... Title referring to the outcome of a busy first week of uni at Sciences Po, Grenoble. A Grande Ecole which, may I mention, accepts only around 7% of French applicants, many of which take an extra year of preparation to pass. So it's quite an honour to have the chance to go on exchange here.
Where do I start... I've been so busy the last two weeks. I finished my enrollment, I opened a bank account which is pretty cool because the bank gets you to choose any picture to have printed on the card, so I have a pretty one of a picturesque morning in New Zealand. The reason why I opened an account was that the French government will need it to give me a small but appreciated amount of money to go towards my rent. Merci. I also have had to go to the renting agency of the apartment I'm staying to change the contract and include my name... so that it can be proven I'm not sleeping under a bridge.
Speaking of the apartment, it's going very well, I've bought a desk from Ikea and dark blue bed sheets (in my biiiiiiiig double bed!! I've never had a double bed before.) and a mirror and I've cleaned up a bit so it feels simple and welcoming. We also have a new kitchen table, and this weekend we'll have a new oven/stoves. And I'm gonna buy a vacuum cleaner! The broomstick just isn't enough for this old floor.
I'm also enjoying the exercise that I get from jogging up the stairs to get to the apartment - it's only on the third floor, but the ceilings are 4 metres high, so the stair is a nice workout for the (currently!) lazy like me.
What else.
My flatmates are nice, I probably said it last time but they're very cool, they're introducing me to a few people, advising me on courses, giving me some of their notes from previous years and making me jump long lines to get hot dogs. Hey, it all counts ;)
Apart from the house, the weather has been very warm here, today and yesterday we had around 27 degrees. Unfortunately I was indoors a lot, checking out all possible courses to do this semester. There was a lot of indecision - it's an important choice! - but I've made up my mind and I'm very happy with the following choices:
1. Sociology
2. European Union: actor of peace and security in the world
3. Franco-germanic relations of the XX Century: political, economic and cultural aspects
4. France, Europe and the challenges of the contemporary world
5. French language, written and oral methodology
6. Literature, cinema, history and memory in contemporary Spain
2. Very very interesting! Not easy but good to know and interesting to the extreme that I'm accepting going to uni on a Friday. Had I not chosen this course, my weekend would have commenced at 11am on Thursdays!
3. Have not yet been to this course for the room was changed last week, but it sounds promising.
4 & 5. Courses obligatory for international students, classes with other internationals with about the same level of French. 5 is quite an up-to-date and interactive course, quite like a workshop.
6. Course in Spanish! It's exciting. This one as well I've found really interesting, it's about how many aspects of Spanish life during the Franco dictatorship were willingly ignored after 1975, but how some artists have caused the re-birth of these painful memories. And just the fact that it's in Spanish makes me happy. I understand it more clearly than French actually.
Needless to say, the other courses are in French.
Already compared to last semester in Milan, I feel this will be a different experience. Not knowing anyone else in Grenoble, I've already spent a lot of time with international students, which I hardly did in Milan, and I've been a lot more open to meeting other (French) students - this probably because of the lack of snobbyness of the Milanese, and me attending more student events. And younger people! I hardly hang around anyone over 23 years old. There's a heap of Italians here on exchange, of course... met a girl from Turin - now that's just lazy. Turin is about 2.5 hours away from here on train ;)
"Social evenings" here start and end really early. Often we meet for aperitif/dinner before 8pm, and linger around the centre, or bars, so by the time they close (1, maximum 2 am) it feels really late, but is in fact not. It's not bad, you get more hours of sleep in the end, and don't return home as your flatmates are showering or having breakfast (*cough*Milan*cough*), but it leaves a small feeling of unaccomplishment. But that's just me! Unfortunately, the French (and of course the internationals) youth still do drink a fair bit.
I feel younger. I don't think I like it... but it's an interesting change :p
(that frustrating moment when someone younger than you thinks they're old)
Soooooooo, I'm very content, and excited about the challenge of doing this semester in France. Sorry about all text and no visuals, but if you scroll down a bit you'll see pretty things :)
Ciao =]
No comments:
Post a Comment