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Day 8

July 4, 2013

Thursday felt like my first real day of classes. I caught the bus for my 9:30 French 101 class with a group of other UNCW students studying French and headed to school. We have three class periods every day, but our class times change from day to day so we have to consult our schedule to see when our classes meet. For example, next week my French 101 class will be meeting at 11:00 on Monday, 1:30 on Tuesday, and 8:30 on Wednesday. Our professors set it up this way to allow us free time during different parts of the day so we could explore more aspects of the city. In the past people with morning classes could almost never visit the local markets in the mornings, etc.

My French class lasted from 9:30 to 11:45. It wasn’t too bad; it was just long. I’d packed a few snacks in my bag, but wish I’d brought more. My International Business 300 class (also known as Cross Cultural Negotiation) met from 12:00 to 2:15.  Everyone else seemed to enjoy the class, but I was hungry and exhausted by the end of it. I found it hard to go from nearly two months of summer vacation to four hours of class in one day. We don’t have class on Fridays, so hopefully next time I’ll be more prepared with bringing enough food with me to get me through the school day.

The 4^th of July also happens to be my friend Forrest’s birthday (She’s the one that was stuck in Lisbon. Her bags had finally arrived after about a week of being lost.) Forrest wasn’t very interested in going out for drinks for her birthday, but simply wanted to go out for dinner with some friends. Five of us (including Forrest, Molly, and me) ended up eating out at a pizzeria that Molly and I had discovered a few days earlier. It was a fun dinner, and I once again got to meet some new people from our group.

A lot of other people from our UNCW group were going downtown to the Vieux Port bars to celebrate the 4^th of July. Since we hadn’t really gone out much, Molly and I decided to tag along after Forrest’s birthday dinner. I suppose going out with a huge group is fun, but I still feel more comfortable hanging out with a small group of friends instead. I was surprised to see American flag decorations in one of bars, and even more surprised when a Frenchman told me that he loved Americans. It wasn’t a normal 4^th of July celebration for me, but that’s ok. How many times will I get to be in France for Bastille Day (July 14^th)?