First Day of Class

This morning, at 8:15, I ordered a pain au chocolat  and a café at the local boulangerie. And then it was the first day of class. The first class was from 9-noon and it was just expectations and a little bit of group work, but nothing difficult. This is my first true humanities class that I've ever taken and I've realized that the humanities isn't for me. There's a lot of questions like "what is humanities?" or "what is multiculturalism and why can it be both syncreitc and anti-syncretic" and the answers can be interesting, but the articles that we read to find the answers are not. L'ingénierie c'est bon pour moi.

Then it was lunch time. For lunch, I went to the university's cafeteria and it was beautiful! All the French students talked about how the food wasn't good at all, and they're not wrong, compared to the rest of the food in France. But compared to American cafeteria food, it was beautiful and delicious. I got fish with rice, and then chocolate mousse in a puff pastry sort of thing? It was very good, but the best part of the meal was the conversation. I spoke in French while the French students spoke back to me in English so we both got to practice the other language! It was so interesting to have a conversation like that. And then for any American students who didn't speak French at the table, they could still understand half the conversation.

The second class, after lunch, was slightly less interesting. It was about Gaulish religion in France, from about the 1st-5th centuries BC. It was the professor's first time teaching in English (since not everyone spoke French in the class) so she was a little bit stressed which made it even more difficult for her to talk. A couple hours after class, there was a reception in one of the administrative buildings with the students and faculty/President of the university. They had cider and delicious snacks, like thinly sliced baguette with butter and either smoked salmon (there is smoked salmon everywhere here) or prosciutto. But the best part of today was dinner. A French student from Akron, Farah, made samosas for the rest of us American French students and we had some of the French students over to our dorm as well to eat! There were about 15 of us in this little kitchen/eating area but it was so much fun to be able to talk and share a meal with them! Michael is making dinner tomorrow and hopefully they'll be able to come again! I'm nervous that I'll have to cook a meal, but my plan is to make breakfast for dinner because that's really the only food I know how to cook. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I feel so lucky to have so many friends who can cook!