This week was the rentrée for me at Nanterre.

On Monday, I had decided to try to take a second MICEFA class instead of going crazy trying to fill my schedule at Nanterre. I am taking a Franco-American relations class. It is pretty interesting, it seems to be examining American history from a French perspective, and how the history of the US has impacted the French. It’s going to be a lot of work I think, there is quite a bit of reading that goes with it. But I think I like it so far.

Tuesdays now suck. Officially (well not in France, I don’t have the paper stamped saying so yet).

I work in the morning, and then take the train out to Nanterre. I have a little bit of time to kill, so I eat at Nanterre. The super duper €2.75 meal. Then I have class for two hours. Tuesdays are the night I settled on doing babysitting. I have enough time to leave Nanterre, spend and hour at home, and then go back out to babysitting. But I decided that’s too much time wasted. So I just go to babysitting early, and do some reading or napping. The point I am trying to make is that I leave home at 7:15 in the morning, and don’t get back until 9 at night. Bleh.

The class at Nanterre is ok, but mostly on the boring side. It is difficult to describe the class, it is basically a History of Philosophies class… but the point of the class is to examine Medieval Philosophies and ideas to see how they led to today’s philosophies. Oh man, it is boring. And life in the middle ages doesn’t interest me.

After leaving Nanterre, I went to the Fnac. I love the Fnac. It is like Barnes and Nobles mixed with Best Buy, minus the appliances. I bought a couple of books, and got tickets for a show in March. And just walked around. It’s such a great store. I think it is my favorite here, hahaha.

I bought a book called A Year in the Merde (Merde is the French word for shit). It was written by a British guy who moved to Paris for a year, and it is a humorous account of his time here. I have been laughing my ass of reading the book, because I can relate to the book so much.

I didn’t have my MICEFA class in the morning, the teacher is on vacation. So I won’t have that class until March. I slept in a bit, and then met up with Sylvana at Nanterre. Another amazing cheap meal. Haha. And then I went to class. Ecrit 3. French grammar. Woo! The teacher is pretty nice, and I learned a few nuances of French grammar that I would have never been able to pick out otherwise.

Thursday is a true day off. No school, no work, only once in a while, I might have to babysit. So it is my day to shop, do laundry, etc. It’s so funny how life falls into a routine.

I managed to shrink my plastic shower curtain. I feel quite accomplished now. It was getting kind of icky, so I put it in a sink full of bleach and hot water. Nice and clean. And when I went to hang it back up, it was 3 inches shorter. I think I stared in amazement for like 5 minutes, pondering how the hell this could have happened. It is a plastic shower curtain, it isn’t supposed to shrink. And the problem is, every shower curtain I have found to try to replace it is too short. So bathroom floor has been getting a little wet lately.

Friday was work, and now, I am on (paid) vacation for two weeks! Yay!

Friday night, Sylvana and I decided to celebrate with a couple of beers in the Bastille. We met up with another MICEFA student, and celebrated vacations. (I have class Monday and Tuesday, but no work, so I feel like the school part is a minor inconvenience).

Saturday, I took it easy. I love weekends, and laziness. Saturday night, we met up with the Katies at the Canadian house at the Cite Universitaire for a party. This was where we stayed the first two weeks, so we were joking about where our rooms were and feigning nostalgia. The party started 9ish, and we were the only people there for almost an hour. We went to find Martin, the friend who was putting on the party (he was eating, he wasn’t even at the party…), told him we were going to leave, and he told us to stay for a little while. The beers were cheap, so we said ok. We were only going to pay more anywhere else.

More people showed up, and it ended up being fun. Sylvana was bored, so she left early, Katie red had left to catch the last metro, but Katie blonde and I stuck around. We figured we could catch the night bus home. We left around 4ish. Again, I am so happy for the night busses. I love them.

So now I am getting ready for my vacation. I am going to Italy for 10 days. I am so friggin stoked! It’s going to be so much fun. So you won’t be hearing from me for a couple of weeks, but I promise to come back with stories and tons of pictures.