J'étais heureux

I need to stop living in the moment.  I get too wrapped up in the last major thing that crossed my mind.   Here, let me tell you about my day today.

So I got up for my French class, which I didn't make yesterday (because I didn't know I had it).  It actually was really informative.  I learned where the grocery store near my school is and the major streets and the major cafes (Les Deux Magots and Café Flore are both right down the street from my school!).

Then we had methodolgy.  Today didn't scare me as much as yesterday.  My instructor pretty much told us how to organize every essay that we do at Sciences Po.  It is literally the opposite of any American essay I have ever written.  The French method at SciencesPo stresses a very broad knowledge base rather than the esoteric American system, where one becomes an expert in one subject.  They are very interdisciplinary here.  They love that word.  Anyways, you don't actually state your thesis until the conclusion which is really weird.  Also, the introduction and conclusion should each be three paragraphs and between a page and page and a half.  Also something very different.  And for the body, which they call the development, you pretty much just describe the issue and both positions you can take.

So that made me feel a little bit better about how to survive class.  After the methodology class, I and an Australian guy named Brendan went to Monoprix where we bought our notebooks.  He is really cool.  He is a 24 year old law student from Sydney (maybe it was Melbourne...).  After that, I waited for my friend Julie who I know from my SimCong class at UCSB.  We went back to this great sandwhich place we ate at on Monday and then hoped on a random bus to sightsee.  We had about an hour and a half to kill before the walking tour of SciencesPo.

Julie and I ended up making it to the Panthéon which is right next to my house.  Literally a 5 min walk.  It took us 10 min to get to it though, becuase we got a bit lost.  Once we found it, I ran up those stairs and put my stuff down and we headed back to SciencesPo for the walking tour.

Hugo, our student host/guide, was really nice and took us all over the 6th for 2 hours.  He showed us some cool hidden spots that most people don't know about.  He also told us where we can eat for cheap (less than 3 Euros for a meal!!).

After that I came home and Skyped with Nana for about an hour.  Then dinner time.  Tonight was by far the best meal I have had so far here.  For the first course we had an avocado.  A plain avocado.  It was like I was back in CA!  Then for the meal she made this crepe like thing ( I can't remeber the name) which she fried and added ham and an egg on top.  She served with with some lentils and sausage.  It was delicious.  After that, she brought out some cheese because she says I have to try some French cheeses while I am here.  Turns out I like them!  I really like roquefort and, to my surprise, goat cheese really doesn't taste as bad as I remembered.  For dessert I had yogurt with raspberry sauce.

Needless to say after that awesome day I was feeling pretty good.  On the way to the UC meeting, I walked by the square just up the street from my house and there was a live band playing awesome music.  Just as I was making the turn, passing Hemmingway's old apartment, to head toward the metro station I got this huge grin on my face.  It hit me.  I am in PARIS.

Then I got to the meeting.  All of those good feelings are gone.  The meeting shattered all of my confidence.  I am one of 2 people in the UC SciencesPo program that doesn't have an apartment.  I also don't have any information from OFII which is the office that helps you get the second part of your visa, the part you do actually in France.  Finally, I got an e-mail from this placement agency for apartments in France and they have nothing that they can help me with...  The only one apartment they had was 990 Euros and literally had a sofa for a bed.

Hopefully tomorrow I won't think about that.  Except I know I will because I have to get my student card... Which requires a lot of paperwork I need to print out, yet I have no printer.  See, it's the little things.  Those damed little things!