-La Sorbonne, and an un-Parisian February-

Really, Paris?  Have you really decided to make the only winter I am visiting you the coldest February in decades?  I was not expecting this sort of weather, and I can't afford to buy new, warmer clothes in one of the most chic cities in the world.

 

(view from my window, into the snowy trees)

 The weather really is abnormal, as every Parisian I have talked to has said in astonishment, "C'est février!" It is February, and Paris in February needs to return to the temperatures of last week.  I had no problem with the weather when I first arrived, but now we're headed towards a protracted argument.

Otherwise...yesterday I found one of the Sorbonne buildings for my class assignment, and I passed this plaque (below) noting James Joyce's time writing in Paris.  Today I left at 7:15am, in the dark, to find my first grammar class in yet another Sorbonne building.  And I was still late for my 8am class.

Fortunately, my professeur seems like a nice Madame, and my class is full of international students.  This aspect is fun; for example, the girl sitting next to me is from Thailand, and speaks very little English.  Alors, we have to communicate as best we can in French, as it is now our common language. :)  I also met a Brazilian girl, a Chinese girl (whose French "accent" was so hard to understand), and a girl from Montana.  The girl from Montana spoke English.

But she also has lived here for a semestre already with her French boyfriend (Ooh-la-la!) and so she showed me where the nearest metro station was, and took my picture in front of Saint Michel.

I hear there are more than 40,000 monuments in Paris, so I'm sure I'll eventually photograph myself with each of them for you to see. :)