What do you call that feeling you get after studying really hard for five hours straight, your brain feels fried and you're not sure whether to laugh or cry?

Whatever you call it, it feels the same as when you spend almost five hours running around in ninety something degree heat doing all sorts of administrative things in a language you only half-speak after three hours of class.

I went back to my dorm after class, ate food (tuna salad! Bam! REAL food, made it myself. It's a big deal), ran to make a photocopy of my ID photo (in which I seem to be both very angry and very sad), ended up making like 20, so now I have more unattractive photos of me than I could ever want.

Order of business number 2: getting a medical exam so I could sign up for sports here. Luckily I had gone during our class break to ask what time the medical evaluations start, so I was able to squeeze in an appointment today. "How much time will this take?" "Oh...about twenty minutes."

Rule #1: never believe the French. It took an hour and a half. First I saw a nurse, who was one of the nicest people I ever met (I kind of want to get sick so I can talk to her again). And she said my French is good, which made me happy. Good relative to what? I don't know, but I'll take it. Weighed me, checked my vision, my height, spent ten minutes explaining how to say contact lenses in French and why they are called what they are called, am I eating a balanced diet (...yeeaaaah, sure, random stuff out of cans and pre-made soup counts, right?) am I feeling okay, etc. etc. Then I had to wait to talk to the doctor. And I waited and waited.

She finally called me in, talked to me a bit, told me to lay down on a table, basically took my shirt off. I guess the French personal bubble is much smaller than the American personal bubble. Then I did squats in a corner which was strange. Anyways, details aren't important, the important thing is that I did it, and tomorrow I'll have to elbow my way through a crowd of anxious French students to get a spot in the sports I want. They have rock climbing (and they go outside once a week!) so I want to do that and maybe one other one, we'll see if there's room.

Order of business number 3: put money on my French bank account that I opened a week ago. So I walked there, did my thing, couldn't make it work, asked a lady who then helped me, finally walked back to my dorm. And here I am, and it's somehow 5:30 (I'm sorry: 17:30). Took a shower because I smell like cow. I'll say it once and I'll say it again: deodorant has nothing on the Mediterranean sun. It always stinks like feet and armpits.

So yes, lots of stuff today. I think I'm finally nearing the end of all the paperwork (knock on wood and fingers crossed).