Study Part of Studying Abroad

So I haven't updated this in a while, but a lot has been going on so I'm going to try to condense it down as much as possible.

Seminar

Last week, we had orientation from Monday to Thursday. This basically was made up of all the adminstrative things we have to take care of and several classes on important aspects of French/Parisian culture. Although I thought it was going to be pointless and boring, I actually found it somewhat informative and interesting. There are so many things about this culture that I didn't know and I have been taking French classes for many years! For example, everyone knows all the stereotypes of the French, and especially of those that live in Paris. Well, there is actually some reasoning behind the way they behave that has a lot to do with their history.  So much of their behavior has to do with the hundreds of years of battles, monarchies, protests, etc. that makes up this country's history.

There was one class that focused just on the history of Paris. We found out that the snail pattern of the arrondissements (districts) was a result of the expansion of the city as the population grew. We also learned all the history behind why the city is the way it is today-- the reasoning behind the location of certain buildings, streets, and names, among other things. It was all very interesting.

Classes

My school is called ESCP-Europe and it's a post-graduate business school. It's apparently a pretty good school and one of the best in business schools in Europe (at least those that I've told have been impressed). I'm only taking 4 classes and they only meet once a week for three hours. This probably been the biggest difference between here and UW. I thought it would be hard to adjust to such long hours but it really isn't that difficult especially when everyone gets a coffee (which is actually a small cup of espresso) during the 15-20 minute break in between.

Students

All of the students in my classes are international students which is really cool except for that this makes it harder to speak and practice French. Other than that, it's been great meeting people from all over the world. The majority of them come from other parts of Europe and Latin America. Most of the students here are older than me (about 24-27) but everyone has been very friendly and unbelievably polite.

Food

We have a cafeteria at our school with pretty cheap food (compared to other places) so I have been trying to eat there as much as possible. They have a lot of salads and of course cheese and bread. I've been trying to be adventurous but all the menu items are in French. I apparently don't know French food terms as well as I thought because I wouldn't be able to distinguish duck from rabbit (which they serve). Either way, I have been trying to taste different things but sometimes I just end up getting grilled chicken and fries. Very French, right?