montmartre, finalement

Finally got to visit Montmartre, if only for a little while. It started raining while we were by Sacre-Coeur, so we decided to leave. We had a special tour at 3pm, and I was at my stupid school signing up for classes (more on that later) at 2:30. I was afraid I'd miss the tour, but fortunately the tour was canceled because the guide was sick. We took the funiculaire (sp?), kind of like a sideways elevator, instead of walking up the steps to Sacre-Coeur. When we got there, the view was so amazing. It kind of sucks that it was overcast and everything was just light gray on top of light brown, but still it was a lovely view. Then we went inside the basilica, and photos weren't allowed, but, oh man, it was...I don't think any description that I can come up with right now will do it justice. 1. My English sucks. and 2. You just have to see it for yourself. Or at least Google it. It's just...another world. I walk in, and I feel so safe, so far from my problems, so secure. Every church has been like that for me. I don't know I guess it's because I had such a nasty day today.

Yup, my first sort of bad day in Paris ever since my first week here that was just pure insanity. It started out well. I had a test, and I think I aced it, or at least got a 15/20--which is good here, they don't do anything out of 100, and 12/15 is passing or a C. Then we watched this French comedian, and everyone was laughing so hard, except me. I just...I don't know, I was laughing at some parts, but I have a weird sense of humor so I don't know if it's because I didn't understand it (I understood 3/4 of it) or because my sense of humor is weird. Anyway, that kind of got me down.

Then I went to St. Denis to register for classes. Pure. Mayhem. SFSU has got it EASY: you go online and you put in your number for the class, and you press a button. Not here. You go to the secreteriat's office, you look at a posting of classes and make your schedule there, and then you wait in line to speak to the secretariat so that she can put you on the list for each class. It's a nightmare. This poor Japanese girl who's in the foreign language program (but not through MICEFA) had freaking tears in her eyes, but this nice guy who works there (he had helped me out too), was explaining everything to her. I felt really bad. But you gotta be tough here. No one's going to hold your hand.

I finally got to register for the classes I needed, and even added an extra one in case I can't get into the cinema one I want to take. I'm already taking 2 cinema courses (not production), but that's cool. Hopefully, since they're in French, they might double count for both my majors.

Oh, but, gosh, God is teasing me with cinema stuff since he knows I can't take any ateliers [labs]. I saw two groups of students doing cinema stuff today. The first was doing stuff with a video camera, and the second one was doing production sound. One girl was boom, and the other girl was a recorder. And it PAINS me that all my friends back home are doing cinema, and I'm not at a level (language wise) to be in a production class right now and I vowed to myself to improve my French and go with cinema next semester. ARGH! And THEN, when I come home, another FILM CREW has their 16mm camera set-up by the entrance to my apartment building. WHAT THE HECK! Stop teasing me, God. This isn't cool. I didn't hang around though, cuz they were all French, and they were totally business. It also had rained at Montmartre, and I was soaking wet. So I watched from my window and could hear them yell "Action!...Coupee!" Pretty sweet.