January 9th Wednesday

In the morning I knew that I was sick. I had very strange dreams the night before. One involved me trying to help a man save his five children from a sudden tidal wave at the beach. The next one was somewhat in opposition when I dreamt that I had lots of children staying at my house doing bratty things. I kept taking things away from them and wishing they were gone.

When my alarm went off I tried to raise myself out of bed. I felt like I was dead. I was clogged up and achy all over. I even had a headache. I tried to get some energy for the day through breakfast. I had some fromage blanc and bread with Nutella on it. I had orange juice to drink. It may not have been the healthiest breakfast ever, but when you’re sick you just want food that sounds good.

We walked to our first class. This class is called Le Système Politique Français (The French Political System). Our teacher’s name is Padis. He has curly hair that has receded quite a bit. He looks at us through glasses perched on his sharp nose. He’s fairly friendly. The reading for his class was fairly simple. It was basically a recap of our Welfare Capitalism course in French. We started talking about that and then spun off into other topics from there. The class went very well. I gained his permission to use my computer in class to take notes. This will definitely facilitate the process.

We had a two and a half hour break until our next class. That’s just barely enough time for lunch (haha). A group of us went to the cafeteria and got sandwiches. I had a ham and cheese sandwich on very nice bread. It wasn’t the normal baguette. It had a more interesting texture and shiny appearance. My first two bites left me wanting some kind of mayonnaise or mustard. I went in search of some and was unable to find any. I settled back down and on my next bite found the “sauce.” There was a thick layer of butter that I had not bitten into at first. Part of me cringes when I eat such things, but the other part sits back and enjoys this wonderful taste. Life is too short to worry about everything.

After our little lunch, Adrienne, Heidi and I went back to our apartment. We checked some emails, drank some tea, and tried to read more for our next class. Heidi ended up taking a quick nap too.

We finally realized we had better make our way back to school. We were going to be late. We hurried along the street and made it into the classroom. This class would be La France, L’Europe Politique, et les Relations Internationals (France, European politics, and international relations). Thankfully the professor was late too. His name is Irondelle and this was our first time meeting him. He wasn’t able to make it to orientation the previous day. When guessing with Heidi what he would be like, I thought that he would be an older man. He turned out to be younger. In the beginning he introduced himself very slowly and told us to tell him if he talked to fast. Then he took off like a bullet into his lecture. I was sitting on the side of the room and I think this made it difficult to hear him. There have also been construction noises outside the windows on the streets. Another annoying buzzing that sounded like somebody’s cell phone on vibrate had persisted throughout the entire last class and this one. I went crazy trying to figure out what it was. This was all added on top of the fact that he talked a lot about the pile of reading we were supposed to do for that day. I ended up quite lost by the end of the day and wondering if I should write a will before the program killed me. The professor wanted us to introduce ourselves. He listed of a few things he wanted us to say and then started with me. I had to ask him to repeat because I just couldn’t understand him. I could feel my face blushing as I listened closely and tried to understand him.

I also became nervous about the work that we would have to do for this module (3 months). The papers wouldn’t be so scary if they were in English. We have to write a 3,000 word essay for each class. Then we have to pick one of them to do an additional 6,000 word essay in. We can combine the essays in one class to be one 9,000 word essay if we want. Of course, all these papers have the same due date so I’m not sure what kind of work schedule I’ll have.

We made it out of this class alive to do more reading for the next. Adrienne and I headed home and stopped by the Gosselin bakery to grab a baguette. I couldn’t resist and also got a chocolate éclair. It looked very nice.

At home we prepared dinner. I cooked up some chicken and we mixed it with some pesto and spaghetti noodles. It was pretty good. The noodles were a bit funny though because I had some left over from last dinner and had tried to heat them up again. Keep in mind that I do not have a microwave.

I was able to read my homework for the next day’s class. It was about conducting interviews with elites. I found it rather strange. Our syllabus also says something about required interviews. I am officially afraid.

To try to combat my sickness and relax for bed, I took a bath complete with Japanese cherry blossom bubble bath. My friend Maya had given it to me and I really enjoyed it. It was quite fun.

I had a glass of wine after the bath. It was from the bottle that we’d opened when Heidi came over for dinner. It wasn’t very good by itself. It was best with the bread and cheeses. I got to talk to my mom briefly on the phone. She was home sick. She gave me some tips for my sore throat. I ended up getting myself into bed by 10:40pm even though I stayed up reading later.