My grammar class started today and as grammar is definitely my Achilles' heel when it comes to French, I was a little heavy-hearted on my way to La Sorbonne. But as it turns out the professor is a very fun woman who laughs a lot (particularly when we mispronounce words and end up saying "a fucked head" instead of "lowered head" or "a stretched ass" instead of "a stretched neck") and really made an effort to get to know all of us (a phenomenon I have never experienced during my studies in France.) We all had to have a mini-interview with her as she interjected grammar corrections along the way.

The class is super diverse, making us look a little bit like the United Colours of Benetton: A German former jeune fille au pair with journalistic dreams, a Brazilian psychologist who just moved to Paris after two years spent skiing in Chamonix, a Russian who teaches English and French back in her hometown in Siberia (I think this is the coolest…), a gaggle of Canadian teachers, an American grad student with a predilection for James Joyce, a Turkish girl with a very pretty name, two Japanese students who smile a lot, an American exchange student who looks a little bit like Faruza Balk, a Moldavian (I have to check my atlas for that one), and a bunch of others who I am sure I will be come close to over the next 4 months. (I am after all spending nearly 20 hours a week with these people.)

There is so much more than French to be learned. So much about other cultures and subjects. I am like a kid in a candy store! I left class at dusk and walked across the Seine, head-over-heels again for Paris. Then my overcrowded bus arrived and, smashed between a baby carriage and a backpack, with an elbow lodged in my back, I fell out of love again. But those 20 minutes between leaving school and getting onto public transit were worth it.