Orientation

Ok so today was Orientation, but it was all pretty basic and it didn't take the full 7 hours that was allotted for it. We were reminded of basic rules to follow in our apartments, especially for those of us who are sharing our apartments with French students. And we signed up for classes. I have Advanced Conversation from 3:30 to 5:30 on Mondays and Thursdays and from 3:00 to 5:00 on Tuesdays. And I have Literature of Provence from 1:30 to 3:30 on Mondays and Thursdays and from 10:30 to 12:30 on Fridays. Everyone also has an additional class on Tuesdays from 1:00 to 2:00 in which we'll be given information about culture and excursions. So basically, that means I will not be able to communicate with any Houstonians (or other central timers) from 6:30am to 10:30am on Mondays and Thursdays, or from 6:00am to 10am on Tuesdays. And I don't think I need to say this, but I also won't be able to communicate between 3:30am and 5:30am on Fridays.

So tomorrow is the first day of classes and our first dinner with our pseudo-host families. My pseudo-host family is the Bach family, and I'm sure I'll be writing about that experience later. Other than Orientation and a casual dinner with the tutors and professors, all I did today was go grocery shopping with my roommate Kim at Monoprix (kind of like a French Walmart). I got enough food to last me a while, and I got hairspray, which was expensive even though I bought the store brand! Oh well. All in all, I didn't have to spend too much and I got a good amount of food for what I paid. It's time for our group to stop eating out with the tutors and start cooking in our apartments...we'll see how that goes!

So tomorrow, I don't have class until 1pm, so I'm planning on going out in Aix to find stamps/a post office before I have class, and cooking myself lunch. A tout a l'heure!