...and I have the student card to prove it. Last week, I had my semaine d'integration at Assas, which basically consisted of a 5 lectures on the history and basics of French Law, along with two afternoon sessions on the methodology of French law - basically, how to do the tutorial exercises.
It's only now that I'm actually realising how different education in France actually is. I remember thinking something similar a couple of years back when I went on an exchange and spent two weeks at a lycée - and the differences follow through into higher education. Even down to simple things, like lectures, it is clear that they're conducted differently to how they are at university back home - they're very formally structured, and asides from anything else, they're conducted on a much grander scale than I'm used to.
I started my electives this week- I'm taking 5 per semester - and at a lecture I went to yesterday morning, I was really surprised to see the sheer number of people - and it wasn't even a compulsory subject! It makes UK law schools look like complete midgets in comparison. People had told me in advance to expect something like this - as I understand it, universities here aren't selective, so anyone can sign up, and each year just gets smaller as people either drop out or fail - but it still took me aback. There was easily 1500 people at that lecture, if not more, which is easily double my entire year group back in London.
The biggest problem I've had so far is taking notes. The lecturers, to my ears at least, seem to talk at about 100mph and whilst my French isn't bad - I wouldn't be here otherwise - when you only understand so many words in 10, that's not helpful. Still, it is only my first week and I think that with practice, I'll get the hang of it.
This week being the first week, it has obviously been lectures only, but the TD's - tutorials - start next week and I'm really interested to see how those differ as well. I've been told that size is, again, a large factor - my biggest tutor group back home probably had 15 people in it, tops, but apparently its more like 30 here. I guess I will just have to wait and see!
In other news, I have actually been doing fun stuff as well. Recently, a group of us went on our first proper night out in Paris - weird that it took us so long to get around to, but there we go - in the Bastille area, which was a really good night out, ending with a late night/early morning McDonalds.
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| Casually setting fire to the bar - as you do. |
I've also been back to the Louvre, and we managed to see a little bit more this time - for instance, we actually managed to see the Mona Lisa.
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| I'm not the best photographer - but... |
If you've ever heard that this painting is a lot smaller than you expect, well, it's true. I think the fame surrounding this picture encourages people to expect a lot more than is actually there! Not to be a complete downer on Da Vinci's work, mind you - the lady with the mysterious smile is famous for a reason!
Vicky xx
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