Correspondances (NOT by Baudelaire)

Dear everyone:
I always find that the beginning of a blog post is the most difficult part.  Therefore, I am going to pretend that this is a personal letter, and I am addressing each one of you directly.

Today is Wednesday, the 13th of April, and already my dorm room is turning into a small oven.  A toaster oven.  I miss air conditioning, and I also wish I could find summer clothes that fit.  It's funny how when it was cold, I spent so much time wishing it would warm up so I wouldn't get so miserably frozen every time I went outside, which was all the time, and now, even though it's not as hot as an Oklahoma summer, I just wish it would cool down.  Ah well, one can't always have what one wants.

Even though Wednesday is supposed to be my day for chasing down adventure, I'm not sure how much adventuring I'll get done today considering the amount of homework I have.  For example, on Monday I have to give a presentation on my assigned part of our book in literature class, and I need to catch up on the reading.  In general, I love reading.  The heroine of this book, however, is not the type of person I'm used to reading about.  In this story, a Belgian girl goes to work in a factory in Japan where she works, eats, sleeps, and socializes in the same factory.  There are lots and lots of rules, regulations, and restrictions that she has to follow, and she has to respect the strict hierarchy.  And she does.  I am used to reading about heroines who fight to break free from the rules and restrictions of society and hierarchy.  But then, I am American, after all, and "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are some of the things most valued by our culture. The Heroine of this story, even though she does not (usually) openly rebel against her society (the company), she does rebel internally, imagining up things that would startle the other Japanese workers if they were true.  I suppose I may have to adopt her strategy in my literature class. 

But, my dear friend/parent/sibling/aunt/uncle/grandparent/cousin/insert-name-here, perhaps you grow tired of hearing my reflections of the culture.  That's ok, because I have much more to tell you about.  First of all, yesterday I received a reply from the OFII office.  That's the French Office of Immigration and Integration (I translated the name, so the abbreviation won't match up quite right).  I had to send them a form when I got here, along with photocopies of several pages of my passport.  So I have completed the first step of being immigrated and integrated!  Now, according to these dossiers, I have to complete:

• A radiology exam
• A general health exam
• Some kind of convocation in November? um... I'll be long gone
• pay a tax of 55 Euros

Interesting.  I wonder how much of that stuff I actually have to do.  Nevertheless, I should schedule a doctor visit.  It would be nice to have a doctor I can contact if I need something.  And speaking of medical stuff, I had my parents mail me a refill of a prescription, and it got here! Yay!  I was actually kind of nervous about it, because it was one of those that I can't run out of because it would be dangerous to stop, and I didn't want to have to go through the ridiculous French bureaucracy of having to get it refilled here.  Also, the USPS website said that to mail medications to France you have to have some kind of license from the French government, which meant more bureaucracy, but no one could figure out what that license was or how to get it, so my parents just mailed it anyway, and apparently they didn't know what they were talking about or customs wasn't very thorough (French bureaucracy at work) because it came through just fine.

But I have something more exciting to tell you: my spring break is coming up!  It starts exactly in 10 days, on April the 23rd, and goes for two weeks, until the 8th of May.  During the first part, I will go to England to see my Aunt and Uncle, and during the second part I will likely travel somewhere else (perhaps Prague) but I haven't solidified that part of the plan yet.  I hope to do so today.

My dear human being, I wish you could be here!  I wish you could see what I see, hear what I hear, taste what I taste, and... well, maybe not smell what I smell.  My friend Ashley and I decided that "stink" is France's middle name, for a variety of reasons.  But in any case, I wish you could share my experiences.  Learning the words, hearing the sounds: the uvular trills, the resonant nasals; the accordions on street corners, lazy afternoons in the park, the quiches and baguettes, trams and fountains, they fascinate me, and I wish you could share my fascination.  Come see me soon!

Sincerely,
Chloe

Bienvenue, printemps!

Hiya folks! It be wednesday, and I be writin' again.  Now I realize it's been far too long since my last blog entry, and there are definitely things I've forgotten.  But don't worry, I'll try to tell you the most important things.

First of all, my parents came to visit!  Yay!  It was so good to see them, considering we've been on opposite sides of the world for a couple months.  But unfortunately most of the pictures of when they were here were taken with their camera, so I won't be able to post many.  But you can always check facebook, and if you can't find me on facebook, remember: look up my email address.  My name doesn't always come up.

When my parents first arrived, I waited for their train on the platform and met them there.  I skipped class to do that.  I chose to do so first of all because I just really wanted to see them, and second of all because they don't speak any French, and I figured they would need help checking into the hotel, especially since I was the one who made the reservations.  So we met on the platform and walked over to their hotel, and spent the rest of that day (Tuesday) and all the next day (Wednesday, my day off) together.

Tuesday I showed them around Clermont-Ferrand, and Wednesday we took the train to Vichy, which is only two stops away.  It's a very small, old town, known for its natural springs, and for the fact that it was the headquarters of the new French government that sided with the Germans in WWII. 

Here, by the way, is a picture of a lovely, small lighthouse overlooking the river in Vichy.  I forgot the name of the river, but it's nice, isn't it?

Anyway, it started to get warm while they were here, and sometimes we went without our jackets!  Unfortunately though, it rained probably 50% of the time they were here, and I left my umbrella in Vichy.  But in the end it was ok because my older sister Haley left her umbrella in my backpack, so now I get to use it.  Ha! :D

Then my family left again and went to Prague.  They tell me it's really nice and I should see it; maybe I will over spring break if I can convince Ashley or someone to come with me.

And lately, it's been very nice out.  Spring has sprung!  So, last Wednesday, my activity was to go out into Jardin Lecoq, where French people like to lie around on the grass on nice days eating picnics and spooning and such.  Here is a picture of the garden:

Anyway, I did neither of these things, I actually sat in the garden and played "Les Champs Elysees" on my ukulele.  I recorded it too; here is the video if you want to see it.  Please disregard the mistakes; I didn't quite have all the chord changes down, and keep in mind I"m 100% self-taught :)




I hope that works... I'm not very good at html.  Anyway, besides what I've told you, the only other events I'm pondering are school related.  First of all, I'm still wondering how watching five minutes of a movie rendition of French Protestants being violently slaughtered helps us to understand French cultural history.  Also I'm wondering if it's just a French thing that my writing professor likes to read my mistakes to the entire class and ask everyone else what I did wrong, or that my literature professor considers students who are late because they couldn't find the classroom to be negligent students whose grades will be affected and says so to the entire class, and later (in context of a reading, of course) talks about how westerners like to defy authority, argue a lot, and yell, use big gestures, and open their mouths really wide when they argue.  As you can see, there are still some aspects of French culture I'm having a hard time getting used to.  But I wish everyone (not just some people) would realize I'm trying, and try not to put so much energy into criticizing my culture, which just makes it harder.  Granted, most people have been extremely kind to me, and the stereotype that French people in general don't like Americans is just simply not true; I would like to point that out so I don't proliferate any generalizations. 

But I suppose any study abroad experience has its ups and downs, and I think overall I've had more ups than downs.  So don't think I'm not glad to be here just because I'm having a hard time with my literature professor.  So anyway, that's all folks!  And by the way, I'd love to hear from you; it can get a little lonely here in this tiny little dorm room.

A Bientôt!

Les Vacances

Where to begin? This week has been pretty much jam-packed with adventures.  First of all, my vacation in Valence was fabulous, and so were the Dawsons, the very kind family who hosted me there.  I left on the train Monday late morning, and managed to accomplish everything beforehand that I needed to, including getting my new French bank card.  The train first ride was uneventful, and I changed trains once in Lyon.  The train station where I changed trains was actually pretty big, and I had some time to walk around and ended up buying a pair of sunglasses, which I really needed.  The second train was a bit longer, but finally I got there.  The train station in Valence was small, about the same as the one in Clermont-Ferrand, but not being familiar with it, I came out in the wrong place and had a hard time finding Mrs. Dawson.  But finally we found each other, and we took the bus to their house.

Later that night, the Dawsons hosted a Bible study.  It was, of course, completely in French, which was a stretch for me, and certainly I didn't catch everything.  But it was a good experience.  Then the next day, Mrs. Dawson, one of the daughters, and I, went to the open air market.  Valence has a different open air market each day of the week, but the main ones are on Tuesday mornings and Saturday afternoons.  After lunch, Mr. Dawson took me to see his work, which is the French version of Wycliffe.  For those of you who don't know, Wycliffe is an organization that works on Bible translation around the world.  I'm connected to Wycliffe in that my dad has done some work for them, and I did an internship for SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics) in Dallas, which is closely connected to Wycliffe.  Then we went to a Christian book store, where I got a French Bible, and Mr. Dawson went back to work while I set out exploring the town.

The Rhone River

Valence cathedral

Valence is a lovely town right on the edge of the Rhone river.  It has an old cathedral, a gorgeous old town hall, a kiosk (gazebo) that's very old and pretty and so much more.  Basically, I spent the whole afternoon wandering around taking pictures, and I never ran out of things to see.  I won't be able to post all my pictures here, but if you want to see more, you can look at them on my Picassa album (which there is a link to it on the right).  I highly recommend that everyone look at all my pictures a lot, because I recently had to pay a whole five bucks to increase my storage space so I could hold all of them.  So everyone should look at my pictures to make those five American dollars worth while.  After wandering around town all afternoon, I, Mr. and Mrs. Dawson, and their two lovely daughters, went out to dinner and had traditional French ravioli.

Crussol

The next morning, which was my last day in Valence, Mrs. Dawson took me to Crussol, the ruins of a 15th century castle just outside of Valence.  It was a bit of a climb, but well worth it!  It was so beautiful!  We explored the castle for most of the morning, and then we went back for lunch.  After lunch, Mrs. Dawson took me to the nearby village of Chabeuil, which is a cute tiny old village.  We walked around a bit, took some pictures, and found the main cathedral, which was very lovely.

Then my train left around three.  My trip back home was uneventful, and I arrived quite tired.  Thursday I slept in, and then set out to find Notre Dame du Port, the oldest cathedral in Clermont-Ferrand.  And find it I did!  But you'll have to wait for pictures, because for some reason Picassa's not letting me upload any more right now.  Yesterday very little happened besides sleep and homework, and today I slept in, wrote a paper (in French of course), went shopping and came home with a new book (Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée, it's for school), a baguette, more nutella, and wasabi peas.  And that brings us to now.

This week, my family will come visit me!  This means my parents and both sisters, Haley and Lauriana, will be coming.  They'll stay in Clermont-Ferrand for three days before going on to Prague where my dad has a conference.  I may end up skipping my class on Tuesday because it's the same time they'll be coming in on the train, not speaking any French and not knowing their way around.  So I'll have to get them checked into their hotel, and then we can have fun for three days!  Well, kind of two and a half, since I have classes on Thursday, but Wednesday is my day off, so that works out perfectly.  More later!

Open air market in Valence

The old kiosk

looking down from Crussol

a street in Chabeuil

Je suis ce que je suis et si je suis ce que je suis, qu'est-ce que je suis?

So now that everyone's enrolled, classes have gotten into full swing.  We have regular assignments, and most of my classes actually meet in the same room every time; not officially though, I'm beginning to wonder if very much here is official.  Anyway, I'm beginning to like my narration class quite a lot, even though we have at least one writing assignment every week.  For some reason, I've found I have a much easier time writing, and make far fewer mistakes, on the creative writing assignments than on the ones that are more like essays.  I'm not really sure why that would be.  And my oral expression class is still one of my least favorite classes, but we've had some interesting moments.  For example, this past week, we began the discussion part of the class talking about whether wealthy nations are obliged to give money to developing countries, and ended with a heated debate between a guy from the UK and a girl from Vietnam on whether it's okay for a country to go into another country and force them to have a democracy.  At first I was a little bit afraid someone's feelings would get hurt since there were people in the classroom from all over the world, but I suppose a debate is a good way to practice the structure of one's spoken French, which is half the point of the class anyway.

at the head of the trail!

Last weekend Ashley and I didn't end up doing anything much.  Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances, Ashley's ability to travel has been limited, at least for now (and there was much sadness and weepage throughout the land, and a whole bunch of frowning emoticons) :( :( :( :(  .  So, unfortunately, since my parents don't want me to travel alone, this limits my ability to travel as well.  Fortunately, though, we were able to have a fabulous local adventure on Wednesday.  We decided Tuesday night that we were going to make it up Puy de Dome (the local inactive volcano) no matter what it took.  So Wednesday morning we started asking around, trying to figure out how to get to Puy de Dome, because the base of the mountain is about 10 kilometers outside of town.  We thought it very strange that no one knew.  We eventually figured out that there are no buses or trams that run to the mountain, and once you get there, it's closed to vehicle traffic due to construction (they're building a tram up the mountain that won't open till 2012).  So finally, around 4 pm, we got the number of a taxi company and just told the driver to take us to the base of Puy de Dome.  It was an expensive ride, but honestly, I don't know how else we would have gotten there.  In the end, it was fabulous!  The entire trail was covered in snow, and it was so beautiful.  It wasn't too treacherous until we got farther up, to where there weren't as many trees and there was just a narrow trail with lots of switchbacks and every edge was a drop off.  Then, the packed-down, slippery snow was a little scarey, and as it started to get more and more foggy, and then dark, we decided we'd better head down rather than trying to make it all the way to the top.  But we got some fabulous pictures first!

 

looking at Puy de Dome from the base

And now, as my friends back at OU gear up for midterms, this coming week for me is my vacance d'hiver, or winter break, or in other words my first spring break!  At first, I had a bit of a problem figuring out what to do since Ashley will not be able to come with me, and my parents won't let me travel by myself.  But in the end we figured out that I can go stay with some friends of friends in Valence, which is just a bit south of here.  I'll be there until Wednesday, and after that I don't have plans yet.  It's possible I may travel somewhere else, but right now I'm not sure.  I got my 12-25 card the other day, which is a card for young people who travel in France by train, and it gives them up to 60% discounts on many train tickets.  So hopefully now that I have it I'll get to travel plenty!

So I'll get on a train for Valence tomorrow at 11 something, and before then I have to print out my ticket confirmation at the print shop which doesn't open until 10, pick up my French bank card at the bank which I don't know when that opens, and pick up a sandwich at the grocery store to eat on the train.  So I'd better stop writing now, so I can get as much done as possible tonight!
Ciao!

La Montagne, Quatre Enfants, et L'Avenir

Bonsoir tout le monde!  Today is Friday.  As I write, I have here in front of me La Montagne, which is the local newspaper (www.lamontagne.fr).  I learned today in my civilization (current events) class that La Montagne has a very interesting history.  It was founded in 1919, before World War II.  During WWII, a new government was formed in France in Vichy, which took the side of the Germans.  This new government censured the press.  La Montagne, however, resisted their control as long as they could.  When it got to the point that they could no longer ignore the new government, La Montagne would just leave blank spaces where every censured article would have been, with the words "this article has been censured by the Vichy government" in order to let the people know how much of their news was being blocked by the government.  I think this is very cool. 

This has been an interesting week.  First of all, on Monday I missed my only class because they moved to a different classroom and didn't tell me where to go!  This particular class (and several others, actually) doesn't have a designated room; we just use whatever room is available, so I usually have to check the bulletin board when I get in in the morning.  On Monday I was a couple minutes late to begin with, so everyone would have already been in the classroom.  The schedule on the bulletin board did not have a classroom written in, so first I spent some time wandering around the building, looking in all the windows for my class.  Then I went back to the bulletin board and realized that there was a hand-written note near the schedule on the over-crowded bulletin board, saying the class would be next door, and listing three or four possible classrooms.  I went next door and wandered around for a while, but that building is rather more confusing than the other one, considering that the classrooms aren't numbered; they're named after authors, and also they had recently rearranged the groups and put people in different classes, so it's possible I may not have recognized some of the students as being in my class.  Anyway, I never figured out where my literature class was.

Then, I had no class on Tuesday.  At first I wasn't absolutely sure why, except that I had some paperwork to hand in, and the profs had some meetings to get the schedule worked out.  But that day, after spending quite a while waiting in the hall to hand in my paperwork, I found out there was another form I was supposed to hand in.  So I had to go to a print shop and buy a card because the form was online and I don't own a printer.  Then I had to go back to my dorm to fill it out, because I had to look at the OU catalog.  Finally, I went back to the same hallway where I had been waiting earlier, waited some more, and eventually, we Americans ended up putting all our forms collectively in her box.  Then we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Centre Ville window shopping, and in the evening we went out for fried chicken because we were feeling American.  So in the end we decided it was a good thing we had the day off, because the bureaucracy here is such a hassle!

A pretty mural in Chamalières

A cool fountain in Chamalières

Then on Wednesday, which is my normal day off, I didn't do much.  I slept in, and then Ashley and I went walking around looking for a Chinese restaurant to eat lunch at.  We never actually found one, but we walked to a cool side of town called Chamalières.  It was very pretty, and we saw some pretty architecture.  Pathica later told us that it's the wealthy side of town.  Ashley and I kind of want to get a cute apartment there!  That night, Pathica drove Ashley and I across town to an Asian buffet that was actually quite good.  She told us that there are Asian buffets in Clermont-Ferrand that aren't so good, just like Oklahoma, but that one was nice.

Thursday, I had two classes (which are quite long), so I was pretty busy during the day.  Then in the evening at 19:00 (or 7:00pm) I went to Mrs. Bauer's house for dinner.  I met her three boys and one girl (the girl is the youngest; she's about 2).  They were so cute!  They were all pretty young, and most of them were quite hyper.  And it was definitely a stretch for me to speak in French all evening.  I think I only heard one English sentence the entire night!  But I had a wonderful time.  I also met another girl they invited for dinner; she was a medical student named Haude; she was French as well.  The father worked late, but he came home just as diner had started.  He was very nice as well, and he had traveled in the United States, so I was lucky that he knew where Oklahoma was.  He even said he had been to Tulsa!  It was a wonderful experience, interacting with a family and having a normal evening visit, even though it was difficult because it was all in French.  The kids laughed at my French a couple times, but I didn't really mind.  I was pretty nervous to go, as I often am before meeting new people, or people I barely know, especially by myself and in a language I'm still struggling to learn.  But I would definitely say it was worth it.  I think for every time I've asked myself "what on earth am I doing here?" there have been at least three times I've said to myself "I'm so glad I'm here!"  Anyway, I think my evening with the Bauers was a milestone in my semester here, not only because I now have local friends I can turn to for advice or help (other than just students), but also because I practiced my French so much.  Ever since then, I've had a hard time getting out of French mode, and I keep wanting to throw in a French word or phrase when I'm speaking English.

So Ashley and I have been trying to plan out our weekend.  Originally we wanted to hike up Puy de Dome, which is the main local inactive volcano, but since it's still pretty cold, we decided to put that on hold.  We've discussed taking a train to Vichy or Lyon because they're both pretty near, and just spending the afternoon wandering around.  Lyon is bigger, so there would be more to see, but Vichy has the WWII history, so in that sense it would be interesting.  Then, the week after next, we have our first break.  So far, we've discussed going to Spain, Portugal, or the UK (I think).  Any of those places we could reach by train.  We would both really like to go to Morocco, but we're thinking about saving that for our next break, so the protesting can settle down some.  I've been told by some that I shouldn't go at all, but some people tell me that Morocco isn't as bad as Egypt, and it should be relatively safe.  So...  what do you think?  Who votes we go to Morocco over spring break?

I LOVE this house, it's so pretty!  I wish I could live in it.  It's right near the school.

"Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop." -Lewis Carroll

So, now that I have a clean room, enough clean clothes to last me a while, and a completed French essay, I think it's time for me to sit down and write another blog post.  I will start at the beginning.

First of all, I must tell you how our Wednesday went.  In the morning we had our "American" breakfast.  Most of the American students were there, along with a lot of French students who are planning on studying abroad in America, even at OU.  We chatted with them a while; some of them had a lot of questions about life in the states.  So it was nice to finally get to talk to some French students, but we mostly spoke in English.  Ashley and I did, however, have an interesting conversation with a couple French students about what happened in the area in WWII, which was one of the things we wanted to find out as one of our Wednesday goals.  Of course, the biggest thing that happened nearby was Vichy becoming the capital of the new French government that took the side of the Germans.  They told us that of course there was probably some French resistance in Clermont-Ferrand, but that it was everywhere.  It was interesting to me that they didn't seem quite as enthusiastic about the French resistance as I am and many of my friends seem to be, perhaps because they grew up hearing about it.

Wednesday night, I went with the rest of the American students and a couple French students out to eat at a place that serves food local to the Auvergne region.  I forget the name of the dish, but it was potatoes mixed with bits of meat and covered in delicious cheese, with ham, salad, and bread on the side.  It was incredibly good.  I practiced my French perhaps a little, but we ended up speaking English most of the time.

And of course I must document my experience with sleep paralysis I had the following night.  It is interesting to note that a person can be so affected by stress while at the same time they are having such a good time.  This is certainly the case for me.  When I first got here, I would collapse into bed every night and fall right asleep because I was so worn out from speaking and listening to French every day, and figuring out a new culture.  But this was my first experience of sleep paralysis (at least here in France).  I just remember being awake enough to know I was awake, being unable to move, hearing a really loud pounding noise (my heartbeat in my ears), sensing an evil presence, and feeling someone's hand gripping mine.  It only lasted about 3 seconds, but it was really quite freaky.  I couldn't go back to sleep the rest of the night, but luckily by then it was already six.  So, for those of you who may study abroad in the future, remember stress can do weird things to you, and you're not going insane (lol).  Actually, it reminded me very much of the episodes I had a few times after a major surgery, where I would wake up suddenly, feeling very frightened for no apparent reason.  After some reflection, I would guess that those were caused more by the stress caused by the surgery than the aftereffects of the surgery itself.  But that's another story.

Thursday and Friday I was very busy with classes, having two on Thursday and three on Friday.  Then Friday night, Ashley and two of her French friends, Pathica and Alexandra, invited me to go dancing at the club.  It was a completely new experience for me, as I've never been to a club even in the US (back home I'm under age after all).  But I decided I wanted to get to know Ashley's French friends, and see what French young people do on weekends, so I went.  It turned out to be a lot of fun!  I was a little uncomfortable with the weird, slightly drunk guys who would just come up and start dancing with any of us without even asking, but other than that aspect I had a great time dancing.  We danced for hours and hours (the clubs here stay open till 5am) and never even took a break.  The next day I slept until noon.

Sunday morning (this morning) I went to the protestant church Ashley and I found.  Unfortunately Ashley slept past her alarm and didn't get to come with me.  I was slightly terrified walking up to the church alone, since I was going to a church where I didn't know anyone, didn't know what to expect, and didn't entirely speak the language.  But when I walked in I felt a lot more comfortable, because a couple people came up and greeted me warmly.  I spoke to the pastor, and later when the service started, he announced to the whole church (which was pretty small) that I was from Oklahoma (lol).  That made me a little uncomfortable, but then after the service a woman came up to me and introduced herself.  Her name is Mrs. Bauer and she has four kids, and she invited me to dinner at her house on Thursday.  That will be great to get to know a French family.  I must say, even though the service at this church was entirely in French, and even so kind of different from what I'm used to at home, it just felt like a relief to be in an environment that was even a little bit like home.

So I've spent the rest of today cleaning my room (which really needed it), washing some clothes in the sink (it costs 3 euros to do laundry here!) and writing an essay in French (400 words).  But now I've come to the end of my update, so I'm going to stop.  Until next time!

Two trams rushing past in Place de Jaude

The main cathedral in downtown Clermont-Ferrand, where I went the first two Sundays

Allons-y!

So, I left of promising to describe my classes.  On Monday mornings, I have only one class, which goes from 3:15 to 5:45; that is my literature class.  So far, I think literature is turning out to be my favorite class.  For one thing, I just love reading, whether it be novels, short stories or poetry.  Also, I seem to understand it better, but that may be because my French class last semester was French conversation and literature, so a lot of the language is the same.  On Tuesdays I also have just one class, from 3:45 to 6:15.  That one is cultural history, and it is rather more difficult.  Right now we are studying about the Gauls, and when the Romans invaded them.  One of the most famous battles between the Romans and the Gauls occurred at Gergovia,  which is right around here somewhere.  Wednesday is my day off, so I always have to plan ahead what adventures I'm going to have that day, so as not to get bored.  Thursdays and Fridays are quite busy.  Thursday I have two classes; the first one being argumentation (a writing class, sort of like rhetoric I guess) from 8:45 to 11:15.  Then I have lab from 2:15 to 3:15, and immediately following, I have oral expression until 5:15.  These two are extremely difficult and exhausting.  Basically, in lab I watch a video twice (last time it was a news program) and take notes from it.  I have to understand it well enough, and take detailed enough notes that, in oral expression I can give a presentation with particular details like the name of the program, the name of the channel, and what problems and solutions were presented in the program.  Then I have to criticize it, adding personal experiences if possible, saying whether I agree or disagree, etc.  I tend to leave that class feeling exhausted and like I barely know enough French.  Friday I have three classes.  In the morning I have civilization from 9:15 to 11:45.  This is sort of like a current events class; we talk about newspapers, lyrics to popular music, etc.  Then from 1:15 to 3:45 I have narration, which is sort of like a creative writing/oral expression class.  This class so far has been a lot of fun, but difficult because I don't like talking in front of the whole class.  Immediately following narration I have my cultural option, which is a film class.  We watch movies in French, and then discuss them in their historical and cultural context.  It's very interesting, but rather hard to stay awake, being late in the day and the last of many classes.

The first week, all my classes were very big, so big we kept having to move to bigger classrooms.  So, this week they divided level five into two groups, and put me in group 5b.  So the schedule I just described to you was not my schedule the first week.  However, after they divided up the level, all the Asian students (and a couple non-Asian) decided they would just stay in 5a.  So now 5b has six people (which I LIKE) and 5a has a whole lot.  I wish they would leave it like it is, but they said if only six people keep showing up to the 5b classes (which have exactly the same teachers and exactly the same material) then they'll put the two groups back together again.  I think that would be too bad, because it's a lot less stressful for me to interact with a small class than a big one.  But anyway, I have no idea what my schedule will look like later on.  We'll see.

The campus here is not at all laid out like OU; in fact, it would be difficult to say they have an actual campus at all.  The buildings are kind of spread out over a particular part of town.  Every morning when I go to class, I have to walk past some shops, a subway, a bakery, and a couple restaurants before I get to the building where most of my classes are.  But that's ok, I don't really mind the walk.  I don't think it's really farther than walking across campus, it's just different being in the middle of a city.

Now that I've gotten a little more settled in, I've been working on a particular goal: to make some French friends.  You might think this would be easy, but no, it is not.  First of all, while all of my classes are taught in French by French professors, all the students are foreign students (from everywhere but France: China, Colombia, Brazil, Japan, Vietnam, Italy, Czech, Slovakia, Mars... even Bételgeuse).  It's great to talk to them in French, and learn about the fascinating places they're from, and often French is the only language we have in common.  But seeing as it's no match for a conversation with a native speaker, I've been looking for French students.  But it's hard to strike up a conversation; for some reason, French people just don't seem to be as open as most Americans (at least in the south).  I have had a couple brief conversations with the young woman who lives next door to me in the dorm, and she is very friendly.  But she always seems surprised when I say hello.  Also, one day, when Ashley and I were at the laundromat, she offered me a tictac, and then offered one to the French man standing on her other side, just to be polite.  He looked very surprised, shocked even, and said "no thank you, you are very nice, too nice."  And just today, I though I had a wonderful idea for putting myself in a situation to have a conversation with fellow French students.  I would go to the cafeteria by myself when it was crowded, sit by French people, and chat, even if it was just a few words.  Well when I finally got in and got a tray of food (the line was out the door), it was hard to find even one empty seat.  When I finally found one, I asked the people at the table if I could sit there, and they gave me the strangest looks!  One girl said yes, so I sat down.  They proceeded to look only at each other and speak rapidly only to each other, and they ate quickly and left.  It didn't take me long to figure out that no one asked permission to sit anywhere, and no one talked to anyone unless they came in with them.  So I am left brainstorming for ways to interact with real French people.  I'm hoping the protestant church Ashley and I found the other day will prove to be helpful on that account.  Otherwise, I don't really know what to do at this point.  I am finding that French people are difficult to make friends with.  Making new friends is hard enough for me back in the States, not being an extremely outgoing person, but here it's so much harder since I don't know the culture; I don't know how French people interact with each other.

Tomorrow, since it is our day off, Ashley and I have a few small adventures planned.  First of all, we have a breakfast meeting to go to in the morning.  It is an "American" breakfast, so I have no idea what kind of food they'll serve.  Grits, bacon, eggs, and coffee would be nice.  Probably it'll be donuts.  But then after that, we're going to go to Place de Jaude.  We want, first of all, to buy a normal pillow, because the pillows they gave us are very narrow and weird.  We also have some kind of official form we need to mail, and then we want to find out a little about what happened in Clermont-Ferrand in WWII.  We would love to have some stories about the resistance from right here in town, but that may be beyond the scope of just one Wednesday's adventures.  We'll see. :)