This was my first full week of classes so I guess I should go into a little bit of detail about what my classes are like:
Monday
My 9h art history lecture requires me to wake up at 7h30 and out of the house by 8h20. This is crazy in French society. If you walk outside at like 8h, you'll barely see anyone on the street besides groups of tourists - but even they don't usually get out until 8h30 or so. Anyways, this class is 2 hours of just writing. Writing like crazy. Writing and hoping you remember which pictures go with which part of your notes. And my professor is so flamboyant, I think I'm going to catch on fire just by looking at him. He's quite eccentric and I haven't decided yet if I like him or not. Anyways, this class was interesting in a very mind-numbing way. Too long. If I weren't interested in history (and art, I guess haha), this class would be awful.
I am also signed up for an 8-unit intensive French language course at le Cours de Civilisation de la Sorbonne (a program through THE Sorbonne for foreigners studying French). This is from 17h-19h MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. If that wasn't bad enough, we weren't told until last week that we would have an extra hour of a mandatory Phonetics course, ALSO MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. It only lasts one month but it was very uncool of USC to just spring this on us... As a result, my next class of the day was at 15h30. Phonetics was interesting. The first half of the class, we go through tongue twisters and learn specifics and nitpicky details about French phonetics. Then, the next half hour we spend in a lab alternating between SAYING those tongue twisters we worked on and LISTENING to ourselves butcher it. I know I sound like I'm whining but it's actually pretty fun haha.
After a half hour break, we have the 2-hour Grammar course. The first day for this class was last Thursday, but I just wanted to emphasize: it's not as bad as it sounds. And I LOVE my professor. She is an angel. Literally an angel. She is also pretty entertaining and tries to mix up the different activities we do so we don't get too bored. Again: she is an angel.
Tuesday (and Thursday)
My first class isn't until 13h30 so I get to sleep in! Both days, I woke up around 10h30, went for a run, casually made my way over to la Bastille (where ACCENT is) around 30min early to grab a sandwich for lunch, before heading to class! My International Relations course is about France and the European Union. The first day was pretty boring. Just going over pre-pre-pre-basic stuff about the EU and introductions and such. Except for me and one other girl, everyone in my class is a Political Science major with an emphasis on Europe or an IR major with an emphasis on European Economy or History with an emphasis on Europe or ... you get the point. The other girl is a Global Health major so she's taking a couple IR classes. And then there's me. The perpetual underdog. Let's see how I like this class...
Afterward IR, I basically have to book it to Sorbonne (takes around 40min by Metro) for the Phonetics course! The first time I did this, I underestimated how long it would take and showed up almost 5mn late (we were warned that the French are not as lenient about tardies as Americans). Luckily, as I soon learned, my teacher is ALWAYS, without a doubt, 5mn late so it was no big deal (this means that we are also held after class around 5mn everyday, ugh slightly annoying but I guess I'm just looking for things to complain about haha)
Wednesday
Wednesdays we wear pink. Just kidding, but we do get to go on Art History visits. Throughout the semester, we will be visiting various museums and neighborhoods to look at the art pieces that we are studying. How cool is that! We get to use Paris as a classroom, basically. This week, we went to the Marais to see some old school architecture (and by old school, I mean literally from the Middle Ages!) I changed my mind about this class: not mind-numbing, it's actually pretty damn cool.
Friday
NO CLASS UNTIL 15h30 WOOHOO. So I thought I could wake up late, but alas, I forgot we had a tour of the American Library of Paris. I wouldn't even have gotten out of bed if Curran hadn't called me to let me know she was going to be a little late haha. I ended up just brushing my teeth and putting on pants and half-walking half-running to the library. Luckily, it was only a 15mn walk away. I made it and I got my very own library card! Pretty cool to have such a historical building (dating back to the end of WWI) dedicated for erasmus and ex-pats!
Sorry this was kind of a long post without any pictures but the only pictures I really have are detail pictures of various sculptures and features on the buildings we studied. If you're really THAT interested, let me know and I will share my pictoral-notes with you. xD
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