Just one view of the university and a few of the buildings.
I'm currently battling about 35 mosquito bites, but I'm managing- I'm just so sweet! :)
Classes are going well so far. The scheduling for classes here at UFP are quite different than in the U.S. Students here go to school for three years, and they choose their studies before their first year begins. Every student within their year and division of studies and has the exact same curriculum/classes together. Professors are then able to play around with class times and change them, possibly the day before it meets. Coming from an education system that values structure, this can be a shock. Sometimes professor A will have professor B tell his- professor B's class- that professor A's class is not meeting or class has changed to a different day, but some of professor A's students aren't in professor B's class. You might one or two students show up for the original scheduled time only to find no one there. Frustrating! And I hope that just made sense!
I have only one UPF class- American Civilization. My other classes are "Simpson Core Classes," which include a Tahitian language class, French language class, Polynesian culture class, and geography of French Polynesia. My geography class is in French, but I understood the essentials suprisingly! I'm sure it'll become more difficult as my français est tré limité- my French is very limited!
UPF's student newspaper- Te u'i mata- hosted a soirée last night at Le Meridien, one of Tahiti's gorgeous resorts, and Tumata and I went as she is involved with the organization. It was a a great time!! I met other students and danced. By the way, people my age here love techno; Blaiqe, you'd love it!!
Tumata lost her sandal in the ocean! She was giving me a night tour of the resort since my mom and brother will be staying there when they visit next month, and I just wanted to see the exclusive hotel. As we were about to sit down on the walkway that leads to the famous bungalows, which sit on top of the water and have a glass floor, she began to warn me to not lose my shoes in the ocean and sploop. She stopped mid-sentence because she had taken off her right sandal, and it was lost in the eight feet of water. Perhaps it'll still there be when I stay with my family? Most likely not.
We left about 1 p.m. and headed to her friends' house, which is conveniently located on the beach. I ended up falling asleep as the after-party continued.
You may be wondering how in the world could I have fallen asleep and not joined in at the beach. Well, no one ever told me this but I'm going to tell you.... studying abroad is exhausting. At the end of every day since I arrived, it's a struggle to make it past 10 p. m. Tumata assures me there will be plenty of occasions to spend the night at the beach.
Today we went to Tumata's aunt's house for her 50th birthday. There, I met some family and friends, as well as three extremely cute American Mormons. Daniel has been here only four months, and he already speaks French extremely well. I only hope to be as advanced as that before I leave!
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