Back to school...

So I really suck at updating this blog, but that’s okay. If I remember correctly, my last update was last Thursday or something before I went to Marseille. I can’t even look up what my last update was because I’m typing this into a Word document and will copy and paste it when I lift my computer onto the ledge so that it can have internet for a brief while. Could I edit this out once I have internet? Yeah sure. But then you wouldn’t understand what my life is like.

So this was my first real week of classes. At Sciences Po, students pick a sub specialty within the school right from the start, and are stuck with that track for the rest of their time there. I don’t even know what they are because I’m not a real student. Not that it’s privileged information, I just don’t care because it doesn’t concern me. So this means that everyone in my classes take the same block of courses, have the same schedule, and all know each other. Though they know that there are plenty of international students who are there to choose from the menu of classes in its entirety, it’s still an awkward situation. On Monday I went to a class on comparative political institutions, and had to squeeze out of the room when it ended because everyone else was staying there for another class with their block right after.

Today, I went to classes on sociology of politics and the American political society. The first one was alright, I haven’t taken sociology before but I’m sure it can’t be that hard. The American one…was interesting. When I decided to take it, I was prepared to fight with my program’s faculty director and have to tell her that I “want to see it from a French prospective” which is half bullshit, half truth. Yeah it’s cool, but if I can have one class I’m a rockstar at I’m going to take it. Let’s be real. But I didn’t even have to fight her, “Oh, you’ll be able to see it from a French prospective!” she said when she saw it on my list of classes I wanted to take. #winning . I was waiting for the prof today to say, “raise your hand if you’re American” and he waited until halfway through the class. It’s just me and another girl from the program who are americaines. I’m really looking forward to this class, because I don’t know if you know this…but I know my shit when it comes to American politics. I’ll just have to keep up with the NY Times.

I don’t get homework or any of that bullshit here. It’s wonderful. The French just absorb their lectures, writing or typing EVERY SINGLE WORD that comes out of the prof’s mouth. It seems so unnecessary to me right now, but I’m trying to keep up as best I can. If you’re not constantly writing in class I’m sure you stick out like a sore thumb, not that anyone can tell if their face is smushed into their computer or notebook the whole time. Because I can’t take notes and listen simultaneously very well, I went out and bought a little recorder to at least help me with the listening. It’s just the size of a cell phone, plop it on my desk, and then when I get home I can hook it up to my computer and upload them as MP3s to listen to later.

I’ve had quite a few very pleasant encounters with French students so far. Sciences Po has a great international student association that’s run by a group of French students. They’ve organized a whole bunch of welcome week type things already and have more stuff planned for throughout the year. In class today, I finally talked to some French students for the first time. I was sitting all alone, and since it’s such a cliquey type system that I explained earlier, if you’re alone that pretty much means you’re an international student. But today this nice group of girls sitting near me asked where I was from and how things were going. They actually knew where Wisconsin was, which was nice to not have to explain. I was in a class for 2^nd year students, and at Sciences Po they spend their 3^rd year studying abroad. So 2^nd years have overseas on their mind as they pick were to study next year, and apparently UW-Madison is one of their options. They were very nice, and I doubt I’d be able to pick them out of a crowd again, but at least I know nice people exist somewhere in that room.

But aside from school, life here if going very well. My friend and I went to the bus station to buy student discount cards today. For a onetime fee of five euro, you buy this card that’s good for five years, and you get super discounts on regional buses with it. There’s a variety of fares you can buy with it, but all I’m going to need is the two euro pass that’s good all day (so it’s essentially a two euro round trip ticket if it’s same day). I’m going to the beach this weekend, and without the discount card the fare is 7.20 euro….oh look this card just paid for itself. I’m not sure on the specifics of where these buses go, but I’ll definitely be able to get some use out of it. I don’t exactly have the money to jetset around Europe like some people do while they’re studying abroad so I guess I can start with Aix’s immediate neighbors before I go too far away.

My program went to Marseille last Saturday, which was awesome. Marseille just short distance from Aix and is the second largest city in France. Geographically, it happens to conveniently be about the same size as Milwaukee. But it has like twice as many people. Apparently it’s run by the mafia. Apparently there’s a ton of murders and crime and things like that. I don’t care to write about that, so if you’re interested, google it yourself. We toured a bunch of historical stuff which was super interesting. I was standing in the crypt of a church constructed in the 5^th century. We don’t have a 5^th century in the States. Also, it was crazy to look down over the city from the church we were at and imagine the Germans actually coming in and bombing it. Like much of Europe, Marseille has a lot of more modern buildings because it saw a lot of damage in the early parts of the 20^th century. After a day of sights we stopped at a beach and I got to stick my toes in the Mediterranean for the first time. It was amazing.


That’s all I feel like updating right now. I’m not attaching photos to these posts because it takes too long to upload them onto blogger. If you’re one of those people who isn’t on facebook and can’t look at my photo albums, let me know and I can send you a link to whatever pictures I have posted so far. I’ll be back here to write more once I feel like it again. I have a lot to share, but no motivation to write it out. Right now I’m only doing this because I got sick of fighting with my stolen wifi. Oh well.


Miss you all, probably. I don’t know who read this so I’m going to use statements like that. Nothing you can do about it.

<3