Hello! So as I said I would tell you, going to bed at 1 am poved to be a TERRIBLE idea because I had my oral exam today at 10:40, so planned on waking up at 9;30. For some reason, though, aka sheer exhaustion, I passed back out after checking my clock and seeing that it was 9:31. At 10:16 my roommate was kind enough to ask me when my exam was. Then superwoman came out. I am never late. Ever. Never ever. Needless to say, panic mode ensued, and the adrenaline rushed, and somehow I got dressed (and looked cute) in 4 minutes, with brushing my teeth! And SPRINTED to the Smith Center and made it there in six minutes while holding my shirt closed with one hand and running with a cell phone box in the other. I was 10 minutes early for my exam like our professor said to be. After my exam, I was put in the advanced French group, which gets to take an additional Switzerland/ Geneva history course. It's good, but I'm now very nervous because on Thursday we have a small oral quiz in which he'll ask us to discuss for 5 minutes one of the subjects we talked about in class today. I'll be doing some googling between tomorrow and Thursday, clearly. But I'm getting ahead of myself. After the exams were complete, a friend and I managed to find an ATM (which was harder than one may think), and also managed to set up our prepaid cell phones so that we over here can communicate easily with each other. From there, we met up with our other friends and attempted to find an inexpensive cafe. This is NOT by ANY MEANS an easy task. We managed to find one by CUP 1 (the place where the year-long students are staying) in which I got a sandwich au jambon sur une baguette. It was the best ham sandwich I've ever had. After this we went back to the Smith center to prepare for an afernoon tour of the city with the grad student who is helping us out. She was really nice and I now have yet another shopping district I want to go back to! She showed us where the train station was, and also where her favorite bar is, which we'll be visiting on Saturday while we bar hop for one of our friend's birthdays. From here, those of us in the advanced group went to class for two hours, and after this a few of us went grocery shopping. In France. It was way cheaper. The euro is more powerful than the franc, yet everything in Geneva (francs) is more expensive than everything in France. It was only a 30 minute train ride, and was well worth it. While we were there, a guy in our group came running up to us saying "I'm CLUTCHING MY PEARLS" about to cry because he was so happy at how cheap it was. Needless to say so too were the rest of us clutching our pearls in this fit of joy. It was ASTOUNDINGLY cheaper. I spent 60 euro (~100 USD) on groceries that will get me through at least a week and a half. AMAZING. AND WE WERE IN FRANCE. Like wut. Unbelievable. I got a baguette, and brie and jam (apricot et framboise) and olives, guacamole, and biscuits, then curaco bleu, martini blanc and wine for an astounding total of 13 euro (and then I got more, but less interesting stuff). Then I got back, hung out in the kitchen and ate cereal with my suitemates and one of our fellow hall mates (one of the really funny ones), and went in to start this. I took a small break about 15 minutes ago to sing happy birthday and have cake with one of my suitetes whose birthday it is today (Tuesday)!
OH! And our Professor got us tickets to see a Mozart Opera! And sent us a hilarioius video on pretty much how to fake it 'til you make it with regards to speaking French. It involves drinking a lot of wine, making sound effects, and eating baguettes.
À bientôt!
Edie