The first week of classes continues and I had my first class at Paris III (also known as La Sorbonne) today. I left the house about an hour and a half early just to be on the safe side, and luckily, I have been there before, so I knew how to get there, but beyond that, it was pretty unknown. I started in the main building which happened to be the right one -- and there was a big board of papers with all of the courses for today and what room they were being held in. I found mine pretty easily and went up to the 3rd floor and had a nice 45 minute wake before my class at 12:30.
The building is a bit like a high school -- covered in kind of a mint green color and the whole place smells like a school lunch thanks to the cafeteria on the ground floor. It's not bad by any stretch, it's just kind of amusing. But I will say that the difference between Institut Catholique (a private school) and Paris III (a public school) is quite large....The professor, however, was fantastic. It's a class about the literature during the 16th century -- which was around the time period of the religious wars in France. We got a bit of a background today -- and we start analyzing text tomorrow! It's amazing the difference that one semester can make - I remember the first week of the semester in the fall, and how my head hurt each day and how it was pretty difficult to understand the professors. Today, I could understand everything perfectly (mostly) -- and it was just like any other class!
After my class got out at 2:30, I went to Gilbert Joseph (an enormous book store) to get the book by the poet Ronsard that we needed to read some of for tomorrow. On the way there, I experienced my first real Parisian "greve" (a strike) -- I have absolutely no idea what it was for, but there were tons of people with signs and balloons and noisemakers and the like -- actually it was quite intimidating.
I had a quick lunch when I got back and then headed off to swimming at La Plaine at 6. Practice was pretty uneventful -- I actually did about 6300 meters which felt good. When I got back, Marilu had made this DELICIOUS casserole of eggplant slices, tomatoes, ricotta, and pesto. It was incredible. And then after dinner, her mother wanted to learn how to make carrot cake -- so the three of us made a carrot cake! We used a recipe that my mom had sent me last week -- I think it will be pretty good based off of the anonymous batter and frosting taste tests.....
Ok! It continues to be winter here in Paris which is kind of good news bad news. It would have been nice a month ago but now that tomorrow is FEBRUARY (wait, what??!), we should be on our way to warmer weather!
Here's the picture of the strike I took today - I'm afraid a little picture doesn't do it justice!
A bientot!
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