So It Has Been a While...Part 2

Here is a recap on my last week at Ecole Etoile and what I have been up to this past week.  I think we will then finally be all caught up!!  I think that is really exciting and typing up the blog entries in a word document and then just pasting them in makes things so much easier for when the internet does work because it normally doesn’t work for very long!

Monday le 19 septembre 2011:

Had class today and went to the CROUs as usual but this time it was just me and Perry who went to lunch there.  It was super crowded but the food was good and I had a nice time chatting with Perry.  We then had orientation like usual at the Central office and talked about adjusting to life here in France.  I feel as if sometimes my emotions can be bipolar here!  One minute I love it here and the next minute I hate it here.  But that is all just part and parcel of living in another country and culture.  It really is a huge adjustment and a lot of hard work!  It can be rather exhausting!  After the meeting I hung out at the office for a little while and then took the metro home.  I got some mail today which was exciting because it was my year long Navigo pass (lets me take the metro, RER, and bus) but I had just recharged my old one for the week!  I decided that I would just use the old one for this week since I paid for it and start using the new one the following week.  It will be really nice because it will save me a BUNCH of money!  Also then I don’t have to worry about recharging it every month and having money for that.  I then went out and tried to figure out how to get to the bus stop that is closer to my foyer and I figured it out so from now on I will just walk to that one.  I had dinner with Camille and Osanne, the two French girls that I have had dinner with before.  They are very nice but I feel as if it is hard to get into a group of French girls.  I am still working on the friendless predicament; hopefully as time goes on I will become more outgoing and confident in my abilities to speak French and will make friends.  I also got to facetime with Maissie this evening which was really fun!  But sadly we were cut off because my internet stopped working but that is ok because we got to talk for a little while.

Tuesday le 20 septembre 2011:

Class and CROUs today; nothing too exciting.  I then had orientation and went to the Central office for that.  I got my schedule for the Catholic Institute though so that is exciting!  I should have Mondays and Fridays off and get done with class on Thursday at noon!  It will make for a nice long weekend!  But now I have to decide if I want to take a class at the Fac which is where the French students go and I am really debating if I should take a class or not because then that will change my schedule and the class will be a lot more difficult.  However, it would be interesting to see what French students have to do for university.  I don’t know, I am still deciding on that because this year was supposed to be my year of fun but I still want to do well and learn a ton of French and improve my French by leaps and bounds.  I took the metro home with Shelley, the program director, for most of the way and she showed me a different way of getting home.  It was also really nice being able to talk to her about different things.

Wednesday le 21 septembre 2011:

Test day.  Yes, I had a test today and was very nervous about it because I didn’t study a ton the night before!  I got up really early and got to school early in order to study some more.  I had class the first half and then the second half of class was for taking the test.  It wasn’t that hard and I finished it rather quickly.  I then went to the CROUs with Angela and had lunch.  We then went back for our atelier and that went fine but it was a long day!  After class I went back to my foyer and hung out for a while before the cooking class.  I left an hour early to get to the cooking class but it only took me a half an hour to get there by metro!  I LOVED the cooking class!  It was so much fun and I got to try so many different things!  The president of Central College, Dr. Putnam, his wife, Tammi, and the dean of study abroad at Central, Lynn were visiting some of the study abroad programs and this weekend they were visiting the Paris program.  They came to our cooking class and joined in on the fun!  It was so much fun getting to talk with everyone and cook with the people in our program.  I worked with Jaynellen.  She is very nice and we enjoyed cooking our three recipes.  Of course everything was in French and I am stronger at French so I had to do a lot of the translating.  Every pair made three different recipes so we had so much yummy food!!  Oh my goodness, I liked it all!  Jaynellen and I made cookies with cheese and nuts in them, we also made muffin like things with berries in them, and then we made mashed potatoes and chicken covered in peanut butter and crushed peanuts.  It was all delicious!!  We left rather late and took the metro home.  When Lily and I were on our metro line there was this really loud American guy and you could hear everything he said!  I could spot him out right away!  It was rather annoying and now I can see why French people can find Americans annoying.  French people while out in public speak very quietly so that other people cannot hear what they are saying.  I didn’t get home until 11:50pm and then went to bed.  Taking that cooking class made me wish I could take a class while here but it probably costs an arm and a leg!

Thursday le 22 septembre 2011:

Today was one of those days where I just did not want to get out of bed!  So I normally get up at 7am and I turned my alarm off and fell back asleep and didn’t wake up until 7:45am!  Oh well, it happens sometimes!  I got ready for class and would have been able to leave at my regular time so that I am at school early because you just never know if the metro or bus is not going to work that day so I always like to have a cushion with time but Lily wanted to see how to take the bus to school.  That was fine though.  I showed her how to take the bus to school and we made it to school just in time!  I got my test back today and got a 19 out of 20!  For France that is an AMAZING grade!  The teachers/professors NEVER EVER give a 20 out of 20 so getting a 19 out of 20 was awesome!  I then went to the CROUs with some people and had a good lunch.  I then walked with Lily to the Central office since it is not far away and checked email and whatnot.  I then took the metro home by myself.  I got bored so I grabbed my Agatha Christie book in French and went to the park.  When I was walking to the park an Asian lady asked me how to get to the metro stop and I told her in French how to get there!  That was really exciting!  Once I got to the park it was so refreshing to be there.  There were so many joggers and people there.  There were a LOT of little kids there and it made me miss playing with the little kids back home (yes that means those Petry kids and Trinity and Ezri!).  I had fun people watching and just enjoying the nice weather.  I did read some too though.  I eventually went home and just chilled at my foyer.

Friday le 23 septembre 2011:

Today was my last day at Ecole Etoile and it was a good one.  It was also the last day for some of the other people in the class that aren’t in my program.  For example, the man from Madagascar was so sweet and he said at the end of class how he enjoyed being in class with all of us and if we ever go to Madagascar to look him up.  It was just so sweet.  Today was also my last day for the atelier so I had packed a lunch and ate it in the classroom during the hour that I had for lunch.  I also read a book that my friend is lending to me.  We then had our last atelier and the teacher, Florence, wished us the best of luck as we continue on with our studies at the Catho.  I took the bus back to my foyer and hung out there for a while but got bored so I texted Kacey, another girl on the program, and asked her if she wanted to hang out.  I had to wait for a while for her to get to my foyer.  We then went to the park but it was getting dark.  I showed her where you can see the Arc de Triomphe from the park.  We decided it would be a good idea to walk over to the Arc since it was only a stone’s throw away.  It was so much being over there at night and taking pictures.  When we were at the Arc we saw a couple that just got married getting their pictures taken there.  It was so precious!  We then headed back to the area around my foyer and stopped at the Franprix (grocery store) so she could get something to drink, which was some Orangina.  We then went back to my foyer and hung out in my room and talked for quite some time.  It was so much fun getting to hang out and talk with her.  At 11pm I walked her back to the metro stop because she had no idea how to get there from my foyer.  I then went back and went up to Lily’s room where there was a party but didn’t stay long.  I got to talk to my parents on the phone so that was fun but it was midnight here when I was talking with them so I was going to bed.