Salut! I returned last night from trip to the south of France with about 500 other people from my school. The trip was translated into English as an “Integration Seminar”, which just means that people from all the different sections of the school got together and competed to prove which major was best. There was finance, marketing, accounting, international business, etc. The competition consisted mostly of these students just chanting songs about why their major was better, but everyone was very serious about it. I have never seen people fight so competitively about business majors!
Note: I am not a business major. I am a political science major with a philosophy minor, planning to pursue a career in law. In France I am attending the Paris Graduate School of Management (the larger umbrella school) and taking courses in business and finance. I am doing so because as I have mentioned before, I have been in love with Paris for years and it has always been my dream to live there for a while. PGSM is the only partner school McKendree has in Paris (I pay tuition to McKendree but attend PGSM and their students can do the same), and the McKendree Business Department was kind enough to accept me into this exchange which is normally reserved for business students.
The trip was a lot of fun, of course. We were all living in a little resort community on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea. They had a pool, eating facilities, a dance club, and of course a huge expanse of beach. Everyone paid a flat fee which covered food, bed, and an almost 24/7 open bar. I got to know some of my fellow exchange students a lot better and made some friends among the French students. It was quite the hike – we drove about 10 hours both ways, but I enjoyed the highway driving. It was the most American thing I’ve experienced in a while. :)
I got home last night to find that another of our roommates has arrived. Her name is Beatrice and she is Italian, but she had a friend over so I did not get a chance to learn much more. We now have 4 people living in our little 6 person apartment, and I am hoping that others move in soon. Our landlord is unable to provide us with any information as to who might be moving in or whether someone actually even will move in because he just doesn’t know. I have met a lot of international students who are still without housing, including two Mexican girls I met this weekend who have been living in a hostel for 3 weeks. That would be so miserable! I feel bad because they need a place to live and we have a place for them to live, but for some reason they are not getting moved in. It is a little confusing. Hopefully everything will work out!
This week I start the rest of my courses. I am looking forward to meeting the rest of my professors! I can't believe it is almost October already...
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