Part 7: L'Universite

Yes thats right, I am now a French University student... officially!

I apologise for my lateness in blogging, I was way to tired last night to do anything so I am now doing it a day late... Sorry.

So, Yesterday.. what did I do? Oh yes! I woke up uber early (well, 7,30am...) and zombied around the house until 8.30 getting ready to go to my first day at uni. It was odd being up at that time and not being the last one to eat breakfast and see the kids getting ready for school. Its good to know that French kids are also tired in the morning. At 8.30 Carole drove me into Grenoble where my uni is. She was only doing that this once so that she could show me the ropes of the town so that I could make my own way back to St. Marie on my own via public transport that night and thus from now on.

When I first got to the (massive) uni, Carole showed me the office and then left me to fend for myself. I filled in like two forms (thats all you need to do to get in... stupid Australia and their stupid ENTERs) and then met up with my teacher and went to class. The class was a fair hike though accross the campus and so in that time the teacher chatted to me in French and I think was trying to assess my comprehension and such. In case I didnt mention - its a class to learn french. I got into the class and the first thing that was noticed - I was the only guy. Oh well, I am sorta used to that by now :P The teacher introduced me (as Duck. Not even Doog... Duck...) and then I sat down next to a Canadian named Tabitha. Then the class introduced themselves to me in French. It was really interesting becuase between the 10 of us there were 8 nationalities (I'll try to list them: 2xAustralians [WIN!], 2x German, 1x Spanish, 1xPortugese 1xRussian and 1xAmerican, it is pretty cool) Listening to everyone speak french was so hard because not only were they speaking french but some of the more beginner frenchies had huuuge foreign accents which I really had to tune in for.

The class has apparently three levels of students. Beginners, intermediate and advanced. I think I sit in the intermediate for speaking but the advanced for comprehension and writing (its not the hardest course, I dont think) Because I was new, the teacher put me in a group with the more beginner-intermediate. It was an easy start, we were doing passe compose which I have done sooo many times, but I still didnt say much.. I didnt know anyone :( I did start chatting to the other Australian a little bit which was good - we both liked the familiar accents.

After a while, another class come in to our room and kicked us out, so we left and went accross the campus again to a different room. Whilst waiting for the teacher, a few of the students sat down and then the worst thing happened: An alarm went off! We didnt know wat it was at first, so we stood there dumbly until we realised it was the fire alarm!! We made our way down stairs and then again stood around like idiots whilst waiting for further instruction. Waiting, getting ushered out into the freezing cold, waiting... Finally it turned out the stupid thing was just a drill and we could all go back inside slightly annoyed. Why would there be a fire drill at a French Language University in the middle of winter? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid Uni... Oh well..

We finally got into our next room and did more exersizes based on the passe compose in my group, the were really easy but it was good because it gave me a chance to help and then strike up a conversation with the people in my group. Later, we listened to two of the advanced students give speeches on famous french people and made notes. That was pretty easy too I think, there was some tricky words in there I didnt quite understand but all in all, I learnt some stuff about some people. A bit after that we went to watch a video that didnt work so we were allowed to go for lunch. A group of about 5 went down to the cafeteria thing downstairs so I went with them talking to the other Australian (Maria, btw..hello if you are reading this! -we swapped blogs) She is doing Au Pair - like everyone else in the class. But her ultimate goal is to learn French (from scratch!) and then go into Paris to study fashion design. She has a scholarship for a course there. Woo! I also bought two twix bars and a bottle of water for later :)

Anyway, at 1.30 we made our way to our third classroom for the day (thus confusing me for when I go back in two weeks, where the hell do I go?) We ended up having a choice of three different exersizes. I ended up readin some articles then having to explain them to the class. The reading was really easy, and the teacher said that it would be, for me but the explaining wasnt so good. I really hate talking infront of a class in a foreign language. I ended up letting someone else do it haha. I did talk about one but it was about French wages and such, thus really boring and I forgot all the numbers so I basically had to read it again as I spoke.. it was pretty stupid. After we ended up watching a different video - a news real about short holidays... I dunno why this made news but it did and it was pretty tricky to understand.

At 3.30 it was time to go home. I tagged along with the American, Canadian and Aussie who were all going to the Tram stop (Yes! Tram, I remember someone telling me that people would go to melbourne and be shocked by trams, they are apparently pretty rare in the world. I am yet to see this... hehe) I got the others to show me how to buy a ticket and then caught the tram to my trainstop and then got a nice lady to help me with the trains. That was fun :)

I arrived at Goncelin station, where Carole met me and then drove me back home. There, I played games with Tim until another great thing happened to me. Maiken (my cousin who is in Paris on Monday-Wed) and I finally organised meeting up. I am off to Paris to stay with her and her mum (Francis, I think?) for the time they are there :) I cannot wait! I was so excited when it was settled what I was doing. I cant wait to see someone I know AND see Paris properly xD WOO!! So, special thankyou to Maiken for exsisting and inviting me to tag along- you made my day.

After, I had tea and then it was arranged that I was to go to the cinema again, this time just with Carole to go see some film about a french singer who is dead now.. We rushed the kids to bed with Bastien now i charge and then went to Pontcharra cinemas. Unfortunately, due to bad weather, the cinema hadnt actually recieved the film and it was closed. Disappointed, we drove back and then ended up watching the Music show I've previously mentioned. We did organise to see it another time though. We'll see how that pans out ey?

Right, thats about it. I will do another one tonight, but dont expect much, I havent done anything really :S

Anyway

Hope all is well,

Catchya :D