Practice Makes Perfect! *in about 8 years*

This morning I had French again. I really like that class. I followed pretty much everything that happened, but again when it came to writing(/creating original sentences) I struggled. We read a poem and then went through and defined all the words people were confused about. The explanations were in French, but my teacher is so good at explaining that it all made sense! There is a new girl in my class, and I got to help explain some of the stuff that was going on, which made me feel better about being in that class. After that class I went to the office to change my electives to a lower level of French, and they were SO unhelpful. First, the receptionist girls were very unresponsive and then rude when I went up and asked for help. The lady who actually helped me wasn't very nice either. I walked in and struggled in French to tell her that my elective was too hard so I wanted to change to the lower level. I asked to change all three because I definitely don't belong in the intermediate level, and since these classes probably won't really count for anything really at UCLA I don't want to kill myself with work this quarter. She was like "you want to change ALL THREE?!" and I was like, sorry but yeah the others are TOO HARD like I said.... So now I'm in "le decouverte de l'art," "Paris ciné," et "l'acualité en France." The last one is probably going to be like the other media class, but hopefully easier (minus cute boy, though, so that kind of sucks). And now I have class Monday, Wednesday, Friday. No more three day weekend :( And Monday and Wednesday I'll be on campus from 9-5. Also, I just have to say that UCLA is so much more beautiful than le catho haha. The international students are kind of separated from the actual school, and we're supposed to stay in a different area than the French students, and it's super ugly. At least the rest of the city is AMAZING so I can't really complain :) I met another girl in my second class who lives around the corner from me, so we took the Métro home together. She was complaining about her program, though, before I even got her name. It was kind of understandable, though, because I guess she has to take 21 hours per week? I only have 15. Maybe she'll have cooled off by next week haha. When I got home, the baby was here :) He is so freaking cute I can't handle it. He's so little! He's been sleeping the whole time. I also got to watch Glee when I got home, which I had been thinking about all day. It was probably one of the funniest episodes so far, thanks to Brittany, and I definitely need to watch it again just to catch all the great lines. And the music was so fun! Love that show haha.

This is totally random, but I'm watching TV right now and I'm starting to kind of learn the commercial jingles haha. They're so catchy. They sound so much cooler than American jingles. Warning: total linguistic geek-out moment ahead: Everyday I'm still totally baffled by other languages. When I hear people just speaking French I think it's so weird that other people just speak French all the time and it's so interesting how there are so many different languages and how people learn their language, etc. I love hearing little kids just babble on in French, it's probably the cutest thing ever. And then I wonder "how is it so easy for them, I can't even speak French" and then I remember that it's normal that they would be better than me haha. It does make me feel deficient, though, when little kids can speak French AND English haha.

Tonight, instead of just sitting on the couch where I was very comfortably watching TV and eating delicious dinner, I went out with the group. We went to a bar called la Panatalon in the 5th. Someone told me to meet at the Pantheon, so I went there and called one of the girls and she was like "Yeah, just come inside." And I was like, "Um, I think I'm in the wrong place, I'm guessing there's not a bar inside the actual Pantheon." But it was right around the corner so it's all good. It was a cool little spot and we had a table in the back which was a nice change from Chez Georges where we all had to awkwardly stand in the middle of the room. I waited for the second group of people to get there before I had anything to drink. (Note to relatives and teachers reading this I was VERY responsible haha). I still think it's weird that we can get served here. Especially since in the States I'll be way behind everyone. When the next group got there they started instantly haha. We had two shots each, vodka and grenadine, the most brilliant combination I have ever seen lol it actually tasted good. Which is something I have never said about vodka before. I stopped there, because I was not looking to get plastered and just chill on a bench in a bar. Some of the other girls kept going, and it was pretty entertaining. One of them had brought her new French friend, and he brought one of his friends, Jean-Loup, who is originally from Seattle but has been in Paris for about 8 years. The girl who brought them said she was glad to have met an actual French person because then she could practice, but everyone proceeded to speak English alllll night. I took advantage of the opportunity, though, and spoke in French all night with Jean-Loup. We talked about what he does, the differences between the French and American university systems, how awesome all the buildings here are, etc. I'm sure I made a million mistakes but he was really patient and if I didn't know a word he said he tried to translate (he doesn't use English very much anymore, so he had forgotten a lot...so weird!) But I think I got what I wanted to say across fairly well :) And I know I'm the only one who would take advantage of said opportunity to actually practice, but it was so helpful and still really fun! I also asked him how long it took him to be fluent, and he said it was about 2 years before he could really speak and say everything correctly (more than just get his point across with the wrong conjugations, negations, etc.). Yay haha. Anyways, we left at midnight because the Métro stops at 12:30 and if you miss that, you're stuck (unless you want to pay for a cab) until the Métro reopens at I think 5:30am. Doesn't sound fun to me. About half of us went home, and we're all kind of in the same direction so we were on the same RER for a while. The more I'm here, the more embarrassed I am by American behavior. It is so much louder and more intrusive than French behavior. Like in the bar, one of the French boys commented on how semi-belligerent Americans are and how different that is, and all they seem to care about is getting schwasty-faced. Everyone was really loud in the bar and then on the RER and I was glad to get away from the group. It seems like some people are here for the constant party since it's legal. I, on the other hand, would like to remember my time here haha. Anyway, I got home around 12:45 and made pasta since I missed most of dinner before I left because I literally had to run out the door since I live farther than most of the people (farther from a Métro stop, at least). Goals for today: do laundry since I actually have no clothes left, go running since I've been walking less with school and that's not ending well, go to Monoprix so I have food other than yogurt and pasta, go to the bank and get cash, and finally do my homework for next week so I don't have to worry about it over the weekend.

Bisou bisou!