January 10th Thursday

For breakfast I decided to be ambitious and make scrambled eggs. But once I had made them I found that I didn’t really have the stomach for them anymore. I still felt very sick. I focused on my yogurt and milk instead.

Adrienne and I got ready and made our way to the office of Mme Million. She was one of our sources to try to find housing information. She had a sign on her door saying that she was out and would return soon. We waited for a while before she came rushing up. We all sat down and Adrienne and I explained who we were and what we were looking for. Mme Million thought she had something for us and told us about an apartment. The only problem was that it was €200 beyond our hopeful price range. She was able to help us with information on the BDE (Bureau des Elèves) though. That turned out to be a more fruitful endeavor. We thanked her for her time and left to her saying “Bon courage!”

While we had been waiting for her, Adrienne and I had discovered that our class was not at 10:15am as originally thought, but at 2:45pm. We decided to go back to the apartment for a while before class. We tried to stop at the BDE on the way, but it wasn’t open. We continued home where Adrienne was able to register online. I tried but could not figure out how it worked. I didn’t want to be charged twice. I read for a while and rested. Then I got an SMS from Amanda. She was at Sciences Po and wondered if we wanted to have lunch with her.

We packed up our stuff and went to meet her. We went to a nearby store called Monoprix. There was a floor with clothes above a large supermarket. We went to the sandwich area and ordered some lunch. I had a Panini with ham, mozzarella, tomatoes, and marinara sauce. We couldn’t find seats so we went up to the drink area and asked if we could sit at the bar. The lady there told us we had to order drinks. I ordered a hot chocolate. It was pretty expensive and I was picturing it coming in a cup the size of an espresso cup. Actually, it came in a mug the size of a soup bowl. There was sugar and a little square of chocolate to go with it. I found it to be much closer to the price in value than I was expecting.

After lunch we still had quite a bit of time so we went shopping. I bought some shampoo, conditioner, orchid bath gel and new pens. I was excited about the shampoo because I hadn’t seen much for colored hair in the stores we’d popped into. I ended up standing in the slowest line in all of creation. I swear it felt like I was in line for thirty minutes. I found the one cashier in all of France who wasn’t in a rush to get me out of there.

We made our way back to Sciences Po where I bought a pain au chocolat from the cafeteria. It definitely wasn’t as good as the bakeries in the area can make. We stopped by BDE again and Amanda tried to register with them. Then we tried to go on our way. There were some guys with a video game system set up and cords stretched in our paths.

We went to our final class. It was La France et La Construction Européenne. Our professor arrived a bit late. M. Grossman cocked his head at the strange buzzing noise I heard the first two days. Then he said “Oh yes. I think it’s the hand dryers in the ground floor toilets.” Even though the noises continued, I found them less annoying now that I finally knew what was making them. Our first class was mostly spent on discussing how to decide on good paper topics. It went pretty well. I enjoyed the class as well as our professor.

After class there was talk about a party on the next night. We went and got some information on it. It was being put together by some of the different universities in the area. After deciding that we’d meet each other for dinner and then go out the next day, we went our separate ways home.

Adrienne stopped in at a sandwich place next to our building. I ended up getting a sandwich with smoked salmon, tomato, and lettuce. The sandwich wasn’t that great but it was okay. I ate as much as I could before giving up.

After dinner we went on the internet and looked at housing offers on the BDE website. Adrienne set up a meeting to see an apartment in Sevres the next day. I was able to talk to my dad for a little while on the phone. I also talked to Maya and Tom online. I’m so glad that I can keep in touch with people from so far away. It makes moving this far easier. Finally my headache was too much for me and I went to sleep.