David and I have decided to take our first little excursion since arriving in Chambéry and we'll be heading off to Lyon tomorrow. I am quite excited as there are several UNESCO World Heritage sites there to see, including two Gallo-Roman amphitheaters and a basilisk. I personally am not sure what the difference is between a basilisk and a cathedral but I am sure that it has a very important distinction. Also we'll be going with some of David's friends from class so we should be able to get some good pictures out of the deal. As David already said in his post, that is a definite benefit of traveling in groups! By the way, any of my blog readers who are interested in reading David's blog and are not already doing so should either check out this link: http://francedavid.wordpress.com/ or e-mail me and I'll add you to his e-mail list so you receive his updates automatically. Of course, in some areas they will be a little redundant, but overall we should present different perspectives and share rather complementary stories.
I haven't taken the time to update you yet, but I made my first three friends in Chambéry during my Thursday class of European Economics. They were very personable and they have invited David and I to celebrate the birthday party of Florence with them this upcoming Monday. We are definitely planning on going, and we are both quite excited I think. I am looking forward to having some new friends (as it is not too fun to be all alone in a classroom) and David will profit from his first contact with school-aged French students as all his current friends are other Americans. And a note about the class... OH MY GOSH I feel like I don't know very much about economics. haha. I guess I should have known that the class would be of a fairly high level since this was an economics course for the third year studies of students in the department of Economics and Social Administration, but I was by far the least knowing of the terms and acronyms and LAWS in the class. These students also have to study law for their degree so it is just lonely little me, the American, in the class without much background knowledge. However, I do not find this at all discouraging as I prefer to learn at a quicker pace than most and I find challenges exhilarating. Also, David likes to get involved in my homework and research so it is a good opportunity for us both to learn and for him to practice a more applied French. And overall I think that the course will be extremely interesting as it will most effectively show me the European perspective on economics. Perhaps the course is made even more interesting by the fact that the Euro-zone is near collapse and there are quite a few differing theories about what can be done to fix the problem, or at least delay destruction.
As for my statistics course, it was a bit easy, very fundamental, though my professor does speak extremely quickly. Fortunately he says a lot of filler information so I don't have to listen to everything - it would be very tiring (even in English) because he just talks a lot more than is necessary. We'll see how everything goes but I should be able to pass the class. Of course I am not sure that this is the sort of class that Miami is looking for to earn credit, but I also am not sure that I could do something much more advanced in a foreign language because it has been 4 years since I have taken a math class and even though I am extremely capable in mathematics (a perfect on my IB test and a perfect on the math section of my SAT) there is no point in denying I have forgotten some of the principles, and then there is the whole foreign language aspect. Either way I have decided to stick with the course that I am currently taking and if, when I get back to Miami, they do not feel that it adequately meets the requirements desired, then I will think of it as a course I took to prepare myself for my Miami Stats course and a way through which I got myself out of my 4-year drought from Math. I do quite like math after all...
Well it is getting late so David and I are going to get to bed I think so that we can get up somewhat early to catch our train to Lyon. I just wanted to keep everyone up to date about my classes, which really spring into action next week. I'll let you know how they go! Love to everyone!
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