It has been a really fun last couple of weeks (and I promise to update this weekly-- I just forgot last week), and I've been feeling very on top of school as well as French so that's all fantastic.
I got my grades back from last semester: 4 A's, 1 A-, and 1 B. I was expecting the one class (France au Feminin) to be a B but was slightly concerned it would turn into a C. Luckily that didn't happen. I'm very satisfied with how last semester turned out academically and hope to get the same type of grades this semester. I've finally formed some opinions about my current classes, so I'll update about those a bit. My internship class is very interesting, and I really love learning about French work laws. For example, a full time job is working 35 hours/ week and their minimum wage is about 9.50 euros/ hour. On top of all that, every worker starts out with 5 weeks of paid vacation!!
My conversation class is a lot of fun. The first half is the student's presenting an article of their choice and then discussing the article after the presentation. The second half is learning about a specific topic (such as food or education) and learning important vocabulary, as well as useful phrases that one can use when talking about any of these topics. The class has virtually no writing, which is a nice break from all my other classes.
My integrated class, History of Wine in the Languedoc region, is kind of interesting, but so far we've been getting a lot of lists of wine and the region where they come from. I guess the geography aspect of the class does not particularly interest me. On the other hand, I do enjoy learning about the connotations of wine in various centuries, and the many types of consumers there have been throughout history.
My French Mosaique (culture) class has been very interesting. We've been focusing on immigrants in France, and what defines being "French". There is a lot of debate going on right now in France about what constitutes being a French citizen. It's one of the major issues being discussed in French politics, specifically presidential debates, right now. On a side note, I am lucky enough to be here during an election year, and will get to experience the elections as they happen at the end of April.
The art history class is a lot of fun, and probably my favorite class. Half the class is spent in a lecture hall learning about a certain point in art history, and the second half is walking around the museum to see examples of art from the era. It's taught by guest lecturers each week, so it's always a nice change of pace, and we get to go on 4 excursions for the class during normal class time, so that should be fun. We just went to the Paul Valery museum in Sete last Thursday, which I will admit was not the most interesting museum, but it was still enjoyable. So that's all I have to update about as far as classes are concerned! Oh, I also start my internship tomorrow. I will be working at an "Ecole maternelle" (kind of like a preschool and kindergarten), with children aged 3-7. I will be teaching simple English, such as colors, body parts, counting to 10, etc. Tomorrow I'm just introducing myself and teaching them a song (which will be the itsy bitsy spider) with actions.
France is having one of their two national sales right now, and it's a dangerous game. I'm tempted to pretty much buy out every store I see, but I've limited myself to a new purse, a few new shirts and a pair of shoes. That doesn't sound particularly limiting somehow... :). A few friends and I went to the zoo last weekend, and it was absolutely gorgeous. First of all, it's been an average of 55 degrees and sunny every day for the past couple weeks, which my host parents told me was very unusual for Montpellier. I guess it's just been an unusual year weather-wise all around the world. Anyway, the zoo here is absolutely beautiful. It's in a huge park with tons of trees, so it feels like you're just walking through a forest and suddenly stumble upon giraffes or lions. We were there for about 3 hours and couldn't make it through the whole thing because of all the walking, so we're going back sometime later in the semester. The conversation hour at the Vert Anglais has been fun as usual, and I've met a couple new French people this semester who are really great. I could really get used to this 3-day weekend thing. On Thursday night, Darren, Casey and I had a movie night at Darren's house which really just turned into us talking for 6 hours and falling asleep to a movie after that. It was a really good night-- we hadn't hung out just us three for a long time. Friday night was relaxing and I just spent the night at my host family's house. Saturday, I went to my friend Andre's apartment and hung out with a few people over there for the night which was really nice. There were a few people who I hadn't seen for a while over there. I realize that I have made friends from all over the world here and feel so lucky! In the groups of people I hang out with, there are often French, Hungarian, Polish, British and American people, and French is our common language, so it's really great practicing my French in an informal environment like that.
That is pretty much it for now! Today I'm going to do a little homework, watch a lot or some random tv show, and skype with Sam and my parents.
I got my grades back from last semester: 4 A's, 1 A-, and 1 B. I was expecting the one class (France au Feminin) to be a B but was slightly concerned it would turn into a C. Luckily that didn't happen. I'm very satisfied with how last semester turned out academically and hope to get the same type of grades this semester. I've finally formed some opinions about my current classes, so I'll update about those a bit. My internship class is very interesting, and I really love learning about French work laws. For example, a full time job is working 35 hours/ week and their minimum wage is about 9.50 euros/ hour. On top of all that, every worker starts out with 5 weeks of paid vacation!!
My conversation class is a lot of fun. The first half is the student's presenting an article of their choice and then discussing the article after the presentation. The second half is learning about a specific topic (such as food or education) and learning important vocabulary, as well as useful phrases that one can use when talking about any of these topics. The class has virtually no writing, which is a nice break from all my other classes.
My integrated class, History of Wine in the Languedoc region, is kind of interesting, but so far we've been getting a lot of lists of wine and the region where they come from. I guess the geography aspect of the class does not particularly interest me. On the other hand, I do enjoy learning about the connotations of wine in various centuries, and the many types of consumers there have been throughout history.
My French Mosaique (culture) class has been very interesting. We've been focusing on immigrants in France, and what defines being "French". There is a lot of debate going on right now in France about what constitutes being a French citizen. It's one of the major issues being discussed in French politics, specifically presidential debates, right now. On a side note, I am lucky enough to be here during an election year, and will get to experience the elections as they happen at the end of April.
The art history class is a lot of fun, and probably my favorite class. Half the class is spent in a lecture hall learning about a certain point in art history, and the second half is walking around the museum to see examples of art from the era. It's taught by guest lecturers each week, so it's always a nice change of pace, and we get to go on 4 excursions for the class during normal class time, so that should be fun. We just went to the Paul Valery museum in Sete last Thursday, which I will admit was not the most interesting museum, but it was still enjoyable. So that's all I have to update about as far as classes are concerned! Oh, I also start my internship tomorrow. I will be working at an "Ecole maternelle" (kind of like a preschool and kindergarten), with children aged 3-7. I will be teaching simple English, such as colors, body parts, counting to 10, etc. Tomorrow I'm just introducing myself and teaching them a song (which will be the itsy bitsy spider) with actions.
France is having one of their two national sales right now, and it's a dangerous game. I'm tempted to pretty much buy out every store I see, but I've limited myself to a new purse, a few new shirts and a pair of shoes. That doesn't sound particularly limiting somehow... :). A few friends and I went to the zoo last weekend, and it was absolutely gorgeous. First of all, it's been an average of 55 degrees and sunny every day for the past couple weeks, which my host parents told me was very unusual for Montpellier. I guess it's just been an unusual year weather-wise all around the world. Anyway, the zoo here is absolutely beautiful. It's in a huge park with tons of trees, so it feels like you're just walking through a forest and suddenly stumble upon giraffes or lions. We were there for about 3 hours and couldn't make it through the whole thing because of all the walking, so we're going back sometime later in the semester. The conversation hour at the Vert Anglais has been fun as usual, and I've met a couple new French people this semester who are really great. I could really get used to this 3-day weekend thing. On Thursday night, Darren, Casey and I had a movie night at Darren's house which really just turned into us talking for 6 hours and falling asleep to a movie after that. It was a really good night-- we hadn't hung out just us three for a long time. Friday night was relaxing and I just spent the night at my host family's house. Saturday, I went to my friend Andre's apartment and hung out with a few people over there for the night which was really nice. There were a few people who I hadn't seen for a while over there. I realize that I have made friends from all over the world here and feel so lucky! In the groups of people I hang out with, there are often French, Hungarian, Polish, British and American people, and French is our common language, so it's really great practicing my French in an informal environment like that.
That is pretty much it for now! Today I'm going to do a little homework, watch a lot or some random tv show, and skype with Sam and my parents.
