class

so since the last time i wrote i've started my classes at the sorbonne. my class is full of asians. no jokes. there are probably 20 people in the class, and there are probably 7 or 8 non-asians. besides me there are 2 other american girls, but we are the only native english speakers. its a little weird being some place where the language i have in common with people is not english, but french... and VERY VERY VERY VERY hard to understand the asians.... it sounds a little mean but their native languages don't have the same sounds, so its really hard for them to pronounce things and then for me to distinguish what they're saying. i think though that i'm in the right class... everything we're doing is stuff that my profs have assumed i've known since its really basic stuff, like present tense verbs (i know i know..easy right?) but with all of the exceptions in french its really good review. and i'm not the only one doing it. everyone in the elementary level is doing it, and the one guy who placed into intermediate is doing present tense review too. right now the class might be a touch easy, but i was looking at the book and it looks like its going to be alright. i'm also thinking about talking to my professor tomorrow just to make sure... but i'm thinking its probably for the best to be where i am, because my biggest problem isn't understand so much as forming sentances, and with all of this review it should come easier and easier, especially as i grow more confident with my verb tenses and conjugations.
my phonetics classes start on the 18th, which i think is next wednesday. at my oral exam the woman testing me said i had a very good accent:) which i think is pretty good!! i also signed up for a conference course, which will be with other french students. its about the cinema. it should be interesting.

we also started our courses at the accent center, which in my case is paris civilization and culture. the professor is super cool, proably 30 or so, he's from the states, but wrote a dissertation on french lit (in french!) a couple years ago, and ithink has been living here since. but the class is really cool. obviously he's a lit major so we have been reading some very lit-y stuff, like baudelaire. i actually enjoyed the poems he had us read. the class is also pretty cool cause once a week we'll go to a diff part of the city for our class. for example, next week we're going to be studying notre-dame slash paris in the medieval times, so we'll read some stuff for tuesday and then on thrusday we'll meet at notre dame! the week that you guys are here mom and dad, we'll be going to the musee d'orsay, so i'd say you should probs come and just listen at the back haha (this class is in english)

other than that i've just been enjoying my time here. it was sunny yesterday (for the first time in awhile!!) and so i was outside most of the day...even if it was cold. ihave to say, i'm pretty over this whole cold thing. every parisian keeps telling me though that its been a very cold winter and its never like this. of course, when i'm here its cold. haha. it does give me a good excuse to buy scarves though. have to say, love them. i've already bought 3 and want to buy more.....

i've also booked my first trip! i'm going to strasbourg next weekend (the 20-22nd) with some people from my group! i'm stoked:)and hopefully the weekend after i'll be going to annecy!