2 weeks into school and haven't had time to write about it... We have something like 13 classes, according to one of my German classmates (and Germans are good at counting, so I believe her). They are at random times. For example, Mondays we don't have class until 2 p.m., whereas there are some days when Maggie, my roommate, has class from 8 to 12:30, and then a break until 3:30 with class until 8 p.m. (French support is an additional requirement for certain levels). Some of the highlights(and lowlights?):The Good:
- Droit social (social law)- Hilarious professor who gestures, articulates and says "c'est-a-dire" all the time ("that is to say..." followed by another explanation in case we didn't get the first one.) France has a court just for disputes between employers and employees, with all sorts of crazy (he said it, not me) rules. For example, judges in this court (called prud'hommes) must be appointed by the unions, even though half are elected by employers and half by employees who might not even like unions. Furthermore, elections for said judges take place during work hours. Thirdly, judges are not required to have any legal experience whatsoever and have a crash course in law when elected.
- Introduction aux SI (Intro to Information Systems)- again a very good professor. This one's actually in charge of the school library, so when he found out about one of the papers we have to write, he took 15 min off the end of his class to show us where to find article databases on the library's website. He's also very easy to understand and encourages participation.
- Francais (no accents today, sorry. French)- loved Mme Spagnolo when she taught during our intensive French week, so this is no exception. She had an immense vocabulary and seems to enjoy us. She, too, encourages participation. While she won't laugh at you if you're wrong, she won't sugar coat your error, either. She is extremely well-informed about world events (for example, asked me about budget cuts regarding education in California before showing me the article she picked up in Paris that day about it) and is a pleasure to listen to.
- Politiques communautaires (Communal politics)- Taught by different professors with different backgrounds (politics, economics, sociology...) every time, this has basically been a modern European history course that all of the anglo kids desperately need.
- Logistiques et Supply Chain Management- Crapshoot. Sometimes fairly interesting, other times 3 hours of the worst kind of boredom there is. These professors also like to quiz us before teaching us. AKA- what are the three dimensions of logistics? They aren't anything you'd be able to come up with, let alone a quantitative answer. Note: in case you take this: Inter-organisationnel, intra-organisationnel, et environmmental. I'm not even going to check my spelling there.
- Diagnostic financier (financial diagnostics)- we haven't actually started any analysis yet, so it's early to judge. So far just a "review" of financial accounting. However, some European rules are the same as FAS (Financial Accounting Standards- US), and some are completely different. Amortizations, for example, refer to all forms of depreciation except for those on things like stock, which are reversible and non-permanent.
- Economie Internationale (again, no accents. International Economics)- Unfortunately the only class that is gauranteed to be on my transcript because I have to take it. This professor speaks in a low-pitched voice, aims his mouth at the floor, speaks quickly, is cocky as all get-out, and refuses to change. A couple of brave students asked him last class to please speak louder/slower then he wasted 10 minutes of class time telling us that we couldn't slow down because we have to take a test on the material whether we've covered it or not. The slides are full of paragraph long quotes (a big no-no in powerpoint presentations) and then he talks about things while we're writing furiously and says that some things won't be in the powerpoint and some will, but refuses to give us the slides ahead of time. At least it can only go up from there?
GERMANY! I love Germany! We took the train to Frankfurt and were met by Maggie's dad on Friday. Had dinner in the hotel in Wiesbaden (which is a government-owned hotel for servicepeople and employees on orders) with him and his co-worker. It was Italian, because it's an Italian restaurant, but was fantastic after just light snacks all day.
Saturday he went to drop co-workers off at the airport, so Maggie and I found our way to the downtown area. There happened to be a fantastic market that gave the Saturday market in Reims some tough competition. Tried apfelwein- which was absolutely fantastic. I would say, as usual, that approximately 99% of the people were absolutely wonderful. Also: no dog poop on the street, people mostly didn't run into us in order to prove that the sidewalk was there, children and dogs were well-behaved and gorgeous... Oh, and for my single girlfriends, German men are much better looking than the French ones, at least what I've seen so far. Looked around and did some very light shopping, mostly for postcards. For dinner, we took the train into Frankfurt and had dinner at what my untrained eye sees as a very authentic German place. We sat at a communal table, had our pilsner (so, so, very good with a perfect aftertaste) with food. For me a mixed grill plate with pork chop, small sausage, pork shoulder, sauerkraut (mmm), mashed potatoes and a thick slab of bacon on top of the potatoes. For dessert, Maggie's dad suggested we try apfelkorn. Typically, I don't like most liqueurs because they smell awful, but this one smelled and tasted like the first bite of a deliciously crisp apple. Because we want to keep doctors away permanently, we also shared apfelstrudel for dessert, which came with a custard sauce and whipped cream.
Sunday we took an autobahn (not as speedy as you'd think) down the Rhine to RΓΌdesheim. The town is absolutely gorgeous, overlooking the river. We strolled around and ended up taking a sky-lift thing up the vineyard-covered hillside to the top of the hill. Gorgeous, smooth ride that made me want to come back with someone I love... Quick visit to the top to check out the amazing view and then back down. Maggie and I did a bit of shopping while her dad went to feed the parking meter. We sat down for lunch at another nice German place. Had schnitzel with a mushroom cream sauce and spaetzel (German noodles) on side, with pilzner, of course. Maggie really wanted to try spaetzel, so we also got the appetizer version which had melted cheese and caramelized onions. There was an entertaining act of a beautiful singer and a guy playing back-up keyboard. They even sang a couple American songs (or example, "My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean" if memory serves), but what was the most fun was the dancing. Several brave couples took turns on the dance floor and I was so impressed with their talent. The women all added cute little kicks to their steps, and the men gracefully guided the girls across the little dance floor as if they did this every week. We finished up a little more Christmas shopping and then headed back to the hotel for some laundry and to bed early because we had to rise at 4 to catch the train. Great weekend and very sad to be back in school. Only about 8 more weeks until Christmas!
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