First Week Complete

\My first week of real classes has officially come to an end. Every day for four hours (usually from 8:30 to 12:30) I am in a class of about 13 students and we work on french grammar and conversation skills. Needless to say, by the end of each session, my brain is completely exhausted. My teacher is really nice and is fortunately extremely patient with all of us. He also said that he studied in Pennsylvania for a year which means he can help me translate words that I don't know or can't understand. This gives me a big advantage over the other people because being an american makes me very unique. 8 very large men from Iraq make up the majority of the class, as well a girl from Nigeria, a girl from Brazil, a guy from Italy, and a guy from Saudi Arabia. Now, I have always considered myself to be a pale person and have come to terms with this sometimes unpleasant fact. However, I can't say I have ever been so aware of my extreme whiteness until this week.  Between my skin and hair, I am actually glowing in a sea of beautifully tanned faces. This is actually how I have felt in France as a whole. These people for the most part all have lovely dark hair and eyes and tan with little effort. I worked hard to learn French mannerisms so I wouldn't scream tourist, but I have learned the color of my hair takes care of that dream. In fact, I am so pale and so blonde that people don't even think I am American. They automatically assume I am from England because apparently that is the only place these people can think of that would produce such a fair, sunless person. Initially, this of course bothered me because I can't say that British people scream extreme beauty, but ever since Gilbert started saying I looked like Princess Charlene and remembered that my teeth are still white and all firmly resting in my mouth, I have been more okay with this popular assumption.
Tomorrow morning I leave for Geneva and then on Sunday we hop over to Chamonix for an excursion. My host people tell me it is very beautiful so I'm excited to see what its all about. I'm sure there will be many pictures to share when I return.