Today has had ups and downs, but overall, it was a pretty good day.
Why does 7:30 still seem to come so early for me? I made sure to paint my nails yesterday and pick out a nice outfit today (I went for my black and white patterned skirt, a black sweater, with my brown boots and black tights) because I was meeting Caroline today. Weeks ago I signed up to be part of the adopt-a-student program. Former UC students, who now reside in Paris/France, adopts students. I was adopted to Caroline Pierce. She works at France Televisions for the diversity department. I wanted to make a good first impression so I wanted everything to be perfect.
I had to make sure to be out of the house early today so that I could print my composition before class. I made it to school, and was still ten minutes early despite leaving only five minutes early. I suppose that's how math works. School was school. I did my presentation today with Raven about Tahiti. Turns out that my professor was married and lived in Tahiti and she seemed to enjoy our presentation. The first thing we do every class period is pick numbers. Based on our numbers we have to say something about what we did over the weekend/the day before. I said that I went to the musée arts decoratifs. After the presentations were over, my professor asked me what I had said for my sentence. I was a little embarrassed that my life is that forgetable.
Before my histories class I checked the mail and saw a card from my mom! It's purple and has the Eiffel Tower in gold, a basket of bakets on a scooter, a cup of coffee on a table, and lamp posts. She wrote hotel recommendations for my upcoming holiday.
After class I jumped on the eight to meet Caroline at 1:30. I got to the metro station and had to buy tickets. It turns out that one machine accepts paper money and the other only accepts coins. I was trying to buy four tickets, but despite scraping every piece of change out of my purse, I didn't have enough for four tickets. I bought the two tickets I needed and sulked away. So embarrassing.
I saw a classmate from my histories class on the platform. We talked while on the train. There's something about her that I don't approve of, but I'm trying to make an effort to be friendly. I need to find someone to let me into their group for our upcoming scavenger hunt. I can't be friendless all the time. She got off the train, and I continued on. I took the train in the direction of Balard and I was supposed to get off there. I've never been on a train with so many stops before! It took forever to get from Ledru-Rollin to Balard on an old, rickety train. At the very last stop the light in the car I was in went out. Freaky.
I got off and followed Caroline's instructions to France Televisions. Before I came to Paris, I spent part of my summer translating a French lifestyle magazine. There was a quiz in the magazine and one of the questions was "which American author has a street named after him in Paris". The answer is Ernest Heminway. I passed the street today. It's in the 15th right across from the Georges Pompidou hospital.
Once I arrived at France Televisions, my purse was checked at the door, and I proceeded to the front desk where I used my pigeon French to ask the receptionist to call Caroline. My ID was scanned and I was issued a vistor's card. I sat down to wait for Caroline and watching Garfield play on the tv above the reception desk. After a few minutes Caroline came down to get me.
Caroline is a tall, thin woman with shoulder length brown hair. She's so sweet. She took me to the cafeteria for lunch. I had trouble carrying a tray on top of my stack of books, but I managed. We got fish with a buttery sauce that came with a huge pile of rice with a side of carrots in some kind of delicious sauce. I also got a piece of baguette and a strawberry tart for dessert. We talked during our long lunch about everything under the sky. It turns out that she's French but lived in the US for 11 years after going there to attend Berkeley. She wants to set me up with her goddaughter when she gets back. She also wants to make plans to take me to her country house near Normandy. I can get used to this. After lunch we went to the cafe inside the building and got coffee. I got a double espresso.
On my way home from my fantastic date, there was a protest happening outside. I signed up for travelor's information before I left for Paris so that I could get updates on important things happening in France (safety issues). Yesterday I got an email that I protest about pensions was happening and was supposed to pass by France Televisions. Expect travel delays. The protest was peaceful and there were only a few police cars blocking the road. I kept walking, but got sidetracked to go look at Jardin Noir. It looks more like a business center park than the prettier parks in Paris so I didn't stay for long.
I came home and tried to focus on my studying, but the double shot of espresso and today's excitement was really distracting me. I managed to stumble through my French homework (and get all but two answers wrong) and write my French presentation comparing my apartment in Paris to my apartment in Santa Barbara. Then I finished reading the 1960s sexuality in French copine pop music for tomorrow's pop lecture.
Before, during, and after reading I started booking my train tickets for my vacation. I was all excited, but wanted my mom to see it before I booked the tickets. I took a shower as a break before starting to edit my pop paper. While in the shower, my mom emailed me wanting to Skype. Today's her birthday and she wanted to chat with me while in Montecito. I emailed her back and edited my paper while I waited for her to email me that she was online. She got back to me a few minutes later and we talked about my day and my trip plans.
After mom's approval I tried to book my tickets. It was one problem after another. My basket was emptied due to inactivity. I couldn't figure out the differene between name and forename. My address wasn't approved so I had to redo that a million times. The last straw was when my card was declined. After it being declined three times the website cancelled my order. This trip is doomed.
I finally got back to editing my paper, and now I'm writing to you. It's only 10 pm but I'm exhausted. I'm going to finish the episode of people's court that I started yesterday and then go to bed. My class is going to the Pantheon tomorrow and I'm meeting with Mindy after class to talk about my paper. Wish me luck on all fronts.
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