des petits morceaus.

HOLY cow there is a lot that has happened. The longer I'm here, the faster time passes. I'm starting to feel more like a student and less like a tourist. I have a boulangerie I like, we've found the best falafel place near our school, I can finally find most of my classes in the Sorbonne, which is the most confusing building ever built. (For those of you who went to Chaparral, it is even worse than the 200 building.)
Classes at the Sorbonne are peculiar. For one thing, French education is much more methodical than American education. Our professors and lectures, while well put together, are not always structured in the same way. The French lectures all seem to go a similar way - the professor starts with something like "je vous propose" which means "I propose to you" and then outlines their lecture, almost always in three parts. It's a structure that I'm starting to appreciate as it makes it easier to see what the big themes of the class are.
I also got my first taste of American History from a French point of view. The lecture was on the Free Flow of Information doctrine and I had to contain myself from laughing out loud. American History taught in the United States is often presented as "And then America did the best thing ever for the world..." finished with whatever we believed was right. The Sorbonne professor, however, pretty much put it like this: "and then the Americans decided to do this because they thought it was best." When he talked about the French history though, WHEW, talk about patriotism.
Overall the Sorbonne has been a great experience and I'm learning A LOT, even though it is very hard. I'm sort of at an advantage because I don't have to take finals and because a big chunk of academic research has been done in English, so some of my classes even have English readings (English seems to be almost required in university here). I've made a Swedish friend who I've had great conversations comparing the US education system to the Swedish system. They get paid 300 Euro / semester if they finish all their credits on top of the fact their education is free. Think about that, Tufts!
In an IES class today I had moment where I forgot the lecturer was speaking a different language because I understood it so well. I guess that means my French is improving, which is a good thing.
Now for the tangible things I've seen and done in the last week. I've done a lot of wandering around both the Latin Quarter and Le Marais, two of my favorite areas of Paris. I've eaten a lot of crepes with Nutella. Been cooking a lot of delicious food at my friend's apartment with delicious French wine. Found a coffee to go place that wasn't Starbucks, which is a feat. I saw a very modern art exhibit in which there were piles of clothes everywhere. I went to another 60's "yeah yeah" concert. I had my first bout of real, home/America-sickness. I saw Avatar in French (it was an educational accident.) It has been VERY cold and has snowed several times. Many many pictures later.