La vie quotidienne!

This last week has been a week of discoveries. Classes started for real already and I have been faced with the difficult task of organzing my school work. The system here is very much similar to the one in Bulgaria and very much different from the US one. The professor comes, lectures for the duration of the class and leaves. If we are lucky we get a bibliography that we can cosult. If the prof is merciful, most of all we need to know will be included in the lecture, which will reduce the time we need to spend with various manuels and books to complete the notes in the library. But essentially, it is for the student to determine what needs to be done. Of course, since the only evaluation for the class is the final and there is not intermediate work to be evaluated, that leaves the temptation to put off work forever.
Arabic doesn’t present the same difficulty since there, it is very clear what needs to be done for each class because no futher progress can be made unless we complete the subsequent steps of process.
I have also been trying to find places to study now that my initial touristic phase is more or less over and real life begins. This has proved to be a difficult task. La Sorbonne itself provides limited spaces, and I have been going to the library of Institut de Monde Arabe. It is not very far, it is just down Rue des Ecoles from La Sorbonne and then a left turn along Jussieu. The library there is very convinient since it has all the litterature that I need at one spot. Also, the architecture of the building is really unique and that creates a magic atmosphere - the windows work like a diaphragm and open and close shaping the geometric figures of traditional arabic mosaics. The library itself is shaped as a minaret(the high tour of a mosque) and a spiral staircase around it leads students up and down in search for books - a very powerful symbol, since it represents the elevation of the human spirit brought by knowledge - in islam, the mosques give birth to the first universities and in Arabic both the word for mosque and the word for university are derived from the same root (jam’a {mosque}, jami’a {university} - to assemble, to come together).
Also this week I went to a university restaurant for the first time. That was quite an experience. I felt like a complete idiot and then thought that that was rather ok. I asked a girl what to do to get food. She told me that first, I needed to buy a ticket worth about 2 euros 60. She showed me where to stand in line for the precious ticket and I did. Having bought the ticket, I went back to the line and asked a boy who was waiting next to me what we could get for the ticket’s value. He enlightened me - for my 2.60 I could get a main course, une entree and a desert. What a deal comaprest to les boulangeries! I should also mention that food is thematically divided and that we could go in line for the grill, pizza, roasted food, international dishes. One chooses the main course, then the entree and desert and presents the ticket along with the student’s cart which validates it at the exit on the way towards the tables. I had my first meal in the university restaurant of Paris VII, since that is very near L”institut du Monde Arabe - Cuvier - Jussieu, 8 bis Rue Cuvier, 75005. Yesterday I had a meal in the restaurant right next to where I live now - Metro Port Royal. That was particularly good because the pizzaria is on the third floor and its big windows overlook the fountain de l’observatoire et blv. St. Michel.
Tonight I am going to see La Boheme - a opera in Opera de Bastille. Cupa gives us four tickets for performances per semester. I already went to see Le malade imaginaire in La Comedie Francaise and that was an ecellent show. That is really an amazing opportunity to discover cultural life in Paris since the tickets are rather expensive and I don’t think I would have managed to set the necessary sum appart to go see this.