The First Taste is pretty good, but the Last Bite is better.
27/10/06
We’ve finished the first portion of uni, and we’ve been served a few surprises, as well as a surprisingly large helping. I had to adjust my palate as I found out I needed to rearrange my classes twice to accommodate work. Hence, I’m now taking one Masters level course in international private litigation, as well as French administrative, penal and civil law. Mayan is doing a great job at swallowing 24 hours of French classes a week, and is getting better and better at spitting it out too. Luckily, we’ve found plenty of friends to help us wash our daily bread down with some healthy doses of French wine.
At the moment our groups of friends are varied, and hardly linked with each other. However we’ll continue to hold parties at our apartment, and as that proceeds so will a little synergizing. Mayan has her uni friends and is still very keen to develop further our more vintage relationships, while I keep grabbing every opportunity to pretend like I understand what’s going on in the teacher staff rooms and uni lecture theatres.
We’ve had lots of great ideas to organise our holidays here, to make the most of the cheap tickets you can get hold of by buying in advance. But so far, while we’ve got hold of all the info we should need, there’s always one more thing that we forgot, and needs more research. Which leads us inevitably to the day before the holiday with nothing organized. Still, I have 15 weeks of solid vacances to spend wisely before I leave, and Mayan has even more. So there’s hope yet.
Our culinary skills have improved. We’re maîtres now in the realm of making soups and salads, and are even pretty damn good with the old tajine too. And I know so much more about cheese now. I love the stuff. We’ve been keeping a list of the cheeses we’ve tried at home, and it’s on to its second page.
One thing that I haven’t been able to take advantage of much yet are the student services. Sure I’m a regular at the super-cheap student cafeteria, but unlike Mayan, I haven’t taken up one of the free sporting activities. And neither of us have used the international student social networks that much, mostly cos they always go to a really crap bar and we know better ones.
So, that’s about it for the First Taste, the first three months. It’s gone really quickly, and we’re a little surprised to be honest. But we’ve learned a lot and are happy with how we’ve been doing. But just like before I left, the time I’m looking forward to most is the later greater Last Bite holiday here, when uni’s finished, work’s finishing up, and I speak French and have money to burn. For your reference, it’ll be the months of June and July, and the last few weeks will be spent in Paris.
I hope to keep in contact with all of you. We really love getting emails and comments on the blog.
27/10/06
We’ve finished the first portion of uni, and we’ve been served a few surprises, as well as a surprisingly large helping. I had to adjust my palate as I found out I needed to rearrange my classes twice to accommodate work. Hence, I’m now taking one Masters level course in international private litigation, as well as French administrative, penal and civil law. Mayan is doing a great job at swallowing 24 hours of French classes a week, and is getting better and better at spitting it out too. Luckily, we’ve found plenty of friends to help us wash our daily bread down with some healthy doses of French wine.
At the moment our groups of friends are varied, and hardly linked with each other. However we’ll continue to hold parties at our apartment, and as that proceeds so will a little synergizing. Mayan has her uni friends and is still very keen to develop further our more vintage relationships, while I keep grabbing every opportunity to pretend like I understand what’s going on in the teacher staff rooms and uni lecture theatres.
We’ve had lots of great ideas to organise our holidays here, to make the most of the cheap tickets you can get hold of by buying in advance. But so far, while we’ve got hold of all the info we should need, there’s always one more thing that we forgot, and needs more research. Which leads us inevitably to the day before the holiday with nothing organized. Still, I have 15 weeks of solid vacances to spend wisely before I leave, and Mayan has even more. So there’s hope yet.
Our culinary skills have improved. We’re maîtres now in the realm of making soups and salads, and are even pretty damn good with the old tajine too. And I know so much more about cheese now. I love the stuff. We’ve been keeping a list of the cheeses we’ve tried at home, and it’s on to its second page.
One thing that I haven’t been able to take advantage of much yet are the student services. Sure I’m a regular at the super-cheap student cafeteria, but unlike Mayan, I haven’t taken up one of the free sporting activities. And neither of us have used the international student social networks that much, mostly cos they always go to a really crap bar and we know better ones.
So, that’s about it for the First Taste, the first three months. It’s gone really quickly, and we’re a little surprised to be honest. But we’ve learned a lot and are happy with how we’ve been doing. But just like before I left, the time I’m looking forward to most is the later greater Last Bite holiday here, when uni’s finished, work’s finishing up, and I speak French and have money to burn. For your reference, it’ll be the months of June and July, and the last few weeks will be spent in Paris.
I hope to keep in contact with all of you. We really love getting emails and comments on the blog.
posted by Mayan at 6:25 AM
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