I Finally Started School!

So, long time no blog. Sorry, guys. I started school last week! REAL SCHOOL. Like real college at a real French University. And let me tell you l'Universite de Provence is NOT like the beautiful Bloomington IU campus. When my fellow Hoosiers walk to class, they're seeing changing leaves on the trees, beautiful limestone buildings, and well-kept corridors and classrooms. When I walk to class, I see Che Guevara spray painted everywhere along the buildings spattered with various English curse words. Then, you actually walk into the building and the building is DIRTY. Incredibly dirty, there is graffiti everywhere on the inside, and there are wires, YES wires, hanging out of the ceiling . The Fac de Lettres also is very unorganized in setup. It's confusing to get from class to class. And unlike IU, I have ALL of my classes in the same building. Each different school within the university has its own building here. And the building I'm in is a huge piece of crap. But, you get what you pay for I suppose. French students only pay 300 Euros PER YEAR. That's right, per year, to go to college. When I tell French people how much I pay, they freak out. They think I'm joking. Alas, I am not. We Americans pay TOO much for college.

But, enough about the building, let's get to the classes. My fellow Hoosiers will also be incredibly familiar with our good friend OneStart. That helps us pick and choose our classes and register online in minutes. Here in France, they don't even have class schedules up and ready until a few days before class starts. Therefore, the foreigners FREAK OUT about it. It's incredibly disorganized and a bit hard to deal with. I had a lot of time where I was really confused and worried about the classes I had chosen. But, I got some picked out and I'm quite happy with them right now. I'm taking a French poetry class, a Creole history and language class, and an Italian literature class at the University of Provence. Then, through my program I'm taking an oral expression class and a written expression class. I'm taking 14 credit hours this semester, so that's almost normal course load.

But, classes are going great and I'm very happy here. Although, I AM a bit homesick. I'd love to come to Bloomington for a weekend. I miss my college life. But hey, how often do you get to live in France for a year? So, I'm taking it as it comes and making the most of it. Please know I miss you guys like crazy and packages are always accepted on my end. Sour Patch Kids and Twizzlers, especially.

Till next time!