lately..

Well life has definitely picked up since my last post. In the past week I’ve started classes, made lots of new friends, and walked unfathomable distances. I mean, seriously, my legs/feet feel like someone beat them with a baseball bat.

Classes were supposed to start on Monday, but I didn’t actually have any until Thursday, so I did more exploring this week. I feel like I somewhat have a clue what’s going on now, and where things are, at least on my side of town, so that’s a good feeling. I don’t really think my French has improved at all, but who knows. Maybe I’m absorbing more than I realize.

The school schedule here is really ridiculous. At Auburn, we have the same classes every MWF, and the same classes TR. Here the schedule is literally different every day, and you have to check online to see what classes you have the next day. It’s so frustrating and impossible to plan anything. But anyways, so far all I have had is French on Thursday and Friday. Somehow, I placed in level 4, which is kind of high. Probably too high, because I feel like everyone else in there knows a lot more than I do. I’m hoping to pick it up quickly.. also, the class is for 3 hours. I will never again complain about a 75 minute class feeling long, because a 3 hour class is miserable, especially if you go out the night before.

Also, Friday night I had my first “discoteque” experience. A discoteque is basically a club, but I’ve never been to a club before, so either way, it was new. It was so very European, like something you would see in a movie. They played “house” music, which is basically like techno/dance music, and well, basically everyone dances. It was really fun, but I honestly felt like everyone there was way cooler than me, and that my American-ness was obvious. But fun, nevertheless.

So after that I got about three hours of sleep and then woke up Saturday morning to go to Monaco. It’s so cheap here to get around. It cost 1 euro to ride the bus all the way to Monaco. But on the way, we talked to a French lady who told us we should ride all the way to Menton because it was prettier and then stop in Monaco on the way back. It was good advice, because Menton was like the perfect little seaside village, so beautiful. We ate lunch at a beachside cafe, which was delicious. I had gnocchi in a carbonara sauce. Gnocchi is in my opinion, one of the more underrated foods in America. Most people don’t even know what it is. It’s basically like potato pasta, which sounds odd, but it’s delicious. I think carbonara sauce might not have been the best choice, as it was very heavy. But it was still really good. It felt good to finally be eating real food, even if it was Italian and not French.

We really had no idea what we were doing, but had fun anyways. We went back to Monaco and let me just tell you, you have never felt poor until you’re in Monaco. Literally every other car was some ridiculous luxury car. I saw my first Bugatti, which was probably the most extreme one of the day. We went to the Monte Carlo, but of course, didn’t gamble because we weren’t dressed appropriately, and oh yeah, we don’t have millions to blow. But it was cool just being there. We then trekked up to the palace, which was on top of the mountain. It was closed to the public, but we explored the little village outside of it.

Needless to say, by the time we got home, it was all I could do to walk back to my apartment. I slept for 13 hours, and am still tired. Not to mention sore. I’m not really sure why, but both of big toes feel like they’re broken. What is that about? They’re actually both quite necessary, as it turns out, so this is not good. I’m just going to take it easy today (not that I have much choice, we all know how Sundays are here), so hopefully my feet can recoup by tomorrow. I have two classes tomorrow, so that should be fun...

That’s about it for now, so xoxo!