3 Hour Course Registration - Hr 3

After selecting my courses, I faced the cork board of papers once again. This time it made sense and I easily mapped out each course by day and time. Thank Heaven Above nothing conflicted! The courses that I really wanted fit perfectly with the courses I was forced to take. Now, to consult my guru about professor reputations. I called Angel to the board and asked her about my selections. She assured me that Mme. Bouchet for 'theatre to make you laugh' would be entertaining, Professor Pascal for 'love poetry' and 'poetry and mythology' was known for being the nicest in the department, Gaillard who is 'adorable' would be teaching me stylistics, Dottin was used to foreigners and would be a good professor for my course on Salome.....I did not have any professors with awful reputations. 
Angel and two of her colleagues helped me fill out the official registration document. Before leading me out of the office Post-Grad Angel assured me she'd be more than happy to help if I needed to return for anything.


"Now you must go register in person for Latin and for English," Angel's colleague told me as we walked down the corridor. "Huh?" "Yes. It's lunch time now, but their office opens in a demi-heure. Just go and register for Latin and then go to the other building and register for English. Understand?" No, I did not understand. I just registered for my courses. I knew it was lunch time, and no one messes with French lunch time, so I just shook my head in understanding, thanked Angel's colleague, and trotted off as if I knew exactly where I was going.

One demi-heure later I found myself in the registration office of the classics department in an annoying dilemma. "You've never had Latin before?! Oh la la. You are signed up for 3rd year Latin. You should be in 1st year Latin but at level License 3 the only thing I can offer you is 2nd year Latin."
"Can I please have 1st year Latin? I'm going to fail 2nd year since I've never had it before...."
"It seems that way yes, but perhaps you can catch up or something. I can only offer you 2nd year Latin because you are License 3. Don't worry. Just show up the first day and explain to the prof that you need to catch up and that you know nothing. Don't worry." With this final reminder of not to worry, the ray of sunshine in the classics department shooed me out of her office and shut the door. I wanted to stage a sit in and demand 1st year Latin. I didn't. I swallowed my frustration and fear of Latin failure and went to find the Language Department so I could register for English Language.

Again, a dilemma..."Oh, you don't have your carte d'identite because the computers are down at the main registration office.... well you need your student ID number.... I guess you'll have to go online back at your apartment and try to register for English." "But I don't understand how...." "Oh it's very simple, just go to this super long address written on the board there and type in all these codes for the formation and the course and the time slot and then just hit submit. Voila."             "I'm going to screw this up..."        "Nah. Have a nice day! Bye now!"........ I wanted to harm the french techie 'helping' me register for English. Instead I opted to leave the office, hop on the metro, and call it a day.
Three hours of registration and I still have to go back tomorrow to tell Post-Grad Angel that I am now in 2nd year Latin instead of 3rd year Latin so that my paperwork will be correct for first day of classes....no worries....c'est la vie... cheese and a croissant will make me happy again.
-Tam in Toulouse