Thursday, February 4, 2010

The Center

I am studying at the Université Paul Valéry, but I am not a direct exchange student there. I am here through a program that is run by the University of Minnesota. Kids from many different universities have come here through this program, but it’s mostly kids from Minnesota and Penn State. The program has a center 10 minutes away from the Comédie. They converted an old house into a student center and office. They have a room with couches and a TV and another room with computers, a kitchenette and lots of books. It’s a good place to chill and make plans and I also have my conversation class here. The program workers are all French except for one.

Françoise- Program director. Did orientation. Have seen her maybe twice since.

Corrine- Lovely lovely woman who works with Françoise. Always helpful, always smiling. She is actually my neighbor across the hall, so I see her a lot. She has 2 daughters, Audrey (5) and Margot (1 ½). They are so adorable! They love Dora l’Exploratrice who speaks French and teaches them English. Audrey also loves Littlest Pet Shop, which I know American kiddos love too.

Cédric- - young Frenchie from Avignon. Very skinny, eyebrow piercing. Careful with this one. He is sassy. But he’s also the first person I go to if I need something.

Evelyn- housing coordinator. I’ve seen her at the office. That’s about it.

Paul- from Rhode Island. Not sure how he ended up here.

Camille- student at Paul Valéry. Works at the Center helping us hapless idiots get ourselves together in France. She is very cool and funny. She studies English and it never gets old making fun of her for taking a class titled “Exploring the Theme of Wilderness in Canadian Literature.” She loves that class.

All these guys are fluent in English.

1 comment:

  1. So Camille must be reading Jack London (he was actually American, but spent time in the Yukon during the gold rush) and Robert W. Service, the "Bard of the Yukon".

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