Back to the Books

After a little bit of playing around the past few weeks, I finally had to start getting down to business with the start of classes. And yes, because I am a bit of a nerd, I was actually pretty excited to go back and learn. I know. After week one, I am still excited about most of my classes, which is definitely a good sign. I’ll start things off with a little preview of the academic fun I have in store from now until the end of January.

For some reason this picture from Musee Carnavalet inspires me of academia

History of Chile in the 20^th Century:

Starts the week off with a bang Mondays at 12:30. This class is going to be sweet. My teacher is young, incredibly knowledgeable and has some really cool guestspeakers lined up for the semester. The focus is on the socialist uprising and military dictatorship that followed from the 1970s onward, and more importantly, how memory has been effected by the traumatic events that went on during that period on both an individual and collective level. I love when courses have a unique angle at which you evaluate a period. This class is a little heavier on the workload with an individual presentation of 7min, a group presentation of 12 and a term paper of 1500 words. No exam. Somehow, I managed to volunteer for my oral presentation for the first session (we had an extra session on Thursday). Smooth sailing – I think I nailed it. 25% of my mark taken care of already and we’re just done week one.

French Politics and Society in the 20^th Century:

My teacher kindof reminds me of a dinosaur, and has a fairly uninspiring lecture style. Not a good thing when I have class from 5-7 at night. Now I understand why people drink coffee. I can forsee issues staying awake in this one. However, she is obviously a pro at her subject and I’m actually looking forward to learn more about the tumultuous past of my home for the next year. Bonus marks for the paper being a book report on a memoir. I am going to do mine on a woman in the French resistance. That and a final exam is January tops it off.

French Language:

What a better way to start your Tuesday than French Language at 8am. That’s right, this is my first ever 8am class of my university career. Language classes don’t actually start until this coming week so I don’t have much feedback on this one yet.

The French Contemporary Novel:

Since my mind has already been awoken with French for two hours, I pass straight on to my only lecture class in French, on French novels. I’m a little terrified. Our teacher has yet to really clarify what exactly we will be evaluated on, except for a presentation done in pairs, dates to be determined. Each pair will present a different novel and author. So everyone will be reading different books. My presentation is on French literary prizes, so not sure what I have to read yet… Going to try and figure that out next class. The biggest problem is the teacher. He speaks kind of like this: THE NOVEL IS THE most significant style of writing. This yelling/whispering combo, spoken in Parisian French, makes it very challenging to catch this important second half of the sentence. Note taking is going to be interesting. Hopefully there’s no final exam based on in class…

After this overload of French language in class I receive a refreshing break by heading off campus for a few hours to Ballroom dancing classes! At Sciences Po, students can actually receive 2 (of 30) credits from participation in a ‘sports’ or artistic class. I have persuaded my friend Daniel from Melbourne, who was in my welcome group Madeleine, to be my partner. Lets just say we are quite the pair. We are very focused. With only four couples in the class though, we get a lot of personal help, which is definitely needed. So far, our Cha-cha is looking promising, but our Tango is in sore need of some revision. We’ll be working on those for the next few weeks before looking at some other styles.

History of Fashion:

Back to school Tuesday night from 5-7 for what I think will be my favorite class, the history of fashion. Before you dismiss this class as a joke because of its title, the key work here is HISTORY. We are going to be looking at the evolution in fashion motivated by changes of (primarily) women in society. How and why people are dressing the way they do in a specific time period and the phenomenon of fashion. This is a class about becoming a fashion expert, not shopping addict. The teacher is amazing, young, blunt, a little harsh, and not afraid to scare students a little bit. Its always refreshing to see a teacher with personality. Kindof love here. Only One presentation in pairs and an in-class final exam sit quite nicely as well.

After 10 hours of class in two days, I get to look forward to having Wednesdays off. My goal right now is to use this time as productively as possible to stay on top of readings and work etc. Some mornings I may try and go to a museum or something, go for a swim etc, we shall see. The afternoons feature sport class number 2: Salsa! Latino beats coupled with an outrageously sexual 40 year old male salsa teacher are certain to entertain over the coming months.

Ethics of War:

My final class of the week on Thursday mornings promises to be very interesting. Lots of great questions to think about. So far the readings have been really good, so that’s a good sign, especially since there are multiple every week. Fortunately my other classes don’t seem to require more than and hour or two of reading a week. I’m already excited about the term paper, even though I know its going to be a struggle to write. The teacher is also very organized and leaves time open for class discussion every session.

And that’s a wrap! Thursday afternoons free for more study, and optional TA help sessions for a few classes will probably characterize. Again, motivation to work during the day to leave evenings and the weekends free for social life. Fridays same thing. Sleep, (Erasmus parties Thursday nights!) study, and possibly take off early for the weekend. Now to see how long my enthusiasm for school lasts!