I passed!

Hi again!

 Like the title says, I passed my 2-week French course for exchange students! So that's my exciting news!

Proof!

Mon-Thurs consisted of class, admin stuff and homework... kind of boring. So Ill try and skip through them pretty quick. I received my timetable:

At Mac, my math courses usually consist of 3 hours lecture + 1 hour tutorial. Here, there's much more "in-class" time in math. These are my courses: 

       1. Modelling. Well, mathematical modelling, in French, 1st year course, Université Joseph Fourier (6hrs/wk)

       2. Real Analysis / Fourier Series, in English, 2nd year, at University Joseph Fourier (7.5 hrs/wk!!!)

       3. Societé française contemporaine, with exchange students, in French, Université Pierre Mendès France (3 hrs/wk)

       4. French Language for science exchange students, at Stendhal University (2hrs/wk)..not for credit

So Im taking 3 and a half courses, at 3 different universities. But we're getting a bit technical, so I'll just sum up the week with this:

• Tues: helped American guy with little French get insurance
• Thurs: Elizabeth (from Western University, living at my res, Rabot) showed up, I showed her the transit system and took her to school Fri morning
• did homework til fairly late each night, lots of essays and presentations
• noticed improvement in oral comprehension through language lab
• ate lots of "pain du chocolat", which are like very flakey croissants with chocolate in the middle! Mmmm...

Fewf, now that that's over, here's a nice picture! 

FRIDAY, Jan 13, 2012


In celebration of passing that class, German Verena, Chinese Tien and I went shopping! All stores have major sales on right now, this would be comparable to boxing week in Canada. So I got myself a kettle, straightner, toaster, and my LONG RED JACKET! :D

New Jacket! 

That night, Chloe (from Montreal, staying at Rabot with me) and I went out to this cute little restaurant for pizza. Definitely THE best pizza I've ever had. So good!


This was the first big "soirée" of the new year at the "Foyer", which is the bar for our res up on the mountain. It was nice to meet more people from my res that night. They couldn't get over the fact that I don't drink or smoke though, lol.

After the bar was closed, they decided to go to 4th floor Chartreuse (the building across from mine). They don't have a "common room" or anything though, so we all just packed into the hallway

A few of us went out on the roof...

 what a view!

SATURDAY, January 14, 2012


It was a late night Fri, so I missed most of Sat morning, but I managed to get out the market, the bakery, and Monoprix (mini Walmart). The buses don't run on weekends, but I love walking down the mountain when the weather's nice.

Unfortunately my computer cord started sparking at me today…so I had to buy a new one of those. Expensive, worth it though. Wow I rely on my laptop! I came back and made my first successful omelette (so proud of it that I took a picture) and had a relaxing afternoon.

Sat, I asked Elizabeth (Western Uni) if she wanted to come with me for crepes that night. We had a nice visit on our walk there. She’s done some really cool things, like volunteer teaching in a school in Africa with her twin sister. We found a crêperie and had what I thought would be “starter salads” … nope.

The "Sainte-Anne"

FOLLOWED BY a buttered apple crepe with ice cream! Mmmm! It’s a good thing we had to walk back up the mountain that night; I was stuffed.

Oh, we passed by Ontario Restaurant on the way, whose menu included "Canadian goose with maple syrup sauce"!

SUNDAY, Jan 15, 2012

Today, on my way to St. Louis (where I went last week for Mass), I heard church bells from the other direction, so I followed them to the Cathedral. My directional sense is so bad, it’s a good thing churches have bells or I’d always be late for Mass. Getting fancy now, video time! 

The Mass was beautiful. They were celebrating the faith among all nations, so they had an African choir (AMAZING!!), First Reading in Italian, prayers of the faithful in portugese, then during the homily, 10 different people stood up and said “Come and See” (Jn 1:46) in their own language. 

The nuns sitting beside me introduced me to a group of international Catholic students, so I had lunch with them. They came from China, Haiti, St. Martin's, Albania, Southern Africa, Italy, Spain, an island near Madagascar, and the priest was from France. We ate Indian food. 

MONDAY, Jan 16, 2012


I'm on vacation! I know, I just got here. Next week I start my real classes. Three weeks after that, I'm on vacation again. The French have it good!

Today, I did more boring admin stuff: got my student card, bank card, almost got a cell.

Thurs, Im heading to Rennes to meet up with my exchange partner from 2007, Claire Souchet.

We'll be at her university for a couple days, then head back to Vannes, where I lived with her for a month in grade 10! It'll be really cool to see my old host family :)

That's all for now! Bonne soirée :)