"Meuh," says the cow!

So it looks like it has been a while since my last post, but I promise you're not missing anything too exciting (unless you find French grammar particularly interesting). This week has really been all about getting into a routine, discovering the daily rhythm of living and going to school in Paris. The commute to class is obviously much longer than it would be on a college campus, and some of my classmates are figuring that out the hard way (you know, the ones who usually roll out of bed 10 minutes before their first class). I have a 45 minute commute by metro, though most of the people in the program have to take a train into the city and then transfer to a metro. 

Another thing everyone's having a little trouble with is the length of the grammar classes- two whole hours everyday. No matter how great the teacher may be, it is extremely difficult to make conjugating verbs and choosing the right pronoun fun for that amount of time. That's probably why we all tend to gravitate back towards the foyer after class. It's a little bit strange, but I there's some sort of unannounced agreement in our group that if you're by yourself and have nothing to do you should go to the lobby of the foyer, because sure enough someone else will always be there.

Despite the length of the class, I am enjoying being in such an international environment. The other day, somehow animal noises came up and my teacher asked what noise a cow makes. It turns out American cows sound different from French, Turkish, Chinese and Swedish cows. It's really interesting to see how such a little thing like the noise we assign to cows can differ from country to country.

The members of my host family have slowly begun to reappear from their various vacation spots. The other night at dinner, my host mom asked me if I had received a package from my grandmother yet (my grandmother had told me she wants to send me a care package). My host dad became extremely curious as to what sort of things she was sending me, especially any type of food. He asked me something to the effect of, "What things is she sending that we savages don't have over here in France?" I don't think he was actually offended, but he definitly found the idea of a care package comical.

Anyway, I think that pretty much covers the past few days. Like I said, nothing very exciting has happened, but it was definitely time for an update.

Until next time!