Quatorzieme semaine

Bonjour tous!

I hope you are all doing well and getting through your finals week without many “noirs blanches” (all-nighters). My finals aren’t until the third week of December, the week before Christmas, and half of them were due last week or this week in “dissertation” form, so that has relieved the weight-especially after the strike.

This past week has gone by quite fast, just like this entire experience in Bordeaux (I’m so sad to leave!), and since it was our first week back after our 3 week strike, there was a lot of catching up (rattraper) to do and classes seemed shorter. In fact, the blocage students tried to block the university again on Wednesday afternoon, where, apparently, they held a vote that nobody knew about (that’s democracy!). When I came into my class on Thursday morning, I was met with a massive crowd of students standing in the courtyard because they couldn’t get into the buildings (they were blocked again). After about an hour of waiting around for the President of the uni to make a decision, they were able to unblock the buildings. I remember on Tuesday when the blocage students went through the halls of the buildings screaming, singing, pounding on walls and just making all sorts of disturbances because they were angry that we voted to unblock the university and (I guess), wanted to “express” themselves (politically)-yes, by having a tantrum (which is what it seemed like). But anyway, the uni remains open, although they are having problems handling the “rattrapage,” (catching up) of three weeks worth of work. Apparently, they had decided to have their first semester final exams in May, after their second semester exams…does anyone think that is silly? Or is that just me? Well, it definitely est nul (sucks) for them because I surely wouldn’t remember anything if I had learned it 4 months ago! Well, anyway, I guess UFR- the administration, is deciding, but in the meanwhile, I have 10 extra hours of class each week to try and rattraper (catch up) the time lost. Not a fun result of something I (and the majority of students at Bordeaux 3) didn’t want to begin with.

Other than that, I finished my dissertation on Giotto for my histoire de l’art class (which wasn’t an easy task…) and got owned in my harmonie écrite class (apparently there isn’t na equal phrase to “got owned” in French) on Thursday. I have been setting up my finals exams with my professor and I actually have my final exam this Friday for that class. I made Christmas cookies with friends this past weekend (which were sooo good…ahhh…ate so many “biscuits de noel”) and I was planning on going ice skating at the newly formed ice skating rink in the downtown, but decided to stay in and write my geography final due this Friday. On Thursday, I went karaoke-ing with some Frenchies at an English pub downtown which was quite fun- even when the power went out because of the electricity sucking but quite beautiful and oh-so-holiday spirited Christmas lights which now adorn the streets and trees of Bordeaux. I also have been getting all my plans ready for the end of this month since I am traveling after my program with my friend who is coming over from England, so I have spent a lot of time searching for hostels on the computer. And I’ve also discovered www.watch-movies.net. Dangit.

Bon courage on finals!
Sherilyn