Back to the Grind

Sorry I haven't really updated in the past few days, I've honestly (mostly) just been busy with school. Or walking around Paris, but mostly, it's school. My advanced French class is Monday through Thursday 4-6pm and the Seminar on the Contemporary (just what I needed, another philosophy class) is Fridays from 10-1 which I knew what going to be bad a) because I can’t listen to French for that long without completely zoning out the first time I lose my concentration b) it’s much earlier than I’m used to doing things here (I get up at 9 every day :D) and c) because it’s a PHILOSOPHY class which means we’re going to have ‘rousing’ debates about stuff no one really cares about. I mean we’ve had debates in my advanced French class but it concerned whether or not everyone has a rights to free culture, to the arts, music, etc but I mean that pretty much struck a chord in everyone because everyone DOES something but I can guarantee no one has a personal stake in whether or not this dry historian is a contemporary of second dry historian or not based on the content or time of his writing. I’m just nervous because I know it’s going to be a lot of speaking and I can barely BS in English, so it’s going to be twice as hard in French. I would prefer he just lecture at us for three hours. He’s actually being really accommodating about the length though; we have a ten minute break every fifty minutes so it’s just like having three classes at BU back to back which I’ve done before.

We have the seminar until we leave in December but the Advanced French class ends in three weeks so it’s really jam-packed. We have an essay due sometimes twice a wee, as well as oral projects like preparing for debates. I forget when the poetry assignment is due but that’s coming up soon: we had to pick a poem and memorize it and then in like a week or so, we have to do a dramatic rendition of said poem. This is going to be THE WORST. Our final project is a news report and I can’t tell if she means that the whole class is doing one or that we’re splitting into groups; I have no idea but we’re being filmed and I hate seeing myself on film.

On a side note, I can hear the Italian speaking on the phone in French pretty fluently but I have NO IDEA WHAT HE’S SAYING. This is really getting to be a problem; I have to ask him to repeat everything like nine times and I’m sure he has some weird perceptions of me because I definitely don’t always know what he’s asking when I say yes or no. Last night for example, we were in the kitchen and I was probably washing dishes or something and he was making dinner and Bri has just left for Alsace for the weekend and he was asking me if I were going to travel but I thought we were still talking about Bri and he’s like non non, TU. Then I think he asked if I had any friends here but I thought he meant why am I not traveling with Bri and her friends and I was like well we aren’t really close with the same people and then he invited me out with his friends the following night, warning me that they only speak Italian. So NOW, in addition to already thinking I’m an idiot, he thinks I have to friends and I have to find some way to not be around tonight so I don’t have to reject his invitation. While it was a very nice gesture, I barely speak French, let alone Italian.

I’m going to a flea market today and running some errands after that but honestly I can’t wait to come home and work on my essay due Monday. I just want to wrap myself up in a cocoon of schoolwork and not ever leave the house. I don’t want to pick a boulangerie to go into every day because I don’t NEED a baguette every single day, nor do I need a pain au chocolat. I don’t want to pick a café to do my homework in because it’s not like they would notice if I were a regular anyway. I don't like trying to fit in here.