It's a day late but I'll make the post now anyway. Yesterday we began our one week intensive language and culture class at Diderot, which is meant to prepare us for our actual classes with French university students that start on the 20th. We had to meet at the university at 9:00am, which meant I had to get up at 7am to have time to get ready and take the metro to the school -- that wasn't fun! 7am is way too early.
Once we were at the school, we noticed that there were students from all over the world in our class, which was kind of cool. Since there were so many of us and we all had varying proficencies in speaking French we were divided into 2 classes: A class for those who scored on the higher end of the placement test, and B for those that scored on the lower end. I scored on the higher end so I got placed in A, with a couple other API students. The rest of our API group got sent to B.
The class was awful! We had class for 3 hours, then a one hour lunch break, and then class again for 2 more hours! The professor passed out a 60 (that's right 60!) page packet and we worked on that for the entire 5 hours. It was awful.
I did meet a couple foreign students though so that was cool. One girl was Italian and another guy was from Brazil.
After class finally ended, we went back to the API center and made crepes. I was exhausted so I headed back to my host family's apartment soon after. My host mom has finally arrived! She was in the Congo so I hadn't met her yet. She's really sweet and I think I'm really going to like her.
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Jan 11, 2014
Okay, today was a mix of good and bad. I had to go to the intensive class again for 5 hours again today. And then after those 5 hours were up, our professor brought us on a tour of the French National Assembly, where the lower house of parliament debates and passes laws. The inside of the building is actually pretty cool and there was a lot of really nice art and architecture -- but it sucked that we weren't allowed to take pictures of any of it so I don't have any photos to show.
It was 6pm when the tour finished and by that point we had been with the intensive class since 9:30am! It was some bullshit. I'm honestly considering just not going back to this "mandatory" class -- a class that I won't receive a grade or credit for.
My day was saved, however, because we had a free tour of The Louvre right after. Apparently admission is free for students every friday evening/night, so I'll definitely have to take advantage of that and go back a bunch of times.
The Louvre is beautiful -- inside and out. There were a lot of amazing paintings and sculptures, and a lot of wonderful art on the ceiling. The building is practically a work of art itself. The Louvre is so huge and has so many pieces of art and different collections that it's impossible to see even close to them all in one trip. That's why I have to go back. I think I'm going to go back next Friday so I don't have to pay.
Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures so here you go:
The French National Assembly
The Eiffel tower lit up from afar.
The Louvre:
The Mona Lisa!!
Me with the Mona Lisa
This was one of my favorite paintings that I saw. Not sure why, but I love it!
"I'm a pyramid too!"
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