La Troisième Jour

 Today was my first day of the early start program classes. I woke up with the house to myself because Madame had already left for work. She left me breakfasting the table. I took a shower and talked to Thad a bit and then got ready to go. Last night I had out a pair of ear plugs by my bed so that if the neighbors across the way never shut up I could turn them off. When I came back from the bathroom I found Beebow and one of the ear plugs. Uh oh. I thought "oh no! If I kill her cat this would be bad news!!!" But I later found it under the other end of my bed. But it was very touch and go for a while. Once I put away breakfast I went to the school to begin the activities. I'm literally like a five minute walk away :-) closer than anyone else I know. When I got to the school there were folders for everyone in boxes. We walked in and the staff all said encouraging hints about being abroad. They gave some nice speeches about most often time drives you but now we need to drive it. It was good. After that we got talked to about basic housing respect and what will earn us bonus points with our host. I was already doing all of them. :-) 

After that we split up into 4 groups to go to classes. They were pretty much based on ability level and I was placed in highest group which wasn't bad. We went upstairs and did some conversations and introductions and then it was time for lunch!! Some of us from the program went to a little sandwich shop and got sandwiches and stuff. We also poked in a store called la cure de gourmand which was a dessert pastry, chocolate, and carmel shop. It was cute. After that we went back to the school where two French girls explained to us how the French interact in the street, bar, and at home. It was amusing and fun. Then we split into our classes again to be led arou d Aix on a tour of some places that they recommend. It was cool to get back into the main part of the city. After that we went back to the institute to be talked to about the other colleges in the area and how they are trying to link the together via a bunch of activities. Then once we were done with that we were free to go for the optional bar crawl tonight. My group of peeps opted against it as we were all tired and dehydrated. We went to the monoprix and I bought pencils. From there we split up and went back to our houses but I get kinda lost on the way back. But I was in no hurry and I got to see new stuff so that was cool. I came home and Paul was over. He showed me his Pokemon cards again and told me what type each of them were. We watched tv until Madame had us sit down for dinner. We had rice and cordon bleu and I was very happy. I like having Paul here it dumbs down the food a bit. But still delicious. This time I said yes to cheese as well and it was delicious as was the kiwi for dessert. We watched tv which was cartoons and a show about baby zoo animals and then Paul went home. I talked to Madame a bit about her day and explained to her about why I wrote every night on my iPod. She bought it was a phone.

 Earlier in the day a guy came who organizes trips for internationals on the weekends. He told us about the optional one this Sunday which is to Coatia which is more east than Marseille but is on the sea. It costs 25€ for most of his trips he says but they are cool and are difficult to get to if you don't have a car. I decided I was down. I also learned that next Monday a rep from a phone company is coming to the institute so I will probably buy a phone then. Probably. Or I could buy one tomorrow if I have time.