April 22

Well, the journey is almost over.

I just got back from taking my Grandma through Paris, Rome, and Naples. We were lucky enough to be flying over the Alps on a cloudless day, so we had a nice view. She took a ridiculous amount of pictures which I may or may not post later.

I'm almost all packed and ready to go. Tomorrow I fly to Dublin, and Thursday morning I fly home. I'll drag in around 3:30 in the afternoon.

I can't really imagine what it will be like, but I'm ready.

March 27 2008

I'll be coming home April 24th.

While walking to the library today I loudly sang the Star Spangled Banner.

March 23 2008

I've been on a pretty regular schedule. I've gotten in plenty of work on SchoolisHard, banjo, and my life in general. I think I have a pretty good idea about my plans for the next 4-5 years, but I can't be completely certain until I know how many credits I am going to get from France.

I went to a nightclub last night and had a pretty boring time. I met 4-5 of the people who worked there at another club a week ago. They were so busy working that I couldn't really talk, and even when I could the music was so loud I had difficulty understanding them.

My Grandma will be here in less than 3 weeks. She is in China at the moment, so I hope she is ready for some heavy walking when she gets here.

March 21 2008

How about some updates?

• I quit going to class about 3.5 weeks ago. I just wasn't getting anything out of the courses. The French kids talked the entire time. Also, to get credit I was going to have to produce 2 college level French research papers. I think not!
• I have been going out more since Laura left and have made some new acquaintances. It is difficult to be here by myself, but I shouldn't be here too much longer.
• I've started eating healthier since I am by myself and I am on a bit more of a schedule, too.
• I will probably go to Mexico for a week or two before going back home.
• My Grandma is coming in less than a month for us do to some Europe traveling. It should be fun.

I guess there isn't a whole lot going on, I just hadn't posted in a while. All France is for me is a United States that doesn't have a Waffle House, where nothing is open 24 hours a day, and everything is 1.5x more expensive.

It's kind of hard to get a cultural experience in a country that is 90% the same as your own.

"Study abroad" in the post-20th century world is nowhere near as beneficial as people claim. In the 70's, 80's, even the 90's I understand why people lauded it as they did, but the world is becoming too homogeneous now to justify the expense and time required to go abroad.

February 9th

This semester is crazy. The French have an ape-designed registration system, so I spent the better part of 3 weeks just trying to figure out where classes are.

For International Organizations I finally just had to concede defeat! Even the department secretary didn't know where the class was. After going to the classroom where she said it would be and waiting for an hour and 45 minutes, some students started trickling in. 30 minutes later a FRENCH LAW PROFESSOR walks in and starts talking about the French Penal system. I was in Penology II! Quite miffed, I quietly crept out the back.

For my French Revolution class, I had high hopes. Finding the room was no problem and the class seemed sufficiently large until I went to my first Travaux Dirige class. This is basically the French equivalent of a "lab". I expected to get some further reinforcement from the professor, but instead he called a STUDENT up to give a 45 MINUTE presentation on the reasons for the French revolution. After this student finished he talked for maybe 5 minutes. He then proceeded to call ANOTHER student to talk about Robespierre for another 45 minutes. WHAT THE HELL? Let me remind you, these are UNDERGRADUATE students less than a month into the semester giving doctoral level presentations.

Needless to say, I dropped this class.

Speaking of how I dropped these two classes...I simply quit going. The French administration system is a crock of horse shit. All of the employees sit around urging the second hand to dance a little faster so they can go to lunch or go home.

Every time I have tried to get help, I have been referred to somebody else. Hell, even when I had a meeting with a professor the dude didn't even show up. In French they call these meetings permanences. Permanent my ass! I'm sick of waiting for these people every time they tell me they will be somewhere and show up late or not at all.

I have another meeting this Monday at 12 with my Roman History professor. By God, he better be there. I really refuse to put up with any more irresponsibility from adults.

My other class is History of Brittany, which I really like. My teacher is the only one who asked at the beginning if there were any exchange students. I can tell that he articulates more than usual sometimes to help me out.

Laura leaves March 12th for Wales.

5 months

I'm nearing my fifth month in this country and I've gotta say...I don't really like France all that much.

All of these lustrous study abroad experiences people keep telling me about just don't exist here. Everything is expensive, half the people I try to talk to refuse, and I receive no help. When you go to a country you would expect to get a little bit more than an email every 2 months...

I have no help in finding where to sign up for my courses. As much of an independent spirit as I have, I'd rather have some help. I didn't sign up for a year of boot camp, I signed up for a year of study abroad.

Laura leaves in less than 2 months and then I'll be here by myself until June. It might actually be better because I'll be less concerned about keeping her company.

Tech is being sketchy about my credits, and if I didn't have a deposit on an apartment here I probably would've come home after Christmas. It just doesn't make sense to stay here if none of my classes are going to transfer, but I am afraid that is the way it is going to be.

To keep myself occupied, I have been working on a website for college students.

I speak French comfortably enough that I no longer really study. (I'm currently on Book 3 of Harry Potter in French.)

I'll figure all this out by myself, but these people just don't know how to take care of business.