Actual Beginning of School

So this week began our actual first week of classes with the regular students. But first, to backtrack...
Sunday was a pretty lazy day. I went over the Liz and Ashley's to do embroidery, but about as soon as I got over there, Ashley wanted to go for a walk. So we walked to Jardin du Lunxembourg, which is a couple of streets away. I hadn't been there before, so I was curious to check it out.
Since it wasn't too cold out, it seemed like everyone in France was out walking. We saw a lot of older folks and lots of young kids running around (I stopped to give one his ball back when it ran into my leg). We walked around this large (I assume man-made) pond, and a bunch of kids were sailing sailboats (and they were running around with those long sticks). Interesting thing, there were chairs grouped together in a lot of places, but no tables. But I definitely want to go back and take lots of pictures, especially on a nice day like that.
We then went back to the room, and did embroidery. I got a few stitches done, and left in the evening. After supper and a shower, I started drawing the 10 skirts and pants that we were required to have for Tuesday.
Monday was our first day of class with the regular students. There are about 8 of them, and they all seem pretty cool so far. We had Sewing II, with Anne taking over since our regular teacher wasn't there. We started making a 19th-century corset! It's based on our own measurements, so we had to first measure our chest, waist and small hips. We were then given a pattern that gave us calculations to do to find the correct width of various parts of each of the pieces (i.e. one of the side panels would say "take 1/5 waist measurement and add 2"-oh yeah, the directions were in French as well). We drafted the pieces and used French curves to curve some of the parts. (I got my curves right on the first try-and this was just looking at a thumbnail sketch-so I was proud of me.) I then spent the rest of the period marking my pieces (all 10 panels) and preparing to sew them together. However in attempting to sew them together, I kept screwing it up. First, I sewed up the back, which we were supposed to leave open. Then I sewed the wrong sides together. Fortunately, class was over before I could screw up my construction even more.
We then went to Art History. Apparently, the class had been doing 20th century art before the break, and so we started learning about the Bauhaus. I liked it, but it just seemed like a recap of what I'd learned, both on my own and in school. I don't think it'll be too hardcore (thank God) because we only have 2 powerpoint projects a semester, where we choose the topic, work in a group and present it in 10 minutes.
After that, the 4 of us needed to go to H&M because we needed to buy a bra for Susan's class (the bra we would embroider in the future). Andrea had been there before, so she led the way. We walked to the Rue de Rivoli location, which entailed walking over the Seine. (Seriously, there are so many good shots I could've gotten. Well, when I have a free moment and when I have a camera with me...)
We got there and I quickly picked out a bra and then browsed around. Ashley wanted to leave early, so I left with her. Once at the apartment, I finished the rest of my skirts/pants drawings and did another embroidery stitch.
This morning, we had textiles with Susan. She first walked around and looked at everyone's stitches. I got verbally reamed for a few things: My stitches were too big, I didn't happen to have one page of the three pages of stitches, and I didn't have time to get supplies (Ashley backed me up here, basically saying that we were doing other stuff for her over the weekend when the shops were open). Here, Susan made a comment about just coming to Paris to be a tourist (ouch)! (Seriously, I just have bad luck with teachers named Susan. I'm glad it doesn't extend to family members.) The whole rest of the class, she was teaching me how to redo some of my stitches. (It was interesting to hear her talk to the others about their stitches. High praise from her seems to be, "You follow directions really well". And here I was, thinking that art was all about experimentation! I'm so glad to be set straight. I defend my too-large stitches on the basis of spirit of the law vs. letter of the law: I used it as a guideline, not something I absolutely had to adhere to.)
When we came back from lunch, Susan looked at our historical research files that we'll use for the bra and dress. I was really worried that she wouldn't like mine (seeing as she hadn't liked anything of mine before), but she really liked it! I wanted to do a more abstract motif for my bra, and she suggested I do some more research (possibly of rococo motifs). As she continued walking around, I realized that she had wanted us to do our 10 pants/skirts sketches in the vein of our research. Well, I certainly hadn't done that, so I quick doodled some stuff. (Basically, I just pulled it out of thin air, and they all looked really similar.) I was getting pretty cheeky: some of my last sketches featured pants and skirts that had wrap-around arms/hands (fashion designer/Surrealist collaborator Schiaparelli did this too, it was an homage to her) that was pulling down the front of the pants and unzipping the back of skirt. (I seriously get way too amused with what I do.) The thing was, Susan liked what I was going for. I wanted to do a pair of pants (since I hadn't done one before), and so we decided that I should do a pair of mens' tailored trousers that are classic in the front, and then have 2 female hands grabbing the butt in the back. I'm amused.
(I'm just a bit concerned about the work load for that class. For next week, we have 30 rough sketches due, 10 each of the Cannes dress, disco dress and embassy cocktail dress, as well as 5 embroidery samples. I think I'm going to try to get more credit for this.)
After that, I went to French class, since I'm the only 1 of us 4 who's not in Level 1. (Mystery solved: I'm in Level 3, the highest one. I saw that when I signed in on the sheet at the beginning of class. Also, I have Nolwenn-I really like her, she's a great teacher-and she teaches Level 3. But I have no idea why I have the Level 2 workbook, even though Ana got that one too...) In class, we watched a clip from Francois Truffaut's Jules et Jim (which was great, since I've been interested in checking out some classic French cinema), where Jeanne Moreau sings "La troubillon de ma vie", apparently a very famous song. We had to do an exercise that involved filling in blanks of the lyrics on paper while listening to it (which I kind of sucked at, since I've never been good at remembering/translating stuff I hear), and then discussed its' meaning. Then we did some excercises dealing the imparfait and the passe compose tenses, which was a good review. (I'm a little intimidated by my 4 other classmates in that class, since they all seem to speak easily, quickly and with a convincing accent. It does motivate me to step up my game, however.) Nolwenn spoke only in French the entire time, and I understood just about everything. I'm at the point where I can understand what's being said (or at least tell within context), but it takes me a few to come up with/formulate an answer.
After that, Ashley and I planned to do laundry, but it got pushed back to tomorrow night, probably after we 4 go get supplies after French 1 is over. Tomorrow, my school day ends at noon, but I figure I'll go to Monoprix, since I am desperately in need of some food.