A bit of new life!

Finally, today I have decided to take out some time and keep work away so as to be able to write. It's been a month that I am here and I haven't given my news. I have been meaning to write since always, but my crazy schedule didn't allow me that. Oh well, but today am here! me voilà!!

Days till today have flown so fast that I didn't even realize it! Already been a month?! It feels like I was still struggling with the packing, meeting everybody, dealing with the last minute problems! But all that is a past now and I am here in Paris, thanks to my parents and many other people! I am really thankful to those who supported my decision of coming here! I think I did a good job of coming here! The exposure I am getting here, the true "international student life", working with people from all over the world on particular topics, managing daily life once again, but this time without my own income, cooking and so much more.

The student-life here can't be defined by any other word than 'crazy'. I have a very wired timetable every day! On Mondays, I have classes "en continue" from 12.30pm till 9.15pm! With a break of 15 mins in each class, which isn't sufficient as those 15 mins are needed to change the buildings, as Sciences Po doesn't really have a "campus" as such. It's just 5 buildings in one very chic locality of Paris! And of course, the buildings are awesome! Then on Tuesdays, only one lecture that too in the evening, from 7.15 to 9.15! Wednesdays start at 8 am and end at 10 am! Thursdays are even crazier! Have lecture from 12.30 to 2.30, then have a break of 5 hours and the second lecture at 7.15 till 9.15! Fridays are equal but the days starts 2 hours earlier than Thursday and so ends 2 hours early as well! Thank god Saturday-Sundays are off!! As far as the classroom life is considered, at times, it gets extremely frustrating. People around me are busy taking notes, either on their latest macs or laptops or in their notebooks, using different colour pens even though the prof is talking at the speed of light. I just fail to take proper notes!! Here I am tempted to blame the educational system back home which doesn't train us at all for such things by providing us ready notes and gives the best ever spoon feeding. Hélas, I am training myself to take notes and I must say I am progressing though it will take time!

As I have such a long breaks between 2 lectures, I prefer staying in the college itself. On the ground floor of 2 buildings, there are tables and chairs for the student who want to stay there and study. And believe me, they actually study!! Why I prefer staying here is I also get motivated to study! Recently Sciences Po has opened the new, awesome library which has almost 100 Macs! Awesome interior, nice books, recent issues of international magazines, wifi and nice people at the reception! So, at least, am happy about the fact that the exorbitant fees they took from us are being used for something so good! Though everybody cribs about the Sciences Po administrative dept, in general, people are nice and I think it's very important! As I must have already told you that we have an ex-French Minister as a visiting faculty, all other profs are equally brilliant and toppers in their fields. What surprises me is that even these people are so well educated and lead the finest lives one could ever dream of, they are all down to earth, always ready to help their students! The subjects taught here are extremely interesting. I think it's really great that they link our knowledge to the current affairs! So we can apply our knowledge to analyze the current happenings and see if we have understood it or no! :) This 'reality' approach will help us all in our careers! Apart from the classroom lectures, there are a lot of lectures arranged on different issues bothering the world today. Till today, I have attended a lecture by LSE director and the second one was by the experts on Palestine State issues! Wow!

But but!! To excel all this excellent knowledge which we get, we have to work a lot, read a lot, discuss a lot and again work a lot! The educational system of which I was part the whole my life is completely different from this current one! So there's a burden and fear of adjustment... Thankfully language is not the problem. So half the hurdle is through! Each day comes with different challenges... Sometimes they seem unachievable but, in reality, are just next door and sometimes it's inverse as well!!

But am enjoying it! and liking it! :)

And I have decided to stay cool and stay connected!

The 15th day...

As the name suggests, here I am going to talk about a 15th day... but of what?! Well, it's the last 15th day of a month I'd be living in Bourges... Sounds a bit funny,huh?! Anyway, that day was really special...

My work contract is almost getting over. And now am really bored and longing to go back home. I am running out of the ideas about what I should be doing in the classes as all most everything is been taught and plus the students too aren't that motivated coz it's the end of the year! For them, the summer is calling and for me it's Pune calling! So as usual I was struggling in my mind about what I should be doing the class and also trying to find a reason if I could miss the class! :p Obviously that wasn't possible. Actually speaking for a change, my day was gonna be quite busy! Had the school in the afternoon and then I was going to a friend's place as it was the day where I was going to make "Repas Indien" (the Indian meal) for my French class friends.

Relcutantly I went to the school. As it's mansoon season (!!) in France, it's been raining like anything and at anytime. So I prefered going by bus. Which meant that I reached school 10 mins in advance! Normally I work after the lunch breaks at the schools. I really like to see children playing on the ground before they get into the class. The bell never rings at 1.30 sharp! So it was around 1.40 and the teacher told me that before the English class they had a practice for their "Sepectacle de l'Ecole qui chante" (A programs of singing schools). An interesting point to observe here is that the school gatherings are at the end of the academic year! One by one all the classes gather under the play-shed. By all the classes I mean ALL the students! From maternelle to CM2. They sang one song, by Michel Jakson, "In the world..." It was really nice to see all those French kids sing that English song with their cute accent! The 15 mins of practice turned into 30 minutes of different practice sessions and so only 15 mins of class!! The kids were obviously in the festive mood so I didn't stretch too much either.

In the evening, by 4.30 I returned to the school with my friend Mary. Her daughter, the little angle Lena goes to the same school. In French schools I observed this one thing there's always a small fun fair kind thing in say every 2 months where Children sell the cakes and pastries made by their moms! It's quite a la mode in this particular school! So after that fun fair children were going to sing.

The program started at 5.15. Children gatherd on the "stage". In their regular dresses (of course! I can't say uniforms as they don't have one!), no make-up, no fancy dresses, no decoration on the stage, no lights, just the mike and speaker and some chairs in front of the stage for children's parents. Simplicity at it's best I'd say! The first song was not accompanied by the music, so it wasn't that impressive. But as later the nursary school students joined the stage, the whole program took a different colour! The wonderful songs sung by those cute little kids, perfectly co-ordinated by their music teachers and the engery of the students brought a different atmosphere in the school! Everybody was just happy! Students were happy to perform in front of their parents and parents were feeling proud to see their children on the stage! What I loved the most about this program was no good or bad students were singled out. Everybody was considered equal and was given a fare chance. I am sure that none of the students went through that childhood's painful experience of not being selected for the group singing or dancing like many of us did. I think it was very thoughtful of the teachers to give everybody that chance to go on stage which I'm sure will help them a lot later in their life. Generally in France, the school activities involve all the students of the class. I don't remember seeing any one partitcular group of same students favoured by the teachers. And this is one of the many things that I admire about French schooling system.

After that wonderful program at the school, now it was a time for an Indian meal for our "multinational" group of French class. It was a long due Indial meal which I was going to make today... The menu was simple : Khidachi, Matar usal, Polya, Rava cake and kakadi koshimbir! It is so much more fun to make food for friends than for oneself! I love doing it! If nothing else, this France stay has certainly inspired a cook in me! :D Poland, Ireland, Germany, France and India gatherd together at the table that night for a lovely cultural meal which inculded a daily Indial meal, some snacks, a French dessert, a Polish soup and of course the French wine! And funnily, French was the "international language" here and not English!!

It's just incredible the speed at which time flies! It's already the 15th day of June and which means only 15 days to go back to PUNE!!!

But at this very moment am in such a mixture of emotions... Almost 9 months have passed since I left Pune to come to Bourges, France. The first month of feeling sad of having left behind all the near and dear ones thousands of miles away was soon over with the mesmirising discoveries of beautiful French cities, maginificent country side, cheeses and wines!! The first ever trip to Lyon with Preets gave me a fair idea of how my holidays were gonna be in France! I had only one motive in mind, use to the most this stay in France... discover new cities, countries and experience the thrill of doing everything on my own. I always had this on my mind that such an opportunity may never come along... And I am happy that decided to bear this attitude! It really helped me!

Just after starting the discoveries came the depressing yet fascinating winter! The winter in France and for that matter in all over Europe this year was very harsh. The most harsh winter in past 30 years... People were telling me that I had not chosen the best year to visit France!! It was that bad! Before coming to Bourges the lowest temperatures I had experienced was 6.20 degree celcius in Pune! Here on the normal winter day the temperature would be 1 degree celcius and on the worst day it would go down uptill -16!!! The initial sickness, toothaches and headaches made me hate that cold like anything and I cried and longed to go back to home!! But then slowly I got used to the cold, the darkness and the dullness that I even started liking it! France has been a place of a lot of "first times" for me!! The first ever snow fall, the charm of "white beauty", the first freezing experience of '-' temperatures, the first ever true Chirstmas celebrations, the first shopping at "Marche de Noël", the first participation in the kool and awesome French family reunions which are always followed by long meals and gifts proved my decision of not going back to India in December all the more correct! After the French fun it was time for some Puneri fun with Kedar and Aashish. Along with this the discovery of French citites continued!

Brest, one of the western most cities of France was deeply affected by the world wars. Unlike the other French cities which I had visited so far, Brest was totally different. It didn't have all those medevial churches and small, cute houses. It was quite modern. It's one of the important French ports. The nice parks, good bus system and a different and sauvage paysage really impressed me...Along with the usual siteseeing what we were more interested was in having fun together! It was after almost 2-3 years that the Friends from Pune were meeting, but in France!! This Brest trip gave the enough tonic to survive for the next cold months of Jan and Feb!

As the only importat step for my next years admission at one of the best universities in France and probaly in the world, I gave one real tough exam to taste my proficiency in French language... the DALF C1. This killer exam really took it's toll on my health! The stress, the tension, the expenses, the difficulty of the exam and all the going to Paris stuff was so exhausting that I fell sick! Oh well, of course the excitement of the most awesome trip so far got me back on track! Suisse, Italy and Greece were calling us!!

I shall upadte about the trip later in detail... :)