Day 47: Finalement, le cours à l'Université./Finally, the course at the University!

So my watch battery died at the beginning of the week and I'm dying without it. Having a watch is the only method I can use to be on time to things ... or to confirm how late I am. But anyway, that's besides the point.

Today I had Lit class where we finally finished reading aloud and "explaining" our selected Henri Michaux 'poem'. If you know about or have read any Henri Michaux, then you know why I used quotation marks around poem. It was our second class session of reading them aloud...

I had my University class today for the first time. Jenn (the other student from the University with whom I am taking the class) and I walked down together. We arrived at the classroom only to there being no one there. Another girl was waiting outside, but that was all. We conversed with her, noticed a post-it on the door saying the room for Art History had changed but it said a different time on it, so we (well at least I did) assumed that it didn't apply to our class which started at 5pm, not at 11am. We walked in the general direction of the History office, hoping to figure out our dilemma, and in doing so we walked by the room that had been listed on the post-it. On a hunch, Jenn thought that the Professor (Madame Deronne) might have changed our class to that room as well. She was right.

So we got to class a little late but that didn't matter. The class is in a large lecture hall, but with probably no more than 15 to 20 people. Many of them are adults, and Jenn explained that often times professors from other departments or other schools will audit other courses.

We learned about Flemish artists who painted still-lifes (or as they are known in french "la nature morte"). The ones we looked at today were ones that contained fruits and flowers. I could follow probably 90% of what Madame Deronne was saying, the one thing I had problems with were dates (which in art history are very important). Just like we do in english sometimes the french say, for example 1492, "fourteen ninety-two," "fourteen hundred ninety-two" (and the french add another form) "one thousand four hundred ninety-two"...so I never knew what to expect because she used all three forms interchangeably. I'm sure I will adjust to this, but for today it was a little frustrating. However, besides that minor concern (and it truly is minor), I had tons of fun in the class. I think that I will learn a lot and that it will be very interesting. Since we missed the first day, I'm not sure what the mid-semester and final assessments are like, but whatever they are, I'll deal.

We went up to her after class, introduced ourselves - well, Jenn introduced me because she already has taken a class with Madame Deronne - and we signed up for the class.

Got home, we ate an early dinner because Claudie was going out with a friend to see the movie, "I love you, Phillip Morris."

Michel and I watched a news investigation show that explored:

1. being a DJ as a profession, and DJ "school"
2. the illegal chopping/deforestation and exportation of exotic/rare trees/wood for building houses in France, which is the new popular thing in France (they have like "pre-made" wood houses - you just select the type of wood you want, what size, and other such specifications)
   
3. how Roquefort cheese is declining/fading/losing popularity
4. the "facebook planet"

Then Michel went on his facebook, well the page of his organization (ASSF) and then his own page... trying to understand it, look at some of the stuff that the news had talked about (ads along the side, the number of users, what info you post on your profile, etc.)

We then watched a little of the Gangs of New York. ... and now I'm here.

Good night!