Chicken, Money, and Laundry

I survived my first week of school. It definitely wasn't what I thought it was going to be like. I expected lots of French people but instead I got a lot of Americans and Asians....it's seriously like U of I, but in France. The only people who are French at the school are the teachers and the people who work in the office. It's a little discouraging having that many people in a school who speak English because when we go on our 10 minute break for class, every one's speaking English, or Korean...but I obviously can't speak that. I'm hoping that once I get better with the language I'll be able to understand more of what some of the teachers are saying. Especially for my history, literature, and art class. Today I had a phonetics class. I really wasn't looking forward to it because it was at 9am and all of my other classes are at 2pm; but I really enjoyed it. Sometimes I have a lot of trouble correctly pronouncing French words because the vowel sounds are completely different in French than they are in English. So we did that for the entire class. My jaw really hurt after a while from moving my mouth in ways to say certain vowels that I've never moved before. It really sucked getting up at 7 this morning...it was still dark. When I left at 8:15 for school, I could see my breath. But, I guess having a class that gets out at 12pm on Friday is pretty good...then I have all day to do whatever I want...which is what I did.

When I got back to my neighborhood I went straight to the post office so get my "mandat cash" (sort of like a cashiers check) for my year long metro pass called Carte ImagineR. There was an incredibly long line in the post office so I went to the ATM next door to get my 295 Euros for my pass. I had to take out 300 because the ATM wouldn't let me take out an amount that wasn't in 10's. So I went back into the post office and stood in line. There was only one person working at the counter even though there must have been at least 4 employees there. Finally this woman came out and asked each person what they needed to help the line move a little. I told her what I needed and she gave me the form. Of course I had to get out of line to fill it out. I then went to the back of the line and stood there and waited. It was finally my turn and the man asked to see my ID. So I showed him my school ID and he said that it wasn't good enough, or something like that. The only other form of ID I had was my drivers license and I gave that to him and he asked if I had my passport. I don't carry my passport on me so he said that the IDs that I had were fine. I don't understand why he needed my passport...it was dumb. I told him that I needed a stamp and he said that the machine was in the corner. I assumed that like all the post offices in America the post man/woman can print you out a stamp. Well apparently they don't do that here. So I then had to figure out how to work the machine. At that point I was in the post office for an hour and I was just fed up with everything there. I got my stamp and went to put my things in the mail box. It ended up costing me 305.65 euros for everything. He must have charged me for the paper or something because we were told it was only going to be 295 for the entire thing. Of course it wasn't 305...it was closer to 500 because of the horrible exchange rate. So, awesome. I put my thing in the box and this woman asked me for directions for the closest grocery store. I felt so cool because she must have thought I was French or something. I had planned on going to the movies tonight but after spending over 300 euros I really didn't feel like spending anymore money tonight.

I got back to the apartment and made some rice, which was nothing like the rice that I'm used to in America, for lunch. Renee was there on her break from work and she was dying her hair. She looked pretty funny. She then took out this huge contraption that ended up being her iron and ironed all her clothes...probably for the 2 week vacation that she's taking on Monday. I'm really not looking forward to that. She's gone enough as it is....so I'll have no one to talk to. At least she's bringing Norton so I don't have to clean up his barf. Renee left for work and I headed out for a walk and a trip to the grocery store for some chicken to eat for dinner. I discovered this boulangerie which is a store that sells bread and pastries. I bought two pain au chocolat for 2 euros...which is a pretty good deal. I bought some soup, canned green beans, and tomatoes for noodles and tomatoes, as well as chicken. I debated getting it because I've never cooked raw chicken before but I really wanted some meat to eat for dinner. Oh and I also bought a frozen pizza.

When I got back from the store I started my laundry. I really didn't have that much to do but I didn't realize how small her washing machine was. What would have been 1 load at home ended up being 3 loads here. Renee doesn't have a dryer so she uses this thing that unfolds and she dries her clothes on that. Here's what my room currently looks like. You can't see it from this angle but there are more clothes on the other side, as well as 2 pairs of jeans and a pair of sweats hanging in my doorway, as well at 4 things hanging in my closet to dry. I had to ask Mom how to make my chicken for dinner because I've never made raw chicken...I was scared that I wouldn't make it the right way and I'd get like really sick and die or something. But guess what....I did it. I made it, it was completely cook and it ended up being really good and not dry at all....GO ME!! I some rice and a salad for dinner. Dessert was coffee and my pastry.

It's now 10:17 and Renee is still not home from her theatre class, or whatever she's doing. Tomorrow I plan on going to buy my school supplies and finding a place to exchange the American money that I got from Mom and Dad into euros so I can have some more cash. Tomorrow I'm having dinner with Renee and one of her friends who's coming over to show her how to use her tv and dvd player. Renee doesn't do well with technology.

Until later, a bientot