Day 2 of Classes

Today was my second day of classes and getting to the bureau was much the same as yesterday, albeit noticeably colder.  It appears that my honeymoon period of warm weather is coming to an end.  I was very interested in my courses today.  First up was La France Mosaïque: a study of how multiculturalism is shaping the French national identity and what it means to be French.  We began class by interviewing a person sitting next to us about what they know of their family’s origin.  I know a lot about the origins of my family.  All of us being Americans, we had quite a diverse range of variation.  I feel that I will come to enjoy this class quite a bit.

My second course was one of regional history.  The Languedoc-Roussillon region of France has quite an interesting history, playing a major commercial role during the Middle Ages.  I am excited for this course as well.  French courses are divided between TD (Travail Dirigé, or directed work) and CM (Cours magistral) which are larger lectures.  Each CM is broken down into several TD, which allow the professor to better engage with the students.  Today I had the TD of the history class.  The professor was very nice, he recognized right away that he had a large amount of American students in his class (we all sat near the front), but I pride myself in that he did not originally include me with his original estimation of which students were American.  In any case, he talked slower and enunciated more clearly for our benefit, which was greatly appreciated and made sure that we understood what was going on before moving on to the next point.  We began the class with an overview of Judaism, because unlike most of the country, this region was very accepting of Jews and had a large, important Jewish population throughout the Middle Ages.  Next week we are going to the Mikve again for class, so I am pretty excited to go do that again.

That about concludes today, the rest passed without incident.  I am getting better at the public transit system (finding my elusive stop was easier in the daylight).  Good night, all, enjoy your afternoons while I go to bed.