Finally Settled (Mostly)

Greetings from Paris!

First off, I'm sorry for how long it's been between entries.  Some days it jsut doesn't seem like I've done anything real interesting, and some days I've done so much it's hard to find the energy to write about it.

Last time we talked, I mentioned that I was going to go to my French Grammar class the next day.  Well, I was there, but no-one else was.  I spent a while trying to figure out whether I had the right room or not. I stumbled into a computer class, thinking it was just a student lab, and managed to get to the point where I was logging into the computer before the instructor came over and asked for my name and I realised my mistake.  That wasn't the least embarassing thing in the world.  However, I finally got my phone to connect to the school's wifi and found out that the French for Foreign Speakers course's starting date is February 4.  So let's review:  The school's official starting date for the Spring semester was January 21, but the graduate math classes start two weeks before that date and the language classes start two weeks afterward.  I wonder if French students are used to the system or whether everyone is as confused as I was.

On the 24th, my friend Shelley arrived from the U.S.  She's participating in the same program I am (though she's taking different classes).  I met her at the airport and was able to guide her through the process I had to  figure out for myself.  Since I'd been in France for a while, I was also able to help her with the language barrier, which was good.  She booked a room at the same hotel I was staying at, for convenience.

I didn't do much during the next week.  I recieved news that my great-uncle, who has been struggling with illness for some time, had died.  I didn't feel like doing a whole lot.

Last Friday was an eventful day.  That was the day that I moved out of my hotel and into my apartment.  It was also the day that Shelley left for a conference in Israel.  Unfortunately, Shelley's plane left at 8:30 in the morning, and we weren't even allowed to go pick up the keys before 9.  She had already looked into the possibility of moving in a day early, and that wasn't possible.  So, we concluded that I would take her luggage (that which she wasn't taking with her) and put it in my apartment, and then she would move it in when she got back.  What this meant for me was making seven trips through the subway system (four there, three back) on Friday in order to transfer everything over.  I tell you, that is not a fun way to move.  We considered splitting a taxi, but the fares are so high and the subway is actualy very economical, so that it didn't make sense to do so.

I am so happy to be in an apartment now rather than a hotel room.  I've got more space, a mini-fridge, a range, and closets, shelves, and a full bathroom.  I've been working on getting it set up, with sheets and blankets and so forth.  I'm not really allowed to put anything on the walls, which is a bummer, but I'll find a way to liven the place up.  I'm afraid my view isn't great, but I'm 10 minutes away from my classes, which is fantastic.  I will post pictures once I figure out what's wrong with my computer that's making it not read them.

Today I went to my first French Grammar class (for real this time).  The teacher didn't arrive until 35 minutes after class had started because of a minunderstanding about the class start time, but at least this time I wasn't the only one waiting there.  There are studetns from the Netherlands, Germany, Texas, Florida, Greece, China, Japan, and Vietnam (and perhaps other countries) in my class.  The teacher is very enthusiastic.  The class is taught entirely in French, but he knows how to enunciate and speak slowly enough that novices like me can follow the class well.  I tested into the second level of classes that they offer, and this is the second semester of the course, so we're starting off right away with Relative Pronouns (that, which, etc.)  I met a couple of people in the class who are also working on graduate degrees in math, which was quite nice.

I had a realization some time ago and simly forgot to post it before, but here we go.  Sometimes, when I'm trying to speak to someone in French, I'm trying so hard to simply form a proper sentence and convey my meaning, that I forget about the polite phrases like "please" and "thank you".  It's not at all that I'm trying to be rude, I'm jsut trying to communicate and getting caught up in the intricacies of the language.  I think that this will give me a greater patience with people who don't speak English well. A lot of the time, if he's rude, it's totally unintentional and it's because he's trying to communicate effectively.

Tomorrow I'm finally got a meeting with my professor, and so I'll be able to work out the details of the independent study I'll be doing with him.  I'll also be determining what the tests in the class are going to look like, since we may only have two or three weeks before our first one.  I've been translating my notes from class from French into English, and for the most part I've moved from struggling to understand the language to struggling to understand the math, which is a definite improvement.

I'll try to make the time before my next update less than the time before this one.

As always, thank you for reading, and God Bless.

À bientôt!