Not My Day

After I updated earlier this  morning, I hung around campus with Christy (I flew here with her, Jennifer, and this girl named Sara who reminds me of Julia Giddy...maybe that's why I don't like her).  They ate lunch and I had already eaten so I just had a Diet Coke (only #2 in France!) and talked to them.  Christy was worried that she was turning into psycho girlfriend because she has been getting annoyed lately that every time she tries to call her boyfriend he either doesn't have his phone on, doesn't have it with him, or is "busy" with some non-life-threatening situation.  She was asking if it was okay to get mad at him.  We all agreed that it was considering we are on a really strict time schedule due to our classes 4 hrs+ per day, our eating schedules (dinner can take 2+ hrs) and our ridiculous amount of homework (4+ hrs per day), not to mention the time difference. We agreed that she should stop calling him, and should he get mad, she should gently inform him that she figured he would call when it was convenient for him, since the world apparently revolves around him... Sound familiar?

Anyway...after our rendez-vous, I met a bunch of other kids from our class at the Chavant tram stop and we went to a movie called Mes Amis Mes Amours which I understood surprisingly well.  Two single fathers who happen to be best friends and each have one kid (a boy and a girl) move in together in a house in London.  One of the fathers is a womanizer but he ultimately falls for this journalist who discovers his fear of heights.  It was interesting to me that all the songs on the soundtrack except one were in English!  The last one in French had a tune similar to L-O-V-E (last song in Disney's Parent Trap), but translated differently. I wish my iTunes were working so I could find it...

When we left the movie we were walking back to the train stop when Sonja noticed that I had sat on some gum.  Those of you who know me well know that I ironically have an oral fixation (cannot keep my fingers out of my mouth for the life of me) and also a phobia of anything that's been in or is going into anyone else's mouth - namely toothpaste and gum.  I FREAKED OUT! Especially since the blue Splendid sweater I was wearing was one I stole from Anna.  I tore it off and jumped on the tram.

I got off at Vallier-Jaures to switch to the bus that takes me to my neighborhood.  While on the bus, I spaced out and completely missed my stop and didn't realize it until about 5 stops later, at which point I was severely confused.  I knew I was going in the right direction and it took me forever to realize that I had just missed my stop.  I got off as soon as I realized and hopped on the bus in the other direction.  When I got back here, I asked Mme. where I could take my sweater to have it cleaned.  She pressured me into letting her clean it.  She started rubbing ice on it then told me to do it.  I pretended to take it into my room and do it (keep in mind my phobia) and she later barged in and asked me if I got it out.  I said yes, hoping she'd leave me alone and she asked me to see it.  So I just roughly asserted that I was taking it to the cleaner.  She can be REALLY pushy!  The ice wasn't working anyway.

Earlier this morning, as I mentioned in my earlier update, I spoke to my teacher (Emily) about the difficulty I was having with the text.  I feel like everyone in class is either A) smarter than me B) majoring in French C) had way more French classes than me D) lying about the degree of difficulty they are having or E) all of the above.  I told Emily that this is the second text that has taken me multiple hours to get through, and I can't even understand what it's saying, let alone write a paper on it (which is what we were supposed to do last night).  I've NEVER had so much trouble with a French class.  Every French class I took prior to this was difficult for me, I would work really hard and never ended up with anything other than a B+ in all three classes, which I was happy with.  This class, however, is RIDICULOUS. We have hours upon hours of homework and it's frustrating and time consuming and there's just no time to do it.  Emily promised that I would understand the text better after class and that's what class is for, etc.  She was right.  Between listening to other people's questions and breaking up into small groups, I realized that I actually understood the article better than most people.  Which is sad, because I didn't understand a lot of it at all.  We have a small paper due Monday (about three pages) on the article and then Thursday we have a big paper (about six pages) due.  It's just a lot of work and I feel like they aren't taking into account that a lot of us would like to see the country in between class and dinner...

I think I'm going to take it easy tonight, maybe plan an outline for the paper on the way to Montpelier tomorrow afternoon and write it Sunday evening when I get home.  I'll go in early Monday to talk to Emily about it and make sure that it's legit to turn in.  I need to do better than I did on my last one... Apparently she wasn't too impressed...  We have a placement test tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. and then after I'm coming back here to pack and maybe nap and then dropping my computer off at Apple before boarding the train to Montpelier.  Hopefully I will have time to post pics before things pick up speed again on Monday (I start my other class on Tuesday).  It's crazy that after next week we will be halfway through the program!

Okay...well shower and bedtime for yours truly.  I had to get up at 8 this morning and tomorrow I have to get up even earlier.  Mme. and Mme. Dosso got a kick out of that at dinner.  They think everything I do is funny... read in the pool, BBM Anna all day long, wake up at 10 or 11...  They are going to be rolling tomorrow when I show up for le petit dejeuner around 7:30 a.m.

Au revoir!