The Study part of Study Abroad

This week was our second full week of classes, meaning that we had to buckle down and make our final decisions regarding what we will be studying for the rest of the semester. With my program I am able to take classes both at the local university and at the IES center which is great. At the university I am taking a translation class and a modern history class. My translation class is composed of half native English speakers and half native French speakers. Its a pretty small class with only about 30 students. Its really fun to try and explain to each other random idiomatic phrases. Last week we were translating an excerpt from an english book into French and there was a phrase like "he pointed at me with a huge sausage finger" which was a bit confusing to some of the French students haha. I think I am really going to like this class. I actually find translating kind of fun. My history class at the university is a big lecture class in an "amphitheatre." I was a little surprised on the first day to find out that "modern history" here starts with Louis the 14th in 1661 before America even existed. For me this was a nice surprise. I love learning about Louis the 14th up through the French Revolution and already have a little bit of knowledge about the time period. After all I did write a 32 page paper on Louis the 16th and his son Le Dauphin. I lucked out because my professor speaks really clearly and hands out an outline at the beginning of class so it's easier for me to take notes in French. Classes at the university are way different from university classes in the US. There isn't a syllabus, there isn't a midterm, and there isn't really any homework. There is a reading list, but they aren't going to tell you what pages to read before each lecture. You are expected to figure that one out for yourself. For the French students their entire grade consists of the final exam. Scary right? And I thought a final exam that counted for 30% of your final grade was huge. Luckily for me my professors at the university assign me 1-2 extra projects so my entire grade isn't dependent on a written final exam. Also with all the amazing beautiful buildings here in Nantes I was a little surprised to find out the university is kind of ugly. The buildings kind of remind me of a middle school or something. But then again what did I expect considering the students here only pay around 300 euro a semester for school. When I told a French student that I have been hanging out with that I pay around $15,000 a semester her jaw literally dropped.

At the IES center things are a little more Americanized. We have a syllabus, homework, and multiple papers to complete by the end of the semester. At IES I am taking 3 classes. One is my required French language class in which we go over all the little grammar details that I forget all the time. I also have a Panorama of French Theater class and a class entitled "France and the US in the Middle East from 1945 to today: alliances and discrepancies" which so far is my most interesting class. Even after just two lectures I have learned a ton. For example, did you know the US is the only country in the world who groups that section of the world into one and calls it the Middle East? That kind of says a lot about America's view of the world. In France they divide it into 3 separate parts: Le Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya),  Le Proche Oriente (Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey), and finally Le Moyen Oriente (aka middle east) (Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Qatar, Koweit, Bahrein, Iraq, and Iran). Also did you know that Woodrow Wilson's name is actually Thomas Woodrow Wilson? We were all a little confused when my professor mentioned something about Thomas Wilson the US president in class one day. Im pretty sure my professor knows way more about US history than any of the students do. Maybe I'll have to brush up on my US history in the next few weeks so she doesn't think I'm a total idiot.
Overall my classes are interesting and I like them a lot. Now I just hope everything transfers back to Minnesota!

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll post another blog after next week because this week is filled with interesting stuff. Tonight I'm going to see a hockey game. Tomorrow we are going to see 2 concerts at this highly renowned classical music festival called Les Folles Journees, then balancing out all that culture by going to watch the Superbowl at a Canadian bar Sunday night. This week I am going to see 2 plays (Le Tartouffe by Moliere, and La Religieuse by Diderot), and I am going on a walking tour to try all the specialty foods of Nantes. Then on Saturday we take a trip to Mont Saint Michel and Saint Malo.


First Day of School (version francaise)

Universite de Nantes

vs The University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Louis XIV in all his glory 

I almost forgot! Feb 2nd in France is a holiday! On this holiday we celebrate baby Jesus being presented to the temple (I think. Don't quote me on that) by eating crepes and drinking cidre. What crepes have to do with baby Jesus I have no idea but I love this holiday. My dinner that night consisted of a crepe with ham, emmental cheese, and an egg for my dinner crepe and a crepe with nutella and banana for dessert. Also cidre doux is probably my favorite drink ever.