Paris

Now that the second semester has started officially (now all the other faculties are in session as well, so I don't feel like the only one going to class), I am starting to think about class registration. I am already registered in 4 biology classes in the Faculté des Sciences, but I need at least 2 more classes to be considered a full time student. I sat in on a creative writing workshop on Friday, but it seemed to have a greater emphasis on practicing speaking/writing in English, something I obviously don't need. I intended to stay in the course just to be able to do some creative writing, but after learning that there is a waitlist of people who want to practice their English, I felt bad and withdrew from the course. Next week there is a translation course for French---English & English---French, which could give me some higher level credit for my B.A. in French. I also found an American literature course that might give me a general education credit. It would probably be taught in English, but seeing as it's a literature course, it hopefully won't be as easy as creative writing seems to be. It's pretty difficult in France to do your studies across different departments, especially because the schedules might not coincide. In the Fac des Sciences, the schedule changes on a weekly basis to accomodate for TPs (labs), TDs (recitation), and CMs (lectures). In order for me to follow courses in the Fac des Lettres, I decided to give up the TPs and TDs of some sciences courses (for example, BIOC 403 does not have a lab section, so I am not going to the TP of the Univ-Nantes equivalent). Hopefully this might let me attain full-time student status....

On top of that, I got some nice new books to read so i'm not sitting in front of a computer all the time!
Philosophie en série
L'Année de la pensée magique
Robin des Bois
L'élégance du hérisson
Le livre noir des serial killers
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
9 Dragons
Vent du sable
La gloire de mon père

And while I'm taking a break from reading, I also need to plan my February vacation! I can't decide where to go, though:
Spain to visit Katie and Debbie (fellow VCU students!)
Finland to visit Siiri and Harri (former Université de Nantes exchange students)
Italy to see the Carneval of Venice with Virginie, Eléonore, Jean-François, and Bing (fellow Université de Nantes students)
Austria to visit Tschuna (another VCU student)
Malta (somewhere warmer than Nantes!)
Lyon with Stefan and Paul (fellow Université de Nantes exchange students)

Anyway, I had almost forgotten to post my Paris pictures from my visit in October! So here they are:

I got a whole train car to myself on the TGV!

Waiting in line to get into St Chappelle

Stained glass windows inside the church

Cool ceiling gives the church a feeling of tallness

The outside of the church-- see the gargoyle!

Gargoyles

Procoupf-- tourist trap resto (but it had good French onion soup)

The last view I got of my dad before he went back to the States :(