I'm in Mulhouse!

Yes, I am aware that I'm already breaking my one post a week deal. Get over it.

So...I made it to France safely, which you already know if you're seen my Facebook or talked to my mom. I left Washington-Dulles on time and spent 8 hours on a plane to London. There was a crying baby and the man next to me kept elbowing me, so I didn't get any sleep on the plane. Instead, I watched The Social Network (which does not deserve to win the Best Picture Oscar, The King's Speech was MUCH better), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and one episode of The Big Bang Theory. I had 5 hours to kill in London which were uneventful. My flight to Basel was delayed by about 15 minutes, which had me worried since my ride wasn't going to be able to wait very long. Fortunately, it only took about two minutes to have my passport checked and to get my luggage. I met up with my ride and we drove the half hour to campus.

We went up to what was to be my living quarters for the next semester, and, well...the smell was reminiscent of my brother's freshman dorm. The room itself wasn't so bad (though small), but the kitchen appeared to be unusable and apparently only one of the four showers/toilets for 40 people tend to work at any given time. I was told instantly that I should consider changing dorms. I didn't agree right away, but I did call Caroline to come pick me up and take me to her house as we'd planned.

She came to meet me, and we drove back to her house, where I met her family. They've been so unbelievably helpful since I've been here. I apparently don't know French as well as I thought I did, so they've been translating for me and handling a lot of the business meetings to make sure nothing goes wrong, not to mention letting me stay with them while my apartment gets set up. I've had to set up a bank account, an account for electricity in my new place, and in general make sure I have al of the right paperwork in order to be in France and to attend classes. I did manage to get a new place to live this week. It's a studio apartment right next to campus. I'll post pictures eventually. The main downside is that there isn't any internet and I can't connect to UHA's wireless network from there so I have to go to the library, the café, or McDonald's to use the internet, and both the library and the café close at 8 pm on weekdays and are only open part of the day on Saturday. Hopefully I'll be able to buy a USB connection this weekend.

My classes so far are a mixed bag. I am taking the (essentially) required Français Langue Etrangère course and its associated writing course (9 hours total), two linguistics classes, and a Renaissance Literature course for a total of 18 credits. Each class only meets once per week, so I have Mondays and Fridays completely free, which feels very strange to me. I've only had each class once so far, so it's kind of hard to tell how the semester will go. I do have to say that only in France would you have a three hour block that is divided in half for a coffee break. I've met some pretty nice people since I've been here (mostly exchange students), and I think i'm going to have a lot of fun while I'm here!

Hopefully I'll update again soon. Until then, anyone reading this knows how to contact me.

A bientôt!