First full week of school

Salut everyone,

A full week of school has now passed and it has definitely been an experience. I am enrolled in eight classes, all taking place randomly in two months, with most exams worth 100 per cent of my final mark!

Finance and Tax Law is just killing me, but Marketing and Human Resources is actually really fun. The profs, apart from one I had a seminar with today, are amazing and keep me awake through the whole three to six-hour-long hour lectures.

Of course, that might be just me, as the rest of the students seem as enthused as us U of A-ers sitting in the Tory Lecture Theatre with several hundred of our classmates.

Here, I feel more than ever that I am getting a very “global” education.

For Logistics and Production, the prof constantly refers to how things are done in Japan and then applied in France. Or in Human Resource Management, we learn about the techniques so intensely put in place in North American firms and how they can be integrated in French business culture.

I feel fortunate to not have a language barrier that would make it brutal to take all these classes in French, although it was interesting when an hour into a lecture I learned we were discussing International Tax Law for branched and subsidiaries…I had no idea what was happening there just ‘cause the terminology is different.

The crazy random schedule has its pros and cons too. The bad is that there is nothing fixed to rely on, but the good is that every day is different, usually with many sleep-ins and several gaps for travelling.

The week has been jam packed with parties, outings and grocery shopping, but the highlight was definitely the trip to IKEA.

Shopping at IKEA! Home away from home.

Two fellow internationals and I headed to IKEA (two towns away, equivalent to a 15 minute metro ride). That was one of the most satisfying shopping trips ever, as it made my bland room feel beautifully decorated and welcoming. And having lunch in their restaurant was satisfying to my stomach and my wallet.

The three of us did note how everything in the “French IKEA” was cooler and better decorated…although that was probably just a “the grass is greener…” situation.

My most important discovery here, so far, is the way in which these students party.

It’s different, refreshing and I like it: most clubs here are closed on the weekends. That’s right; they make all their profits during the week.

That is because students here party hard Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The weekend’s purpose is to recuperate and rest.

Why do I like this system better? If school is only for weekdays and partying is for weekends, then every day is spent preparing for that day’s main purpose and you never have full opportunities to have some Zen time because each day is always chopped up.

Here, however, all possible outings are done at once and then you have two full uninterrupted days to spend on you.

Sid and I at Place de la Republique, by the Palace of Fine Arts, 2nd in France only to the Louvre.

Also much worth mentioning: Sid, my fellow U of A School of Business blogger, came to visit me from Germany, after only having been there for one week.

His trip to get here was crazy and I know I would have never survived, had it been me. I will leave the juicy details for him to tell you, but as a spoiler, it involved a sleepless night in Paris, a 24-hour café, and two strangers off the train station.

I must say that I have written this whole blog during a marketing seminar. The seminar is three hours long with two of the hours consecrated to us doing a brand analysis on Senseo (first to bring European coffee pods into the American market) and its position in the coffee world, entirely on our laptops.

On that note, I hope everyone enjoys their multiple daily coffees and tries to remember to drink water, as it is vital to keep up the much-needed energy for our student lifestyle. Until next time,

Elena

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