A Little Eccentric

I've got to admit its getting better; a little better all the time.

I do have better news for you today!
So far, this has been way scary. The language part has been terrible. I know plenty of French, I can read and write well, and I know all the basics, but when I walk into an office and the secretary starts jabbering it sounds like total gibberish. This scares the crap out of me, but when I stand there looking blank, she usually says all snotty like, "Etes-vous parlez francais?" (Do you speak french?) And I say "Oui, mais pas vit." (Yes, but not so fast)Then, it gets better.

Today was a day of doing stuff, and I am pretty proud of myself. Mom and Lizzie went out to see all the pretty castles before I got up. I got up, got dressed, got breakfast in the hotel and walked down to this one woman's office. First thing, they yelled at me because I was supposed to have an appt. with her at nine. This must have been one of the things I missed in all the "gibberish" yesterday. I apologized, and the woman there got me on my feet. She gave me several places to go and things to do. I am starting to adjust to this feeling of knowing absolutely nothing, and it no longer makes me want to throw up at least.

While I was looking for an office, I actually ran into a girl who is from UW!! It was seriously a gift from God. She came here for the year, and has been here since September. She is really sweet and told me all this stuff I need to know. She said it is always like this, the French just tell you nothing and expect you to do everything perfectly. She said to get used to missing things and getting yelled at. But, I have found a friend. She gave me her number. There is a thing for Intl. students tonight, but I will probably miss it to be with Mom, but there is something else tomorrow. I told her, like 50 times how happy I was to find her.

I am still really confused about classes. They actually start Monday, but the way they do it is very bizarre and really French. It would take me an hour to explain it, but basically you just go the class and tell the prof afterwards if you want to be in it or not. I walked about 2 miles through winding streets to get to the sign-up office, confronted the bulletin board that listed everything and had my first entirely French thought. "Eh, I'll do it Monday." I did ALOT figuring stuff out today. I think I will take the weekend to regroup, meet some people, call my advisor, and tackle it again Monday. So far, I am terribly unimpressed with how they run this country and am really not surprised they have been invaded so many times. Right now, it is ten to 5 and I am at the hotel waiting for Mom and Lizzie to get back.
How was your day?

posted by Molly Jo @ 5:29 PM