Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Video update: By the way, I'm alive.
Why have I neglected my blog these past few weeks? The answer is in this video (in English).
Friday, November 11, 2011
Indian summer at Snow Bowl (part 1)
Although I am completely aware that I have not posted for weeks and that therefore I am way behind, I seem to be powerless. For all my enthusiasm to share the photos from the multiple places I have been to, all the pictures end up piling up so it makes it even harder to sort them out and decide which ones to post. There are so many things I could be talking about that I do not even know where to start. Everything is different here from what I have always known in France: the education system (the professor-student relations, life on campus, courses rhythm, social life, culture differences, town VS big city, the environment). Many things have been going on as well. There is one month left before the end of the semester which means I have been here for two months. Already? Time does fly.
Below are the photos from my trip to the Snow Bowl, the ski facility owned by Middlebury College. As you can see, it was the Indian summer, hence the amazing gold and red colors displayed in the landscapes. I took so many photos that afternoon that I will post the rest later as well as the ones taken during Fallbreak (NYC, Montréal, Québec) and during my school weekend trip to Montréal.
An old article I wrote back in October about the rythm of courses.
Although I “only” have three courses (whereas I would have had eleven subjects if I were in my university), they take place several times a week, so I roughly have less than a dozen of hours per week (including the course I am auditing). As a result, you could easily think: “how nice! Not a lot of classes so more free time for me, hurray!”. Guess what? This is an illusion. Do not delude yourself, this so-called free time is ideally for homework purposes! Because I am not taking Chinese this semester (remember, I am too good to be a beginner but not enough to reach the intermediate level), my timetable is lighter. I have classes on Monday until Thursday, which means the weekend already starts on Thursday afternoon!
Even though the rhythm is more intense, I am glad to have a fairly normal schedule, compared to that of my home university. For some reason, the planning staff has always been terrible (hello euphemism) at…planning. They pretend it is because of the lack of classrooms. You therefore end up with a timetable that leaves you gasping.
For instance, you are likely to have a class at 1pm, the next one being at…7pm! You must also take into account that from my house to school, it takes around forty minutes (when the trains are not on strike, do not have so-called technical problems, when people do not faint in the train or decide to end their lives in the railroads, therefore making people’s day complete). How happy I was when I went to school for only one class and found out that the professor was absent. There are cases when your second class is right after the other, whereas you are at a different place, located twenty-minutes away from your next class! Well-organized, isn’t it? Worse, I have had lectures that took place at 8pm…school closes at 9pm. By the time I came back home, it was 10pm and in most cases, I had not eaten yet. Classes would naturally start at 8am the next day. What I strongly dislike about my university is that of course, you do have classes on Saturday, as an addition of having a terrible schedule. That ruined my weekends. Not only Saturday mornings, but also till the afternoon! Unbelievable. Way to have fun on weekends. Good job, home university. That is why the schedule at Middlebury College is heaven to me, who has encountered hellish plannings.
For instance, you are likely to have a class at 1pm, the next one being at…7pm! You must also take into account that from my house to school, it takes around forty minutes (when the trains are not on strike, do not have so-called technical problems, when people do not faint in the train or decide to end their lives in the railroads, therefore making people’s day complete). How happy I was when I went to school for only one class and found out that the professor was absent. There are cases when your second class is right after the other, whereas you are at a different place, located twenty-minutes away from your next class! Well-organized, isn’t it? Worse, I have had lectures that took place at 8pm…school closes at 9pm. By the time I came back home, it was 10pm and in most cases, I had not eaten yet. Classes would naturally start at 8am the next day. What I strongly dislike about my university is that of course, you do have classes on Saturday, as an addition of having a terrible schedule. That ruined my weekends. Not only Saturday mornings, but also till the afternoon! Unbelievable. Way to have fun on weekends. Good job, home university. That is why the schedule at Middlebury College is heaven to me, who has encountered hellish plannings.
To sum it up, sure, a lot of personal work is required at Middlebury College but at least you do have a nice schedule!
EDIT: A month has elapsed and my Midterm exams are coming up. Naturally, I am now revising intensively. Do you know why? That is because I still have not learned from my experience, ie, I have not worked regularly. I will never learn apparently!
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