This twenty-year-old is ready to conquer the world. Sort of.
Let me conquer the City of Lights first.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

one good, one bad

This week is hell week. Today I had a group project and a Business Law exams. Tomorrow I have a Marketing exam and International Econ exam. Thursday is Yom Kippur and I can't do anything and Friday I have an essay due. Plus, going home last week for five days for Rosh Hashanah and missing three days of school doesn't help either. So no Julie Blogger McBlogsALot this week.

But I have a couple things to say before my MIA status begins.

First off, yesterday, I set up my appointment to meet with University of Maryland's French Study Abroad Advisor next Tuesday. I assume she's going to help me figure out how to transfer my financial aid, and get my study abroad-ship approved by the University. Exciting and a bit scary.

Second, I got the actual physical acceptance package from CEA today in the mail. Which makes it official, almost, except forth $500 I need to send in to confirm my spot. But I read through the booklet they provided with general useful information for students traveling to France. Also exciting and a bit scary.

Then, I've also gotten to study abroad related e-mails in the past few days. One good, one bad.

One of my friends who is studying abroad this semester writes:

so im not in the greatest place right now. im starting to really rethink this semester and i dont know if it is the best idea for me to stay. that being said i think it would also be academic suicide to leave in the middle and ive never quit anything in my life. i dont know what it is but something is just not meshing right. i like my roomates and friends they are really sweet, but they arent you guys. it is different. like i feel like they are alright friends but no major connections. i kind of get the feeling its all superficial... i also really miss havign close guy friends. its so funny how much you take for granted back home. im just kind of going through a rough patch with all this stuff.

My primary concern was obviously writing her back and telling her that there will be rough patches, that's just part of the process, that going abroad is scary and takes guts, and that her friends are there for her and miss her. I also told her that if she left, she'd regret it. But, her email made me really nervous.

On that note, I've been trying to think about next semester abstractly, "oh, I'll be in Paris", without really concentrating on the fact that I'll be abroad and in a foreign country by myself... I'll deal with that once I get off the plane. In some ways, I feel like I'm going to take next semester to just be by myself... I don't know how to explain it. I guess that's a too poetic way to look at all of it. Once I get there, I'm sure I'll want to make friends and go out every night and not be alone.

Okay, so the second e-mail I received tonight. It's from my French teacher this semester, who I asked about the current attitudes towards Jews in France:

Bonsoir Julie,

J'ai parle a mes amis en France au sujet de votre sejour en France l'an prochain. C'est une famille, d'une part, aux racines juives et, d'autre part, vraiment politisee, donc, je suis sure qu'on peut se fier a leur opinion, ils sont sans aucun doute au courant. Bon, on m'assure qu'il n'y a rien a craindre de ce cote-la. S'il y avait des faits d'antisemitisme la-bas, c'etait toujours l'opposition surtout entre les adolescents des communautes musulmanes et juives, et cela ne concernait jamais que le milieu vraiment orthodoxe. Les etidiants d'universites sont vraiment tres loin de cela. Tout comme aux Etats Unis, il n'y a pas d'anisemitisme d'Etat en France. Moi personnellement, comme je vous l'ai deja dit, j'ai sejourne a Arles et a Avignons deux fois, et pour longtemps (plusieurs semaines), et jamais je n'ai senti aucune inimitie raciste de la part de la population de ces villes (pourtant je suis tres vulnerable sur ce point).

Donc, voila tout ce que je peux vous dire a ce sujet. Du courage!

It's getting late so here are the cliff notes:

  • I can't believe she wrote it in French, it's a 200-level class and I can tell a lot of people are lost in it (not me so much though)
  • I was exited to understand it all
  • I don't have time to translate it now, but it basically says, "no worries"
  • Hopefully my francophone blog visitors will enjoy some French on the page!

Like I said, one good, one bad. And, now, I'm back to studying.

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