First Week of Uni: DONE

Hello, bonjour, hola! 

SO. It is finally Friday and somehow I have survived my first week of classes... just! 

What a week. If you've already read my post about Monday, you'll know I've not been holding out much hope for this week!
I did have several repeats of Monday over the last few days - missing lectures because the website says a different or no room for the class I'm trying to find, turning up to seminars and not having the faintest idea what these people are on about (is it French? is it Spanish? wait, is this English? do I even know what English is anymore?). 

I thought I would write about a couple of the classes I've sat through over the last few days, but before I do, here is something to keep in mind: I struggled with (read: hated, really did not understand, didn't particularly want to understand) English literature at GCSE level... 

Methodologie de l'oral - a Spanish class, which we expected to be about improving your Spanish speaking skills, you know, pronunciation, that kind of thing. What we're actually doing is discussing and analysing Spanish poems out loud. Its terrifying! Every week four people have to stand up and talk about a poem for ten minutes, currently not sure whether we do that in French or Spanish, either way I am not excited. 

Littérature française du XIXe et XXe siècle (French lit from the 19th & 20th century) - This involves a THREE. HOUR. SEMINAR. And a play by Victor Hugo. (Didn't realise he wrote Les Mis until I searched the book we're studying on Amazon, oops). I bought myself some macarons after that seminar as a reward for getting through it, definitely the best decision I've made all week. 

I'm also taking about nine million more literature modules (yawn). 
One class I do like is a Spanish translation module for foreign students. Its taught entirely in French and Spanish, but the level of Spanish in the class ranges from an Italian guy who can't speak a word of Spanish to native Spanish speakers from Peru, Spain and Mexico. So I sat happily in the middle and managed to understand the entire seminar. I even raised my hand a few times, steady on Bean! 

[Tip for future Paris year abroaders: The first day feels like the worst day of your life if you're a stress-head like me. The second day is much the same as the first. But it'll get easier. We obviously need to give ourselves a few weeks to find our feet - from what I can see, nobody cares about you being late, not turning up or being lost other than yourself, so its okay to do all those things! It just feels a bit pants to begin with.] 

Last night I felt really homesick so I facetimed my dad for a while and had a good cry! This week has been so stressful and I don't think I'd fully anticipated how much more brainpower studying in France would take! But today was a much better day - I met a couple of lovely girls in a seminar, both are Erasmus students like me, and both were feeling much the same as I am about the uni and the French students there (they don't seem to want foreign friends). So I'm feeling much better, just missing my family a lot. A few of us are going to a street food market tonight, which I am really looking forward to because... food. I've also got a job interview on Wednesday! 

So there's an update on my week. It did get better, thank god. Here's hoping I have a better Monday! 

Off to enjoy some street food now, see ya. 

À bientôt! 
Bean x

PS. Katyana if you're reading this, I'm really sorry for my lack of Victor Hugo/Les Mis knowledge!!