Classes

So now that I have made it through my first week of official French classes I can tell you about them. Like I said before we had to sign up for far more courses than we actually wanted to end up taking but I didn't go to all of them. The university I'm going to is called L'Universite de Provence and specifically I'm attending the branch in Aix-en-Provence. It is also known as the FAC de lettres or just the FAC. Its not that far from my house (maybe a 10 minute walk either through a really pretty park or walking alongside the park). I'm in a bunch of my courses with my friend Amanda and she lives right on my way there so it is perfect.

Monday morning Amanda and I left pretty early because we were scared of getting completly lost. We met our friend Kellsey who had a different class but at the same time. We found the room without a problem and sat outside it until the professor got there. So from 9-12 monday morning I have Creole Literature and Culture. At first I was so scared because its a third year course (meaning the french students are Juniors and are very specialized by that time) but I don't think it will be too bad. I will probably take it pass/fail anyways though. The professor seems really nice and is very easy to understand. Of course there were things I didn't understand but that will get better over time I think. He is rather unorganized with how he presented the material but that is very French I'm told and I can get over it. He basically lectured the entire time and when he came to a word that might be hard to understand or a name he wrote it on the whiteboard (although there was no rhyme or reason as to where he wrote it). Overall that class sounds really good. I loved it because for a lot of that class he talked about how the creole languages developed and I've already learned that so it was really easy.

That afternoon from 3-6 we had our written expression class with all the other program participants. That professor seems really nice. She told us that she has worked with American students so long that he teaching style is very American and that she is very organized.

Tuesday morning from 9-12 I had The history of Religion in France again with Amanda. The professor for that class was a rather young woman. She talked really fast but articulated well so after a while I didn't have too much trouble understanding her. It was a bit difficult understanding all the terminology though. She talked about specific religious things that I know I know the name of in English. I just need to spend some time truly looking up the terms and learning them.

For lunch I went along with one of my friends Nate on his search for food (I brought my lunch that day). We went all the way down this one street and he didnt find what he wanted so we went back to the FAC to go to the Cafeteria. We had passed one earlier and decided to just go back there since we didnt know where the other ones were. I sat down to eat and Nate went to buy food. About 10 minutes after getting there I started to realize something... we were the only two students there. We had walked in on the faculty cafeteria! We finished eating there among the rather inquisitive looks. We might have been able to pass for professors (given how young some of them are) apart from the fact that we were speaking english... In our defense the word Cafeteria was much, much larger than the word for faculty which was right beneath it.

That afternoon from 2-5 I decided to go to a History of the Industrial Revolution class even though I wasnt signed up for it. Again the teacher was really young... he didn't look older than 25. He talked very clearly though and told the international students that there would be a different style of grading for us. He actually made the subject material fairly interesting too. It was funny though, when he drew France on the board to illustrate a point he drew a square. None of us could quite figure it out because France is shaped much more like a hexagon than a square!

Wednesday morning from 9-12 I had the class I was looking forward to most: Language, Culture and Society. The professor had amazing reviews, the class I had heard was amazing and the subject matter really facinated me in general. We got to the room rather early again (there were 4 of us americans in the class) but about 10 minutes into the class we realized it was the wrong one. We were sitting in on a linguistics class that was offered through the same department as the Language, Culture and Society class. Only one of us had looked at the schedule to see where the class was and told all the rest (looking up room numbers is really anoying here) and they happened to look it up wrong. The professor was really nice about it and we found the correct room fairly easily. Walking in with 4 people was a lot better than walking in alone but it was still really embarassing. That professor was really nice about it too though. He started off the lecture talking about how humans are the only species with language even though other species can communicate and he asked us why that was. I had already studied that in a course I took last year so I answered grammar to which he said I was close. I know it may not seem like a bit deal but answering a question voluntarily in France was a big deal for me. After that he handed out a list of languages, dialects and other things and we went around the room saying whether or not they were languages to truly define what a language is. It was really interesting! I absolutly love that class and have already started my reading for it.

That afternoon I went to Comparitive literature: Myths. American invasion... seriousally! I think there were at least 15 people from our program (year and semester students) taking in out of a class of maybe 40 or 50. The professor talks very clearly but is very intimidating. Even the international students are required to present an oral presentation infront of the class which kind of scares all of us. We have to read 3 books by the begining of March and she kept on talking about how hard they were. One of them is written in english (although translated into french) and she advises us that If we can read the original language we should do so. Its not so much a mythology course as I thought it was as it is seeing how different mythical towns are then alluded to directly or indirectly in modern literature. At the moment this is the class Im thinking about dropping because at the moment im taking 17 credits beyond the 2 from the required written expression class.

My last class of the week is Thursday morning from 9-10:30 (It seems so short to have a class that is only an hour and a half long!) It was language and the brain and I was really looking forward to this class too. Unfortunatly the professor never showed up. Ive heard that is very normal in France and especially in southern france where the culture is very "just go with the flow". Professors will post things like that either online in some obsure place, on a bullitin board which is not necessarily anywhere near the classroom or not at all. I really didnt mind too much... its culture. I actually dont even know if I will be allowed to take this course or not because it actually counts for a class I will need to take for communicative disorders but they are scared it will not cover the same amount of course material because it only meets for 1.5 hours every week. I guess we will see!

Overall I am a lot less worried for my classes, and hopefully it stays that way! I will never, ever, in my entire life complain about a power lecture again. An hour 15 is nothing compared to here! 3 hour classes! Luckly they give us a break in the middle for about 20 minutes but still its a long time to sit and listen especially when you have to pay super attention to what they are saying. My professors arn't too difficult to understand so that is good but its still difficult to listen to french for that long.

Well, tomorrow I'm going to climb Mt. Staint Victoire which is a mountain fairly close to Aix with a group made up of people from all over so that should be fun!

My computer still isn't working (Dell decided to send the new hard drive without Vista) so I may be without my computer for quite a bit longer :(

Well I'm off to enjoy the wonderful 50 F weather we are having!!!!

Bre