$1.38!!!

Great news! The euro keeps falling against the dollar. I, by virtue of my nationality and banking choices, am getting richer by the day. Today, the euro was at it's lowest price in over a year. It is my hope, impossible though it might be to realize, that the euro reaches parity with the dollar. At such a time as that, I am liquidating all my assets and transferring the funds here to buy, buy, buy!!

Okay, really, I wouldn't do that because it would be tremendously stupid.

So, I discovered today that the geography department here at Paul Valery has finally gotten everything straightened out. What has happened is that every four years, the curriculum changes completely. Every class is replaced by a new one. That switch occurred last Friday. Thus, the French students and myself, as well as the program office and no doubt one or two of the professors themselves were completely surprised. This means that classes start a week later than most of the others, and that I get a few more days with relatively nothing to do.

Relatively, because I have started some classes. I have started the mandatory grammar and phonetics courses that the students on my program take in order to improve their French. I like them well enough. The phonetics course is taught by the same professor that did the oral expression portion of the orientation, and she is funny and reminds me of my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Hamline (only French). The course also makes me miss Joe, who is a linguist, and would probably understand everything we're learning, the theory behind it, and much more, all without batting an eye. My grammar class is twice a week at 4:15 in the afternoon, but that gives me the morning free and I can sleep blissfully late. Even if I slept as late as Martha has been known to sleep, I would still be able to get to class with plenty of time to spare. The grammar teacher is known as the 'dragon lady' by a lot of the other students, who have heard horror stories about her from past students, but I like her. I also tend to like professors more than most other people, unless they have poor organization, which irks me like no other. You can totally suck at life, but if you're well organized, you're a mark up in my book.

Next week, I start my courses in geography: géomorphologie and le géographie des pays dévelopées. (I don't think I have to translate those). They are the two courses that interested me the most and fit most conveniently with my times. Also, I still have no classes on Friday!! However... this might change because I found out I have an internship.

Most of the other Americans have internships with schools or non-profit organizations, and generally deal with very generic things like teaching English or what have you. Do I have one of these? No, no! Peter is a stubborn bastard, and is tricky and hard to please. Peter doesn't want what's on the menu, he wants what the chef has been hiding in the vegetable hamper under the lettuce so no one will find it. Peter wants the blue balloon, not the white one or the red one. In truth, all of this was done with the greatest politesse and I didn't expect the results I got, but apparently one of the program directors is good friends with an architect, and they have consented to let me intern with them for the semester. I'm not an architect, granted, but the guy (or woman, I'm not sure yet) is working on designing an entire neighborhood right now, which fits right up the alley of... ***URBAN GEOGRAPHY***. So, yay for me. I will be crossing my fingers from here on out that everything is good to go and that I haven't just told you all a wishful thought. Enough for now.

I have sent out the first volley of letters to the US. I hope they get there in due course. Peace out.