Tied my shoes on the first day of school

Well, I actually buckled them, but it sounds better if I say tied. It conjures up fuzzier memories of sack lunches, backpacks and apples for the teacher. I, however, strutted off in a pair of heels and dark sunglasses. It is Paris after all.

My first day of non-class class went well. I say non-class because it is ungraded. It is simply part of a 3-week prep for us foreigners so we don't go into shock come October.

The groups are organized by French level. Together we take a French course and a course on methodology. I will also have a course on the history of Paris which begins next week. My class is composed of a at least a dozen Germans, a couple Chinese girls, a Brazilian, a Cuban-American, a Dane, a Greek, an Ecuadorian, a few I forget, a South Dakotan and lil' ol' me. Iowa represent.

I began the day with two hours of French class with a wonderful middle-aged gentleman and father of 5 who kept cracking jokes about the Germans invading (in reference to the proportions of the class). I think he only got away with it because his wife is German and he speaks the language fluently.

After a brief break we had two hours of methodology with an extremely attractive Frenchman who completed Sciences Po in 2003 and now runs his own consulting company. I didn't even think French men could be this attractive. I'm just baffled . . .

. . . but I digress. Sciences Po has extremely strict rules concerning the structure of papers and time limits on presentations. In the methodology course we are supposed to prepare a practice presentation and go over other various structural guidelines.

Tomorrow we don't have class so we can register, except only the exchange students can register (grrr!). Normal students have to wait until Monday and figure out a way to get out of class and register before the good courses are taken.

This evening I went to my tutoring job. The 2 hours of class I gave went well and afterwards I had dinner with the family. They made me Mexican food since we talked about it on Sunday. I've never seen Mexican food served with a cheese course. Vive la France! We talked a bit too long so Dometille (the mother) drove me back home so I wouldn't have to take the train at 9:30. She's so sweet. I love my new part-time job!

Tomorrow I'm going to take advantage of the day off to work on getting my reimbursement back from my bank for the zoom airlines ticket and get cracking on my homework.