I stayed up studying then I couldn't fall asleep; my brain wouldn't stop. Here, we were just thrown into the program, no down time to figure out where stores are, walk around or, I don't know, get a full nights sleep. It's great, don't let my default-negative tone fool you, but we had an excursion the first day, then almost immediately after we started classes which last roughly five hours a day. On the day where we did have a couple of free hours, everyone spent it going to the store to get real food.
At the same time we have loads of stuff we need to take care of: getting cell phones and plans, being adults and making our own food, thinking about what classes to potentially take (and trying to figure out their mess of a website to do so), etc. etc. My desk is turning into a post-it note parking lot.
We have class six days a week and Sundays we're gone all day for trips, weekdays are 9-12:30 classes in the morning, and 4-6:00 classes in the afternoon. I really really want to go for a run but I don't know when. It has to be a morning because that's the only time it's light and under 90 degrees, but I'm too tired.
I feel horrible because I haven't had time to Skype anyone except for my mom once and for a short time.
So in conclusion it's great, but for now at least, it's busy, there's a lot on my mind, and I was a little worried about our quiz and thus I could not sleep.
Moving on: we went to class, took the test, yadda yadda. I thought I was going to crawl in the corner and fall asleep afterwords. I was excited to get back to my room and take a nap (if you know me, you know I need to be absolutely dead dead tired to be able to nap), then I remembered we had a been administrative meeting today where we'd learn about housing insurance and banking and forms and all the things that make us hate travel in modern society. (Yes I know, I'm being a whiner, I'm tired, I have an excuse).
We sat in a small, very hot classroom. To the girls sitting next to me: I am so sorry: deodorant is basically useless here, I smelled like cow.
Now, I think you had to be there to really understand what it feels like to have nearly three hours of administrative paperwork nonsense thrown at you, half French half English.
"Wait, so do we need a picture of this one or not?" "I'm confused, so they told us to make five copies of the visa but we only need one?" "So is this for the Cité U thing or the bank thing?" "Wait, so these folders are separate?" "Where do we write our room number? What about cell phone?" "What did she say?" "Okay wait so do I need the extra insurance or not?"
It was a lot of that, I think most of my brain cells died within the first half hour, and I honestly don't remember a thing she said. I'm not hyperbolizing in an attempt to be comedic, I literally forgot almost everything. Maybe I'm experiencing PTSD. I laughed a lot though, it just became so ridiculous it was funny.
Then the guy from the bank came in, again, half French, half English that may as well have been French, and then a surprising amount of Spanish. I think the bank man was South American, and it was easier for him to explain something to a Spanish-speaking girl in Spanish than English, and it was easier for her to understand than French. *shrug*, okay, sure, why not?
Did I mention it was hot?
So that was that. I finally got back to my room, and made some food. Speaking of which...
A note concerning my meals: I am horrible at preparing them. This is our kitchen:
It's on the right side here, behind the wall, one per floor.
It's not so terrible, but it's... I mean it's a French dorm, so what would one expect? The burners are timed, so you need to push a button to turn on the burners, and it shuts off after a few minutes, so you need to keep pushing it. Same goes for the light in the kitchen. And there's no trash can.
So cooking is slightly annoying. So far I've made an egg, heated up soup in a pot that I then had to clean with shampoo because I have no dish soap, and, the most elegant item yet: rice, which I ate today. I'm sort of always hungry because my meals suck, I cook like a frat boy. Today I had rice and canned lentils in a cup because I used my only bowl to store the leftover rice, and then I threw in some tomatoes and lettuce. Before I scrambled an egg, half of which stuck to the pan because I have no butter or oil, and then I ate it with some soup. There's lots of yogurt, too much bread. In any case, I need to work on my cooking skills because I have no idea what I'm doing, and warm meals have become a rarity. Too. Lazy. To. Cook.
So there you go, a strange, exhausting, overall confusing but oddly funny day.
I'm trying to decide whether or not I feel like taking a shower. I smell awful, but I'm so tired. Sigh... people won't want to be friends with the smelly person. Right now I am a smelly person. Shower it is...
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