OMG......

Didn't have class until 5:30 today. So I read Chateaubriand. I finished Atala-which, Heather, you HAVE to read!!!!! It's not nearly as ridiculously stupid and dramatic as Rene. I actually like Atala and there are only a few parts where I was like "right.....stupid....."

I went into the city to buy some notebooks, because I only brought one with me. And let me tell ya...i still cannot get used to writing on graph paper! I always thought it looked messy.....and it sucks because that's like all they have here, so all my notes look messy :(

My class today was "Techniques d'expression ecrite". Basically, writing techniques. I almost died when class started. There was only one other exchange student in the class, and I didn't even sit near her! The first exercise the teacher wanted us to do was ridiculous..... Basically, she gave us these excerpts from books that were written in the "Stendhal" style (written more like the spoken word, and not accurate grammar all the time...meshing words together..) Now, I knew what the teacher wanted us to do. I've read Stendhal so I know what his style is (i'm guessing the writing method gets its name from him, because the teacher said his name and said "Le Rouge et le noir" a few times..) And i could pretty easily just correct the bad grammar.....but she wanted us to actually rewrite the sentences in a more sophistacated way!! I'd be fine doing that in my room.....but I can't do a whole paragraph in 10 minutes! sheeeshhhh! That's hard stuff to do! But the teacher found out I was foreign, and then she just told the other girl and me that as long as we understood the paragraphs and understood what the other students were doing, we didn't have to do it :) I do have the worksheet though, so I'm going to be practicing that this weekend.
The rest of the class was pretty easy-just basic grammar things that French people commonly mess up. And some things where we had to match the word with the definition. I needed to pull out my French-English dictionary for that because the words were fancy and I had no idea what they meant! But once I looked them all up, that exercise was very easy :)
That class should get easier....it's the first day that always gets me the most!

Just listening to The Calling now. I just ate dinner. I'm gonna skim through "Rene" for a little bit before bed. Already read it last year, so I don't need to totally take it apart, lol. My "small group" class for my lit. class tomorrow at 8 am!! Not cool. But then I just have my Art History class at 1:30 and then no more classes until Monday!! Yay!!

Love,
Kelly