La premiere semaine des cours

Salut! I am almost finished with my first week of classes, well most of them anyway (the others don't start until October - see below for details) and the week has gone by pretty smoothly with only one glitch. First off, I am getting the internet set up in my apartment (I hesitate to call it an apartment since its really more of a large room) tomorrow, and I am so excited! I will feel so much more connected! Currently I am writing this post at the school.
When I was housed through the school, I decided to live immediately outside of Paris since the rent was considerably cheaper, but I am still on the merto and my commute is only about 25 - 30 minutes. However, yesterday as I was getting everything ready for my carte de sejour (like a green card) appointment I read in the pamphlet that if I live outside of Paris, I have to do my carte de sejour on my own! This was extremely upsetting since I was not told when I was housed that I would have to do this. The carte de sejour process is difficult because it is essentially the French bureaucracy at its best, and the French can't even figure it out, how am I supposed to?! I went to the carte de sejour people office at the school to see if they could help and they were no help at all. Afterwards I went to the housing office to let them know that they need to make sure to tell students if they choose to live outside the city they have to do it on their own. Had I known I would have taken it into consideration, but I don't know that it would have changed my decision, it just would have been nice to know ahead of time so I could have started the process last week since it will now take twice as long. They were extremely apologetic and tried to help me, but I am probably going to have to find another student who has done it and ask them.
Other than that however, everything else is fine. My classes are going well and are really interesting. Also the French component of my program has changed. When I arrived I had the choice to continue with the plan of doing the second masters at the Insitut Cahtolique as originally planned, or do it at the Sorbonne. The catch is that the program through the Sorbonne is not yet finalized so at the end I may end up with a masters from them, or I may get a certificat. Regardless of which I choose I will still get my MA from the American University. I decided to go to the Sorbonne for many reasons. The most important is that while the Insitut Catholique used to be one of the best schools for International Relations study, it it losing a lot of credibility recently because of the Catholic church's return to conservatism under the new Pope. Also, the Sorbonne is better recognized, so regardless of whether or not I recieve a Master or a certificat, it is more widely recognized throughout the EU, UK and US so that it would hold more significance that a Master from a school no one has heard of. And finally, the most important thing is that I get my MA from the American University, which I will regardless of which school I choose.
Sorry for the long post, but this is the first time I have really been able to sit down and write about all the new developments since I got here. I think I've covered just about everything. Hopefully when I get the internet I will be able to post some of the pictures I have taken. Most are from my recent excursion to the Louvre... which didn't last very long as it was free museum day and everyone and their neighbor was there and it was impossibly frustrating, but I did manage to see my favorite things, and some more (I got to see a mini Easter Island Head!!! I never knew they had one there!)
Hope everyone is well!