11 September, 2007

no prereqs? yeah, right!

i have never been SO intimidated by a class as i was today in my poli sci (analysis of the french elections). first, i walk into class and i'm the first one to sit down. even with 2 minutes to go, there are only 4 of us in the classroom. well, that's because there are only 7 PEOPLE ENROLLED. only 6 showed up today.

the professor starts talking, and at first it sounds promising. the only prereq for the class is that we have taken european politics, by which he meant that we knew basic political terms, like election mechanism, bureaucracy, political party, etc. okay, fine, got that. but then he said we should be able to read magazines, newspapers, journal articles, etc....in french. i was the only one not able to do that. then, throughout class, he keeps referring to all these european/french political things that i have never heard of (france is on the fifth republic? they've had 15/16 constitutions?). he went on about the 3,000-4,000 word essay we would have to write and should spend two months on.

i must have looked like a crazy person, because my eyes were wider than rugby balls and my mouth was dropped the whole time. i started nervously twisting my pen about halfway through the 80 minute class. all i could think about was figuring out the drop/add stuff. it was the first time i really felt like giving up and crying since i got here. but after class, i put on some good music, sat down, and figured out what classes i could switch into. it'll all work out...once i get out of that damn class.

other than that, my day was pretty good, albeit long. four classes, from 1035 until 440. i walked to school (a long 3.14 miles in 50 minutes), but couldn't muster up the energy to walk back, so i took the metro (even though it's 9/11, and hte metro would be a perfect way to destroy paris). don't worry, i made it home safely :-)

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