I know it is Saturday now. However, as with all weeks, this one began with a Monday...and it was a Monday as there ever was...

I registered for classes at 10am Monday morning (when the server was opened to all International students at the same time!) and, believe it or not, got in to most of what I wanted. I was short 2 classes at 10:40 when I finally decided to give up...Every class said it was full. The thing is, one of the classes I was short was the French LANGUAGE class I am required to take!

After being tossed around like a ping pong ball all afternoon on campus (ok.."go to this office", get to the office, closed for lunch, wait an hour, come back, wait in line, oh--"lets just take you out of that lecture course so that you can get into the only french class with openings"---(no way I need the credits for that class for my degree), "kay then go see my collegue down the hall to the left", down the hall to the left= stairwell!!, wander into numerous offices without knowing where to go when I am rescued by a nice professor who points me indeed to the left up the stairwell across a classroom into another hall up more stairs and to the right only to be faced with 6 offices (this is what "to the left means in French") After trying to communicate yet again what had happened I was directed to the only closed door. "Mdme Fau is the only one who can add you to a full class and she is not in today, e-mail her and come back tomorrow." Why is the only person who can add someone to a full class NOT IN on the day of REGISTRATION!! This is France.... So still no response from her that night. However, after an early wake up on Tuesday morning and a few more ping pong-like directions, I walked out of Sciences Po with THE class I had originally wanted. As for the other class that I couldn't get into, I had to take the only elective available and am now actually excited to learn "The History of Great Britain" in a country that has been its rival for centuries...

Bank card code has still not arrived: After a visit to the bank and a 7Euro charge to my account later, they are resending it to my appartment this week. I paid for my Louvre "Carte de Jeunes" pass with a check yesterday and the woman made me redo it twice-- it's not as simple as back home. A note to all who plan/should plan to visit me: the "Carte de Jeunes" is 15 Euro year long pass for students to the Louvre and comes with some pretty great discounts for my guests as well.

Imagine R (the metro pass) finally sent me something...a good sign...but it turns out that my bank account didn't work..meaning that they probably tried it before I transferred the money...I filled out some more forms and sent it back..metro pass by next week??

Believe it or not, my biggest disappointment of the day was when I made a trip to the Post to send a small package with some French sweets to my brothers...turns out..it is forbidden to send any type of food to the states. There has to be a way around this system...

Also, went to 3 different grocery stores (including the Grand Epicerie---the equivalent of Whole Foods times 7) in search of Lemon Pepper to stirfry up my beans in. Turns out Poivre Citron does not exist in Paris, not even in the biggest spice store I've ever seen. So I bought: 1 lemon, 1 shallot, and some pepper and thought I'd try my own version. :) Nothing is easy here...

I actually DID find time to wander over to the Sciences Po American Center this afternoon only to be met with the news that the woman who helped me get into Sciences Po (and my only English-speaking advisor) has just given leave and her replacement, Mathew, was being trained as I was there. Within 2 minutes of explaining everything, I broke down in tears. It was really wierd for me because I never cry in front of people other then family. It was just what happened after the stress of the day. They sat me down and gave me some water and I immediately was better and able to explain my frustrations of the day and also about not having enough French to get by without some form of help. They said that they know it is a problem and that they were suprised we weren't getting more help with registration and getting bank accounts. It seems that they really have no say in how things are run "over there"--the Am. Center is 10 blocks away. Even though they were really nice and felt so bad, I really don't think this is a problem that is going to be solved quickly. The people working at Sciences Po, students and admin alike really dont like to speak english even when speaking with international students. They said that there are others at a similar language level as me but I have yet to meet them and am constantly surrounded by students only speaking French to eachother and to admin. It is as if it doesn't occur to them that someone may not understand it! I know that I am in France to learn the language and appreciate the immersion most of the time but when it comes to bank accounts, registration, etc... I would prefer to KNOW what I am doing then practice my language skills.

And that was Monday...

I think that is the way things like this always work--just come in one big overwhelming day and then slowly work themselves out. Tuesday was better and the only real problem I had came when trying to fix my WIFI (or "wee fee" here) at school.

I went to the help desk and found out that the help desk is actually in a separate building about 20 minutes away (how are they supposed to help with WIFI??!) When I finally got there (through the rain..yes it has started!) it was only the entrance to an appartment complex with a button to ring the person you want...go figure...there was no way I was pushing a button..I had no idea where to start. I wandered back through the rain and decided I was going to sit down and figure this out by myself...20 minutes of dictionary translations and restarting and restarting later...I now have functionable wifi at Po!!!

On Wednesday, though, this last month decided to finally hit me and I spent 22 hours in bed between frequent trips across the hall (I never knew how annoying it was not to have your own toilet until I was running back and forth every half hour). I'd been really tired all day and I still had a stomach ache the day after so I know it wasn't food poisoning. Carly said this happens to her when she travels sometimes too..that she doesn't cry...just gets sick...go figure...I do both.

The rest of the week as been much better and I am now gearing up for one heck of a week ahead of me. This week's agenda includes moving, writing 2 big papers, applying for my "carte de sejour"--a whole nother story--, and prepping for classes 1 week from Monday!