First day of school!

Day Ten

Today was a lot more productive in the morning because I finally rolled out and went on a run!  Alongside the river there's a pretty large sidewalk for bikers/runners to use and it probably goes on forever.  I probably ran 2-3 miles, realizing that I would rather run WP hills than run along a river in an urban city.  I miss the change of terrain and the distraction of nature (mountains of trees, animals, etc) when I'm running.  So, it'll be a challenge to motivate myself but don't worry, during my time here I'm going to be spending a week doing training with the French military--so I'll stay in shape!  It is difficult, though, to do the Insanity workouts in an apartment when there's a lot of jumping movements, haha.  (I am conscious of the people living below me so I don't jump).  So, I did that and then came back and got ready for school which was easy because I already had my outfit picked out ;)  As a cadet, this moment was very sacred because I was able to experience something so normal but so unique--a first day outfit that wasn't a uniform!!  (picture to follow)  I got in a good devotional and then met up with my friend Amelia for lunch before we both headed to our afternoon class. 

My class has around 25 people in it, which I haven't seen since high school. The most you can have in a class at WP is 18! I'm the only American in my class. Everyone else is from China, South Korea, Colombia, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia. The most interesting thing is that there's a man who is 56 learning French! I find it very admirable to see someone of his age still so eager to be a student and try something new like a language in an abroad program! My teacher is hilarious and she seems to really want the class to be an environment where people feel comfortable to talk. She is strict and I can't imagine people skipping class, being late, or texting. But that's not a problem for me. I'm so excited. I've been waiting so long for school to start and to only focus on French is AMAZING! At WP, all I wanted to do was just focus on preparing for semester abroad but that wasn't even slightly possible because of all the demands that come with 21 credit hours, etc, etc. Now, that is the case and I'm so happy. We started off with a sheet of various ice breaker questions and we had to go around and ask different classmates their responses and write down their name, age, and nationality. After, we went through and each person would stand up and the other students would basically throw out things they learned about that person. It was really fun. Everyone was super nice and enthusiastic. Also, it gave our teacher the opportunity to take note of who the introverts/extroverts are in class. I was a bit timid but after stuttering a little in French, I managed to participate a lot to avoid classifying myself as an introvert. They all got excited when I said I was from NY, haha. Later on, someone from class came to me and showed me his jacket that had a NY Yankees symbol on it but unfortunately I couldn't share much since he wanted to talk about baseball but I have no idea about any of it! Overall, class was a great success! I hope everyday is just as fun :)

The game!  Can't beat these seats for 12 euros!

Me & Dave cheering on Lyon!

First day outfit photo :)