I was supposed to wake up for my first class the Institut Catholique de Paris (ICP) at 7:15 so I could get ready and look like I belonged at a French University so that I could leave by 7:50 to make sure I got to class with plenty of time. However, I slept through my alarm and woke up at 7:50 so I rushed to get ready threw on my leggings, t-shirt, sneakers, and hair in a pony tail. (Why, yes I am the most American looking person in Paris today) I put my make-up into my bag and ran out the door to catch the tram. I found ICP relatively easily given my past experiences with trying to read maps. I arrived about 2 min before class started but that didn’t really matter because the class room was locked and the professor ended up showing up about 5 min after class started. It was refreshing to be in a lecture rather than a small high school style classroom for a change. Once everyone got situated the professor went through the usual things; exams (2 four hour sessions writing essays) were the only grades, how essential taking notes was, etc. Then, he starts right into the class talking at approximately a million miles a minute. I took notes for the first 45 min of the class and then realized I had heard about half of what he had said and actually written on my paper even less than that. Then, I wrote FML on the top of my paper and politely sat through the rest of class listening knowing very well that when I got back to the IES center I was dropping that class immediately. It wasn’t just the French that got to me I wouldn’t have taken a class like that in America let alone when I am studying abroad. The school was very beautiful but sadly if I ever go back there it will just be to visit not to take a class. My advice for anyone studying abroad is that you should most likely be fluent if you are going to take a class taught in another language or have them taught where all of the students are taking it as a second language. As for the rest of my classes they are going well but I will talk about them in my next entry.

Location: 21 rue d'Assas 75270 Paris, France