Ai.

For the first time since I left for France, I feel really overwhelmed and slightly homesick. I guess it makes sense now that I've been in Aix-en-Provence for a week now, so I've gotten over the novelty of going grocery shopping every other day at the local market which involves a good 2 to 3-hour block due to the walk into the center of town. I went to "La Fac" today, which is short for "La Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines", the Université de Provence à Aix, where I will be a student starting next Monday.
Because the website for La Fac is completely disorganized, outdated, and impossible to navigate even if you speak French, it is necessary to go to the building and visit each and every department office in person to be able to figure out what classes you can take. And, because the offices don't print out copies of their course schedules for some reason, you have to battle the 30 other university students that need to see the single sheet of paper posted on the chipping walls of the hall outside the department office to quickly scribble down the course number, title to help you remember what it is exactly you were interested in in the first place, the room where the class meets, and the day/time of the week it meets. For every class. For every department that might interest you so you can make a potential schedule. La Fac is a humongous and badly designed. It has all sorts of branched-out parts that were just stuck on as the building expanded, and some stairs don't lead to certain floors. Basically it's crap. It's 6 floors + a rez-de-chaussée, so basically 7 stories of departments and then some departments are not actually in this building. They're in the MMSH. But no one will actually tell you what MMSH stands for, and it's not actually near the rest of the university. Also, some of the departments haven't prepared the lists yet, so you might show up at the department and not have any information there. They say they might be ready by Wednesday. So then you'll have 2 days in which you can call the registrar to ask questions about any concerns that remain because the offices will close over the weekend. Oh, and the offices are only open from 9:00-11:00. Oh, and by the way classes start on Monday. You don't know what classes you're taking? Oh, you should go to the website to check your options out...HOLYYYY HELLLLL and it starts all over again.
This is why there is no way in hell that I am taking up Steph's incredibly awesome suggestion to go to the Cote d'Azur with her and like 5 other girls to stay for a few nights. I would just explode with stress. Also, as I always do in any new place, I seem to be nervous that I'll tire myself out. So instead, I decide it would be better to let myself rest and relax. Then I miraculously have more than enough time to sit around and be around. I need someone to come over from the U.S. in a boat and give me a good old tough love talk so I get out of this funk. Grr. Because no one should be sad or upset when they get to walk down this street every day to buy groceries.