Piles of Ripe Avocados: SKEMA!

Dear Reader,

I bet you're wondering what it's like going to school in France and how that compares to school in the United States. So far I've been to one weeks worth of classes and it's definitely been a different experience. Before I came here, I was told that the professors here love American students because they work harder and are in general more attentive. But I found that hard to believe, and I figured I was going to have to actually work to live up to those expectations. BOY was I wrong.

First thing to know about school here: French students talk all during class. WHILE the teacher is talking. It's so disrespectful it kind of makes my head spin a little bit. About half of the teachers put up with it, the other half tolerate 0 noise as a result. All of the American students are so confused, because we genuinely want to pay attention. And its not like I don't understand not wanting to pay attention in class. But it's Day 1. At least try to show some manners! Not to mention that if you don't want to pay attention in class, that's your own business. But don't distract other people too, that's not fair. While there are a lot of things the Americans could learn from the French (for example, portion control-I have only seen like 2 fat people here so far and everyone else looks like a model), French students could definitely take a pointer or two from us. Like instead of paying attention in class, bring a computer to go on facebook and play solitaire. Or at least get out a piece of paper and play hangman with your neighbor (the french get an extra turn because all french hangman stick figures are required to have a mustache as well). Just do it quitely, s'il vous plaît !

So far I'm taking mostly business classes. On Tuesdays I have International Marketing at 8:30am and then Productions and Operations Management at 4pm. It's a LONG gap in between. Wednesdays I'm going to be taking Photography if I get into the class. Thursdays I have Corporate Finance at 8:30am and then another huge block with Org Behavior at 4pm. It means a lot of long breaks and a lot of me traveling back and forth between the school and anywhere with a decent cafe. SKEMA is in the middle of nowhere. Google maps it if you don't believe me, it's only woods for miles (or kilometers as they say here). I'm sure that next week I'll actually get to looking around. I still need to get myself a bus pass. The classes themselves seem like a cakewalk at the moment. In corporate finance some of the girls in class had trouble doing basic multiplication and we were stuck there for a good 15 minutes. Also almost all assessments in class are open book/open computer/open note. It's going to be a awesome.

I finally got around to uploading some pictures too! This is Marissa and my apartment in Antibes: