I've met her, and I think he's making a good choice. The date is the 11th of June, so I'll be back stateside for about a week around then, so everyone mark your calendars. I'm still pretty gung-ho about this Russia thing though, so I'll still be gone for the summer....
Well, classes finally started, which is nice to finally have a set schedule. Also, I'm in a fairly good level. There's 19 groups of students, divided in numerical order by proficiency in French. Therefore, the first group knows practically no French and the 19th knows the most. I'm in the 16th, which really surprised me, but I'm able to follow everything in class and contribute, so I think it's the right level for me. My favorite aspect of the class though is that there are people from about a dozen different countries. Yesterday, I sat next to a girl from Bosnia-Herzegovinia and today I made friends with a German and an Estonian. I impressed a few Japanese with my shitty imitation of their language and I'm hoping to make friends with the girl from Moscow so I can practice my Russian.
Speaking of Russian, with my Russian classes, that makes a little less than 19 hours of classes per week. Not terrible. And I don't have class Wednesdays or Fridays, so that's rad. Then I find out this week what is going on with the internship at the newspaper. Apparently there's all this paperwork to do before I can start, because the French love bureaucracy, even more than Americans. But I'm kinda thinking it'll only be a few hours per week, I'm not sure though.
*****************
I went to a football (soccer) game on Friday. That was interesting. We won 4-0, which is an amazing score in football. But the game didn't interest me as much as the spectators. To start, the entire floor, seats, everything were covered in at least two inches of shredded-advertisement confetti that people would pick up once in a while, through some signal unknown to me, and toss it in the air. That was pretty fun. The other thing to mention is that the cheerleaders were male with a platform and a loudspeaker and would actually lead cheers and direct the crowd. I told my friend that in America the cheerleaders are only ever girls and just prance around in short skirts. "Oh yeah?!" he said, "that'd be pretty cool. But it'd be distracting, huh?"
*****************
I finally talked with my brother two nights ago after not hearing from him for two months, and guess what?!? He's getting married!! That's what happens when you don't talk to your sis' for two months: go off, propose to a girl. My older brother living a married life, can you picture it?
But I kid, I think it's great. I really like his fiancée, Emily, the few times I've met her, and I think he's making a good choice. The date is the 11th of June, so I'll be back stateside for about a week around then, so everyone mark your calendars. I'm still pretty gung-ho about this Russia thing though, so I'll still be gone for the summer....
Comments
Post a Comment