9.03.2009

My impressions on the first day of school . . .

Today was the first day of school at Lycee Notre Dame Des Anges Saint Amand Les Eaux (In other words the catholic high school in the town of Saint Amand). Today was just a half day in the afternoon; it started at 1:30, and was comprised solely of what would be compatible to the american homeroom. I'm in the 'ES' section, which means that my classes are central to economics. There are 22 students in that section with me, Thomas being one of them, thank goodness, and only 4 of them are boys, strange, no? From what I saw today, which was not much, it didn't seem very different from school in the US. The schedule is the main difference so far. All the classes it seems are just randomly put into slots during the week, and some are double classes; there must be some rhyme and reason to the system, the only problem is I haven't the slightest idea what that reason is! Well, that's the least of my worries, as long as I have it written down. My real problem is that I have to take French and Economics tomorrow, my first real day of classes! Yikes! I'm not at all looking forward to that, but what can I do. I also have math, which normally wouldn't worry me, as numbers are the same in all western languages, except that another exchange student wrote that he had to take a test in math before school started and it had word problems, which were terribly confusing. Please: No Word Problems! Other than my insecurities about tomorrow, I liked the school very much. I liked the teacher, who by the way also teaches French, yay! I think if I can keep my mind focused, and ask lots of questions, I may actually be able to go to school in French. The reason I say 'keep my mind focused' is that I find when one does not understand what's going on in the conversation it becomes increasingly easy, and almost hard not, to daydream. thus my new moto: FOCUS. I find after a week here, if I concentrate on every word, I can some times distinguish meaning in a sentence, which can lead to meaning in the conversation going on around me, but its hard.
more tomorrow . . . a bientot,
e

5 comments:

lemonstitch said...

having trouble with entereing a comment - this is a test...

James said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
James said...

We had success, now...so, why so few boys in Econ? Don't they want to be in big biz? Hope all goes well on your first full-bore day...I admire your attitude and pluck and so will those around you. Is the moon full? Appeared to be here early this morning as I was struggling with the blog...it hung just over the mountains like a ripe melon...ciao for now. d.

lemonstitch said...

Are we the only blog spazzes out there? After you click "Post a Comment", it cues you to enter a word scramble, you have to click on "word verification" to get to the scramble (though that isn't readily apparent); then after entering the scrambled word, the "post comment" button is no longer there. Finally figured out if you click back on "Edit", it then posts the comment. Can you hear the annoyance in my voice, cuz it's loud and clear over here. geezuz. Okay, You are a camera. Stay focused, baby. You'll be spewing Milton Friedman's theories in no time (or at least the French equivalent). XO

James said...

Now I am a frequent visitor on your blog I saw the photos you chose. Striking visually, but burr...bleak. The one in the forest is very much like an image I carry from a stunning film by Bertolucci called The Conformist with French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant...a film about fascism...won't give it away but the last scene takes place in a woods in winter very much like that. This actor became an international star in a 60's sappy romance (still it was French) called A Man and a Woman...even the theme music was/is iconic. Well, I close as it is late and the clicking of keyboard keys may disturb my lovely partner, n'est pas? Bon Nuit (or should I say Bon Jour as it is morning for you?) <3

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