They told me to tell you they're waving. <--song quote

So my first day of school was yesterday. I felt like a kindergartener, but I really did resemble one. My host mom graciously dropped me off at the tram station as she was taking Vero to school. We left the house at 7h30 and it was freezing cold and raining. I was insanely happy that I didnt have to walk all the way to the bus stop in that weather. So I got on the tram and arrived early to campus- around 8h00. (about fifteen minutes to the tram station, and then another ten or so on the tram and about five to get to class) I was bored and the campus was empty- but luckily, a few girls in my group arrived early as well and we compared classes. It became 8h30 entirely too quickly and I left for my class. My group >27< has fourteen people in it- 4 Americans, 4 Japanese, 3 Chinese, 2 Korean, and one Venezuelan. It's impressive to me that these people who natively speak a tonal language like Japanese or Chinese want to learn a language like French and speak French more than English. I like it. The Venezuelan has a definite Latin accent on his French. He was a pilot in the army there for five years. How crazy is that? So our professor- he detests "Monsieur" so we're to call him Dominique- son prenom, n'est pas son nom... which confused the heck out of me- the difference between prenom and nom... anyway he walks in and I instantly like him. He's hilarious, interested in us and our progress, and encouraging and enthusiastic. Which we got to know well because I had him for 4 hours yesterday morning- all French all the time here- but it was strictly French language from 8h30 to 12h30 with one five minute break in between. We introduced each other in this cute exercise. We went to the lab and heard a five minute news story and had to answer questions about it. We had to listen to him read a passage and write it out- a dictee. We had to recite a passage (that had huge numbers and percents in it, and numbers are some of the hardest things to try and read fluently, I mean, 367,990 is "trois cent soixante sept mille neuf cent quatre- vingt dix", so yeah. and the comma in French- let's say you're saying 32,9% is read "trente deux virgule neuf percent" Crazy! And the professor alerted me to a problem I have with my A's. Normally, when I read a word like "massif" or "population" i pronounce the A like the A in mace. MASsif and popuLAYtion, when really it should be mAHssif and populAHtion, and we had this hard word in that passage- agglomeration- which is AHgglomerAHtion, so anyway. At the end of reciting the passage to him, I felt significantly improved and he told me I sounded so, so I was happy. I had a short break for lunch where I met up with the other API girls because we're all taking the same electives together in the afternoon. I had French Art History (and volunteered two answers that the Professor was impressed with- she told us to name paintings by Renoir and I volunteered "La Moulin de la Galette" and by Manet and of course, I said "Le Dejeuneur sur L'Herbe", so yeah. I was happy.) That class is going to be great and tres facile because I already know the things we're discussing. The next class was the History of French Cinema and the professor was much less animated and his voice was very deep- which in an amphitheater, speaking French, makes comprehension very, very difficult. So I may give that class up. We have a trial period of about two weeks to decide which classes we want to take, and I may have to leave that one out. So I ended up leaving campus at 18h00 (6pm) after being there all day. I arrived in the dark, and left in the dark. It was sad. But today, I don't have any courses so that's why Im in my internet cafe doing my thing. I love it. Im on the search for some hand lotion, though because my skin is so dry and I hate using my Lovely lotion for things other than a very special occasion. Let's see, the other night for dinner we ate this souflee thing that was really yummy. We've only had ONE dinner that had any meat in it and it was ham wrapped around cooked endives, which was surprisingly tasty. Last night we ate tomato soup, rice and tomatoes with curry (which strangely, the entire family put my salsa on top of it, mixed it around, and ate it like that!), salad with that spice im still not sure what it is but im in love with it, and cheese and fruit desserts with a grahm cracker bottom in the bowl. They were tart-like but less..gelled? I don't know. I think the yogurt (yaourt) in them gave me some crazy dreams last night because I had some crazy dreams.
So today, it's beautiful and WARMER. When I say warmer, I mean 40s and not 20s. Thank Goodness! I got to take off one layer this morning and that made me insanely happy. The sun is back, and the sky is blue again and the mountains are beautiful. My host mom went skiing with her friends this morning. How cute is that? I want to just stay in the city all day long and walk around and soak up this beautiful weather that has come back. Hopefully, it will stay for a while.
Did I tell you guys how my host parent's new favorite thing to do is bring out the Atlas after dinner? They enjoy questioning me about Texas' imports and exports, our trees (it was hilarious- they were trying to ask me about oak trees and Vero drew an acorn and I was trying to explain it in English and...wow, good times.) our weather, etc. They had never heard of an acre and are now fascinated with acres. Apparently, the acre left France in the middle ages. But anyway. Not much else to report, other than this beautiful weather and my new adoration for the kiwi. It makes my day- and I eat it with a spoon. Is that strange?
Grosses bises,
Chelsea