Baaaah ouiii!!

Getting the hang of things here, have a new freshly painted 12 metres squared, ('room' would be pushing it) finally used the much needed laundry facility, and I've started college!

My amazing first two weeks of pure holiday were quickly forgotten during an intensely horrific 3 hour lecture in International Relations at 8am. Yes. 8AM! I've discovered, the hard way, that the French are mad for their long lectures, early mornings and even late evenings, I had one class that went until 8pm!
It's also in French, which doesn't exactly help matters, although my comprehension is quite good now, and note-taking in French has become a lot more second nature to me which is another positive.
Socially, a few early-ish nights were needed over the last while, however it's still going strong, the majority of the group now being from Sciences-Po, (with plenty of other additions) and the multitude of bars and cafés in Gcchhuunoblhh is quite something.

Plenty of bureaucracy still to get finished, although my bank account and general registration seem to be all sorted. I thought I was relatively organised, until at 7.55am on the morning before the first lecture, I realised that no, I did not have anything to write on...another strange thing about the French, they don't tend to have normal lined paper at all, just this weird graphy stuff that I remember from the good aul days in Junior Cert maths. They do however, write more than ogives and histograms on them I've noticed, and though it may be a small difference, I'll file it in as another aspect of their wonderfully bizarre national culture.

The college is really nice and small, with only a few hundred students, due to the private and probably élitist nature of it. The fact that I'm surrounded by the super smart 10% of French students that passed the big exam to get in to Sciences Po still daunts me a little, although it was pointed out to me that I too did a difficult exam i.e the Leaving Cert, and that makes me feel a little better.

I got my first glimpses of snow on the Alps last week, an absolute sight to behold, and further pictures shall come in the next few weeks I'm sure! I'm off to my first Italian class of the year, a presto! :)