As you may (or may not) know, I am in a program called MICEFA which allows you to choose one of the schools it is partnered with. I am now 99% sure that I have chosen my school: Institut Catholique de Paris! I handed in my application today. This means I have to UN-enroll in Paris 3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle, which took a lot of time and effort to do. But they don't have anything at my level in my major so I can't do it. I need to take classes pertaining to Europe, and they had a "European Studies" major so I thought I was all set, but then I found out they only have L3 classes! (L3 is the third and last year of French university, so we were advised not to take these classes because we are foreign and they're super hard). Catholique, as it's called for short, is a beautiful campus with nuns and priests wandering through it. They have a great office for international students and the employees are super friendly. I debated whether going there was making my life too easy, i.e. skipping out on the French "do-it-yourself" attitude, but I decided that since the orientation was all in French it wasn't too much of a cop-out. And why make myself miserable for no reason? So I'm pretty sure I'm going there and I can take European history all in French but still have the support of the university. And did I mention 2 of my 3 friends here are going there as well? So I think I have made the right decision!
Next subject: French school supplies. I went to buy some supplies the other day at the only office supplies store my friends and I could find and was APPALLED at the prices. I saw one of the pens I buy in multi-packs at home for less than $3 was 2€. FOR ONE PEN. And everything was that expensive: pens, glue, tape, folders, paper, notebooks, etc. I drastically cut down my list of things I wanted for school when I saw THAT. They don't seem to use the same folders we use in the United States, they mostly use binders or accordion folders. They also use different paper, which I was informed I would have to buy because French professors only accept assignments written on that type of paper in pen. Oh, and French schools usually want assignments written out and not typed because they're afraid kids will copy/paste their assignments otherwise.
Accordion folder
SPEAKING OF THE AWFUL INTERNET I must warn you that if you ever want to Skype me it probably won't work even if you want to try. I also may not see your messages for forever, or maybe I won't respond even thought it says I'm online. Trust me, when that's happening I am resisting banging my head on the wall trying to get the internet to work. Some days the internet is amazing, like the night before last, and other days it's awful, like most of the time including today. It's especially frustrating because it's my only way to communicate with people at home, but it also makes it hard to do my homework or watch TV or movies or get new music or do anything. Hence the book purchase.
Side story: today my friends and I got lunch after class before splitting off and going our separate ways. We found something under 10€ that wasn't a panini or a crêpe! Chinese food! It was only 6€ for 2 dumplings/spring rolls, rice or noodles, a meat dish, and a drink. That is crazy cheap. And it was good! It was pretty close to the Moulin Rouge if anyone is ever there and looking for cheap food (unlikely).
Speaking of the Moulin Rouge, it was pretty lame. I didn't really know what it was other than a movie to be honest. Possibly about strippers or something. I know my friends from AU will make fun of me for my (usual) hilarious ignorance when I say this, but I thought that movie was set it Louisiana for some reason. Whatever. It was unimpressive and not pretty, so I thought I'd post a picture of it because I like bursting people's bubbles about tourist attractions. Yayy!
*yawn*
Anyway, I should actually do some homework now. Until next time!
Bisous,
La vache espagnole
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