First Day of School!

There are no pictures today, because it was my first day of school and nothing seemed photo-worthy. Real university hasn't started yet. Right now we are just taking PLP classes (Preparatory Language Courses) to refresh us and make sure we have the language down. Today we had a 4-hour french class, which was a great refresher. I look forward to the next 3 weeks of PLP and hope that it really improves my speaking abilities. Obviously 4-hour classes aren't thrilling, but the practice is much needed for me! Starting Wednesday, we have a Cultural Adaptation class in addition to our 4-hour language course, so the days will be getting longer! After class today, Betsy asked me to go with her to an apartment viewing in the 16th. It was quite a long metro ride, but we got there eventually! The apartment was in a really nice area, but she decided against it for many reasons. After the apartment viewing, we got back on the metro and went to the MICEFA office. I informed them that I got housing, and now I can make an appointment to get a french bank account! I'm so excited to finally get a french account and debit card; that way, I can get a cell phone and stop living in the dark ages! When I got back from the MICEFA office, Mikayla told me she was craving McDonalds for some reason, which was totally weird, because for some reason I had just been thinking the same thing! Perhaps we are both missing America, and McDonald's is the closest we can get to the US. While we were out getting McDonalds, we went to the bookstore Gilbert Joseph (which is like a french Barnes and Noble) and got our books for our classes. But of course, when I got back to the hostel, I realized I had gotten the wrong version of one of the books!! I ran back down to the bookstore and asked for an exchange. The transaction was successful....I think. The correct version was about 6.60 euros cheaper than the incorrect version that I had purchased earlier. The man handed me a slip that said 6.60 on it. I tried asking him what it was, but the language barrier was frustrating. I believe it's store credit, so I'm gonna save the slip and see if I can use it at a later date. I tried asking him what the slip was and if I was gonna get my money back and he just pointed to the slip and said "Oui". I'm getting really sick of not being able to completely express what I want to say. I'm sure these are the normal frustrations with culture shock, and that it will improve with time, but I just want to communicate fully and easily now!!