Second Day of School…..(July 8, 2008)
OK, that part about getting my ID and being able to connect to the wireless internet from my dorm room hasn’t happened yet! I got a login and ID to use in the computer lab, and foolishly, I suppose, I thought it work in the dorm. But evidently it doesn’t, and since I am only here for 3 weeks, they may not give me a code. But I am going to load up the blogs on my flash drive tonight and post them tomorrow in the lab! My apologies if you have been sitting on the edges of your chairs waiting to read about my adventures (not so exciting at this moment!)
I have a whole new appreciation for my daughter, who navigated this bureaucratic mess when she just 18 years old! I could go on forever telling you the rat races we have run, but I won’t put you through that. It just seems like what is printed in our materials and on signs is never what is really meant. One small example….in several pieces of printed material we were told that we could get an unlimited tram pass for 28E90 with a student ID. We had to wait until today to get our student ID. So we have been paying for individual trips on the tram. We rushed over today to get our pass, and the lady who sold them threw a fit (not at us, at the university) because the 28E90 pass is only for handicapped people. Since we are only here for three weeks, she told us our best deal was to buy 30 tickets for 28E90. She was not very happy with the folks who printed the brochures. Our information also told us that the cafeteria started serving at 6, so we rushed over there only to find out that they didn’t start serving until 6:30, so we could have spent some more time in the computer lab. This place makes the Texas Tech runaround look like a tricycle track!
Have I mentioned how ugly this university is? The scenery is beautiful surrounding it, but the buildings are horrendous and the grounds are kept very poorly. I suppose that since college is free for the students who are smart enough to go in France, they don’t need to have beautiful campuses for recruitment purposes. There are a few (very few) attractive buildings, but most are just concrete blocks resembling something from behind the former Iron Curtain. We’ve noticed that none of the brochures have pictures of the buildings…..just students!
Enough complaining. I had a good, long day. My first class (phonetics) was very interesting and the teacher is very animated. (She kicked the desk today and complained that it was left over from the 19th century.) I’m going to try to sneak a video of her.
My second class (current civilization) is interesting, but very deep. My third class is supposed to be French as it is currently spoken, and again, the teacher is very good and interesting, but by 3:30 I was pretty brain dead. That class lasts 2 hours, because it doesn’t meet on Friday.
Tonight Mary (from Alaska) and I ate in the cafeteria, and met two students from Lebanon and Tunisia. The Lebanese (Walid) is an engineer finishing his thesis, and the Tunisian (Rama) is studying to be a lawyer. I was asking Mary if she liked couscous, and told her I’d like to find a good place to eat couscous some evening. Then I turned to Rama (this is before we had really gotten acquainted) to ask her if she knew of a good place in town to recommend. She and Walid said they would love to take us to their favorite place downtown some evening! I’m so excited, and appreciative that they are willing to invite two middle-aged ladies to go to dinner with them! I hope it happens.
I have a tiny ice cube tray that goes in my mini fridge, and makes 10 tiny cubes of ice. So tonight I am having some Coke Zero over ice in my happy face cup that I purchased at the Casino, sitting at my desk watching the mountains outside of my window as the sun sets. Of course, I have to look over the concrete plant to get to the mountains, but it is still quite a view! Guess I’ll go do my readings for class tomorrow…..
OK, that part about getting my ID and being able to connect to the wireless internet from my dorm room hasn’t happened yet! I got a login and ID to use in the computer lab, and foolishly, I suppose, I thought it work in the dorm. But evidently it doesn’t, and since I am only here for 3 weeks, they may not give me a code. But I am going to load up the blogs on my flash drive tonight and post them tomorrow in the lab! My apologies if you have been sitting on the edges of your chairs waiting to read about my adventures (not so exciting at this moment!)
I have a whole new appreciation for my daughter, who navigated this bureaucratic mess when she just 18 years old! I could go on forever telling you the rat races we have run, but I won’t put you through that. It just seems like what is printed in our materials and on signs is never what is really meant. One small example….in several pieces of printed material we were told that we could get an unlimited tram pass for 28E90 with a student ID. We had to wait until today to get our student ID. So we have been paying for individual trips on the tram. We rushed over today to get our pass, and the lady who sold them threw a fit (not at us, at the university) because the 28E90 pass is only for handicapped people. Since we are only here for three weeks, she told us our best deal was to buy 30 tickets for 28E90. She was not very happy with the folks who printed the brochures. Our information also told us that the cafeteria started serving at 6, so we rushed over there only to find out that they didn’t start serving until 6:30, so we could have spent some more time in the computer lab. This place makes the Texas Tech runaround look like a tricycle track!
Have I mentioned how ugly this university is? The scenery is beautiful surrounding it, but the buildings are horrendous and the grounds are kept very poorly. I suppose that since college is free for the students who are smart enough to go in France, they don’t need to have beautiful campuses for recruitment purposes. There are a few (very few) attractive buildings, but most are just concrete blocks resembling something from behind the former Iron Curtain. We’ve noticed that none of the brochures have pictures of the buildings…..just students!
Enough complaining. I had a good, long day. My first class (phonetics) was very interesting and the teacher is very animated. (She kicked the desk today and complained that it was left over from the 19th century.) I’m going to try to sneak a video of her.
My second class (current civilization) is interesting, but very deep. My third class is supposed to be French as it is currently spoken, and again, the teacher is very good and interesting, but by 3:30 I was pretty brain dead. That class lasts 2 hours, because it doesn’t meet on Friday.
Tonight Mary (from Alaska) and I ate in the cafeteria, and met two students from Lebanon and Tunisia. The Lebanese (Walid) is an engineer finishing his thesis, and the Tunisian (Rama) is studying to be a lawyer. I was asking Mary if she liked couscous, and told her I’d like to find a good place to eat couscous some evening. Then I turned to Rama (this is before we had really gotten acquainted) to ask her if she knew of a good place in town to recommend. She and Walid said they would love to take us to their favorite place downtown some evening! I’m so excited, and appreciative that they are willing to invite two middle-aged ladies to go to dinner with them! I hope it happens.
I have a tiny ice cube tray that goes in my mini fridge, and makes 10 tiny cubes of ice. So tonight I am having some Coke Zero over ice in my happy face cup that I purchased at the Casino, sitting at my desk watching the mountains outside of my window as the sun sets. Of course, I have to look over the concrete plant to get to the mountains, but it is still quite a view! Guess I’ll go do my readings for class tomorrow…..
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