January 24th

Why do I love to torture myself? Today was the first day of morning hell. I was up at 7 AM and ready to go to class at 8 AM. Needless to say I made it there just fine. The walk wasn't so bad, in fact I prefer it to my afternoon walks to university. Thanks to winter it is still dark at eight o'clock in the morning meaning no pesky sun to ruin my vision. I enjoy that. The class itself was weird and interesting.

My art history professor is similar to professors in the States; this means that his teaching style is vibrant and full of life. He doesn't monotone his lectures but rather moves around and draws diagrams on the board for clarification. I think that we will go along nicely. The weird part was my classmates. They were the exact same ones from my two literature classes last semester. I literally mean they were the same, not a single new kid! What is it with this university and class cliques?

Once that lecture was over I swung to the Carrefour grocery store for some breakfast. Being sensible, and having a craving for fleshy fruit, I nabbed some apples. Lucky for me they had my favorite variety, pink ladies. The price was decent too; I bought four fresh apples for less than a euro. Almost immediately after I thanked the cashier I began to scarf down one of those suckers. I devoured the helpless apple in huge greedy bites. Divine my lady simply divine.

It was then that I found myself with over forty minutes left before my next class. I allowed the remaining in between time to play out at the library. Forty minutes dies fast when you're on the internet. Too soon did I leave my post at one of the ancient French computers for my course on history of religions. This class was also weird.

What is with these damn French cliques? It's like a bad high school movie from the eighties. Each group strictly stays within themselves and scorns any outsiders. The outsiders this semester are an old lady and me; we both "happened" to sit by one another which no doubt enforced this idea. The history kids were surprised to see me alone. For some reason they believe that I don't understand any French whatsoever. The joke is on them, listening comprehension is one of my stronger areas. They were confused as to where Paula was and why I was still living in Le Havre. Oh the joys of French gossip. I would like to say right now that I do not in fact own a surfboard nor do I acquire a new boyfriend every two weeks. Honestly they need to check their sources, my guy pattern is more like every two years. Also there's not a proper coast in Chicago to surf!!! Oceans = Surfing, Lakes = Sailing. Geography yeah!

The class itself was a standard introductory lecture, boring. On religious histories, BORING! Oh well a class is a class. Fortunately I have my old history teacher (professor Sansy) which means she is already familiar with my foreigness. She also knows that I am exempt from speeches since they are graded on flow and language rather than actual content. All I have to do is read, take notes, and attempt the final. Simple as pie.

After that strange lecture I was free to leave the university to do some errands. Damnit. I had the privelege of walking all over Le Havre to accomplish two tasks; mail a letter and return public library DVDs. Easy right? Yeah both were easy but the time taken was slow. I mean  s   l   o   w. Doesn't help that the post office near the university is on the opposite side of town from the public library. You want to know how long it took me to do just those two uncomplicated chores? You really want to know audience? It's a sad amount of time. An hour and a half almost exactly. That was how much time I used to mail a letter, return some DVDs, and walk back to my dorm. Needless to say I was exhausted. Fortunately I had class at five thirty meaning I couldn't nap without the risk of missing the first class day. Do I need to say it? I do. Damnit!!!!

The five thirty class was the lovable language course with M. Ardouin. Life is just so pleasant for me! If you recall audience I wasn't fond of M. Ardouin last semester. Doubtful that my opinion will change. Regardless I was there in my desk with my notebook and magic erasable pen. Whoo. Class was nice and laggy just like a dial-up connection. In fact M. Ardouin somewhat resembles those old school noises that computers made when they connected to the internet. Just a whole slew of hissing and irritating beeps. It was bout dat time I realized the girl scout was two stories tall and from the late Paleozoic era. I said, "Damnit Monster, I ain't givin' you no tree fitty." Well that proves it, due to lack of sleep I have once again lost grip on sanity.

Hooray the blog is done, almost, not quite, one more paragraph, damnit! Ok final note on what occurred on this long long LONG day. When I was back at the dorm for good I decided to check my mail. In my little mailbox was an international letter, uh oh. It turned out to not but such an uh oh but more of a face palm. Chase (my American bank) had once again screwed up my France situation. They had decided to freeze my card because of "unusual activity" happening in a foreign country. I had told them months ago that I would be in France for the entire year. They only half listened. Thus once again I told them that all transactions in France are done by me unless I tell them otherwise. Head banging into wall.

At least it is done Marebear, at least all the annoyances are done. Time to finish packing your Freshman backpack for tomorrow. Remember you're going to visit your friend Caitlin in Germany over the weekend. Let's finish that and then have some sleep. Sounds good Marebear, I think I'll do just that. Later Loners!