Université Bordeaux Montaigne

Today concludes my first week of school in Bordeaux! I almost forgot I came to Bordeaux with the intention of actually attending some classes. Almost, not quite. Choosing classes here has been a stressful process. Whoever originally told me when one travels abroad one is not obligated to go to class or acknowledge academia lied. The process of deciding which classes to take and which ones have a chance of transferring to my UCSB major requirements has induced some stress. The issue is that everything in terms of obtaining credit at UCSB for classes taken in Bordeaux must be done retroactively via petitioning upon my return to UCSB--there is no guarantee that the classes I am taking will count towards the classes I have left to take at UCSB. You can see how this is a precarious situation.

I am taking five classes this semester. A class called Methodology, which is for UC students in my program to work on speaking and grammar and also sheds light on how to write and complete assignments for classes here because the education system is very different. You would think writing an essay for a college course would be a universal thing. It is not. That's what I am learning. I am also taking an art history course on the Renaissance. Really a pain because art is not my thing but you gotta do what you gotta do, and this I gotta do. My third class is a poetry class. Literature is my thing and my host sister, Alexia, is in my class. We read Baudelaire today and I think I am really going to like it. It is also nice to have Alexia there to help me when I get a little lost in translation. So, those are the three classes I am taking in French. The last two are classes taught in English. One is called Gastronomy, which is again only for UC students and is about the history of French food and wine. I mean when it comes down to it, that's what we're all here for, isn't it? Food and wine. Bingo. Last but not least, and maybe so far my most entertaining class is also taught in English. It is called "From Brown to Obama." It is about the Civil Rights Movement, starting with Brown v. Board of Education all the way to, you guessed it, President Obama. Why am I taking this class when I probably could teach it? Because it's quite interesting to listen to a professor explain to a lecture hall full of French students something with which I am very familiar with but that the rest of the class cannot conceptualize. For instance this week our professor was explaining what the Supreme Court is and does. It was interesting to see many of the students unable to comprehend why we have a Supreme Court. "Well if they can't enforce the rulings, what good are they? They can't DO anything" was a comment during lecture.

One thing that is difficult to understand about the education system over here is that the students pay about 200 euros in tuition. 200 EUROS!!! My textbooks at Santa Barbara cost more than that each quarter! And I am hesitant to overgeneralize but it seems to me that because they aren't paying much for their education, they don't take it very seriously. Students in small and large classes alike will talk through the entire class and the professor will not try to command their attention. It's not a large investment they are making so what's the big deal if they don't learn everything? So, for the foreign exchange student paying much more than 200 euros to sit in the class, you better sit in the front row to get the most bang for your buck. Otherwise, your buddy Pierre in the back will make it impossible for you to hear what the professor is saying.

In conclusion, the term "study abroad" contains the word "study". It seems after this first week of classes that I will indeed have to partake in that activity whilst I am here.

Université Bordeaux Montaigne