Finalement... Internet in my apartment

You should all be very, very proud of me. I successfully installed our internet by following instructions in French--and by myself, I might add. So we now have internet in our apartment! It's also sort of extra special because we're the first program kids to have internet in our apartment because everybody else either went to the internet/phone store after we did, or they asked for a person to come out and install it for them. Well, not me. I can do it myself!

In other news, the program had us start looking at classes for our schedules because we can start scheduling classes next week. The only problem is, it's the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. French schools, apparently, only have a student body because it's free. Because nobody in their right mind would knowingly pay to have to go through the entire school website just to find a single class that they want to take.

Okay. Let me back up and explain a little.

So. This is me having an open mind. Ahem. French schools are not set up the same way American ones are. Schooling is free in France, so long as you go to a public school. Universities are included in this until you get to the Grands Ecoles, which are sort of like the French Ivy League. The schools aren't organized as an overall school--that's just for the classrooms--but are instead organized according to department. That all sounds reasonable so far, right? I agree. However. (You knew it was coming, don't be surprised.) The departments act as individual entities when it comes to scheduling. So to find a class list (if you're lucky enough to have it in a complete list), you have to go to each individual department's webpage. But as each department is its own entity, there is no rule as to when the class lists are updated or where the classes will be found on the department website.

Can you understand why I'm getting frustrated? Oh, America. You do so many organizational things right.

So far, I've found the Linguistics deparment's website and class list--for last year.

I'm not a happy camper right now.

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I'm updating this as I'm preparing for what is to be my third dinner party in my apartment here in Aix. It's so great! There are going to be seven of us total. It was going to be eight, but someone dropped out on us at the last minute. The menu: Salt & Pepper Chicken with a Mexican Rice/Bean sauce, the necessary baguette and Camembert (cheese, for those non-gourmands out there, but oh-so delicious cheese), Pain au Chocolat, and two different varieties of wine. I'm getting so excited, especially because I'm coming to appreciate how well our apartment is placed in the city.

Oh! And for those of you who haven't seen, I posted two links (so far) to my pictures of St. Tropez and Marseille. More to come of other adventures in France!