Bienvenue a l'Universite!

I cannot believe that I've been in France for almost a month now. There have already been a lot of ups and downs, but overall, I'm loving my time here. My classes began last Thursday, September 9th. I am taking English to French Translation, French to English Translation, Spoken English (I actually have to take this for my degree!), British Civilization, American Civilization, French, English Grammar (taught in French), a literature course on Oscar Wilde, a literature class on Fitzgerald, Information Technology, Russian, and Linguistics and Didactics. The first class that I had was Eng-Fr Translation, and it was actually a lot of fun. I know that this will be a difficult course- in fact, my homework is already telling me that much- but I think I will learn a lot of vocabulary and get a better sense of when to use what tense and why by the end of the semester. I'm not allowed to use a dictionary in class or for the exams, so it will definitely be a challenge! I was completely overwhelmed in Russian, however, not only because I do not know any Russian, but also because I was not able to understand the professor if my life had depended on it. It seemed like the French students were also a little lost, and that is not a good sign. I have a feeling I'll be doing a lot of studying for this one. I really like British Civilization- it focuses on the years 1945-1990, and in high school and college I've mostly focused on the years during or prior to WWII. So, this will be different and refreshing. I haven't had my literature courses yet, but I have high hopes! I had not always had this positive outlook, though. I had been feeling (and still am to some degree) extremely stressed. It bothers me when I cannot understand something in class. I want to be challenged, but I want to be challenged with concepts, not the lecture itself. Of course, I still have a lot of French to learn, but I guess I expected to know more than I currently do. However, just as I was about to tell my advisor that I thought I was not prepared enough to go through with the double degree program, she greets me by saying that she keeps hearing my professors talking about how they love "the little girl from Pennsylvania with glasses and the unpronounceable name." I was beyond shocked. This reinforcement could not have come at a better time. I think that now that I've been to several classes, and I've had time to reflect and to discover I actually retained more from my lectures than I thought, I'm more optimistic about the semester. It also helped that I dropped my two electives- Marketing and Strategies of Communication.

As for traveling, I went to Bruges, Belgium last weekend. It was wonderful! We visited four different churches. One of the churches we visited, Our Lady, had a Michelangelo- Madonna and Child.  It is one of the few works of Michelangelo outside of Italy. I bought another rosary there. My collection is growing! At another church, Basilica of the Holy Blood, there was, appropriately enough, a relic of Holy Blood. I also had the chance to go on a canal ride and see the beautiful city by boat. Later, my friend Pam and I went to the Dali museum. The admission was very expensive for the small museum, but I think it was worth it. He was a very strange artist, but I enjoy looking at his bizarre creations. And of course, no trip to Belgium is complete without waffles. They were delicious!

I'm going to Paris next weekend, and I am planning on going to several museums this weekend!  It is almost time for me to move into the dorm. I'm usually very busy, which makes time go by quickly, but I really like being busy. It makes me feel that I'm using my time here to the fullest, or at least, I'd like to think that I am.