It’s starting to get slightly warmer in Paris and the semester is finally underway. That also means that the dreaded “exposés” have started–essentially, oral presentations in French, usually in front of a bunch of native French speakers. Fun times.
This past weekend the semester students were off visiting Marseille with the program, and nearly all the annual students ended up heading to Reid Hall to “study” and “prepare” their exposés (I put those two words in quotes because although some of that did indeed happen, it did eventually dissolve into most of us watching the musical parts of Shrek 2 in the Reid Hall library).
First semester I hung out quite a bit at Reid Hall, but this time around I’m barely there, so it’s nice to see everyone together every once in a while (hot tip: try and find other study places in Paris beyond Reid Hall. Cafes are expensive, but the libraries are a good alternative. When it’s warm, parks!). We all definitely miss the Fall semester students. One thing that hasn’t changed though, is that we all still go to Carrefour for lunch, and I’ve developed the unfortunate habit of only paying in coins. I never spent by 5 cent coins last semester and now I’m having to catch up. Nothing is as stressful as having to hand over 2384798684626423 5 cent coins to pay for your salad and having to watch the cashier count all of them, feeling the resentful waves coming from the french people waiting behind you in line. I’m sorry y’all.
I have a good feeling about my classes this semester though. I’m taking “L’émancipation des femmes” and “Documentaire francophone” at Reid Hall, as well as a Masters Lit class at Paris 3 and a figure drawing course at an art studio called La Villa Bastille. The art course specially has been amazing, even though it’s on saturday–the studio is very cozy and the general ambiance is pretty relaxed and lowkey. I definitely recommend trying to take classes like painting or dance while studying in Paris. You’ll have to write and eight page paper about it at the end of the semester, in addition to the class work, but it’s definitely a cool experience.
