A Sweet Ending to a Sour Beginning

Changing French classes has been a horrible fiasco. My French teacher approved my request to switch into a different level, then placed me in a class that conflicted with my schedule. I e-mailed another teacher to ask her if she had any openings in her class, and she kindly replied that she did and that she had forwarded my request to the scheduling lady. She recommended that I stop by the scheduling office at 8:45am on Friday (today). I got there on time only to find that they don't open until 9:30. I would've waited until 9:30 if I hadn't had class at 9. I saw a bunch of people through the glass just sitting around, so I kept knocking until someone answered, very annoyed with me. I explained my situation and she sent me into the scheduling lady's bureau, or as I like to call it, the Lion's Den.

Madame scheduler asked me my name. Once I told her, she said "A-ha. So you're the one that e-mailed the teacher." She then started yelling at me (in French, which was even more terrifying) about how I had no right to do that and I stepped way out of line because it wasn't my place to try and get in another class. She kept angrily asking me all of these questions about my other classes, where / when they meet, etc. I pretended like I couldn't answer, because if I opened my mouth to speak, I very well could've started crying. She then whipped out the attitude and said stuff like "What do you mean you don't know? Why wouldn't you carry a class schedule around with you at all times? Is this your first day here?". Of course, her computer froze, so she couldn't even print my new class schedule for me. She e-mailed it to me an hour later. I then e-mailed her back apologizing for any inconvenience I may have caused. I explained that in America, students do scheduling 100% by themselves and e-mail teachers all the time to see if there are class openings and that I didn't realize that it wasn't this university's policy. She replied, saying that she realized my situation after I'd left and said "I'm sorry for the way I acted. I can sometimes come off a bit dry." It felt better to get an apology from her.

Passage Vivienne

On a brighter note, I recovered from my emotional butt-whooping to meet with my Paris by Site class this afternoon to explore les passages in Paris. Passages are pretty much where window shopping started and they inspired outdoor arcades (exactly like Nickel's Arcade, for all you Ann Arborites). It was cool to learn about the history of each passage and look in all of the shop windows. We ended up at the Palais-Royal, which has incredible architecture.

Après-ca, a handful of us went to the Marais area and walked around a few art galleries for our photography homework. We stumbled upon a gallery that had a giant mobile of cymbals, complete with mallets and drumsticks for the patrons to have fun with. So of course, we spend a good ten minutes banging on the 30+ cymbals hanging from the mobile. We happened to walk by a crêpe place that our classmates rave about, so we decided to stop in and get something to eat. The others got savory crêpes, but I stuck with a sweet one, drizzled with the best salted caramel I've ever had. Crêpes from street stands are delicious, but get them at a sit-down place and you're in for a real treat. I have a feeling it won't be long before I return to that place.

Affectueusement, 

Katie