Odds and Ends

Or, as my Irish friends would call it, "bits and bobs."

Not much has gone on over the weekend or even last week, just getting settled into finally having a schedule. My new daily schedule is either brutal or very easy, with hardly any in between.

Monday: no class, no work, completely free

Tuesday: work then class, with no breaks in between, from 8h15 to 14h45 (the French way of writing time...8:15am-2:45pm)

Wednesday: Class from 8h45 to 11h15 and again from 13h45 to 16h15

Thursday: Class, work, class, no breaks in between, from 8h15 to 16h45 (ugh, miserable, I plan on being very hungry by the end of the day)

Friday: class from 8h45 to 11h15

For those of you who might say that having a day full from 8-5 isn't all that miserable...you're probably right. Actually, you are right. However, I truly don't have any breaks for eating or relaxing my brain, so, at least at this point, it's a pretty long day for me.

Another interresting scholastic challenge I'm currently dealing with is that of finals...when I left home, I was under the impression that finals would be at the end of may, that my classes "run on the normal academic calendar." Well, we have the same breaks as everyone else, however, finals don't end until the 26th of JUNE. That's a pretty huge problem for me because, since I thought I would be finished by the beginning of June, I made arrangements to volunteer in Lyon with the Salesian nuns there for the whole month of June, then go with them to the town of Lille until July 18th. So, my current options are to cancel my volunteering in June or to take my finals early. I'm working on being able to take them early; since each class only meets once a week I would only be missing three class sessions for each course, and I feel confident that if I worked hard in May I could pass all my exams. (One helpful aspect of that theory is that European GPAs don't transfer back to K-State, just the credit, so as long as I pass my exams, I will get full credit for the semester.)

I would really like to be able to volunteer in June, I think I would improve my French maybe more than I would by finishing my classes since here in Clermont I have a lot of English-speaking friends, so I'm not forced to use my French all the time. In Lyon, I would speak only French, which can't help but be beneficial. So. We'll see how that works out, I should know by the end of the week if they'll allow me to take my exams early.

Other than that, not much has been happening; last week my late night activity was watching the Jayhawks dominate in both their back-to-back rivalry games (well...I didn't actually watch the MU game. But I knew it was happening), which was a lovely sight to behold. This week, my late night activity will be being in Italy with old and new friends, which should be equally excellent.

For now, however, I'm off to cook dinner (curry chicken and rice, mmm), bye!