One Week to go! May 15, 2009

Just one week left! This time next week I will be well on my way to Cornwall. I’m sure it will seem like less than a week though as I have several things lined up to do; tomorrow I’m going to town and meeting up with Sonia, we’ll go for a walk round the hortillonages and then in the evening there’s a “night of the museum” event going on which involves a light show in the gardens of the Musée de Picardie and an evening tour around Jules Verne’s house. Sunday will be a day of chilling and then on Monday the packing and cleaning begins, with a short break in the evening to have a farewell dinner with the Cardiff crowd, who I haven’t actually seen since February. Tuesday to Friday will zip by because of mum and Alan being here.

I now know I won’t have any more assessments or classes between now and leaving as well, since the blockades have been voted through again until Monday, and I wouldn’t go to classes even if we had them from Tuesday-Friday for obvious reasons. One of my lecturers emailed me on Wednesday about coming in for an assessment on the 19th, which I replied to saying I couldn’t do but that I could do Thursday, Friday or Monday. I also explained that I was leaving on the 22nd. Well he didn’t reply until today, and suggested an alternative date – the 26th! I honestly don’t know if he just didn’t read my email properly or what, but now we have established that there is no time both of us are available, so there’ll be no assessment for that. I haven’t heard from any of my other lecturers and I doubt very much I will now. Even if I do find an email in my inbox on Monday the reply will be “sorry, too late.” I don’t intend to rush work and I need time to prepare for leaving.

So at this point, I think I can officially call time on my academic year abroad! Next week will just be socialising and packing.

La Rentrée May 4, 2009

Time is ticking by oh so slowly it seems! I am trying to take my time over the things I do and only do one or two things per day to keep myself entertained but already I’m bored. Life is so much more interesting back home! I will go out and socialise a bit this week but for now I’ve got a few bits of work to tat about with. Yesterday I had a lovely long lie in and then spent the afternoon tidying up some loose ends; namely finishing another Spanish grammar test I was sent over the holidays and emailing that off along with the written version of my Pais Vasco presentation. I also emailed my sociolinguistique lecturer to let her know when I’ll be leaving and asked for a final assessment, and I emailed the Forensics department at Keele to chase up the final year project list, which it transpires is being released this week.

Today I let my accommodation staff know the date I’m leaving, and rather handily before I got there I had a note under my door (as did everyone) letting us know what we have to do before we leave, so I didn’t have to ask that. I need to give them back a form with my bank details on so they can transfer me back the remainder of my deposit; when I went to pay this month’s rent they said they would reduce the amount (since I’m leaving before the end of the month) and that rather than pay again they’ll just take it out of my deposit. Other than that I haven’t done much today, just tatted about and went to the AG.

That really wasn’t any different than before the holidays, just perhaps a bit more lively. Numbers were trailing off as people got bored and couldn’t be bothered to come and vote but today it was very busy as it seemed everyone wanted to know what might have changed and what would happen about exams. Some people have done an about turn and are now voting against the blockades because they don’t want exams to be put back to September, but as many people pointed out it’s already too late really, and it won’t change the fact many lecturers are still on strike and several administrative staff have “resigned” so organisation of exams is very unlikely to happen no matter what the result of the blockade votes are. Anyway, today there weren’t enough “no” votes to make a difference. Here’s the motions:

1) Motion to ask lecturers that, in the hypothetical case of exams being scheduled, they only be on material covered in lectures or other notes and that they not take place in July or August – passed by visible majority.

2) Motion put forward by the CNU; to refuse any evaluations of this semester and that no exams of any kind be organised – passed by visible majority.

3) Continuation of strike – passed by visible majority (now entering week 14)

4) Continuation of occupation – passed by visible majority

5) Continuation of blockades – passed by 442 votes to 291 (bringing the total number of teaching days that the campus buildings have been blockaded to 26)

The next AG is on Thursday at 11am but I’m not sure I’ll go to that. I was getting a little bored before Easter of sitting through 2 hours of speeches and debate just to get the results of the voting, although there were a few interesting moments. I can’t see the point in Thursday’s meeting though as Friday is férié and there will be another meeting on Monday if the AG pattern continues.

So there you have it; a rentrée with no lectures! Vive l’université française!

The Finish Line In Sight May 2, 2009

Just as Obama is at the end of the beginning having just finished his first 100 days in office, I’m finding myself at the beginning of the end with just 20 days left of my year abroad! I will be officially checking out of France on Friday 22nd, barring any travel restrictions due to H1N1 flu or port barricades due to strikes! It feels strange to come back to Amiens and not immediately book my next flights home, but the tunnel and hotel are already booked for mum to come over with the car for moving out. Today’s journey back from Exeter went normally with no hitches. I felt more alert than usual this morning but it was still satisfying to know that there will be no more 3am starts for that 6.30am departure from Exeter!

I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing over the next three weeks – well two weeks really since Mum and Alan arrive on Tuesday 19th so for most of that week we will be doing stuff out and about before I have to pack. We may go to Rouen for a day as it’s not far and I stayed there briefly last summer as part of tour with Concert Band, but I’d like to see more of the city. Other than that I will probably just be finishing off my work, skating, maybe take a day or weekend trip to Paris and if Sonia has any money and/or energy left after her mammoth easter holiday travelling we might take another short break to somewhere.

I’m a bit out of touch with the strike situation but as far as I can tell from reports posted online nothing’s changed. I expect there will be an AG on Monday as usual so I can get up to speed. For simplicity’s sake now it would be better for me for the blocades to continue, as otherwise I expect some of my classes would resume although I doubt very much there would be any assessments this month, let alone before I leave. One of my modules was signed off before the Easter holidays, and after I turn in another assignment that’s sat in my email I will get a grade for Spanish grammar. I’m going to write two commentary pieces on plays for my French Literature module and email them off, although I haven’t heard from the lecturer in months. Once I let my Sociolinguistique lecturer know when I’m leaving I expect she’ll send me something to complete by way of assessment, and I’m going to try to get my Spanish presentation emailed to the lecturer for that class. That will only leave Spanish translation, Medieval French, Approche Litteraire du Picard and History of Scientific Ideas with no grades, although for the first two I have grades from last semester.

Here’s to hoping everything runs smoothly over the next few weeks! I have enjoyed this semester more than the first but I’m still excited to have made it and be finishing the year, and I can’t wait to be home for summer proper!

UPJV falling apart – I’m wrapping up the semester! April 6, 2009

The action surrounding the strike is increasing and having deeper repercussions within the university community than ever. There are demonstrations in Amiens and Paris every week; sometimes evening demonstrations through the town. As in most parts of the country where similar things are happening, the peaceful demonstrations are met with violence from police forces; last Wednesday night there were apparently several arrests of students taking part in the demonstration through Amiens; in other parts of the country the CRS (riot police) are effectively barricading universities to stop students taking control, and anti-riot gear such as tear gas is regularly used on peaceful walking demonstrations. This week 75 lecturers and faculty staff at UPJV “symbolically resigned” from their positions, effectively paralysing any administrative work that would still have continued. All Georges Fauré had to say about it was “I hope they change their minds”, or words to that effect. At today’s student AG a motion was passed to no longer recognise him as president of the university and to petition for his dismissal. Here are the tally’s:

1) Continuation of the strike: 34 abstentions, 11 against, passed by visible majority.

2) Continuation of occupation: 70 abstentions, 85 against, passed by visible majority.

3) Continuation of blocages until Thursday 9th: 50 abstentions, 216 against, 465 for.

4) Motion to petition for dismissal of Georges Fauré: 196 abstentions (it seems a lot of people were uneasy about being seen to vote on this!), 57 against, 295 for.

Things are clearly far from improving, and in fact are just getting more and more radical, so I am firmly wrapping up my semester now. I went to the DAI today to give them my list of courses and explain the differences in how much they’d been affected, and they said they had now accepted the situation and were trying to work with lecturers to obtain some form of assessment for us exchange students. I am also emailing the lecturers I was already in contact with to sort out final assessments of whatever kind, and I’ve finally emailed Keele today as I felt the right moment had come. I haven’t recieved a reply yet but no doubt they will take a day or two to mull it over. I really don’t know what the outcome of the strike will be for UPJV but whatever it is, this semester can already be confidently called a write-off.

EDIT: Having picked up my UPJV email this evening I find that the electronic vote has been made available (despite the fact that those present at last week’s AG voted to boycott it) and it seems some people are using it, assuming that the presidence has not entirely fabricated the results. According to the electronic vote, in which the only question asked was “Independantly of your opinion on the opposition movement, are you in favour of the lifting of blocades?”, of the 4,465 registered students at campus, only 772 voted, of which 8 refused to vote, 51 abstained, 479 voted yes and 234 voted no. So from that the blocages would be lifted – however as I wrote earlier, at today’s AG the figures for yes and no were almost reversed! The comité de mobilisation is firmly entrenched in the university now though, and if they consider that the electronic vote is not valid I can’t see how the presidence can get the blocage lifted.

A roundup of the Strike so far… March 10, 2009

I thought I would just write a post about the strike tonight, because I know it has been confusing for us over here so it may well have been hard to follow for anyone not experiencing it as well. On Monday February 2nd, university lecturers walked out and began a general, unlimited strike to protest against the government’s proposed reforms to the higher education system; notably to funding, the position of enseignant-chercheur (teacher-researcher), masterisation/ alteration of courses and the cutting of hundreds of jobs – all of these reforms were to be introduced at the beginning of next academic year in September 2009.

Although some progress has been made the outcome remains unclear. After a couple of weeks when it became clear this was no small strike, the education minister Valérie Pécresse appointed a mediator and began talks with the unions to revise the reforms, but she still insisted that reforms of some kind would go ahead in September. Later it was promised that after 2009’s cuts, no further job cuts would come in 2010 or 2011. Still the strike goes on, because the unions are not happy until the entire bill is thrown out and in particular the government still hasn’t given ground on one or two points of the bill. A recent article from the local press, Le Courrier Picard, included a quote that from past experience of strikes in the education sector, the point of no return for catching up is 5 or 6 weeks. This is week 6 of the strike so far.

At UPJV, views on the strike are divided. There are those lecturers who never went on strike, whose classes have been largely unaffected up until now (unless they happened to fall on a day of general demonstrations or on “dead university day” last Thursday), and who are now trying to set dates for mid-term asssessments and being told by the President of the university that he will not allow any formal assessments to be set until the strike is resolved. The Presidence then is clearly backing the strike, and in particular the Faculté de Lettres is still very actively and almost completely on strike – but others, such as languages and science, are less active and have seen almost no disruption at all. Law was on a total strike to begin with but now apparently they are starting to return to teaching. So while some see the strike as over, others are as vehement as ever that the fight is only just beginning and that the movement must remain strong to have the best effect and not a repeat of last year’s defeat. This coming Thursday there is another national demonstration day and this time the unions have called for the lycées to join them; after all it is this year’s lycée graduates who will be affected by next year’s reforms as much as the staff and current university students.

If the strike ends in the next couple of weeks it will create the most awkward situation for the rest of the semester, I think. This is because there will be just enough time to rush and cram in as much as possible of the missed course material to form a condensed course and take an exam in May, but it will be very pressured and difficult to follow because so much of the peripheral material will have to be left out. If the strike continues for another 3-4 weeks, then it seems likely that the course will still be rushed to catch up and condensed down, but the exams will be pushed back into June. If this happens I am not likely to stick around for them, because it’s an abnormal situation and I will just write them off. The third scenario is that the strike continues right through to the end of semester, or at least to the end of May by which point it will be far too late to catch up on anything. What consequence that has for the permanent students I’m not sure but as far as I’m concerned those modules would just be written off. Right now I am hoping that the strike does continue to the end of May because this would be the simplest situation; that way I can concentrate fully on the modules I do still have (two Spanish, two French, one Science), and write off the others entirely. It’s fortunate that in fact my grades this year don’t matter to my final UK degree; this year is an addition to the normal 3 years and not a replacement. Some people I know, the Americans like Sonia in particular who are here for just this semester, are replacing one of their US semesters with the one here – so the grades they get this year do count for their final degree. What impact that has when they don’t get any because of the strike, I don’t know.

La Neige! January 8, 2009

Well this week has seen the first proper snow in Amiens. This picture was taken on Monday morning when it had just started falling; in the end we had about four times this much snow on the ground and despite sunny days it’s still there and only just starting to melt away, thanks to low temperatures. The lowest was about -11 C but we’re now creeping back up to the plus figures, if only just! The sunshine during the day and people walking on it turned the snow on paths and streets into slush, then the night time lows froze it again so the general effect was a skating rink! Some grit has been thrown down but not enough, and it made walking through town lots of fun, especially on the normally-already-slippy smooth paved streets.

This week has been a non-stop whirlwind of exams; I started revising on Sunday and had 5 exams (totalling 12 hours) over the course of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On the whole I feel they went quite well despite limited revision, one advantage was that usually I had all the material fresh in my mind when I went to the exam. I was particularly pleased with the Techniques d’analyses biochimiques exam because I expected that to be a total disaster, and in fact felt I could answer most of it ok. I hope to have passed them all, I would be surprised if I failed the french or spanish papers because I thought they were quite good. I have not sat my organic chemistry exam because that clashed with a french exam and the tutor for the course hasn’t got back to me about rearranging it yet. To be honest it’s no great loss because I would categorically fail it anyway and I’m unlikely to total 60 credits for the year at any rate, just because there aren’t enough hours in the timetable.

So having finished with exams, and with the timetables for semester two not yet published (and aren’t likely to be until Monday 19th knowing this system as I now do!) I’m off back home tomorrow evening for an extra week of holiday. I have booked a TGV ticket for the first time, so instead of taking the slow train from Amiens to Paris Nord and then the RER to Charles de Gaulle airport, I will be getting a shuttle bus from Amiens to TGV Haute Picardie station, then the TGV which goes directly to the airport. I then just have to switch terminals on the airport shuttle tube. In total the cost is about the same, but rather than taking me 2- 2.5 hours, it will take me 1 hour, and should be more straightforward. So barring snow delays (which look unlikely – touch wood!), I won’t be blogging again for another week.

Bienvenue à 2009…… January 3, 2009

Well I had a good holiday, as I hope everyone else did. I managed to catch up with some friends and get some last-minute shopping in Plymouth before mum and I went up to the midlands to spend christmas with nan & grandad and Alex, then we were back in Cornwall shortly after boxing day and I caught up with dad & Gail, and saw the New Year in at the Heron Inn, Malpas with a live band who did some good covers and got people dancing.

The only gripe I have is that the holiday went too quickly! It may have been the extra travelling in the middle of the holiday but I felt like I’d barely got home and it was time to go again! The 6.30am departure from Exeter was a bit horrendous; it was cold and we all had to get up at about 3am to get there in time. It was even colder when the flight landed in Paris; there was snow on the ground although it was not deep and only in shaded places. I was annoyed when my suitcase came round the baggage carousel because the stupid handlers had broken the last decent handle on it, so now it’s really difficult to carry with one hand when you can’t wheel it – like when you’re going up steps. Also the luggage label had been on that handle and that had got lost. I just missed a direct train to Amiens by 10minutes and had to wait lhr30 for the next, which was slow so I didn’t get back until lunchtime in the end.

I had some lunch, fired up the internet and my radiator, plugged things back in and wrote a shopping list, which I then went and ticked off so I don’t have to go again over the next few days and I can just get on with revision and the exams. I have unpacked too which I always find a bit sad; putting my suitcase(s) away on the shelf above the kitchen cupboard is like closing the door on home for another period of time. This time it may actually only be a week; all my exams are this coming week and then all I have to do is create my timetable for semester two. With a bit of luck I will have Saturday 10th – Saturday 17th free, and with no one else around, or those who are busy with exams, I am very tempted to hop back home for an extra week. As mum rightly pointed out, that’s what the extra student money is for this year.

I have one less thing to think about while living here anyway; mental calculations from euro to pound in order to gauge the value of something. With the two currencies hitting parity at the moment (current rate from www.xe.com is £1 = €1.04), I can pretty much treat them as equal, and no longer have to convert. It also means I’m not “saving” any money anymore, but I do hope the pound doesn’t become worth less than the euro otherwise my finances are going to suffer! When things change gradually it’s easy to forget what things used to be like, but I looked at my travel diary and saw that in July 2008, when mum and I went to Corfu, the exchange rate was £1 = €1.21!

One week to go! December 12, 2008

Well I made it to half of my lectures since Wednesday morning but oh well, sometimes even with the best intentions you just find yourself unable to get out of bed! Anyway I now know for definite that apart from my Spanish exam on Thursday, I have no lectures next week. I’ve got some exam dates for January now as well, and so far no clashes which is good. The rest I’ll have to collect up next week; technically they should be posted on the noticeboards so it shouldn’t be too difficult (famous last words). I find it a bit bizarre than on the one hand the lecturers are stressing about all the material they have to cram in before the exams, and on the other they are happy to let the last week of term pass for an extra holiday! I think they haven’t quite got it worked out yet because from what I’ve gathered, the half term Toussaint and February holidays were only introduced last year, and end of semester exams used to be before Christmas. That’s meant that students have been moaning about having to revise over Christmas which I just find funny because it’s normal for me (not that I usually do that much haha!). I should have about 6 exams in January, so hopefully given that there’s a two week window, I will get away without clashes. And then the fun of building semester 2’s timetable will begin!

But seriously, it does feel like time is racing away, when you consider that the christmas holidays mark pretty much the halfway point of the academic year. Then the second semester is broken up into two 7-week chunks by the february half term just as the autumn semester was by Toussaint; then we’ll be at Easter and after that just a few weeks of revision and final exams.

Anyway I’m off to Paris for the day tomorrow so I will probably post on Sunday with a breakdown of that and hopefully some pretty pictures of their christmas decorations, but apart from that I wouldn’t expect too many posts for the next week because I won’t be doing anything much to write about!

Three busy weeks November 28, 2008

I feel like I’m standing on the top of the hill, looking down towards Christmas and about to start a mad, headlong rush into chaos over the next three weeks! I’m sure it won’t be as dramatic as all that, but where I’ve been complaining of boredom and no work over the last week or so, the next three look to keep me busy enough to make up for it! It starts on Monday really, with a two hour TAB lecture and a 4 hour chemistry lab – when normally I have nothing on a Monday! At some point I’ll have to write up the report for that lab over next week, as well as the other work I’ve been set. Mum has yet to confirm the dates she’s visiting but I’m still hopeful she will come at the end of next week. Then, week 2 arrives and although I don’t have lab that week there will be other work, a birthday party and then a meetup with other Keele students in Paris at the weekend. And before I know it, week 3 will have rolled around with it’s packing preparations, organisations, a final lab session with a report to write and another Spanish exam! Not to mention Christmas shopping…

The Christmas market has set up in Amiens and all along the main street there are rows of little red and white huts. I haven’t been when the market’s open yet; I saw them while walking through town with Marion, Pauline, Anne-Sophie and another friend Marie on Thursday night, but they’d all closed up and there were just a few men with big dogs patrolling up and down. We had eaten at St. Leu RestoU again, and then hung out for a bit at Pauline’s and Marion’s, but they went off to the Millennium nightclub which I decided against because it’s out of town and the earliest shuttle bus back to campus wouldn’t have got there until 3.25am, which I decided was too late even without an 8am lecture! Hopefully another time we will have a get together with drinks at someone’s place and bring the Cardiff group in as well.

I got the results of some more Spanish exams this week too; I got 11/20 for grammar and 8/20 for Version Translation, 9/20 for Theme. I was disappointed with these last two as I expected to do a little better, but in fact the lowest class marks were 1/20 and 2/20 respectively (not necessarily the same person), so I wasn’t the worst! I shouldn’t be too hard on myself either, as after all it’s translation between two foreign languages for me; a position no one else in the class is in, to my knowledge.

Tomorrow brings shopping and possibly an ice hockey match to watch in the evening, and Sunday brings preparation for lab on Monday, as I practically have to translate the lab script. I will be going skating again this weekend as well although I haven’t decided which day yet. The forecast is hinting at snow again, and it’s certainly been very cold this week so I will wait to see what happens. Perhaps I will get some good pictures this weekend where it disappointed last time!

Feeling Christmassy November 25, 2008

In the end we did have a flurry of snow on Sunday, it snowed for a couple of hours but disappointingly didn’t stick, and soon turned to rain. Many other places had lots of snow and I had been looking forward to going out and taking some pictures, so although I hate being cold I’m hoping it will have another go soon! The Christmas market started yesterday and runs through until the end of December. I haven’t been yet but I will probably get my first taste of it on Saturday. There’s plenty of time to savour the atmosphere anyway! It is really starting to feel Christmassy now, even though we still haven’t quite broken into December yet the weather, the lights going up in town, people talking about it and hearing Christmas tunes (already) playing in shops has made it feel like Christmas time for me! There are only a few weeks to go, I suppose.

Yesterday I had a Techniques d’analyses biochimiques lecture in the late afternoon but I didn’t do anything else. I had good intentions of going into town a bit early to do some shopping but the weather was grey and drizzly and in the end I couldn’t work up the motivation. Today I had the final mid-term test of all my modules; Methodologie de Recherche. Basically it’s all about online library catalogues and databases of publications, and which contain which types of publication and subject areas, and how best to use them. Not terribly complicated and I feel the test went quite well. The answers are practically there on the computer screen in front of you! I also got the results from one of the first mid-terms I took; Medieval French, and I got 12/20 which seemed to be a respectable mark. I’d got the basics right, the parts I got wrong were irregularities which I’d forgotten.

Today while waiting for one of my classes I saw a girl go to greet her friend with la bise. Her friend held out her hands and said “Oh no, don’t, I’m ill!”. I thought that was quite considerate of her but how annoying it must be to have to do that every time you run into a friend when you’re ill! Speaking of running into friends I bumped into Marion as I left the library and she was on her way to an English exam, so I hope that went well for her. This week may see a repeat of last week’s Thursday night RestoU meal, especially since I can take advantage of no Friday 8am lecture!

Tomorrow I’m back to four hours of Chemistry in the morning (oh joy), and then I will probably nip to the supermarket after lunch but before my Spanish grammar class. I’ll have a bit more work to do over the next week by the looks of it, which I’m actually looking forward to after last week’s thumb twiddling! Oh by the way, Speculoos yoghurt was a massive disappointment, it was far too sweet. On to the next random food item!