Some photos (finally!)!

Hi everyone!

So it is the end of the first academic week here in Arras, and I probably only went to about half of my classes! Apparently, though, for those of you who just gasped at the fact that we skipped classes, it is okay for international students to do so. This is due to the fact that we only received our schedules Monday morning, then we have to arrange it to fit properly, and also because we had to do a lot of administrative work finished to be registered and properly accepted here in Arras!

So, I will do a minor break-down of the past few days:

Tuesday I went to class- Intro to the History of Medieval Literature- at 9:30 am, then met with my friends, Grace and Phoebe, to go talk to our advisor, Betty, before our class at 1:00 pm (13h military time!). Our professor was super nice but explained to us that this class is not really ideal for international students, and after sitting there for two and a half hours of the 3 and a half hour class, we decided he was right! Then we had our Réunion with the other 3 new international students this semester and the International Relations department at the university. They made us watch this movie and a powerpoint, both of which were not really helpful, but then we got to mingle and talk and it was a lot of fun. There are two Romanian students - a girl and a boy- and an Italian girl named Angela. Marianna and Razvan (the Romanians) love to speak English, so we speak English, and Angela knows absolutely no English, so we speak French haha. But! Grace and I plan to teach her at least some English/American slang, which she loves, and she will hopefully teach us some Italian too! We all went out to the bar later for a casual drink, which was fun because we all got to talk for an hour or so and get to know each other better.

Wednesday I had no classes, so I really didn't do much besides watch TV and hang out with Grace.

Thursday came with four classes- ugh- starting at 8h30! They were interesting, though I'm thinking I'm going to switch out of the one class because it includes some creative writing, which is not my cup of tea. At all. Especially in French. Then our tutor, Louis, took us for a tour of Arras (while we also took care of some administrative business, but who's shocked about that), which was AWESOME. The town has a lot of its old buildings from the Middle Ages, including a really pretty church. It also has this big... en français it is a "Place" but it's this large area with buildings lined to form a huge open square between them, where during the week cars can park but on Wednesday and Saturday mornings apparently there is a huge open market there too. It's gorgeous, with cobblestone streets and these tall buildings and another huge church- I will have photos up about this next Wednesday or Thursday!!

Grace spent the night last night because this morning we had to meet Louis to get our French bank accounts at 9h/am, which was easy and fine and now I have a French bank account! Grace and I then came back to my apartment and napped until 2:30 when we then had lunch and went to LeClerc (the local awesome grocery store) and parted ways until tomorrow!

I definitely feel a lot better about being here, and time is going slightly faster, but I still have more adjustment to achieve before I really feel at home here. However, I love my apartment, my roommates, and the town, so it definitely it achievable.

Some interesting things that I've discovered about France so far: to get one thing done, it is necessary to do three other things beforehand. For example, Grace hasn't had internet yet. To get internet, she needs a telephone. To get a telephone, she needs a bank account. To get a bank account, she needs her passport, her apartment contract, and a social security payment thing. So, we are up to the bank account step, and now she needs a phone! Another example of this is that to get a phone you need a bank account, but you need a bank account to get a phone! So Louis let us use his phone number to get our bank accounts today.

We're definitely not in Kansas anymore, everyone. But, it is still fun here.

Now, for some photos!!

My room key! I absolutely adore the fact that it is an old-time key!

View from my window

My bed! (WAC and Maryland representing, as you can see)

Our kitchen

My detached shower head...

My food cabinet stacked with the essentials: tea, Nutella, and pasta!