Really not much to report but I thought I ought to write a little something since the last I posted was on Tuesday. The weather has been dull and grey most of this week but next week my forecaster is showing all bright suns and temperature between 10 and 15 C, so should be a nice week! Nothing unusual has happened recently; it’s all been business as usual with lectures and work. I’ve targeted the reading this week to try and get that finished and I’ve succeeded in so much as I’ve now finished all three texts for Littérature Comparée; Horace’s Odes, Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal. Having already read two of the plays for Littérature Française I just have Le Roi se meurt left, which I should get done this week coming. I also had some lecture notes for Littérature Française to read, some questions to type up for Sociolinguistique and a mini-essay for Littérature Comparée, which I chose to write on Odes. So it has been quite a literature-orientated week. On Friday however I have Spanish translation mid-term exam so this week will be more Spanish-orientated, especially since the grammar mid-term is the following week and then my oral presentation the week after. I need to find out when the next strike AG is; it might be tomorrow but I want to go to see if I can get a heads up on the outcome of these next couple of crucial weeks. There are more demonstrations this week, once again on Thursday. I don’t know why they always pick Thursday and I hope it doesn’t disrupt continuing lectures this week. I now haven’t had a Spanish oral class for three weeks – it might even be four I can’t remember! Granted this isn’t all due to the strike; one week it was the holiday, the next it was “dead university day” and last week the lecturer was absent, but it’s still not good. I only have two more classes until I’m supposed to give my presentation. Anyway we shall see. The next few weeks should go quickly I think because I have an assessment each week; that always helps to make time disappear! I am also tentatively planning a weekend trip to Belgium for the double jour férié weekend of 10th April, so watch this space…
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.
Trying to Beat the Boredom March 3, 2009
I really haven’t done much at all since I got back on Saturday but it feels like an age since I was home, not less than a week! I’ve had a couple of lectures and a bit of work to do, but not much really. Part of that work was reading another play, Les Caprices de Marianne, another short one like the last that only took an hour or so to read. The course that I’m reading it for is still on strike but I thought I may as well read it and be prepared on the off chance that we go back to lectures. It was very Shakespeare-inspired and neither clear cut comedy or tradgedy – once again it takes place in the space of a day except for the last scene, there are four principle characters; a lawyer, his pious wife, a cousin, and a friend of the cousin who is in love with the lawyer’s wife. He has been trying hopelessly to get her to have an affair with him, but to no avail. He sends the cousin, his drunken friend, to plead his case but the cousin only ends up convincing the wife that she should have an affair with him! She invites him to come to her that evening while her husband is away, but her husband (who is suspicious of her behavious) lays a trap with assassins. The cousin is a good friend and instead sends his friend to the meeting. The wife sends the cousin a warning about the trap when she finds out, but it’s too late and the infatuated friend dies. It is more of a tragedy I suppose but some of the conversations and insult trading is more comic.
Anyway apart from that I’ve been trying to fill the time, but it’s so frustrating. I went skating this afternoon but even that wasn’t very satisfying because for some reason it was really busy with lots of kids and I couldn’t work on anything. I really don’t know if I want this strike to end or not! I have got used to not having many lectures or long days or much work to do, so if they ended it tomorrow and I went back to a full timetable it would be a shock and I’d end up so tired. However, having more work and less time in the day would be a blessing in some ways because I wouldn’t be sat around bored half the time as I am now, and I would think it would make the weeks pass quicker if they were more full. It is so irritating that last week at home just disappeared like sand through the fingers and now it feels like every minute takes an hour to pass. If the next 6.5 weeks go this slowly I’ll end up insane. I’m not depressed like I was before christmas, I’m just bored and counting time until this is over and I can get back to my life! I don’t feel like I’m learning anything new or having a major life experience over here – I have gained some new friends but that’s about all.
The strike is continuing into it’s fifth week now; there is usually at least one AG per week where they meet to discuss the action they’re going to take next, and so far there have been 3 or 4 separate days of demonstrations called to reinforce the strike and keep it in the public and government mind. In addition the President of the university is supporting the action and has called for Thursday to be a “dead university” day, so probably the faculty buildings will be locked up so no one can get in to teach or work even if they wanted to.
Image from Le Courrier Picard
This morning when I went to my lecture there were lots of tables and chairs stacked in the halls and corridors that are usually in classrooms, and when I looked up the local news later on I found out that yesterday a lot of students had emptied the classrooms and carried the tables and chairs outside. It seems that far from quietly slipping back to normal, the demonstrations and action will continue to escalate for a few weeks yet.
Off on my holidays! February 20, 2009
Not much to report from the last couple of days, I just thought I’d briefly check in before I head home for a week. Had a couple of lectures but not many; my one remaining lecture on Wednesday was cancelled because the President of the university called a suspension of lectures for an afternoon of meetings and “reflection” on the crisis affecting the education system and the actions being taken to combat it. Then there were more small demonstrations on Thursday morning so another one of my lectures was cancelled, and I’m ashamed to say I didn’t make it to my 8am lecture this morning because I overslept, but I really didn’t sleep well last night.
After the holidays, the strike will have technically lasted one month, but because one of those weeks we wouldn’t have had lectures anyway I suppose you could say it’s still only been three weeks. However the government aren’t budging any further on the issue; the only ground they’ve given has been to appoint an intermediary to carry out a review and possibly alterations to the reform, but they still insist the reforms will in large part go ahead as planned in September, and so the teachers and many of the students are continuing to protest. Yesterday students at the Sorbonne staged a sit-in in one of the amphitheatres and between 200-300 students were forcefully removed by police in the middle of the night. Valérie Pécresse has said that the intermediary is currently drawing up a second draft of the reforms and that it will be presented to her “over the course of the coming weeks”. And of course, she will take her time looking over it before sending it back to the drawing board no doubt. I think this is going to turn into a stalemate between the government and the unions; who will cave first when it becomes apparent that this could go on indefinitely, or at least until the reforms are pushed through in September? At this point I can see the distinct possibility of this strike continuing right up to the end of semester. Political processes are rarely done in a day, and actually the rest of the semester only comes down to a few weeks now. After this week’s holiday, there will only be 7 teaching weeks left until Easter, and after Easter most modules will have their assessments almost immediately, at least in a normal situation. If it takes another 2 or 3 weeks for Pécresse to get that report, and then another 2 or 3 weeks to review and revise it….well that’s the semester gone then! There is a possibility that some of the lecturers will creep back to work, even if their unions or the faculty in general is still supporting the strike. I have certainly picked up on notes of apology or guilt in the replies of the lecturers who are on strike, when we ask them ‘how much longer? Do we bother trying to write this essay or not? Have you left us any notes this week?’
Anyway, we shall have to see. These things can drag out for weeks and weeks or they can suddenly change in a day, no one seems to know where this one’s going. I am going to deal with my final packing and tidying now and then head off to the airport. While checking online that everything was running as normal this morning I noticed that the morning flight to Exeter was delayed by about half an hour, but there’s no obvious explanation and nothing indicating mine is affected. Cornwall, cat cuddles, beaches and food here I come! I have concluded that the one and only thing I truly miss and crave while I’m in France is food. My list to satisfy this week includes; fish and chips, Chinese takeaway, Pizza Express and Lobb’s farm shop pie. I don’t know what it is but everything about food is different here, even things that to all intents and purposes should be the same.
Skating and sleep deprived February 17, 2009
The week certainly seems to be ticking by at good pace so far. I am still only just getting back on track from that all-nighter on Saturday unfortunately – must be a sign of age because I used to be able to handle it fine! I only just made it to my lecture on Monday morning. My alarm went off at 8am but I must have hit off instead of snooze. The next thing I know I roll over and open my eyes briefly, must have had just enough brainwave to realise that there was more light coming through the shutter than there should have been. Sure enough, it’s 9.30 and my lecture is at 10. I had just enough time to wash, dress and get my things together and get to the lecture, but I didn’t have any breakfast. Unfortunately this morning was more or less the same story, except that the lecture was at 9 and I didn’t make it…
Yesterday afternoon I spent doing work for the lecture I missed today, and my Spanish lecture tomorrow which might be cancelled due to a university-wide meeting about the current strike action (still without end in sight). Today I tidied my room a bit and then went skating. I managed to get my skates sharpened, although communicating what I needed was a bit tricky! The session was more or less the same as last week, but I definitely felt an improvement in my skating although part of that will be due to sharp blades. It will be over a week now before I can go again, because of going home. Tomorrow I may have this one Spanish lecture but apart from that I need to do translation for Friday and go and get my bus card recharged. I think there may be another one-day strike for the teachers on Thursday although I don’t really see the point of that when most have been on strike for three weeks anyway… Soon after the February holiday we are going to get into the realms of asking the question “so do we sit the mid-term assessments or not?” If the lecturers are prepared to draft the papers and invigilate, in theory we could sit them but then they won’t be marked, or if they are marked the results will be withheld so it’s uncertain whether it’s really worth it.
Post-Paris ennui, a jazz bar and toujours grève… February 5, 2009
A bit of a mixed bag for this post. After the fantastic weekend in Paris, Monday morning and back to lectures was the ultimate comedown. All through the start of this week I’ve been suffering from what I can only describe as “ennui”; not the depression of previous times but a sort of listless, aimless, disinterested boredom as I can’t help but look back at a fun and family-packed weekend and forward but down to the boring, usual weekly routine ahead. It didn’t help that this week I’ve had little work and fewer lectures than normal to occupy myself, although thankfully my one lecture on Monday morning was the first of a new module, and so more interesting than it might have been. I did manage to keep the rest of the day busy with laundry and food shopping, but it deteriorated soon after! Anyway I’m back on the up now, with the imminent arrival of the marker “two weeks to home!” tomorrow – that will come around fast if the two weeks prior to my birthday weekend are anything to go by – and an evening of drinks and socialising last night. It was a rare event in that for once all 5 of the Cardiff students came out; usually at least one or two are away or excuse themselves because of work. I also invited Sonia, who if I haven’t mentioned her before is an American student from Virginia, just arrived for this semester on the ISEP scheme which is the American equivalent of Erasmus. A few of the Cardiff group’s other friends also dropped by but I didn’t get chance to talk to them. We started off in My Goodness, the favourite haunt, and I got to appreciate their cider more than the last time when I was too full of food! Later on Sonia and I moved on to le Retroviseur, another bar in St. Leu that had a live jazz night on. We met a mixed group there; some other American students that she’s come across while here and also some French students and their ISEP mentor. The atmosphere in the bar was really good actually; the band were great and seemed to play seamlessly from one song to another, if indeed they were playing songs and not just continuously improvising. I wouldn’t mind going back there again as this jazz night is a regular event I think. I stayed there until I had to get the last bus back to campus at about 12.30.
Needless to say, due to the late night I found it hard to motivate myself to get up for my 9am Spanish grammar lecture, which is interminably boring and during which I never learn anything. I decided that a couple more hours of sleep would be far more beneficial to my education in the long run! I did however go to my Spanish oral & comprehension class at 11, which I’m finding easier and more interesting this semester as each week at least one person in the class gives an oral presentation on a Spanish-speaking region. This is one of our forms of assessment for this semester and it will be my turn on April 2nd, on the subject of the Basque Country. My final lecture of the day should have been Litterature Comparée at 1pm, but I went expecting the lecturer to be among those on strike this week, and sure enough he was.
I’ve been reading and understanding a bit more about this strike in recent days, in an attempt to get my head around what’s happening and the possible consequences, because when our lecturers do talk to us about it they assume everyone already knows the basics of it. In essence, with effect from Monday 2nd February, many members of staff in the education sector are on strike for an unlimited period of time until they see the government acting in their favour with regard to reforms I’ve mentioned before; they are fighting changes to the position of teacher-researchers, changes to the structure of teacher-training courses, the loss of 900 jobs in 2009 and changes to the financing of universities to favour those with the best students and grades. So far, only 3 of my 8 modules are affected by this strike. This is because, although the whole university, including the student body, is being mobilised in this strike, not all faculties are actually on strike. The Spanish lecturers have not mentioned it at all and are continuing as normal, and so far I haven’t heard of it affecting the Science department, although my first science lecture is tomorrow morning so I won’t find out for sure until then. The entire law department has gone on strike and there are even barricades across the doors so you can’t get in the building, so the Cardiff group have had no lectures all this week. Up at campus, it seems to be mostly the Faculté de Lettres which is affected, so that means my French-based modules. Two of the modules I take are continuing as normal, unless of course they start barricading up here as well. Two others are completely suspended, and a third is at least partially suspended; again I won’t find out fully until tomorrow. One of my lecturers, who conducted her lecture yesterday but is suspending from next week, explained an important point none of the others had cared to mention. So far, the lecturers who are on strike have said that the situation is; “no lectures for an unlimited period of time, but we will either distribute material via email for the duration, and/or reschedule and catch up lectures at the end of the strike, whenever that may be.” Clearly, this has the potential for disaster. Apart from the fact that there is no leeway in the semester to catch up on more than 1 week’s work, the exam dates can’t be pushed back without heading into June and July. I haven’t spoken to Keele about this yet but that’s not something I’m willing to do! Anyway, this one lecturer explained that she disagrees with the others’ method; she is of a more radical stance and says to get the changes they want, they need to not only suspend lectures, but refuse to catch up or give assessments and basically threaten to write off the entire semester. However, there is a catch, which is the reason the general consensus is to plan catch-ups; if they refuse to catch-up the work at the end of the strike, they have to forego their salaries for the duration of the strike, whereas if they plan to catch up, they can keep being paid even when they’re not working. So, one way or another if this strike continues more than a few weeks, the upshot could be a lack of assessments or no way that I can be assessed before I have to leave, because while the French students might be willing to give up their summer to complete the semester, there’s no way I am just because I happened to be here when they decided to strike! It could turn out to be an interesting second semester; last year a similar thing happened and they were on strike for about 2 months if I remember correctly. This time are they going to break it earlier or take more drastic action and continue it longer? I might go to the next Assemblée Generale, (open meetings to discuss the action being taken) which is on Monday afternoon, just to see if I can glean anything more.
Black Thursday? More like grey… January 29, 2009
Well today was meant to be a day of massive disruption and protest, but like Adrian in Angers, it seemed a bit of an anticlimax. Up at campus I certainly didn’t noticed any difference apart from it being a bit quieter with fewer people coming up for lectures. I know there was a big march organised starting from the Maison de la Culture in the afternoon, so perhaps it seemed like more was going on in town. I did see a few buses up at campus when I’d expected none, and indeed looking on the Ametis website they claimed to be providing 80% of normal services today.
The Paris airports didn’t seem to shut down totally, apart from AirFrance flights of which about 40% were cancelled, and instead were only registering delays of up to an hour, this partly due to problems with fog as well. SNCF services varied throughout the country; while Eurostar, Thalys and other international trains remained unaffected, the TGV was completely cancelled and TER and Corail intercity trains at 30-50% of normal service. Some parts of the Paris metro and RER were running as normal, while the majority dropped to half or 3/4 of normal service.
For French speakers, here is a very comprehensive report from France 2: Grèves et Manifestations en France For the English speakers, here is the BBC’s report; Huge Crowds Join French Strikes
Other areas of industry were also on strike but to a lesser extent and effect. The one other main area to be affected other than transport was the education system. Two of my three lectures were cancelled today, and many lecturers who would have been willing to continue lectures gave up because their students weren’t able to travel to them. For those in the education sector, this day of striking follows on from the one in November, in continuing protest against reforms and the elimination of 13,500 jobs announced for the coming year. I got a flyer tucked into my door this week from the UNEF student syndicat, mainly to encourage support for today’s strike but also outlining their general opposition to the changes. In summary, they are against: funding reforms, elimination of the post “teacher/researcher”, the “masters” level extension of teacher training
Campaign Image from UNEF.fr
(which will exclude those who cannot afford another 2 years at university), and the general cutbacks in the number of jobs in the education sector. They are for: an emergency plan for young people at the bottom of the employment ladder, a national diploma system and for it to be recognised by employers, and deep reforms in the university system so it returns to behaving like a public service. The flyer is emblazoned with bold statements such as “The death of the public university”, “We will not be a sacrificed generation!” and “In the strike there is a dream.” For those in the education sector then, this is a bigger fight than they can win in one day. To that end, many lecturers are suspending their lectures indefinitely from Monday, unless they see changes being made in their favour. Many of the student body are also taking part, both by raising awareness, taking their own campaign to the government and by not attending lectures themselves, in solidarity with the lecturers. In theory this suspension of lectures could go on for weeks, and with no time to recover lectures lost before the exam period, the exams could be very simple indeed! In practice, it will probably only last a week or two at most, and in fact only one of my lecturers has so far announced his participation in the strike, accounting for 4.5 hours of my timetable. Another 5 hours could potentially also go, but I have yet to find out about those. Six of my lecturers have either not mentioned it, or expressly said they will be continuing their classes.
Anyway, enough about the strikes! The hockey match I went to on Tuesday night was certainly a new experience – I did enjoy it even though I’m not really much of one for sports, and even found myself getting quite caught up in cheering Amiens on. The match was the Amiens Gothiques vs. the Briançon Red Devils, and unfortunately the Devils won 4-3. We were all surprised how long we were there; the match started just after 8 and we didn’t leave until about 10.30, because although each match is three sessions of 20 minutes each, the clock stops frequently when the puck goes out of play or an offense is committed. It wasn’t too violent, there were lots of collisions and slamming into the walls, and the refs have to keep hopping out of the way of the players and puck, but there were no proper fights, just some facing off after a collision that the refs quickly dissipated. When Amiens scored a goal for the first time, we all had a laugh because these four pink tube streamers popped up from the corners of the rink with GOAL!! emblazoned on them, the crowd was cheering and blaring horns and on top of that they have a special victory tune they play whenever they score! They do seem to take it quite seriously; there were lots of people in costume or with team shirts, or with face paint, and there was one corner in particular that chanted and sang encouragement and songs for the entire game. The tickets were only 8 euros and I’d definitely go again, it’s something I could get into! I took some pictures, most are on Facebook but I’ll post a couple of the best here.
Late to lectures… January 22, 2009
However it wasn’t me who was late to my lectures – it was the lecturer! It is getting a bit ridiculous really. I’d noticed it before now but this week especially seems to have been a bumper week for late lecturers. About half of the ones I’ve had so far turned up 5 minutes late but the winner by far was today’s Litterature Comparée lecturer, who arrived FIFTEEN minutes late for the lecture! In the UK the students would have left by then, but no one really seemed to take much notice of his lateness. In contrast, incidentally, if a student walks in that late they are usually greeted by a snide remark and a pointed silence while they take their seat before the lecturer continues. This lecturer didn’t even offer an apology or explanation as to why he turned up so late, and then proceeded to ask me and two other girls seated near the back to move further down so he wouldn’t have to raise his voice. He wouldn’t have had to anyway, given that this was a small lecture hall. To cap things off he rounded up the lecture half an hour before the end, because he thought it was only an hour long. It was only when he saw our collective confusion that he realised it wasn’t time to end, and carried on. I do wonder how anyone gets a degree around here. Oh yes, and the teachers as well as most of the rest of the country are on strike next Thursday. More about that when it happens.
Apart from that most of my lectures have run fairly smoothly so far this week. There is an American girl in my Litterature: Theatre class who I have yet to talk to properly, but I intend to next week. I’m not sure if she’s part of the same group that I ran into before or not. The lecturer for the Theatre course is interesting; he’s obviously very passionate about his subject. Both the lecture and the TD we had this week got quite philosophical at times and he kept returning to a point he holds emphatically; that studying theatre as literature is a paradox because theatre is an active concept; you can study the text but you can’t study theatre, because theatre is an in-the-moment, temporary representation of a text. Indeed. He also made a very big point of naming us the future teachers, practitioners and safeguarders of French culture. He listed the top ten plays of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and asked who had read them; most people had read half or less. He asked about Harold Pinter and the fact that he was met with mostly blank stares nicely illustrated his point that if we, literature and theatre students, don’t know the name and who he was, how is the wider world supposed to remember his contribution? He asked us to guess the percentage of the population who had been to see a play at least once in the year 2008; most guessed around 20%, but it was actually 3%, down from 6% the previous year. He was also very interested to see how many of us were active practitioners of theatre at any level. It was clear that he was trying to stir up some cultural pride as well as intellectual interest, and in general in the Lettres courses it is implicit that the students have chosen those courses because they have a personal interest in becoming scholars in the literary and cultural fields, not just because they need a degree in order to go and get a job. It’s been a while since I’ve studied equivalent courses in England but I would be surprised if the same emphasis is put on learning cultural heritage and safeguarding it’s future as it is here, rather than on learning in order to pass exams.
Back to routine January 20, 2009
I have managed to put a timetable together over the last two days with relative ease. This semester I’ll be doing 8 modules and 20.5 hours a week instead of the 6 modules and 16.5 hours of last semester. I’ve picked 5 from a mainly french degree of Lettres modernes, I’m continuing with the same two Spanish modules I took last semester and I’m only doing one small science module which requires just one trip to town for a 2 hour lecture each week, and there’s no lab time. I’m much happier with this set up as I really struggled with the science last year and felt very out of depth in the lab sessions. There are no stupid days on my timetable either; although most of it is towards the end of the week; only 2 hours each on Monday and Tuesday, 7.5 hours on Wednesday and then 3.5 and 5.5 on Thursday and Friday, I do have time for lunch between lectures every day except Friday, which will be a snack on the bus back from town in the morning and then a late lunch at 2.30. Monday and Tuesday afternoons are also free to do laundry or other things which don’t get done at the weekends.
I have managed to keep most of my Spanish groups the same as well, because while the rest of my timetable changed that one didn’t, so there was a risk my new modules would not fit with my old groups. I am still in the same translation groups as Marion, which is good, and I’ve also managed to keep my comprehension group the same which is useful because I’d already put down a date and subject for an oral presentation which may otherwise have had to change. The only one I couldn’t avoid changing was the grammar TD group, which is tomorrow at 2 instead of at 4, but hopefully this won’t cause too much of a problem. I hope not anyway because I can’t make any of the other groups and otherwise I won’t be able to take the module.
I got chatting to a group of American students today in the Lettres faculty building; I went to see what I could juggle around in my timetable and they were putting theirs together. I overheard them talking, trying to figure it out and went to see if they needed help because I remember I found it very confusing at first! It’s amazing the difference a few months makes actually; the first time I was searching out timetables I didn’t know where to go or where to look, I couldn’t figure out which semester board I was meant to be looking at and then the timetables made no sense. For a start half the course titles were different to what I thought I was looking for, then I didn’t know what CM and TD meant, and which of various possible groups I was meant to attend……in all it was very confusing! Not surprising really that I ended up missing out some lectures. Anyway I cleared some things up for them, but it sounds like they’ll get it figured out. Most of them are living either in Bailly like me or in Thil down the road, and since they’re taking classes from the same faculty as me it’s quite likely we’ll run into each other again.
The rest of this week is just back to routine really; lectures are back in full swing with the exception of some of the short modules which get started in February. I need to do a normal week with this timetable to make sure no problems crop up, get a couple of queries resolved and then I can send my revised paperwork to Keele so they know what I’m up to. Technically they could not approve it and tell me to do something different, like more science, but in reality if they want me to get near 60 credits for the year that isn’t possible. Ceri seemed to OK the idea of doing mostly French when she came to visit last year anyway so I’m certainly not expecting them to object. I will probably try and go skating at the weekend since I managed to bring my skates back from home, and hopefully catch up with the Cardiff lot who I haven’t seen since a week before the Christmas break, which makes about a month now. Then next week will tick around and we’ll be well into the lecture routine, followed by a super weekend in Paris for my birthday! Can’t wait!
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!
