sey085

Just a couple of quick notes today, with no particular theme. First, I've switched apartments. No, I haven't gotten a proper apartment (I visited 5 more apartments yesterday), but I have switched rooms in the same building. The new apartment is smaller (it's about the size of my last dorm room at Mudd) but significantly nicer and cheaper. It doesn't have the same "charm" as the old one (every single scrap of furniture is from IKEA), but it also doesn't have the same "smell" or "unusual stains on the walls." I will post a picture of Basil in his new digs soon. I was able to switch french classes as well, so last night I had my first class at level B1. It was definitely much more my style. The teacher was enthusiastic and friendly; the students were... well, almost all of the student were older than me (by a lot) and German, so it was an odd group. We had to do an activity at the beginning of class wherein we talked to the people n...

It may come as a surprise to some of you, but I really don't get a lot of opportunities to speak French on a daily basis. In the morning, I say pardon a few times as I bump into people on the subway, and at lunch time I say merci to the women at the cash register when I buy my coffee. The only person with whom I interact on a regular basis in French is my apartment manager, Madame Delessert, and that's only every week or so. I've learned lots of Vaudois French from her (she says ça joue? constantly), but I hunger to learn more. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Switzerland, go to Migros. I signed up for a French course that meets once a week for two hours at the "Ecole-Club Migros" in Lausanne. I had to take a test online to determine my placement level (it goes A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,C2) and it put me square in the middle of level B1. I looked at the description of level B1 and was immediately intimidated. I figured that the online test only measured ...