May 26th and 27th: Classe

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Following the beginning of classes on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday and Thursday have been filled with class and pretty much nothing else.

On Wednesday, we had our first French lessons. I am in the "total beginners" French, obviously. Our teacher is a complete nut. He switches in and out of French so frequently, and he talks so fast! Most of the time he'll just start talking in French, and then point at someone. Naturally, whoever it is just stares at him until he clarifies what he wants (which is usually to repeat what he just said). He doesn't really seem to have a solid plan for what he wants to do, but French class has been the class I'm enjoying the most so far, so it's okay. I am learning bits and pieces, and the classes are interesting, so it's a good time. The only problem is that the classes are at 8:30a, but it's only twice a week so I'll survive.

Following French, from 10a-12p we have Project Management with a very classy professor from New Zealand named David Hewson. The classes are two hours, so they're tough to sit through, but he has very interesting digressions that he randomly inserts into his lectures. For example, he started telling us all about his passion for cheese, especially French cheese, the other day. He also loves wine and coaches the rugby team here. On a side note, it was France vs. France in the European Rugby Championship last week, so they're pretty good here. He's been in France for 10 years, and his field is Biomedical Engineering. He tells us a lot about his projects and he's a really, really smart guy, so he's a lot of fun to listen to. The class itself is kind of boring, and since it's summer and we're in France, that doesn't help. We have to do a project, write a team report of at least 20 pages, write a smaller report of 1-3, and then do a 20 minute presentation and take a final exam by the end of these next 5 weeks, so that sucks, but oh well.

From 2p-5p we have a class on French/European history and civilization. 3 hours at any time of the year is incredibly long and grueling, so that class is really hard to be in. I've never actually seen a class where so many legitimately fall asleep, but in this one its commonplace. At least 10 kids will be asleep at a time, just because the class is so long. The material is actually very interesting and the professor is a very nice British man named Bob Whitchurch, so I feel bad, but at the same time, 3 hours? Sheeeeesh! Anyways, we've learned about European history and the history of France so far, and for what I've been awake for, I enjoyed. The class is 3 days a week, too, so that's rough. We also have to do a 20 minute presentation here and take a final exam, so that's more fun for us.

Anyways, that has been my last two days: classes. We have 5 or 6.5 hours of class depending on the day, so weekdays are long. The last week will be tough as I imagine that's when all the projects will be done, but we're in France, so wahoo! We also went to an International Student party last night, but left after an hour or two because of 8:30am class today.

Tomorrow is an 8 hour van ride to Millau for an adventure weekend consisting of canyoning, rock climbing, bungie jumping, and paragliding. I'll be back late Monday night, so expect a very thorough and detailed post about the last 4 days on Tuesday, probably! Until then, bon sua!

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Comments

[dad]

blogmeister
You do a very interesting job of describing of what you consider less than interesting days. This program sounds like such a good blend of classes and activities, all shared with good people. I'm sure the work load will increase as you move forward, but you know that you have the travel weeks at the end, so it will all balance out in the long run. Received a credit card promotion for you that sounds just right for the kind of stidemt starter card that we were discussing. I'll tell you you more about it some other time. Can't wait to hear about your experiences with canyoning, rock climbing, bungie jumping, and paragliding -- I don't think I have ever done any of those so I look forward to your description of your experiences this weekend. Love, Dad