Today was the first day of school and I was not ready for it. We had to meet downstairs at 12:30 p.m. but it was really hard to get moving this morning. We met a representative from Accent, who would take us to Negocia and she looked like a character from Harry Potter. I wore my cute Nordstrom dress that has multicolored thin stripes and my blazer, but it ended up being pretty chilly today. We got to the school around 1:20 and had a few minutes to sit around. There were a bunch of French students playing foosball outside, but they really wanted nothing to do with us. Go figure.
We headed into the conference room and got a brief history about Negocia. They started the exchange program about 8 years ago and ISU has been with them from the start. In the Spring they send grad students over and one of them just got back to Paris and they said he is so excited to go back to the states. Who can blame him; Normal, IL is bumpin.
One lady tried to talk about Negocia and our classes but she couldn't speak English very well so it was painful to listen to her, but I appreciated her trying. Next, one of our teachers, I think her name was Emanuel, talked to us about Advancia-Negocia and how college works in France. She explained that if you want higher education you have two options: a humanities or science or arts school which are more specialized schools, or go to a business school, which you have to test to get into. Apparently the business schools in Europe, especially Paris, are extremely competitive. There are about 200 in France and only 40 have certain accredidation, and Advancia-Negocia is one of them. They are partnered with the Chamber of Commerce and is in one of the wealthiest areas in Paris so it is the real deal. When we were walking around later and people saw our Negocia folders they reacted like we would if someone had a Harvard folder or MIT.
Next Armoogam talked to us and explained that he came to Paris when he was 18 and was supposed to study here for 2 years and 50 years later he is still here. He is from India and in just the few minutes he spoke to us I knew I would love him as a teacher. He has such a passion for Paris that radiates in the way he speaks. He will be the teacher that takes us on little field trips around the city so I am excited. Blair said he was a great teacher and kind of goofy so class was fun. We will meet with him tomorrow and go on our first trip. That will probably be my favorite class because we get to go places.
I don't think we meet our other teachers until Thursday. We have one teacher who is Dutch, but we haven't met him yet. I am really excited for the classes to start. I need some structure and regularity to my schedule so my sleeping can get on track and my eating too. After class we went to this market type thing just down the street. It was indoors and there were a ton of vendors giving out samples. There was meat, cheese, wine, desserts, everything. I was starving so I tried anything. There were these French-Canadians that turned syrup into butter and hard candy and they were fascinated that we were from Chicago. Everyone thinks it's so cool that we are from America and they want to speak English with us. We tried some sparkling apple juice that was delish but way over priced. I tried some sausage that was awesome and I wanted more but the samples were skimpy. I only bought some type of wine whose name translates to female devil. It was tasty so I got a vile of it for Catie's 21st birthday. Hollaaa.
We didn't have much time to walk around there because we had to get back and get ready for the classical music concert. We met downstairs at 6 and met with another representative from Accent. He was so adorable. He should have been our guide the first few days because he explained things so thoroughly and was really interested in getting to know us. It was really easy to get to the concert and wasn't far from Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter. The concert was in Saint Chappelle, which was the gorgeous church with the most amazing stained glass windows I've ever seen. It was breathtaking. It was a very small venue and we were in the back but I got plenty of great pictures.
There were 5 or 6 musicians, mostly playing the violin and one on chello and I believe one harpischord or something. They played a selection of classical music and it was incredible. The setting added so much and the sound in the church was amazing. I really loved the concert. It was so pretty to listen to and the one guy on violin was so into it so that made it fun. They kept announcing the songs in in French so I had no idea what they were playing or saying. It only lasted about 45 minutes and then we all went to this restaurant down the street. I got a ham, cheese, tomato and lettuce sandwich. Nothing special but I was starving and needed something. The waiter was really fun and kept teasing us about our French.
We were all exhausted since it was like 9:30 when we left. We headed back and I just got home. I talked to mom on the phone and uploaded pics. Tomorrow is our first real day and I am not looking forward to waking up at 8:00 a.m. I need to send my postcards tomorrow! They take like 5-10 business days. Dumb. Okay I need to sleep. I'm going to get like 8 hours of sleep and I need like 14.
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