Je Suis Etudiante

Bonjour!

Happy 4th from Paris! I didn't even realize it was 4th of July until half-way through my class this morning!

I started classes at La Sorbonne yesterday morning. I tested into Intermidiere 1, which is the highest intermidiate level, the next level being advanced. I think I got placed in the right level, but I am still having trouble understanding my prof, and we did a dictation yesterday and I didn't do very well on it. Oh well, I think it was just because I was super nervous for the first day of class. I have two classes: Language & Culture and Phonetics. I have Language & Culture from 8:30am-10:30am every week day for the next four weeks, and Phonetics from 11am-12pm for the next two weeks. I really like Phonetics, because we're just learning how to pronounce words and how to string them together to make us sound more French! I don't really like having two straight hours of Language in the morning, as I get very sleepy sitting in the same place for two hours straight!

I haven't been doing loads of sightseeing in the last few days, as I have been getting ready for school. I had my placement test at La Sorbonne on Monday, and then Tuesday and Wednesday I had free days. Tuesday I went to a seminar at CEA about shopping in Paris (because we are in the middle of the month long sales!) and traveling around Europe. We are going to the Loire Valley in two weeks to see all of the castles there, and then my friends and I are thinking about going to Nice for a weekend. I really would like to get out of the country and see somewhere else, like Germany, but there just aren't enough weekends! I pretty much spent my two days free not doing much, just resting my foot. I hurt my foot pretty bad about a month ago and it hasn't stopped hurting since. I've been wearing a boot around, which has helped, but it still hurts pretty bad. So I spent my two days where I didn't have to do anything doing nothing pretty much! haha

Well, I'm off to visit some more Parisian sites, and possibly to a 4th party at a friend's apartment tonight! Tomorrow I am visiting Versailles, and on Sunday all of the museums in the city are free, so I am going to see as many as possible!

A Bientot!
Lesley