getting situated

Today I felt accomplished. I opened a french bank account here and I got renters insurance, I also am going to sign my lease tomorrow morning and then after that I will only need to get a cell phone and I will be fully equipped with the 'necessities' of life in France. The weather today and yesterday was hot and pouring; and when I say pouring I mean like intense huge drops of rain. I don't remember if i wrote about this yet but I took my placement test yesterday too. This test determines what level of PLP im in for the month and then i take another one after to determine my place for actual classes. The written part was kind of difficult but I did well with the oral, so overall i was proud of myself. :) Today we got a tour of a dance company and watched the dancers practice. It was really interesting. There are so many little differences between the states and france that I have picked up on the main thing that i love so far is the dining experience. Here, in France, when people sit at a cafe they sit for hours and watch the passerby. The server doesn't get mad when they sit for so long because that is expected. They don't expect turnover and you can sit and chat or drink as long as you want. On the other hand though they are so quiet. We seem to be so much more verbally expressive and well....loud. My favorite experience so far though was that I went with a friend for her to get her nose pierced and none of the people spoke english so we had to speak french. ha, well let me tell you, it was so comical because it turned out to be a long game of charades. Given i knew the context of everything it was fairly easy to understand but speaking back was funny. But she ended up getting it and all is well. Tomorrow is a group meal which should be fun and other than that we have all the time in the world to explore until monday. :)