It's a good Wednesday for a Friday!
My schedule, miraculously, is such that I don't have classes on Thursdays or Fridays each week, and thus have a four day weekend. The weekdays are days for school, being-a-grown-up things, and training. The weekends bring adventures, great people, and time for peace. This weekend, starting tomorrow on Thursday, marks the beginning of our week-long Autumn vacation! I will be heading to Paris and Forêt Fontainbleau, meeting friends and new friends, and exploring a new city and a magical forest. Allons-y!
All my classes are two hours in length and occur once a week. There is often a short "pose" in the middle for the rest room and smoking. There is not, however, any time in between classes. . . .they all, for the most part in my university, start and end on the hour! I have one Monday, and three each Tuesday and Wednesday. For the most part there is not homework. We tend to have one big project for each class and then final exams. All have final exams, but some also have essays, smaller tests, homework sheets, presentations, or combinations there-of. For the most part, the workload is significantly less than my engineering courses back in the states. A big part of this is subject matter, perhaps, but I feel like the structure and objective here are just slightly different, in general. I can't articulate the difference at this point, and I may return/add something to this point later on. . . .don't let the anticipation kill you. ;D
My week begins with a 10a philosophy class. I love the start time, it allows for morning activities; these include runs, great breakfasts, and sleeping in. The class discusses the birth of the world, and we discuss a text for each class. One must prepare a discussion for one of these texts before the class and submit a paper, optionally presenting the text verbally, as well. I'll be turning mine in for the last class, studying the argumentation techniques and ameliorating my French beforehand, as it is our only grade besides the final for the class. For the first half of the two-hour lesson, the teacher discusses the students' text from previous week. After a short break, the second hour resumes with the students presenting the next week's text. Discussions generally concern a deity or involve material's creation and whether or not it is conserved. I really like the teacher, as he is very clear, helpful, and kind.
Tuesday I have a course at 8:30, 12, and 14. The morning is French grammar for Study Abroad which I've been really enjoying. Cool people (with name-tags!), a genuine and knowledgeable teacher, and learning! I have my only class in English at noon, Aspects of Modern France. I was really excited to learn about modern French culture and current events and. . . .what I didn't realize was that Modern history runs from roughly 1350 to 1750. Of course! Modern. It is quite cool to learn about French history. I really like that we use a more analytical history method, looking at trends, how events shaped the world's experience, and how social structures developed within different eras and under different rules. I had my first exam in this class yesterday, an essay on class relationships in a feudal system. Felt pretty solid. The test papers are really interesting in that they have a lick-shut corner---like a stamp---that one covers their name with for anonymous grading. At 2p (after 6-7 seconds of break. . .luckily the classrooms are virtually adjacent!), I start my Philosophie d'Amour class. I'm kinda strugglin' in this one. I've started sitting closer to the front for this one, but it is difficult to concentrate and comprehend (mutually exclusive) for two hours after a solid two hour course. It is a methodology course and I think my French philosophy methodology techniques are sub-par. :) Workin' on 'em!
Tuesday evening I train. I go to La Piscine, the pool, which is essentially the university athletic recreation center. There is an incredible bouldering cave, campus wrungs (wooden strips of different sizes for laddering up with no feet), campus boards for finger training, and a full gymnasium for, well, gymnastics! Everything a kinesthetic athlete could ask for! (There's also a gym next door for weights for you bros and bras!) It's fantastic. Here I focus on power and technique. I boulder for about two hours. Then spend 1-2 more hours training my core, shoulders, back, and arms. It's legit. I have begun to start regimenting my training, which feels really good. It's still climbing season, so I limit my climbing training to two days a week, and sometimes work pushing muscles/cardio another day. The first day is for power, technique, and body conditioning. The second day is for endurance, lead technique, mileage, and legs.
Wednesday (AKA Friday) I begin at 8a. Rough. However, the class is Geographie des Montagnes, and I really enjoy the content of this one. It is my only lecture hall style courses and I essentially re-type PowerPoint slides. We learn about how people in the area have and do interact with the mountains around us. We discuss alpinism, skiing, tourism, explorations and topography, specific mountains, and other geography-y things. It's really cool. One thing I enjoyed learning was that in 1492, while Columbus sailed the ocean blue, Mont Aiguille was summited, too (for the first time!) This marks what many consider to be the birth of Alpinism, and was done under the kings' orders using rope-knot protection! I learned of this mountain back in October 2014, and it has been a goal of mine to climb it since. Hearing about this on the first day of this class really got the stoke up, and I've really enjoyed the rest of the class. Right after I have my French Langauge for Study Abroad class! It's great! FLE, Francais Langue Etranger A2/B1 (the numbers representing our language proficiency). I really enjoy this class and it is taught by the same professor as my pre-semester FLE class, as well, who I really like. After (yeah three in a row!), I finish the week with. . . .drumroll. . . .rock climbin', yo. This is my climbing class where I essentially. . .just climb. As much as possible. We have a cool gym with an overhung (semi-inverted) bouldering wall and many-angled lead walls, including a huge, prowling, warped roof system. Sooo cool. After crushing on plastic, workin' the legs, and a hang-board exercise. . . .it's the weekend.
Thursday to Sunday I usually. . .climb. I occasionally go out Wednesday, Thursday, or Saturday night. The French really like to party Thursdays, because many go home Friday night for the weekend. Kinda tradition, I suppose. I usually prefer to rest up to get out into the woods. . .And it is here that truly live on the weekends. Here I spend my time experiencing France in exactly the way I wanted to: with stoked and awesome friends exploring cliffs, mountains, and our personal strengths and weaknesses. It's just been truly wild and wonderful, and I can't believe how much longer I get to do this. If I've been livin' in Almost Heaven all my life. . .I've found pretty damn close to the real thing.
And this weekend, things are only lookin' up.
Next week is our Autumn Vacation! Thus, I have no classes until November 2. So what's a guy to do? Well, buy a 1€, two-way bus ticket to Paris, of course! I'll be heading for the weekend to Paris on Saturday with my two Polish buddies, Adam and Łukasz. We're hopefully staying with friends of theirs' in the city Saturday night, then heading with a friend of mine to his house, south of the city, on Sunday evening! Crazy enough, I met him at my going away party. I guess I was the only one there who spoke French or something, so we hung out, went bouldering the next day at Coopers Rock, and decided to meet up sometime this year! With Nicolas, we head to Fontainbleau Forest Monday morning!!
Foret Fontainbleau is considered by many to be the best bouldering location in France, and one of the best and most historical in the world. Luckily, Adam has been there 6 or 7 times, knows some good spots (there's thousands of boulders), and has friends whos' crash pads we can borrow! We'll be camping for the week and climbing. . .a lot. :D I'm super stoked. It is peak season right now (Rocktober!), so there should be a lot of really cool people to meet and climb with. I think we may have a few people travelling up independently to meet us as well, which will be super cool if everything works out. At some point (when we can't climb anymore), we'll mosey on back to Paris and. . .yeah, be in Paris, man! Monday (yeah, have to miss class. . . .), we take the bus back to Grenoble!! It will certainly be an adventure, and I'm super stoked! Gonna be spending the next couple days preparing and gettin' the stoke up!
The next two days will be really nice as well. Tomorrow morning, I will run to Decathlon, a sports-store, and pick up some camping gear. Then I have a skype chat with momma! Hopefully I'll get to see the bros! :) Tomorrow evening. . .it's time for Halloween!! This year I am going as George Clinton from Parliament Funkadelic. I'm super stoked. I've always thought this would make an awesome costume but have never had dreads to dye all different colors. . .now's my chance! :D Friday, I'm gonna crush on some rocks or somethin'. Should be good.
Anyhow, that's what school is like for me, how my weekends usually roll, and the exciting events in the near future! Keep in touch, y'all! It's always great to hear from ya, and I'll keep reaching out to folks as I can! I seriously hope everything is wonderful for you. Let life treat you good, and soak it all in!
Votre ami,
Hy
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