Journal for cconzatt

So I didn't write about it when it first happened, but I guess even thinking about it now is kind of funny since it's still such a big deal here, and my book buying experience shows it. So the other day I went to buy a book at a used book store that they have here and was looking at books trying to figure out which one I should try and read in French (I decided on Harry Potter). But I asked the store lady if she had an recommendations for me because I was American and didn't want something too hard. Anyway she started pointing things out and talking to me, and then all of the sudden she congratulated me/the US on the election of Obama. Which is something that I've found pretty amusing since the day that it happened.
The opinion that Europe has of the US has changed so much since the elections, or at least I think it has. I think that being back in the states would have been great for this big of an election, but then at the same time seeing what happened here was pretty amazing as well. Now that Obama has been elected its as if we've somehow regained some type of footing within Europe again, there's a little bit more respect. The day after the elections there was a full front page on Obama in the newspaper that services Angers. I swear that it was the only thing that people could talk about for a week, and even now I still get the congratulations every once in a while. People love to talk to Americans about how its such a great thing about Obama being elected and how America is going to do so well, and I just find it a little amusing, but in a great way because they take such an interest in whats going on in the states. And in the US it's not that big of a deal who gets elected over here, definitely not front page worthy. I kind of can't wait until Obama is inaugurated but I think that there will be a huge interest in that as well.

Posted by Casey S Conzatti at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So, I've started talking with people about what's going to be happening next semester when I'm enrolled in the Catho, and well its a little worrying...Basically I'm completely positive that the French school system is insane. I started out by talking to Marrion and Sue, Marrion went to the Catho, but its been a couple years since she's been there, so I'm really hoping that maybe a couple of things have changed. One of the reasons that I started asking her about it, is beacuse I'm planning on taking a trip to Germany to see a friend the first weekend in March, so I asked Sue if it was going to be easier to miss school while I was at the Catho, and she was saying that it's basically going to be the same. And I was saying that I was just probably going to miss one Friday, and then she was like there aren't really classes on Friday, and I got really excited about that. Then she followed that up with, "that's usually because they have test's on Fridays". And according to Marrion there short tests are three hours long! That's not short! Oh and it gets even better, I was talking to a couple of French students because I was helping out in their class, and apparently all class are 3 hours, and you tend to go to them one after the other after the other until the end of the day. I guess I'm not really going to know until I'm completely enrolled but the thoughts are a little terrifying because well I come from Willamette, where I only take 12 hours a week. Even right now the schedule is very different then what I'm used to. For example, on Mondays I don't start until 1:30 and then I only have 2 hours of classes. But on Thursday I start at 8:30, have one hour of class, and then I have a five hour break, where I do nothing, because its not that beneficial to go home, and I tell myself that I'm going to do homework or something productive, but I tend not to. And then on Friday I have classes from 10:15 straight to 4:45. I know that I'm here to learn and all that fun stuff, but I'm also here to experience the culture and sometimes don't see how I'm doing that when I'm stuck in a classroom for 16 hours a week. I can see how it could be beneficial to French students, but at the same time I feel like if I was a student here that I would get burnt out so quickly having to be in the class that long. I guess I'll have to see how things play out next semester...At the very least it'll be interesting.

Posted by Casey S Conzatti at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)