Encore deux semaines

Courses

I am planning to take three courses this semester, plus an internship for credit. Two of my courses are Sweet Briar courses, meaning they are taught by French professors at the Sweet Briar program office (which is in the Alliance Française building in the 6ème arrondisement. The other course is at Paris III, one of the public universities.

My first class is Atelier d'écriture — a grammar class, but the best one I've ever taken — and the History of Paris through its monuments, which is divided into one classroom session and one visit to a Parisian historical monument each week. I also have started taking a third SBC course about France and Europe since 1945, which is a backup political science class in case the French university goes on strike.

At Paris III, I'm hoping to take l'Europe et ses nations, 1914-1945, which is basically the same class as I'm taking at SBC, except it covers the two world wars instead of the postwar period. I had my first class Tuesday, which was extremely intimidating because a) it was my first time in a room full of 20-year-old French kids and b) they changed the meeting day of the class without telling us, so another SBC student and I missed the first class. It turned out that the professor was very nice and used to having lots of international students, so he is fairly accomodating and often explains vocabulary words by giving synonyms... even when the vocab terms are laughably easy for anglophones (e.g. he defined the word rudimentary).

The class was quite large, and many kids kept talking through the beginning of the class. The professor actually had to tell people to be quiet multiple times. This reinforces my general impression that French kids get babied by their parents even as teenagers and 20-somethings, so when they get to class, they continue to behave immaturely. At one point, Prof Delauney explained how Americans overreacted to 9/11 because compared with WWI, not that many people died. Welcome to France.

Strikes

For the last couple of weeks, we have been brusquely introduced to the world of national strikes. There was a strike Thursday that affected public transportation (although it didn't really have any effect on me). More significantly, on Monday a national coalition of university professors voted to call for a "grève illimitée" (unlimited strike) throughout the country. I nonetheless had my first Paris III class Tuesday, but we're still not sure if the class will be disrupted, requiring me to take a third Sweet Briar course.

Historical Places

Of course, being in Paris I have had the opportunity to visit a number of very cool historical areas, mostly with my Sweet Briar history professor, M. Peigné. During orientation, we visited Île de la Cité (the larger of the two islands in the middle of the Seine, upon which the city of Paris was founded). On the Île de la Cité are located the infamous and ultra-gorgeous Notre Dame de Paris as well as the fantastically stained-glass-ornamented Sainte-Chappelle. We also visited the Basilique Saint-Dénis, where are buried almost every French king since Clovis I (who ruled around the year 500). Partly because it's in the poorer area of St. Dénis (originally a separate city, now a banlieue/suburb of Paris), the church is in need of some restoration, but it's still awesome.

I've also visited two châteaux, Versailles (just southwest of Paris) and Vincennes (on the eastern edge of the city). Versailles is a grand palace, with huge gardens that I avoided due to extremely inclement weather. Vincennes is a medieval castle, a true military castle with a moat and drawbridge and keep and everything. It was the first castle I've ever been to, so it was really cool to see.

Also of note is the weather. Winter is in full effect here, and M. Peigné's visits, while engaging, informative, etc. are also mostly outdoors. I guess eventually I'll get used to spending 2 hours in the freezing cold...

Of Montreal and Casio Kids

So Janet, who excels in organizing activities, found out a while ago that Of Montreal was coming to Paris. Since they are American and we are too, we obviously went. It was a great time, surrounded by jumping French high school girls. The opening band, Casio Kids, was awesome too, and I had a nice little chat with one of the members after the show - nice guy. They're from Norway, but fortunately Norwegians all speak English! Check them out:


Teaching English

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to be an English teaching assistant at St. Jean de Passy, an all-ages Catholic school a 5 min. métro ride across the Seine from here.