Classes: So one stops. Also, Mont St. Michel and a belle promenade.

GAH Sunday again already!

This week was going smoothly until 4PM Wednesday afternoon rolled around and my "hilarious" phonetics professor (see last week's post) waltzed into class to announce that she was kicking me out!  I mentioned before that the room is way too small for that many students, so her solution was to kick out anyone who hadn't taken the placement exam.  The thing about the placement exam is that it was for ERASMUS students who took it in order to be placed into levels for a french language intensive the 2 weeks before school started.  I was already in a MICEFA intensive, so I didn't see any reason to take the test.  I can understand why she had to pare down the class a bit, but it was pretty infuriating that
a) she didn't just send me an email after she made the decision (she made everyone fill out a contact sheet last week) so I wouldn't waste my time coming to class that day
b) she didn't just send me an email after she made the decision so I wouldn't waste my money on the book
c) she didn't just send me an email after she made the decision -- I could have been looking for another class in the meantime
d) I was the one kicked out of class on a technicality, while other ERASMUS students waltzed in up to 30 minutes late and sans-book.

The people at MICEFA weren't very pleased with what happened, either.  But in the end, I think this will be a good thing.  It means that I can (hopefully) move into the upper-level dance class; I mentioned that the lower level one was pretty easy.  And the class I luckily was able to add is Advanced Grammar, another MICEFA course, which I had originally wanted to take anyway (choosing phonetics instead basically because AG meets on Fridays, yuck) and which will be much more useful to me at this point in my love affair with French.  Nonetheless, I was disappointed to be treated this way and can now say I've seen the infamously ugly side of university administration here.  The fact that no one thought to just cap the class instead of allowing too many students to register, and the fact that the professor can decide on a whim to kick certain (prepared and qualified) students to the curb...well, it's just a little ridiculous.
PS.  She kicked Johannes out too.  If there's anything worse than making an exception, it's making an exception then reneging!

After the stress of Wednesday afternoon I was sooo grateful that Claire (another UT student spending the year here) had organized a little Mexican Fiesta at her place.  I helped make the guacamole while sipping a margarita (there was only one bottle of tequila at a HUGE grocery store) and enjoying surprisingly tasty tortilla chips and so-so salsa (from a can, what can we expect?).  Later that night I headed over to Stefania's place (patient Italian girl I mentioned last week) for another get-together.  I met some of Stefania's friends there, including an Irish girl who is getting her doctorate in Theology, a British architecture student doing an internship here, and Zina, another Italian who is also half Russian.  So, 3 anglophones and 2 italophones...but we managed to keep it French (and occasionally Italian).  It was a very pleasant evening. :)

My Italian has been making a comeback this week, thanks to Wednesday night and also Thursday night, when I met up with Marco again (remember him from a few weeks ago?).  We spoke English last time, so this time it was me in the hot-seat.  Luckily the wheels were greased a little on Wednesday night!  We chatted over a light dinner before seeing "Mary and Max", an animated Australian film -- but not for kids.  The film was good but pretty dark, so I'm not sure how popular it will be in the States.  If you have the chance, see it!

On Saturday I went to Mont Saint Michel -- it's a little island/peninsula sticking off the west coast of France.  It's in lower-Normandy, and I believe it marks the division between Normandy and Brittany.  This is where the 1990 movie MindWalk (one of my dad's favorites) was filmed.  I've seen MindWalk at least 3 times and now that I've been here I'd like to watch it yet again.  Mont St. Michel is pretty isolated -- not easy to get there by train -- so MICEFA organized the optional trip.  Despite its isolation, it was packed with tourists, although I bet there's a totally different vibe during the week.  In other news, I think I might be getting acclimated to the colder temperatures and the rain.  I'm even starting to enjoy it...remind me of that come February!
The tour guide apparently was unable to speak louder than 10 decibels (as Johanna said, "I'm FRENCH and I can't hear what he's saying"), so Stefania and I decided to explore the place by ourselves (which I think is always the better option unless you're at the Vatican.  Seriously.  Get a tour if you go there).  Our conversation might not have been as high-falutin' as that of the MindWalk characters, but it was yet another chance to speak Italian, as well as help Stefania with her English.
Photo time:

To see all my Mont St. Michel photos, click here (they're at the end of that album, starting in the middle of page 5).

To see photos of today's Sunday stroll in the 5th/6th, click here (starts in the middle of the first page, after the photo of my metro stop).

Keep your fingers crossed that I get to stay in all my classes this week!

--Alina :)