First Post of October!

Yesterday I took a day off from life, because I was feeling pretty crappy. Not quite sure why. But I stayed at home, caught up on some much-needed sleep, and got a bunch of work done for school. And then I went to bed at 21h30, which was awesome.

Today I felt much better and headed off to my Travaux Practiques class. We discussed our countries' stereotypes of the French, and it was really amusing. One of the groups said that France is supposed to be the "country of love" and they supported this claim by mentioning all the PDA. And my professor said, "That is true. But I think my generation was even more open about their displays of affection."

WHAT?! Julia B (a girl from BU who is in my Travaux Practiques) and I looked at each other in horror. How could anyone possibly be more demonstratif?! Oh good lord. Ugh.

After class, Sam, Monica, Julia B and I grabbed lunch at Quality Burger, which was a little like a McDonalds. It was pretty decent, and there was this sweet thing like the Monopoly game at Mickey-D's, but it was a poker thing. Sam is now collecting them.

I then went back to the campus to meet with Heui-Tae Park, the Korean man who had asked about the English lessons for his daughter. We sat in the university library and discussed what he was looking for, which is basically just help with her pronunciation. He thinks that French accents (when speaking English) are atrocious. I asked if he would like me to help with her grammar, and he was like, "No, not really. The important thing is the pronunciation." So. That'll be interesting. And it will probably also help with my project about accents!

We ended up chatting for an hour and a half because he was asking me questions about my program and what I'm doing here in France, and I found out that he's doing his doctorate here on French film, and that when he finishes (he's in his final year), he wants to teach at a university. He was really nice and I do not get any creepy vibes, which is good. He also wants to pay me 10€ an hour, but we'll see how that goes, because you know, Jill always feels bad when people try to pay her and offers to do things for free because she's nice/irritating like that.

After this, I met up with my Intègre partner at her apartment. We sat in her kitchen, drank tea and chatted for a little more than an hour. She was really nice and we had fun, switching between English and French. She's going to come here next Tuesday and we'll chat again. I feel like it really will help, being able to talk one-on-one with someone once a week. Especially when that someone is a student and understands what you're going through.

I came home to find Clare, Geoffrey and Anna in the kitchen with Christine! The cooking classes start tonight! Sam and I are really excited because we thought that we didn't get to eat when students from the BU program came to cook because that would mean a lot of food (dinner for seven!). But Christine assured us that there would be plenty and that it would be delicious, alors, who are we to say non to free food? Tonight will be a vegetarian meal because Geffoire and Clare are veggies, so we will have to see what marvelous dishes Christine has whipped up!

A bientôt!