First day of school

Yesterday I was able to learn about the French family I will be staying with. First off, they live in a house just down the street from school, still in the 11th arrondissement. Houses are incredibly rare in Paris, especially so close to the center. They also have a small yard! There are four kids, around 18, 17, 13, and 10, so it should be a household full of excitement. I'll be living in the former babysitter's room. Judging by all this, I would guess they have trop d'argent ($$$), but I shall find out on Sunday when I meet them.

Today was the first day of class. I really wanted/needed to get placed into French 5, so I was nervous, but the class lists didn't even say which level was which. After being in class for 15 minutes I was handed the syllabus and found out that I was in French 5! My teacher is a young lady and seems very sweet, although I only understood what she was saying part of the time. I have some catching up to do and unfortunately our textbook looks even more boring and cruel to me than "The Sun Also Rises" did. In the afternoon Madame Scattolin took us on an excursion to the Latin Quarter and I would have enjoyed it much more had she given the tour en anglais. I kept zoning out and couldn't pay attention to her but one time I heard her say "Pantheon. . . seulement femme?" and I said "MARIE CURIE!" and I answered the question correctly even though I wasn't even listening well. We didn't go into the Pantheon or other buildings so I will certainly have to go back another day. Then I got gelato, which was overflowing my cup, then it started raining and I had gelato running down my arms so my gelato I had just bought had to be sacrificed to a trash can.

Speaking of my opinion of books, I just finished reading Pride and Prejudice and it was wonderful, I couldn't put it down. It's the first Austen I've ever read. I don't know if I'll read another one of her books because I've heard they're all very similar and I doubt I would enjoy any of the others as much. Now what shall I read next. . .

~Sarah