New classes, nightlife

Bonjour!

I may have my classes figured out now. There were some interesting developments on the way. For example, I was confused in my first year French>English translation course because all of the other students already had the documents that we were going over. I was pretty frustrated after the second class, because we weren't moving on to new material and I still didn't have what we were working on, and I almost just left and didn't come back. But instead, I approached the professor and asked him what was going on. He explained it all to me (in English), and I learned that the class is actually for students who are preparing to take a test to become professors. So there are no grades and there is no final exam or anything. But I can understand when the prof when he talks and the material is appropriately challenging, so I'll stick with that one. There's a first year English>French course that I went to on Tuesday, which of course was harder, but I liked that. It might be the same thing, though; no grades, no credit. I don't actually know.

Probably the funniest experience I had was another class on Tuesday. This was supposed to be a literature and film course. Evidently, a large part of the class was only there because a general lit. course had been too full, and they had heard that the lit. and film class might become an extra general lit class. The professor talked back and forth with the students for a while, and he really wasn't sure of what was going on. After a few minutes, he had us vote on what the class should be! The vote was pretty much split, so he didn't make a decision then and there. I'm not sure he could have if he wanted to. Well, actually, I don't know if there's any sort of administrative office at all. Anyway, he just talked about a poem for an hour. It was interesting, though, and that's definitely a class I'm going back to!

Wednesday I had a second year French>English course. Before, I had to prepare a translation of a newspaper article that we had talked about the class before--my first French homework. There's another course I want to go to on Wednesdays, but it was canceled last week. So it's five classes, plus my exchange student French classes.

I went to a discothèque. It was Wednesday night, and I'd had a pretty boring week so far, so I agreed to go out. Ah, I would have gone anyway. We met up with Loren's (the Brazilian-American) friend beforehand and headed off to the club at about midnight. I ended up going with Loren and about eight people I'd never met before. I had a blast. I was there until 4:00. The next night, I went out to a different club. This time, more than 20 of the exchange students went. Not all together, but we ended up at the same place. I was there for a long time, and I danced, but it wasn't as much fun, mostly because it was almost entirely pop music. There was a little bit of rock (I got excited when the DJ played a RATM song), but for the most part, it was French and American pop. At the first place, it was mostly techno, with some American 70's and 80's music thrown in, and I can deal with that a lot better. Also, I was a more tired the second night. Anyway, both nights were great experiences, and I'm glad I finally got to do it.

I tried to go to church this morning, but the place I went to didn't have a service because they're downtown right in the middle of where the citywide market was today. I waited outside for a while, for someone to come to the door (because it's in an apartment), alongside someone who goes there regularly, and he guessed what had happened for me. Waiting for the bus to get back, a girl asked me if the bus was coming that day and if I'd already taken the bus today and we talked for a minute or two, and I understood it all. She was going to campus too, so we talked a little bit more when we got off and I found out that she's actually Moroccan and that she knows a little English but her French is better. That makes just the second exchange student I've met who speaks French better than English--and the first one actually is French; she's just lived in Portugal for the past twelve years. Anyway, the coolest part was I didn't speak a word of English for the first time when I met someone new.

I can't believe I've been here for a month. Only three more to go. I still don't know if I'll be leaving in December or January. Right now, I can't stop smiling because the Colts just scored three touchdowns in 10 minutes. Life is good.

Stephen