Ils sont tous fous fous fous
Sep. 4th, 2004 01:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenie_breizhBefore going into the last two days : Stupid cell phone ringing at 6:30 and stupid brain not being able to go back to sleep afterwards. Meep.
Learned yesterday my great grandma has passed away. *silence*
I'm glad to be back home. More soon I guess.
Lakanal day 1
Left way in advance to be on the safe side, it takes somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes to get there… Means I have to wake up at 6:30 and I should be fine. Makes me happy that I do wake up easily (by that I mean I'm operational quickly after I've opened my eyes) and also I'll try and take a shower in the evening. Much better.
Anyway. Friended some people right away thanks to one of them who got there and started saying hello (before that I was calmly reading my Pratchett). So I met Pauline (from Versailles – well, around), Alexandre (from Monaco, I think it's gonna be a recurring joke) and Hughes (from a place near Aras in the Pas-de-Calais). We hung out a little and then I sat next to Pauline while they walked us through the ton of papers they gave us. It was funny, because they're really nice and all, and you can't help wondering, is that gonna be my gang for the year? It feels like it, but at the same time you know the first day doesn't mean much and that you might soon be hanging out with a total different crowd. But here I go, for now the names to remember are those three. And Aurélien, too, a guy that was dressed all in black, gothic-style that seems really nice and that I'm gonna try to talk to.
As far as classes go, it's not as bad as I thought. My hours (I got 30 of those not counting the "khôlles" and the space reserved for tests) are :
Monday : 10AM-3:30PM (very cool and very much unhoped for!)
Tuesday : 8AM-5:30PM
Wednesday : 8AM-5:30PM (but no classes from 12 to 3:30PM)
Thursday : 8AM-5:30PM (but no classes from 12 to 3:30PM)
Friday : 8AM-5:30PM
Saturday : 8AM-1PM reserved for tests (starting on Sept 18 for me)
So, on the whole, not that bad, and once I drop Greek I'll be finishing at 12PM twice a week and at 3:30PM twice a week. Well, and then you've got the khôlles (which is basically an oral exam where you're alone with a teacher), but – it should work itself out fine. We'll see once classes get started.
Right now, two things on my mind : having dinner with Antoine & Vanina. I can't wait and those two are such a riot. Should happen next week, I'll be looking forward to it. The other thing is the prob for the weekend of the 18th... I'd planned on going to see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fan_elune for the weekend, leaving Friday night and coming back Sunday night, but if indeed we have a test like they told us, well – that screws it all up :( :(. Some part of me is still hoping they got it wrong and we won't have a test that day (they basically said tests on Saturday started on the 25th for everybody except the people with Spanish as a second language – that is, me – who started on the 18th! Can you believe the bad luck?? Positive part is, since I start at 10 on Monday, I think if I can't come on Friday night, I'll be heading back on Monday morning. A bit barbarian but I think it'll be fine. And I'll get some more time with Fan', which I'm craving for.
Well, now, off to play Caesar III a bit before going outside to the Parc Montsouris to do some reading in the sun.
Lakanal, Day 2
First of all, yesterday I spent a wonderful afternoon, being out in Montsouris. Grass smells good. And then, got a text message fromheikki_cheren and so we ended up meeting up so I could get my Season 7 DVDs (BIG THANKS to overcraft, twixou, miss_kao and of course heikki_cheren)!! Whee, can't wait to find time to listen to the commentaries. We had dinner together at this really small Chinese place near my apartment but it was good and it was nice talking and all :)
Anyway, first real day at Lakanal.
English: My teacher is a riot, I really like him so far. He has a *very strong* British accent, the kindfan_elune doesn't like, and it actually sounds almost too "upper class" for me. But very good accent anyway. He's relaxed yet real serious about what he's doing. I think it'll be interesting to work with him. We'll be reading an Hemingway book and the Dubliners by Joyce, which I'll be looking forward to. It's been too long since I've told myself I should read some James Joyce. Only bad part is, we're starting the translation part of the course with "version" (English to French) and it's definitely not my strong point.
Philosophy: Three words : I MISS PHILLIPS. After one year doing awesome, interesting philosophy, I'm definitely back to the French way of things. My teacher is slow, his voice is monotonous, he does all the speaking, clearly we don't know anything and we shouldn't really think of having our own opinion, and it's just – conceited and boring, just the way I remembered it. The only good thing is that he sent flying through the widows most of what we'd been taught in high school and his method for writing a paper actually seems more interesting to me. But boy, it's gonna be a bore. Argh argh argh. I would really have appreciated a good philosophy teacher. We got assigned our first paper, too, due in two weeks. Meep. Gonna have to start working on it soon.
History: Sounds really fascinating, but – an awful lot of books to buy. It not only means an awful lot of reading to go with it, but it also felt very elitist. He kept mentioning all those books that you had to read if you wanted to be well-read, and let's just face it, who has this kind of money? And he was all like, go and spend some time in a library / bookstore just looking through books. Again, who says we have that kind of time? That's the one thing that bothered me a bit about the course. Otherwise, should be interesting.
Geography: Or really, in that case, cartography, meaning we spent two hours looking at a map of Paris suburbs and – that's about it, really. But I like the teacher, she seems like a real nice woman, and it's not too hardcore, so a pretty nice way to finish the week, imho.
Socializing: Didn't have a chance to talk to Aurélien. Spent most of the time with Pauline, Hugues and Alex, we ate together (the food was, frankly, awful. Phillips kids, you really have no clue how good you're gettin' it). Then during our last class I sat between two girls I'd previously spotted and seemed nice : Hélène and Cathy (pronounce Ca-tie). I had a great time with those two. Cathy looks lovely, the kind of natural beauty I really like. She's great, too, we walked to the RER together and talked. She told me about her boyfriend and all. Everybody seems to be in a couple so far, which somehow I find quite amazing. And while I'm absolutely not looking or anything, talking to these new people, looking at all these faces, I think I really realize for the first time how hard it must be to be a gay kid in the French school system, especially if you're trying to not make a big deal out of it. I mean what are the chances you're going to find someone? I could quite see how it would be hell. Hm. I do wonder if the "hidden" gay world will just come to me after a while, when it's become general knowledge I'm going out with a girl. I mean, that's kinda what happened in Andover, so you never know. Very much not hopeful though, even though there are a couple of people who could look gay, but – y'know. Know assumptions no assumptions. Oh, that reminds me I need to email Bobby Edwards.
Well now I'm on the train back to Rennes earlier than I thought... it was a pain to catch the train and I paid 5 euros more, but at least I'll be home tonight. Will feel good, can't wait to have my brother's first impressions. Also, gonna have to figure out how and where to buy all the freakin' books I already need so far.
Learned yesterday my great grandma has passed away. *silence*
I'm glad to be back home. More soon I guess.
Lakanal day 1
Left way in advance to be on the safe side, it takes somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes to get there… Means I have to wake up at 6:30 and I should be fine. Makes me happy that I do wake up easily (by that I mean I'm operational quickly after I've opened my eyes) and also I'll try and take a shower in the evening. Much better.
Anyway. Friended some people right away thanks to one of them who got there and started saying hello (before that I was calmly reading my Pratchett). So I met Pauline (from Versailles – well, around), Alexandre (from Monaco, I think it's gonna be a recurring joke) and Hughes (from a place near Aras in the Pas-de-Calais). We hung out a little and then I sat next to Pauline while they walked us through the ton of papers they gave us. It was funny, because they're really nice and all, and you can't help wondering, is that gonna be my gang for the year? It feels like it, but at the same time you know the first day doesn't mean much and that you might soon be hanging out with a total different crowd. But here I go, for now the names to remember are those three. And Aurélien, too, a guy that was dressed all in black, gothic-style that seems really nice and that I'm gonna try to talk to.
As far as classes go, it's not as bad as I thought. My hours (I got 30 of those not counting the "khôlles" and the space reserved for tests) are :
Monday : 10AM-3:30PM (very cool and very much unhoped for!)
Tuesday : 8AM-5:30PM
Wednesday : 8AM-5:30PM (but no classes from 12 to 3:30PM)
Thursday : 8AM-5:30PM (but no classes from 12 to 3:30PM)
Friday : 8AM-5:30PM
Saturday : 8AM-1PM reserved for tests (starting on Sept 18 for me)
So, on the whole, not that bad, and once I drop Greek I'll be finishing at 12PM twice a week and at 3:30PM twice a week. Well, and then you've got the khôlles (which is basically an oral exam where you're alone with a teacher), but – it should work itself out fine. We'll see once classes get started.
Right now, two things on my mind : having dinner with Antoine & Vanina. I can't wait and those two are such a riot. Should happen next week, I'll be looking forward to it. The other thing is the prob for the weekend of the 18th... I'd planned on going to see
fan_elune for the weekend, leaving Friday night and coming back Sunday night, but if indeed we have a test like they told us, well – that screws it all up :( :(. Some part of me is still hoping they got it wrong and we won't have a test that day (they basically said tests on Saturday started on the 25th for everybody except the people with Spanish as a second language – that is, me – who started on the 18th! Can you believe the bad luck?? Positive part is, since I start at 10 on Monday, I think if I can't come on Friday night, I'll be heading back on Monday morning. A bit barbarian but I think it'll be fine. And I'll get some more time with Fan', which I'm craving for. Well, now, off to play Caesar III a bit before going outside to the Parc Montsouris to do some reading in the sun.
Lakanal, Day 2
First of all, yesterday I spent a wonderful afternoon, being out in Montsouris. Grass smells good. And then, got a text message from
heikki_cheren and so we ended up meeting up so I could get my Season 7 DVDs (BIG THANKS to overcraft, twixou, miss_kao and of course heikki_cheren)!! Whee, can't wait to find time to listen to the commentaries. We had dinner together at this really small Chinese place near my apartment but it was good and it was nice talking and all :)Anyway, first real day at Lakanal.
English: My teacher is a riot, I really like him so far. He has a *very strong* British accent, the kind
fan_elune doesn't like, and it actually sounds almost too "upper class" for me. But very good accent anyway. He's relaxed yet real serious about what he's doing. I think it'll be interesting to work with him. We'll be reading an Hemingway book and the Dubliners by Joyce, which I'll be looking forward to. It's been too long since I've told myself I should read some James Joyce. Only bad part is, we're starting the translation part of the course with "version" (English to French) and it's definitely not my strong point.Philosophy: Three words : I MISS PHILLIPS. After one year doing awesome, interesting philosophy, I'm definitely back to the French way of things. My teacher is slow, his voice is monotonous, he does all the speaking, clearly we don't know anything and we shouldn't really think of having our own opinion, and it's just – conceited and boring, just the way I remembered it. The only good thing is that he sent flying through the widows most of what we'd been taught in high school and his method for writing a paper actually seems more interesting to me. But boy, it's gonna be a bore. Argh argh argh. I would really have appreciated a good philosophy teacher. We got assigned our first paper, too, due in two weeks. Meep. Gonna have to start working on it soon.
History: Sounds really fascinating, but – an awful lot of books to buy. It not only means an awful lot of reading to go with it, but it also felt very elitist. He kept mentioning all those books that you had to read if you wanted to be well-read, and let's just face it, who has this kind of money? And he was all like, go and spend some time in a library / bookstore just looking through books. Again, who says we have that kind of time? That's the one thing that bothered me a bit about the course. Otherwise, should be interesting.
Geography: Or really, in that case, cartography, meaning we spent two hours looking at a map of Paris suburbs and – that's about it, really. But I like the teacher, she seems like a real nice woman, and it's not too hardcore, so a pretty nice way to finish the week, imho.
Socializing: Didn't have a chance to talk to Aurélien. Spent most of the time with Pauline, Hugues and Alex, we ate together (the food was, frankly, awful. Phillips kids, you really have no clue how good you're gettin' it). Then during our last class I sat between two girls I'd previously spotted and seemed nice : Hélène and Cathy (pronounce Ca-tie). I had a great time with those two. Cathy looks lovely, the kind of natural beauty I really like. She's great, too, we walked to the RER together and talked. She told me about her boyfriend and all. Everybody seems to be in a couple so far, which somehow I find quite amazing. And while I'm absolutely not looking or anything, talking to these new people, looking at all these faces, I think I really realize for the first time how hard it must be to be a gay kid in the French school system, especially if you're trying to not make a big deal out of it. I mean what are the chances you're going to find someone? I could quite see how it would be hell. Hm. I do wonder if the "hidden" gay world will just come to me after a while, when it's become general knowledge I'm going out with a girl. I mean, that's kinda what happened in Andover, so you never know. Very much not hopeful though, even though there are a couple of people who could look gay, but – y'know. Know assumptions no assumptions. Oh, that reminds me I need to email Bobby Edwards.
Well now I'm on the train back to Rennes earlier than I thought... it was a pain to catch the train and I paid 5 euros more, but at least I'll be home tonight. Will feel good, can't wait to have my brother's first impressions. Also, gonna have to figure out how and where to buy all the freakin' books I already need so far.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 02:34 am (UTC)Which was handy. Now I wonder how many times I spelt one wrong. Damn.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 03:53 am (UTC)Heikki is Finnish, I think it means Henry or sth. I picked it for a Same (Lapp) character.
Cheren is Mongol, I think it means "long life". It's the name that character is wearing in Mongolia.
When I created my lj, I thought "Jaouen" wouldn't be available, as usual. I should have bothered to check anyway. ;-)
Now I grabbed this one too, but am not using it. Yet. Could do so for fic related things in the future, though.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 03:58 am (UTC)When you say your "great grandma", do you mean the mother of your grand-mother or a grand-mother which happened to be great? Anyway, quite sorry to hear that. Dunno how it feels, they all hurried to die right before my birth except for one, and am not in a hurry to find out how it is any soon. *hug*
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 05:07 am (UTC)It's my dad's grandma who died. So my grandpa's mom. It feels - doesn't feel really bad, I mean I didn't see her a lot or anything. Then I feel kinda bad that I don't feel too bad. Anyway. I have 3 of my grandparents left, but the grandpa who lost his wife has found a new partner, so I kinda have 4 grandparents left.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 05:39 am (UTC)Finnish last names are a treat too, many are very peculiar, you know right away it's finnish and not swedish or norw-....er.... norvégien (english?). Ah, I had a happy Finnish and Same period. Might go back to it once I'll be done with my Mongol period. ;-) And the area is a tad easier to reach too.
Yeah, well, those kind of things can be weird. I know it didn't do much to me when some of my great-aunt or great-uncle died. Nor when the mother of my grand-father's wife died a year ago, even though I was kinda fond of the old lady. But when my uncle died last year... I dunno, we weren't close at all, we were seeing him maybe twice a year, he's always prefered guys over girls (probably cos he only had daughters, but still, it's weird when your own uncle is doing more stuff with your canadian pen pal than he ever did with you), and he wasn't always easy to get with, but anyway it was terrible when he died. I think I haven't really recovered yet. So, yeah, reactions to that kind of events can be rather unexpected or weird sometimes.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 03:38 am (UTC)i'm glad school is sort of going well so far. :) i hope boring things pick up soon.
<3
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 05:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 05:09 am (UTC)As for my great grandmother... thanks. I wasn't really close to her either, it just feels strange, brings back memories.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 02:50 pm (UTC)yeah, i know what you mean, i feel the same way about mine.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 03:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 04:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 04:38 am (UTC)But another day would be great too if you can't make it on Friday, just tell us when !
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 04:48 am (UTC)And yeah, I'm totally free all evenings so far. :::hoping my back will shut up and keep quiet:::
no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 10:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-04 05:45 pm (UTC)So
:::: trying to imagine a chinese gay bar, and failing ::::
:::: trying to imagine a cute chinese waiter, and totally succeeding, cos there was that guy in Toulouse who was... oups, sorry. But he had his clothes on. I like guys wearing clothes. Really. :-P :::::