glimpse into the future and school matters

I forgot to mention that the night I visited L'Opera Garnier, I was thinking about my visit there and how much I loved it, thought it beautiful, and for the FIRST time I realized how hard it's going to be to leave Paris at the end of the year. I know that sounds crazy, and I didn't think I'd feel that way so soon. There's so much that I love at home--mostly family and friends--but not places, exactly. I love San Francisco and Los Angeles, but I don't love those cities as much as I have come to love Paris. And I've only been here 3 weeks or so. Who falls in love that fast?

I don't want to think about the future. One of my New Year's resolutions was to not think too much or worry about the future. But I know it's going to be very hard to leave next year. Very hard.

In other news, I'm getting ready for St. Denis, or Paris 8. St. Denis is part of the Universities of Paris--that includes the prestigious Sorbonne as well. I'm not all about prestige or anything, but my school is on par with a community college, and that's cool with me. Mot. Also, I've been saying "mot" a lot (pronounced like the name "Moe"), which translates in English to "word". Word. Mot. I'm such a dork. But it makes my friends laugh.

This week I'm getting lots of things finished:
1. my student card
2. my carte de sejour
3. class schedule: I'm banking on 2 French oral and written classes, a French cinema class, a French history class, and another Cinema class. I've been looking at the cinema class schedule, and it's getting me super excited!! There are cinema classes being offered in English, and that might be a good. We'll see. We have to have 15 units completed each semester. If I have free days, I'm going to look into doing tutoring or babysitting on the side for some extra euros. Mot.

I couldn't stop laughing today, so many funny things happened. In our cultural adaptation class, Kathy said "watering hole" instead of "water cooler"--as in the place where a lot of information is exchanged between co-workers. I know that sounds stupid, but it was so hilarious to me! And then after class, my classmate Romina said to my other classmate Kris, "Kris, you should get out more often!" Kris is sort of shy and doesn't seem like the party-goer type. And Kris says, "Go out? Why? I'm going out to buy a tv today." And I just laughed so hard. And then, later, Lucia was over using my internet, and she was trying to explain xenophobia to me, and she was all, "It's a fear of...these people, who aren't from your country, and a l'etrangere..." And she was searching for the word, talking in English and in French, and I was all, finally, "Foreigners?" And we both laughed SO HARD because we both recognized how we're forgetting English. It was just too hilarious. I swear, the only time I practice my written English is when I write in here.

UPDATE: I added 2 more blogs at the left, and they're both from SFSU students. Woot! Check it! "I Wanna Be Expatriated" is from my friend Meghann, and "Donnez-Moi Les Escargots" (translates to "give me the snails") is my friend Taylor.