A Yorkshireman in London

I have recently become somehwat of a laughing stock of my newly-formed friends. Because of my poor linguistic skills? No. Because of my foreign cultural ignorance? No. The reason being, in fact, that I seem to have managed to contract frehser’s flu, without indulging in any of the usually associated pre-requisite activities. Perhaps I am just rubbish.

Comfort food (Pot Noodles, of course), sleeping and generally sitting around in my room feeling sorry for myself have been the orders of the day. However, I’m getting over it, and managing to live the Parisian student life.

Unfortunately for me, however, this seems to involve attending lectures in a foreign language. After hours of listening to important-looking people gabble technical details at me - these lectures tend to come in 3 hour sessions - I suddenly realised that, unsurprisingly enough, I wasn’t listening to a word they were saying. So far, this week, I have repeatedly read more Powerpoint slides and attempted to decipher more clearly illegible handwriting than I ever thought possible.

The concept of a Freshers’ Fair also seems quite foreign to these French types. Today I trekked over to the main foyer to discover all about the clubs and societies offered by the Bureau des Élèves. What I found was a room surrounded by tables, each with its own cryptic message, and complete lack of explanatory information. The most notable was one student sat behind a desk, to which was sellotaped a piece of A4 paper, on which was clearly written the letters “L H”. Strangely he didn’t seem to have a client, even though almost every other table was similarly marked with its own intriguing acronym.

I did manage to find one that read, plainly enough, musique. I was saved. After a few mis-understood enquiries, the girl behind the table was delighted to hear that I play the Viola - and what’s more I have it here with me in Paris - so now it seems I will be joining the orchestra. Tonight, 20:00. See you there.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 29th, 2005 at 1:08 am and is filed under Ecole. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.