Mein Name ist Nicole!

I had my fourth first day of school since being here yesterday. This marked the official beginning of school though. All the others were just false alarms. France wants to make sure you are really ready before you have your first official day.

So I got up this morning (a good start to anyone’s day) and got some breakfast. While I was eating, I decided to check my email and got the best email ever, an email from China nonetheless. Elena wrote to me saying that she may be coming to visit – woohoo. Not gonna lie, almost cried! After that, I was pretty high on life so I finished getting ready, grabbed my ipod and headed for class. I ended up walking with Jiri, a guy from Czech who was also on his way to class.

My first class in a French University would of course be German haha. Jiri was also in my class as well as another friend, Jungho, from the US. It was really nice to have class with some kids I knew. Although Ale and I wanted to take German together, it didn't work out for us. Anyways, my teacher is super nice and so adorable. Ich lerne - mein name ist Nicole. Ich komme aus Amerika. Mein familie wohnt in Rhode Island. Ich studiere in Compiegne an der UTC. Learning another language in another language is a tad difficult. You have to know what they are talking about in French to know what they are teaching you in German. I think it is going to help both my French and my German and I am glad to be taking the class.

After German, I went to composite materials - fun, right? I met Stephan, a kid from URI, and we sat in the back together. I sat down, but wanted to change my position, so I went to go sit on my knees when I heard something tear; next thing I know, I have a nice giant whole in my knee. Yup, I ripped my pants. (Spongebob anyone?) I guess I am too old to sit on my knees in class! It was very hard to understand the professor nevermind try and comprehend the material. Luckily, Stephan is in my class and knows what is going on. We are also in the same lab.

Later in the afternoon, I had another class on composite materials, but this one was more of a practical class. For URI kids, it was like a recitation. There was a different teacher that taught this class and he was much easier to understand. It was also a smaller class and I enjoyed it much better. Less overwhelming. Once class ended at 6pm (way too late for me), I headed to Pic'asso, the student bar on campus, with Ale and Barbara, my roommate. We had a few beers before Ale and I went to our friend David's for dinner. All of my Spanish speaking friends were there and of course mate!

Overall, it was a great first day of school in France!