Hello everyone,
This will be the second to last blog I post from France before I leave on May 30th. That said, I will try to make it interesting. The last time we spoke I was preparing for my final three exams. After having taken them, I am proud to say they all went better than the first one. On Tuesday, I took the exam for Sociology of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was a written exam on the subject of the security wall. I have no real complaints on that, I think I covered the topic well and should receive good grade. I also got my paper back for the course with a 13 (grades are out of 20, but more than a 14/15 would require a miracle) which I am happy about. The next two exams were both on Thursday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The first one was for my Comparative Politics class and is hard to describe. We were told the topic of our oral exam would be discussing how our paper relates to a chapter of the course. My paper was on democratization in Iraq after the revolution in 1958. So, you can imagine my surprise when the first question I was asked was about French media coverage of sexual affairs with regard to the Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the IMF. He eventually asked me a couple questions related to Iraq, but in general the exam was more a discussion of current events focusing on the regime changes in the Middle East. I did not see my paper grade from that one, but judging by the exam I am not at all worried. The final exam was for my Macro class. Since I have already taken macro at Beloit, I probably should not have been as worried as I was, but some of the information did not quite click for me in French (some was a little different because he focused on French specifics) and I had heard that he was a very tough grader (no one gets better than 10 or 11 usually). Luckily for me, when I went into the preparation room I was given the topic I had been studying immediately prior (Labor Market and Unemployment). I spoke the entire time and he seemed happy with my answers overall. He also said that my paper (which I thought was pretty awful) got a 12 or 12.5, though he didn't remember for certain. So, in general my exams went very well.
The next few days were spent with some much needed relaxation. The international students had a BBQ at the park on Friday and I spent the weekend going to the park, vegging, watching tv, and in general enjoying my freedom. On Tuesday, Morgan and I traveled to Mont Saint Michel, a very famous abbey on the border of Bretagne and Normandy. It was a great trip and a pretty amazing place. It turns out it is disputed as to which region it is in because it is in the middle of a river and originally it had been more on the Bretagne side, but shifts in the river flow now put it officially in Normandy. It is an enormous structure, because it is dedicated to the archangel Saint Michael (who seems like the "badass" of saints, pardon my blasphemy) who weighs the souls of the dead to see who gets into heaven. So, any structure dedicated to Saint Michael must be very tall so that those who make a pilgrimage there have to climb toward heaven to honor him (I'm pretty sure I got that right, but feel free to correct me if I misinterpreted that somehow). Anyway, it's an amazing feat of architecture that was started around the 8th century and took centuries to build and has served many purposes since its creation, including as a prison for a while. There is also a nice town at the foot of "the Mont", though for the most part it is inhabited by souvenir shops and restaurants. We returned late in the afternoon and then went to our friends house for dinner, which nearly always turns into a 4 hour affair. These dinners have provided me with a new favorite dessert that I think even I could manage to cook without totally destroying it, since you don't actually cook it. It's called Banoffee pie and it is essentially one of the worst things possible for your body (unbelievable amounts of butter, caramel, chocolate and whipped cream), but it has bananas on it so it's ok. Still, it is absolutely delicious and it is very easy to make because it just needs to be chilled in the fridge.
Now, my I am preparing for all of the things I need to do to head home and I will hopefully be able to squeeze in one last beach trip this weekend. I need to get signatures on forms from people I have never met, close my bank account, do a room checkout, and order transcripts (which apparently a lot of people don't know how to do, surprising at a University right?). Basically, it's back to all of the messy French bureaucracy that, as I'm sure you all remember, I loved so much the first time around. Speaking of which, remember how I was supposed to get a letter telling me when to go to the doctor for my mandatory appointment? Yea, that happened about a week ago. Already, I think it was fairly ridiculous that it took them 5 months to make me an appointment that was supposed to verify that I don't have a disease that could infect and kill the entire country. But, I can accept that as a part of bureaucracy. Still, I would have hoped that the two appointments I had to have (one to get a chest x-ray, one to give it to someone else) would either both be before I left or both after. This was of course not the case. One was supposed to be on Monday (I didn't go) and the other on June 6th. However, I also received an email that only stated June 6th and said nothing about the radiology appointment being on the 24th of May so to be honest I was a little confused. Either way, I can't go the general appointment, so I sent an email notification to the office that makes them and still have not received a response. In general, I don't feel like paying 55 euros to confirm that I haven't infected the entire country (which I don't think you need a medical license to figure out) and since the appointment is 4 days after I leave, I don't have to. What surprises me the most is that a visa is required for anyone who stays in the country longer than 90 days, and I was here almost twice that long, and still the appointment was too late. So, it would seem logical to me, to do the appointment either right away or around the 3 month mark so that everyone with a visa has to do it. But, I won't complain too much because it saves me some money.
That's about all I have for today, I hope you enjoy the pictures below (from Mont Saint Michel) and keep an eye out for my final post from France, coming this Sunday. Thanks again, and I look forward to seeing you all soon.
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| Duck pond at the park |
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| Lots of fun names for the flowers at the park (They struggled with spelling though) |
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| Mont Saint Michel |
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| View from the stairs on the way up |
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| Terrace at the start of our tour |
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| The chapel (shaped like a cross pointing east toward Jerusalem) |
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| Exercise wheel for the prisoners (conveniently also helped with heavy lifting) |
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| View out on the river |
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| Floral arrangement at the park |
A bientot,
Tom
P.S: I forgot to mention that, thanks to some help from my mom, I have secured an internship with Marriot-Lincolnshire in banquets/catering. I know you may wonder what this has to do with any of my majors and the honest answer is very little. I will probably be one of few people not seeking a degree in hospitality or some related industry, but its a good chance to make contact with a company that I might be able to advance with after school. Plus, there is no way it can be any worse than two summers working overnights at Wal-Mart.
Now, my I am preparing for all of the things I need to do to head home and I will hopefully be able to squeeze in one last beach trip this weekend. I need to get signatures on forms from people I have never met, close my bank account, do a room checkout, and order transcripts (which apparently a lot of people don't know how to do, surprising at a University right?). Basically, it's back to all of the messy French bureaucracy that, as I'm sure you all remember, I loved so much the first time around. Speaking of which, remember how I was supposed to get a letter telling me when to go to the doctor for my mandatory appointment? Yea, that happened about a week ago. Already, I think it was fairly ridiculous that it took them 5 months to make me an appointment that was supposed to verify that I don't have a disease that could infect and kill the entire country. But, I can accept that as a part of bureaucracy. Still, I would have hoped that the two appointments I had to have (one to get a chest x-ray, one to give it to someone else) would either both be before I left or both after. This was of course not the case. One was supposed to be on Monday (I didn't go) and the other on June 6th. However, I also received an email that only stated June 6th and said nothing about the radiology appointment being on the 24th of May so to be honest I was a little confused. Either way, I can't go the general appointment, so I sent an email notification to the office that makes them and still have not received a response. In general, I don't feel like paying 55 euros to confirm that I haven't infected the entire country (which I don't think you need a medical license to figure out) and since the appointment is 4 days after I leave, I don't have to. What surprises me the most is that a visa is required for anyone who stays in the country longer than 90 days, and I was here almost twice that long, and still the appointment was too late. So, it would seem logical to me, to do the appointment either right away or around the 3 month mark so that everyone with a visa has to do it. But, I won't complain too much because it saves me some money.
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