Surprise! You have class today!

Not a very pleasant surprise, I’ll have you know…

Today I showed up at the Sweet Briar office with a friend who lives in my arrondissement for our Paris VII meeting at 11:00. In the meeting, we were supposed to go over how we would be registered in the university and finalize our schedules, and then we were supposed to pick up our suitcases that were stored in Paris and take a cab home.

During the meeting, the woman in charge, Mme Gree, asked how many of us were taking Psychology classes. About 10 of us raised our hands. She said “Okay, your classes start this week.” The 10 or so of us shifted uneasily in our seats. We had been told that Paris VII classes started the week of the 22nd, which is already a week before all of the other universities start.

Then Mme Gree asked who was taking the class called Psychologie du fait social (Social Psychology). I raised my hand. I looked around. No one else was raising their hand. Mme Gree said “Okay, good, your class started today. And there’s one this afternoon as well.” Started. Past tense. I missed my first class. It was at 10:00 in the morning. Oy. And what more, the second class was at 4:30 in the afternoon. Panic mode! I was supposed to ease myself into taking Parisian classes. Give myself some time to adapt to the city, take a methodology class, start Sweet Briar classes, THEN start taking classes with real French people. Nope. They told me to return to the Sweet Briar office at 3:45 and someone would bring me to school.

I took the cab home with my luggage and tried to figure out what to do with my afternoon before my first class. I unpacked, wandered across the street from my apartment, and grabbed a sandwich at the first place I saw. I took the sandwich to a park and sat down to eat and read a book I had bought in Tours. After my lunch, I essentially bummed around the apartment, waiting until it was time to catch the train. I didn’t want to be late to my first class, so I got to Sweet Briar super early. Mme Hervier, an American who’s lived in Paris for about 20-30 years accompanied me. We ended up chasing the bus down because apparently it only comes every 10-15 minutes. We got off and walked around the building to find my amphitheatre where the class was held. She dropped me off at the door, wishing me luck. Cute.

Fortunately, the situation wasn’t too far removed from large lectures at WashU, making it easy to relax. The lecture was in a large auditorium with long desks and wooden chairs that fold down. I grabbed a seat in the back on an aisle (easy to escape if need-be). The teacher stood at the front of the room with blackboards, and held a microphone the entire time. The French really ought to get with the times and get headpieces. What struck me as odd was how old a lot of “students” were. I’m not just talking 30s, I’m talking upwards of probably over 50 years old. Granted, there were some people that appeared to be my age. But damn. When I first walked in, I thought I was in a graduate seminar.

I got situated pretty quickly, and began to try to pay attention. I think I understood the gist of the lecture. It was very introductory, and rather repetitive. I did zone out from time to time, but then again, I do that in lectures at home too. But I think I like the teacher. She’s pretty clear when she talks. Class lasted an hour. After the teacher dismissed class, I bolted out of there and grabbed a train home, which happened to be incredibly crowded…I’m thinking it may have been around rush-hour. Anyways, I survived my first French Psychology class! Go me!