Students’ Views

I can’t believe it’s almost done. I have a test, a paper and a presentation. Definitely not the end-of-the-year Southwestern workload I’m use to, but it’s going to be difficult either way. I have to do it all in French. I chose my classes for next semester a couple of weeks ago. This was surprisingly difficult. I’m use to getting recommendations for classes from professors and friends. I feel like I went in blind this year! It really wasn’t so bad. I’m a little bummed about my senior year class load because all I have left is required classes. I made the mistake of taking mostly awesome classes my first two years at school. This is a liberal arts college problem. My friends at big universities have had relatively little freedom in choosing classes for four years.

All of my friends here are on vacation. Basically every eight weeks these guys get a vacation. The down side is that they seem to have a lot more work crammed into a smaller period of time, but also they don’t get so anxious for the end of each semester. I think with the semesters broken up a bit more they can focus more. Also, with a shorter summer vacation going back isn’t such a drag. Just like me, no of them has any idea what they’re going to do afterwards BUT it’s a really different type of fear. There really isn’t graduate school like there is in the states nor is it the case that when you finish you college you can’t get a really great high paying job. Things are a more tracked out here. You get a degree in X and you go into X field with very few exceptions. This is good because it’s less worrisome, but bad because you choose your ‘track’ when you’re in high school. And as school goes on there is less and less possibilities for what to do with your degree. So when my friends tell me they’re worried about what they’re going to do after school, it’s usually about the process of finding work within their field. When I tell them I could be going to school for another 2-8 years, working in an office, working in a restaurant, coming back to France to teach English, joining the Peace Corps, they don’t know how to comprehend it. People do go back to school here, but it’s not very common. My home-stay dad went back to night school for eight years while working during the day. I have never met another person who has done this while I’ve been here.

I decided to stay here this summer. I really miss home and my family and my friends, but I figure there is no other time in my life when I can live here. I found work teaching English and found work on a farm also. This is illegally technically, but a little crime never hurt anyone. Interestingly, if I save my money that I make here, I will be able to live on it for awhile next semester. With the dollar being worth ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OVERHERE, the euro is going to go a long way back home.

It looks like next year I’m going to live in a house again just behind campus. I’ve found out that many of my friends are going to live off campus next year. This is super awesome. My first year at school so many people lived off campus and it was a lot of fun. I remember the first time I drove around Southwestern campus with my dad, we passed these houses and I wondered if SU students lived in them. I soon found out that, no, many students do not live here. I am trying to remember what I thought at 18 my life would be four years down the road. I have no idea. I know I thought I would study abroad and that I would probably live off campus and that I would probably major in philosophy or English or psychology but I really had no idea what was in store.

Okay, well now I’m all sapped out.

Bonne nuit!