Mercredi
I had my third day of class today. Two days a week we have to walk to the other side of the city for class at the IEP, Institute d’Etudes Politique, which is a sister school with UVa whose space we are using. It is a long walk, it probably takes about thirty to forty five minutes. Katie and I tried to do it in twenty five minutes this morning and ended up being fifteen minutes late for class because we got lost.
Class is good though because it is nice to only have to focus on one thing at a time. Only having French class and speaking French all the time means that it is easy to do well. I carry around a little French-English dictionary in my back pocket which i pull out about every five munutes to look up words I don’t know. The difference between doing that here and in the states is that I use them so I remember them.
The roomate situation couldn’t be better. Collin and I get along really well and have similar ideas about how we want the room, what we want to be doing, and even what to eat. Tonight we made pork chops with green beans and carrots, which we made in the room. I had some nutella and jam on bread for dessert.
Class ends at 12:30 and after we were done Collin and I and our friend Katie got some sandwiches from a cafe. We then went and sat by the Saone River and ate them and worked on some French homework. It was absolutely beautiful today. It was about 75 degrees and sunny. There is no humidity though, and there is a nice breeze so it is really comfortable. In fact, the only thing that made us uncomfortable was the fact that there were two French people making out really intensely right behind us for about two hours.
Yesterday we finished class then got some wine and cheese and bread and sat in a park and talked. Then in the evening a couple of other people convinced me to go to an Irish pub with them, which was actually pretty boring. I did have a weird but delicious fruity beer which was simply called Blanche. I think just means it was a Belgium White.
There is talk of traveling somewhere this weekend. We might have to be in Lyon on Saturday for a mandatory class meeting so we thought about taking the train to Switzerland or maybe just southern France and going to the beach. Who knows. I guess we’ll figure that out as the time draws nearer. Anyway, it’s French homework time, then sleep.