Today my Parisian education started for real...I had my first enormous lecture class. My linguistics class is divided (Parisian style) into a huge lecture and a smaller, discussion-section type class. Today's lecture was in an ampitheater with 100 plus students, including several older women and two students with strollers. The professor spoke using a microphone (as though it wasn't difficult enough to understand his French). The lecture was OK, not super interesting, but I'm interested in linguistics and the course doesn't seem too hard. I thought I was going to be the sole Middkid in the class, but just before class started I found my friend Dan. After class we hung out for a while, crashing in the nearby Starbucks and treating ourselves to coffees to celebrate surviving another day at Paris III. We started making plans for the weekend our friends visit in February...should be exciting!

After our coffee Dan and I stopped in the nearby Monoprix so he could buy notebooks and I could continue my search for a hairdryer. This is the fourth Monoprix I've been to and every single one has been sold out of hairdryers. Who knew it would be so difficult to find a hairdryer in Paris? I thought the French were super concerned about their coiffures. Also difficult to find are books. I guess we're pretty spoiled at Midd by having a bookstore that carries all of the necessary course books in it. I went to two bookstores this afternoon and managed to find one of the three books needed for my EU class. It appears that bookstores carry very few copies of each book, and they had run out of the other two.

After my shopping adventures, I had my first rendez-vous with the gym. I didn't pick the smartest time to go - 7 p.m. when the after-work crowd is there, but it was a successful trip. I used the fancy French stairmaster (all the machines are super-new and computerized and have personal t.v.s).

Dinner with the family tonight, but just the parents, no daughter. We ate a very informal meal in front of the television, watching some classic B&W French movie that I couldn't seem to follow but the Beguins loved. I focused on my fish instead (which was not quite cooked enough - the French don't seem to appreciate the concept of "well-done). We also had vegetable soup which was delicious and naturally bread and cheese (such a nice way to finish a meal). After dinner, Mme. Beguin showed me how to use the laundry machine, and as I write my first load of laundry is being washed. Yay for clean jeans!