Car Wreck, New Schedule, and High School Musical--Life is Weird.

What a tumultuous week. Monday we started classes--up until now we've really just been farting around, taking one class a week, maybe three days worth of it, then going out every night and partying with the natives (makes them sound like indigenous Indians :P), then pretend to wake ourselves up for "class" the next morning. Basically, it was a month-long introduction to living in Pau--which was actually really helpful--and a month-long party with only a glimmer of distant responsibility. Ahh, the life of a foreign student!

Needless to say, that's all over now :) I placed into the most advanced level of French, so there are only 7 people in the whole class. There are 4 Americans, a Brit, a Finnish (there's no way they're called finishes!), a Chinese, and a Russian. Pretty eclectic. We started Monday with language, then Tuesday was Geography and language; Wednesday, language and Art History; Thursday, language and the Science of Linguistics; and Friday, literature. All the classes are conducted in French, and since we were only assigned 18 hours we have to pick up an extra course--a kind of auditing--taught by a French professor. The class I chose, Science of Languages, only has 10 other people in it, so I'm terrified that the prof will call on me during class! Oh well. Add that to my two dance classes and my two other classes and I'm pulling 26 hours of class per week. Intense! But I love it so far. A lot former students warned us that it would be French boot camp, but I say bring it on, Pau--hit me with your best shot. 

On Monday after school I had a bit of a scare--I got hit by a car while I was biking home. Minimal damage, a sore shoulder and a headache, but I was pretty terrified. The worst part is, the driver drove away! And I had to come up with a way to convey the message to my host mum--"quelqu'un m'a frappé avec une voiture" translates to "someone slapped me with a vehicule." She was completely incredulous, naturally, but she told me how to say it correctly, so of course I told everyone :) Why not? I survived, and it makes for a great story. 

I have neglected my journal (slap my wrist!) for almost two weeks now, which is a grave sin in the memory department. I wanted to stay on top of that above everything so that I could recall the golden details of this whole trip, but I suppose I'll have to try to remember everything and attempt to record it from there. 

Thursday was the day of sport on campus--there's no real translation for what it means, but there were a bunch of dance exhibitions and concerts and stuff. I might be mistaken--and I hope I'm not--but I'm under the impression that it happens every Thursday! Our prof gave us the option of either staying in class on Thursday afternoon and not having homework, or going to the sports thingie and having to stop French students to fill out a questionnaire. None of us felt like practicing our French with actual French students, so we stayed in class. Afterwards, les apéros chez Charlotte :) This time it was just girls because all the guys had had dates earlier in the week that bombed and they were all sad. Lame story, I know, but it was also quite entertaining :) Again, there were pancakes--tradition!--but this time we rocked out to High School Musical. Yes, let me repeat that: High School Musical. The girls here are obsessed with it, not because it's intellectually stimulating (God, no!) but because it's an incredible "accurate" look at American teenagers--they watch it to make fun of us. Fine by me, because that's why I watch it, too :) The girls invited me to the theatre to watch the third one when it comes out...and I think I'm going to go :) One of their selling points was the kiss--Charlotte actually said to me, "Maybe they'll hook up this time--they haven't kissed yet!" Oh, you French kids and the things you pay attention to...

Friday, only one class, French literature, at 9 am. Afterwards a friend and I trekked downtown, bought train tickets and youth discount cards (SUCH a great deal--you get at least 50% off all ticket prices!), ate an entire pizza over the course of three hours at a café, sat in a park reading French newspapers, and watched two foreign films at an independent theatre. It was probably one of the best days I've had here. It was so laid back, and there was so much time to do everything we wanted! The films, too, were great--one of them was a Spanish movie called El Otro, in Spanish with French subtitles--shockingly enough, it was quite easy to understand. The other, a Woody Allen film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, was in English and I loved it--especially reading the subtitles to find out the French equivalents for impossible-to-translate phrases, like "drive me crazy" (driving? like in a car?!)

On Saturday we went "randonning" in the mountains. I just love the word randonning :) We took a bus to Nay first to explore a béret museum at one of only two béret factories in France. I didn't buy a béret, and I regretted it all day!

       

After that we bussed to Gavarnie, a gorgeous mountain town where we ate a fantastic meal (is there any other kind in France?) and then hiked for 5 hours on a 60˚ incline. 

Fun times. I'm viciously sore. USAC has all sorts of fun excursions like that planned for us, which I'm really excited about :) I hope I can post pictures soon! Until then, just keep imagining how much fun I'm having--it'll be spot on :)