"I'm sure not everyone in Paris thinks you're an idiot.""Only because I haven't met them all."

Can you believe I've been in Paris for a week already? Me neither. But it was almost exactly a week ago today that I was walking around Montmartre, fighting to stay awake after a near-sleepless night on the plane, waiting to check into my hostel.

Just got back from day four of French class. Whoa! It is definitely more intense than any language class I've taken in the States. Our professors speak entirely in French (sometimes quite rapid French), so it can be a real struggle to figure out what the heck is going on. Thank God for hand gestures - one wave of a hand means a world more to me than blu-blu-blu this or blu-blu-blu that. It's actually pretty remarkable, when you think about it - a person can go on and on for more than a minute without saying a thing I understand, but when she moves her hand toward the door, it's like ... a ha! We're moving to the next room!

I had a premonition about this ... I remember when Becky was taking driver's ed, and my parents sent her to learn there from the ground up, meaning she had not even sat behind the wheel before the first day of class. Poor girl was understandably overwhelmed when her first instruction was to pull away from the curb and drive out into the street! Well Becky, I feel your pain. Here I am ... driving down the streets of Paris, pretending I know the rules of the road, while at the same time I haven't even mastered which is the gas and which is the brake.

I might have given up on this whole learning French idea, except for two saving graces: 1) Our professors are the complete opposite of the snooty rude variety of French - on the contrary, they've actually been very friendly, super encouraging, and not at all condescending (and they will speak English if you're totally lost - asking questions in English is okay too, at least at our level), and 2) The majority of my class seems to be about as overwhelmed as I am (except for the one guy in our class, who's a little overconfident for my taste). I will definitely come back to the States with much more sympathy for our non-English speakers. It sucks to feel stupid just because you are limited by an extremely short vocabulary.

I actually am having fun, for the most part, especially when I'm not on the spot to perform and I can just listen and absorb from the rest of the class. The four hours passes incredibly quickly every day.

Off now to go running, then maybe will do some ... gasp ... clothes shopping! (I know, I know, it's weird for me to contemplate clothes shopping as well ... but I am starting to feel rather under-dressed. The basic fall attire for pretty much all women here is either ballet flats or heeled boots (knee-high is not unusual), black tights, a dress, a tailored-looking coat or jacket, and a scarf. I feel like an eyesore in my ugly-ass black walking shoes, jeans/khakis, and hoodie). Au revoir!