breakdown of mes cours and the week

Oh. Dear. What a week. I'm feeling better now. I can handle this. I can handle anything.

Went to the Catacombs, which would explain the new banner. It was amazing. I'd go there again in a heartbeat. I don't think there's any other place in the world that'll get me thinking about my mortality and the fragility of life other than the Catacombs. I touched someone's skull and someone's leg bone. You're not allowed to take pics with flash, but the security guard was pretty cool and took a picture of me and Liz. In the beginning, he'd talk to me in English, and I'd only answer him in French. He freaking knew that I was from California. I need to blend in more!

Yesterday, Kristin called me up, and we went to The Mayflower to get a beer. We hung out there until Kathy and Morgan came too. It was such great fun, and this time it was crowded and full of French people and some students. Sitting in a bar, among friends, laughing with the bartender (his name's David, and he's tres cool! Reminds me of Ed from that NBC show "Ed"), I felt like I'd aged YEARS! And it felt good and not sad or anything. The bartender told us that he learned all his English just from working behind the bar. Dang, that makes me want to be a bartender here. I drank, and I didn't get buzzed or anything. I don't even get Asian glow. That's just such a feat for me. Yay! I'm slowly building my alcohol tolerance.

Breakdown of mes cours:
LUNDI: Roman, Cinema, et la Societe.
Literature, Cinema and Society. Wow. The level for this class is advanced, and that it is. I got a crapload of reading to do. The prof is nice though. It was originally supposed to be just a Cinema and Society class, but he changed his mind about what he wanted the class to be about.

MARDI: Expression Ecrite et Orale.
A pretty cool class, lots of Erasmus (european student exchange program) students, which is pretty cool. Some Spanish and Italian kids. Prof is pretty cool. She kind of doesn't give a crap. While going over an exercise, she was packing her stuff, getting ready to go. Our class will end before Christmas, which is super awesome.

MERCREDI: Communiquer a l'orale.
A sweet class. Our prof is young, energetic, and hilarious. And I can understand her. We have group projects though. Bleh. But this class is really going to help me with my speaking abilities, I can already tell.

JEUDI: La Chanson Francaise.
The beauty of French songs. Also with group presentations, but in a 2 person group which is better. Cute old lady professor. She was so HILARIOUS. This one guy was falling asleep, and she was all, "Am I boring you?" And she did an impression of him falling asleep. I love this class already.

VENDREDI: La Societe Francaise a travers le cinema.
Another cinema class with the focus on French society. I love the prof, she's energetic, interesting, and funny. She's already playing favorites though, she really likes the Italian kids. She also gave us (gasp!) a syllabus! Very rare. The rest of my profs play it by ear.

So, it looks like a busy semester for me, despite the fact that I don't have a job like au pair-ing (like Kathy and Romina), and I'm not being a TA (like Taylor, Sarah, and Nayomee). But, I'm going to study a lot (and fight my internet urges), try and make some friends, and just get inspired by the city. I really want to live here like Hemingway did in A Moveable Feast. I bet in my other life I was part of his "Lost Generation". But it's 2007, and this is my "moveable feast". He just wrote and visited friends and went to cafes and ate oysters and drank wine. At least, that's what I read. I didn't even finish the book. Wow, if I can have that lifestyle, if only for a year, that would be heaven. I'll just replace the oysters with actual studying.

Sorry for being such a whiner and pathetic loser in the last post. I'm going through some phases, as you can see. It's all a part of the experience. At least I'm not hiding anything from you.