On 11th, we
didn’t have classes in the medical school, but in the pharmacy one. I overslept
and had no idea where to go, so as I was sitting at the bus stop, wandering
what to do, I noticed bright orange shorts, K.’s recognition sign. Fortunately
he knew how to get there and the bus stop where we had to change lines, we
actually met the rest of RSSA. This stop was the last one on the river band
where our residence was as well and there was quite a nice view on the center
on the other side.
This
session was about microbiology, so it was a lot closer to my field of study. We
had our lunch on the lawn in front of the building and there were big,
man-eating French ants everywhere. A. claimed they didn’t bite humans, but that
was such a lie. They certainly DID.
On 12th, we had the long-anticipated
lecture by Dr Haigis. Why? She came all the way from Harvard University!
She talked about sirtuins and cancer and it was really interesting. We also had
a lecture about eye and brain, which was cool - the professor explained how eye
problems may have connection to brain damage.
I started
panicking about not having a good hand luggage for my travel back. So after
finishing my baguette (they started getting them from a bakery instead of the
uni restaurant, so they were actually really tasty!), I headed to the center
where I went to Galleries Lafayette. They had a really pretty bag by Paul and
Joe, on sale for 65 E. That’s far from cheap, but I liked it a lot. However, I
wasn’t sure if it wasn’t too big, so I wanted to ask someone to measure it for
me. It took about 20 minutes for me find someone. I had to wait in the queue
until the people in front of me paid, and I somehow decided that I wasn’t going
to be able to communicate what I wanted in French and that at Lafayette, they might speak basic English. What
a naïve thought. The guy spoke pre-school English. He didn’t even understand
the simple demand. He said he didn’t know the measurements and obviously
getting a measuring tape was too much trouble (come on, they had 3 floors packed
with clothes, don’t tell me there wasn’t a measuring tape anywhere?) and when I
asked if he thought it was too big for the plane, he said “yes”… “no”. I was
really angry, because seriously, I’d expect him to be a bit more helpful when I
was about to buy a bag that wasn’t exactly cheap. So I stormed out of there and
swore to buy a bag someplace else, because I wouldn’t give my money to someone
so mean.
In the
afternoon, first half of us gave article presentations. My partner was sick, so
we didn’t present. The only horrible thing was that it took too long - we were
supposed to finish at 5 but actually finished long after, so it was really
difficult to try to pay attention to the last two groups. I think it might have
been about 10 presentations? Maybe even more? Quite hard to absorb in 4 hours.
In the evening, by hand luggage hunting quest
continued. After spending a lot of time in shops where all the bags were
expensive and ugly and where I had to dig out the last remnants of my high
school French, I found a shop where all handbags were 50% off and where I found
this baby. It cost me 20 E and could even fit my laptop (if you’re curious, it
can fit a laptop, 15 magazines, 3 folders of notes, 5 books, 3 boxes of
macarons, wallet, cell phone and a cosmetic bag). And it’s soooo cute!
I also
bought some more macarons as presents. Two boxes are from the same shop as
before, the black box was from a shop recommended by one of the French
students. In patisseries, they’d always ask “C’est pour offrir?” which means “Is
it meant as a gift?”. If you say “yes”, they’d pack it really prettily.
However, if you know it’s supposed to go on board with you, it’s slightly
futile. So whenever I said “non”, I imagined how the shop girl thought I was
going to eat dozens of macarons by myself. XD
Yours truly
Vita
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