A.B.S.

Ok, so I realized that while I have updated you all on my adventures (which have been wonderful) I have not told you much about the banalities of my school schedule.
This, of course, is not exactly thrilling, but some of you might like to know...

I am taking five classes here: two marketing classes, a french language, a french culture/history and an English class on fairy tales and folklore. All of my classes are in English except for (of course) my French language.

Classes have been going well, although there are still things here I am trying to adjust to. I've told some of you, one of the weirdest things that I've found here is the paradox of the system's disorganized yet strict manner. Let me explain....one example of this is the way that the classroom schedule works. A.B.S. (American Business School, not abs, haha) shares its campus with about 5 other french schools. As a result, we switch classrooms every week (I still don't really understand this). Now, as a foreign student who is just a bit discombobulated by this whole transitioning into another country, culture, and way of life thing, you'd think there'd be a little extra help, someone to hold your hand, a guide, if you will, for these sort of adjustments and oddities. Nope. And that's a big nope. If french students can do it, than so can you. And you better be on time...I don't care if you were wandering around the neighborhood for an hour looking for the class. (The campus has three main buildings around the neighborhood). Oh, and that's another thing: you are allowed two absences in each class before you fail. No excuses. And being late counts as half an absence.
*Gulp*
This is especially nerve-wracking for me since I have a class about half an hour outside of the city every week (oh yeah--there's another campus they use outside of the city)--at 8:30 am. The first week was interesting...I think I left my apartment at about 6:30 in order to take the metro to the train station and try to figure out, in my wonderfully limited french, which train would take me to where I needed to go.

This has definitely been a trip which has helped me to "spread my wings". If American mothers are said to give their kids a little shove out of the nest when the time comes, French moms must fling their children halfway down the tree. "You hit a couple branches on the way down? then learn how to fly so you can avoid them, you idiot"

No really, it's not that bad....but it definitely has been an adventure.

It's also been a challenge adjusting to the new schedule. I have only one or two classes a day here, which is really nice, but they are mostly evening classes (except for the cursed 8:30 class I've already mentioned). Also, my shortest class here is an hour and twenty minutes, while most of them are two and a half or three hours with fifteen minute breaks. I am definitely ready to come home by the time they're done!!!

They have been interesting, however. I think my favorite will be my french history/culture class. My professor is a very eccentric little man with a beret (which he informs us is very NOT french); and although he is originally American likes to consider himself french because of the amount of time he has lived here. There's a lot of reading for the class, but it also has some really fun parts. For example, last week for part of our homework we had to find a marche (the outdoor street markets) and buy and eat any kind of pate. (It wasn't half bad actually). And this week we have to go to the frommagerie (cheese shop) and buy a kind of cheese we've never heard of before (:
Also, we will be getting to go on a lot of excursions with our groups, such as the wall of Paris and the catacombs of the city....I'm pretty excited.

Well, there you go. My wonderful adventures with the french educational system. not quite as exciting as excursions in the city, I know, but there it is. (: