Exposition and First day of school

To pick up from last time....

The girls (my host mom (Claire), Aliana (the Bolivian exchange student), and I) went to an exposition while the boys went to a rugby game. The exposition was at the musee Bargoin archeologie - tapis et arts textiles (aka the Bargoin archeological museum - tapestries and textiles) and was called L'ailleurs dans un miroir (which translate to something like "elsewhere in a mirror"according to babelfish.yahoo.com). It was really cool because we saw lots of different clothes from people around the world such as India and the middle east and China. Claire explained that they put on a show where students would wear the clothes so it was kind of like a fashion show. Anyways, after that we took a walk through le jardin le coq (aka the garden le coq if you cant get the second part sound it out, it will come to you). The garden/park is very pretty and even has wifi! After we got back we had dinner and then everyone went to bed early because school starts the next day (aka Monday, aka Labor Day back in the US).

Monday - First Day of School!
I woke up early, showered, changed, ate breakfast and started walking to school with my host mom. On the way she explained where we were and such and asked me if I was nervous. When I replied yes she was like you should have no problem your french isn't bad. That made me feel better, but of course I was still nervous - all I knew was meet in the lobby at quarter to 9 - sketchy instructions if you ask me. We finally got there (its only like a 15-20 minute walk) and I said Au revoir and went into the atrium and sat down with the rest of the crew. At quarter to 9 Joelle came and started talking to us and took us to another room. Then we got some paperwork and went on a tour of the building. There are two parts of the main university building- an older and a newer part. They connect at the first and second floor but not the third - I swear this was repeated in french like 5 times to us. Anways we go back and get some more paperwork and leave for lunch.

For lunch we are taken out by Joelle (who is the head of our program) and a bunch of other professors and administrators. We walked for like 10 minutes and arrived at a little restaurant. We had red wine, fish or beef, and tart or ice cream for dessert. It was really interesting because we sat professor student, professor student which ended up with the professors having conversations in rapid french with the professor on your other side. Also as we were walking there and back they would point out interesting sites and discuss lots of other things. But it really annoyed me when they would talk at the same time because I would just give up and listen to only one. After lunch we went back to the ESC for our interviews with Joelle. I was chosen first and the interview wasn't very bad, it was mostly alot of questions that in my head added up to "is this child going to be a problem over here". She asked about our drinking habits and lots of other things. Also she gave us our lunch stipend for the first two months - its 8 euro per day. Once I was done I decided to leave because it was starting to rain.

While walking home I took a wrong turn and got a little lost, after a roundabout way and a little trouble with the door (I have never been very good with keys) I was home. After some R&R, I heard someone come in. Closing up my laptop I went to see who it was. As I walked into the kitchen I saw my host mom so I said a cheerful "bonjour" and she jumped and freaked out (which was pretty funny)! After she explained how she had been out taking a bike ride when her chain broke we decided to go to the store to get some school supplies. At the store (which is literally less than 20 feet from our door) I got a notebook.

Once back in the apartment, I read some of a book i'm borrowing from my host family (it's L'etranger or the Stranger by Albert Camus) and then worked on some of my paper work. Then we had dinner which was really different - fish and beans with onion on salad. Then we had yogurt for dessert. Then we decided that it would be fun to watch a movie, but as I was looking through their immense collection I decided I was too tired to watch one that night. So we picked out Spiderman to watch the next night. Then I brushed my teeth and went to bed listening to music.