officially a student

i. am. in. FRANCE! ok, i realize i arrived almost three weeks ago at this point, but sometimes i still can't believe i'm really here. and i'm not wierd. some of my friends here have said the exact same thing.

but anyways, you may have been wondering what i've been up to this past week. and the answer is a lot. though not necessarily super exciting things. we had another full week of ILP (intensive language program), which still isn't my favorite, but at least we only have one more day! and then a week off. well, those of us who aren't taking classes at sciences po at least. the days have been pretty long though. most with about 6 hours of class. one with 8 hours (mannnn that was a long day!). and one with only 2 :).

but as for other productive things i've done this week:
i got my student id card! (it even comes with a nice little case). so i am officially a student here.

my bank card! and i even got some money on it and activated it - though i still need to figure out how to check the balance online, and if it's going to be possible for my mom to wire money straight in there.
i got a university email address! though i still haven't figured out how to check that...
i also learned that i will be unable to earn a french minor. i was hoping that even though it's not offered at UCSC, i might be able to get one as long as i am abroad, especially since it is offered at other UC's. but when i finally got an email from one of the french professors at my school, she basically told me if i really wanted a french minor, i would need to transfer. which isn't going to happen. so that's unfortunate.

in other news. my friends and i have found a cute little bar that offers cocktails for half price on mondays. pretty cool right? we went there this past monday (i didn't get anything because i was just getting over being sick).. but maybe another day when i also don't have class the next day? maybe? hm. still pretty exciting.
i believe it was then tuesday that i got to experience my first torrential downpour here. i'd like to say i am exaggerating, but mannn was that rain coming down hard. luckily it wasn't too cold or windy, but i was still soaked by the time i got home. other than that, its only rained a little - but i figure i will always be carrying my umbrella from now on. and now i realize i really need to buy some boots. and fast.
yesterday, i also learned that the pigeons here are VERY friendly. i already sort of new this, but yesterday they kept hopping on my legs. seriously. these pigeons have no fear. by the third time it happened, i figured a picture was necessary.

then yesterday, also, kirstin and i started trying to figure out where we might want to travel! we're thinking paris next week since we have the week off :). just need to figure out when we can leave because we still have an eap meeting next week.
then i was off to minerva's apartment in croix-rousse, where she made a couple of us a delicious vietnamese dinner, as well as good company. 
it was getting home from this amazing dinner last night though that was interesting. the public transit around here supposedly stops running around midnight. well i left her house a tiny bit after 11, and was starting to get worried that i'd have to take a cab part of the way. for me to get back to my place from hers involves 2 metros, 1 tram, and 1 bus. well i got on the first two metros just fine. and made it to the tram station where i had to wait about five minutes. at this point i was starting to get worried i wouldn't make it to the bus stop in time. plus a wierd man came up to me and tried to chat. i asked him to stop a couple times, moved, and was glad that i had earphones in the whole time so that i could at least pretend i couldn't here him (i wasn't actually listening to music at this point). well i made it to the bus station and was glad that there were a fair number of people there - i figured that if there were people, there would have to be another bus. though again i started to get a little worried when it didn't show up until about 12:05. but it came! and my walk home when i got off the bus was less than 5 minuets :) ... i'm thinking though that next time i plan on taking the bus home, i'm going to try not to cut it so close.

alright, that's all i've got for now. we'll see what the weekend has in store!