Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Better than the Back Room

Relying on a bar for an internet connection is going to be detrimental to my health and education. Luckily today I found my school's library and a computer with internet. I secretively facebook stalked and checked my email while pretending to look up books, and wikipedia'ing all of the information I missed in my classes. The only problem with this new set-up is that I had to use a French keyboard. Not fun. The a and the m are switched, probably some other letters too. Even worse is that the punctuation is all over the place. No longer can I simply extend my right ring finger downward for a quick "." -- NO, I have to ctrl alt shift and spin around twice to end my sentences. If you receive any mysteriously long messages from me with z's and b's in place of m's and a's, don't think it's a secret code: it's just me being too lazy to type like a Frenchie.

This week of classes is going a lot more smoothly than the last. Now that I'm over the initial shock of the French lecture system and have resigned myself to the fact that I can only understand a third of what my professors are saying, taking notes is a breeeze. Well, maybe not a breeze, but at least my sentences are now comprehensible. Although I've figured out a note-taking system, I'm still a little confused about homework. I get the feeling that French students don't do homework. Our professors all supply a "bibliographie" with a neverending list of "suggested" readings, but everyone tells me that no one reads them. So for now I just look over my notes when I get home and call it good.

Used to studying non-stop and scheduling every minute of my day at U-M, now that I have more time, I actually do fun things during the week. Or really, I just go to the bar and hang out, because there's not much else to do here at night. On the way home from the Woohoo Monday, Amanda and I felt a little hungry and discovered that Pizza Capri, our favorite pizza place, is open late. This isn't your average college-town latenight pizza, though. It's delicious, cheap, and delicious. So is the 24 hour boulangerie that we recently discovered. For a euro or two, you can buy a baguette, croissant, turnover, cookie, and numerous other delicious delicacies any hour of the day or night. Although there may come a time this semester when I crave some BTB or Pizza House at three in the morning, Pizza Capri is much better than the Back Room, and I don't think you can ever beat a 24 hour boulangerie.

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