Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Your Questions Answered

This entry is less entertaining, but here are some topics that people keep asking about.

Are you making friends? What is your class like?
Well, of course. My class has students from something like 75 different countries, with 450 students spanning French and Singaporean campuses. Canada is the fourth most represented nation, with approximately 10 Canadian students in my class here. My fantastic study group, with which I do numerous group projects, is a fun team consisting of a Korean, Russian, Indian and Belgian. My responsibility in the group, as the token native anglophone, is to teach them slang, and to edit our assignments' grammar.

How is the weather?
Canadians ask me more about the weather than we talk about it here. It went down to 23 last night, and this was remarkably cold. It is consistently hot and humid, sometimes hot and rainy. This does not often bother me, as my four apartment air conditioners are effective.

How are your classes?
Well, fifty thousand euros gets you good teachers, in general, and my courses are interesting. That whole reading and homework thing really cuts into my leisure time, however.
How is your apartment?
It is lovely and very comfortable. It has Balinese furniture. It has three corkscrews. Please see next entry.

What do you miss most?
Well, I've only been here for 3 weeks, but of course I miss my friends. I miss having drinks and in-depth discussions, I miss sushi, I miss discussions in cubicles, and I miss my car (oh oups, that one's material).