Printemps

It would appear that spring has come for good. After a week of glorious, sunny, warm weather I find myself being mostly happy with where I am and what I'm doing, even if it gets a little boring sometimes. But the good news is that I joined a gym, and so I'm hoping that my health will blossom along with the camellias and forsythia. I'm planning on trying out a yoga class this afternoon (at least I think that's what it is--they have enigmatic names for their classes here: Bodybalance is the one I think is yoga). If it is yoga I will be one happy Ashevillain. I realize that I've gotten spoiled with things like that--my home university has 3 free yoga classes a week not to mention yoga classes that you can enroll for (and Tai Chi and meditation and...).

I've been doing yoga more or less consistantly since I was 13, so naturally I miss it when it's not there. Granted, you can do yoga alone and in pretty much any space, but I find that when I do it in my room I get distracted easily. It helps to be in a studio where's there's nothing to compete with the poses for attention. There's also something therapeutic about doing yoga with other people--you feel more energized for some reason.

It's about time for me to register for classes for next semester. I can't believe it: I'll be a senior! Thank goodness the enrollment system is simpler for my home university than it is here. Online registration is something I took for granted until I came here and had to deal with paperwork. If you've ever seen L'auberge espagnol (The Spanish Apartment in English), the opening scene shows this guy in a gigantic office building running from office to office trying to figure out where to go to get information about such and such a dossier or such and such a form. The scene is in fast-forward motion, and it's pretty disorienting, probably to highlight the difficulties of French bureaucracy. Well, that scene is not an exaggeration, as I have come to find out. Signing up for courses here was a little what I imagine running a marathon to be like, and I'm not entirely convinced that, even though I've filled out all the paperwork and turned in the forms, I am indeed officially registered for anything. I would not be surprised if, at the end of my semester, they told me that they'd lost the forms and that I am not on the record as having taken any classes. Hopefully that won't happen because that, my friends, would be the day of my nervous breakdown.

But we'll not think of that right now. After all, it is a glorious day.