First Day of Class

Yesterday was the first day of classes at the Middlebury Center.

I should practically have been able to predict it ahead of time, but of course there were metro issues on my line in the morning. When I was getting closer to the platform, there was a sea of people coming away from the tracks, more than the regular "people getting off at that stop"... It took me a couple of seconds to realize that something was wrong, and in that time, I had arrived at the platform... well, I could see the platform, but had no hope of getting out of the tunnel-hallway leading to it. A train was there, completely packed with people, like on a strike day, and the platform was packed as well. There was no way I could have gotten to the train, much less gotten on it.

After chatting with a couple people about the indignité of the metro company to describe the traffic as "slowed down" when it was obviously at a complete standstill, I headed off to the RER train line to hopscotch myself in close to Middlebury. Me and a couple hundred other people that didn't want to wait indefinitely on the metro platform. I made it, wedged between a railing and a huge gym bag that a dude was holding on his shoulder - face-height for me - and another woman who looked completely unphased by the crush of people.

Classes were good. I have two at the Midd Center and will have one at the Sorbonne starting in October. At Midd, classes are 2.5 hours long, once a week. It's a really long time to sit and concentrate, but it makes up for that by the fact that at the end of the day, I can walk out of the Center and not have to go back until a week later.

The two courses that I'm taking at Midd are a lit course, "The Return of the Classical Tragedy in 20th Century Theater," and a civilization course, "Contemporary French Society." Both seem like they'll be quite interesting and a manageable amount of work. It's such a relief not to be in the 6-week panic that pretty much defined the summer at Midd!

After all the craziness of the day, it was lots of fun to try out a dance class last night. It wasn't exactly what I'm looking for, but would be a possibility if I don't find anything else. And the prof was really nice after I had to haggle with the not-very-welcoming welcome desk workers just to talk to her! ...But that's a whole other story... (One in which I consider that I won a battle of the wills/a battle of reason against two incredibly cranky community center workers. Not a minor accomplishment considering how my language skills dissolve when I get frustrated!)