maybe i'm slow, but
did you know the Canadian dollar is worth more than the U.S. dollar now?
i've been out of the news loop a bit because I only recently got internet, still no TV, and I would just like to say, I am very, very happy by the fact that I got my first (in Euro) paycheck a couple days ago.
hopefully you all already knew about the canadian dollar's triumph, but, this may sound stupid, I was little shocked. oh the woes of the dollar.
in other news, Rick and I met a really cool guy at this thing called Cafe Polygote, where they set up language tables at this bar in Dijon, and you sit at whatever table you want and only speak that language. I stuck with English, and we met this guy from Guadeloupe. We started discussion mildly enough, sports, music, etc, but worked our way into talking about the Caribbean and eventually the U.S. It was a good talk, but parts of it made me so depressed. All the things I was telling him made me feel so depressed. Our politics, our situation, Iraq, (and the whole middle east for that matter), Al Qaeda hunting, how our next president is going to inherit fuck all garbage and be screwed. I don't want to quit the U.S. but I've only been here a month and I know it is going to be the most difficult thing in the world to go back. Honestly, I think it was good planning on our part that we made our wedding fall right after we're scheduled to return. It will probably be the only thing enticing me to come home.
France has been great so far, my only other recent frustration has been that yesterday, I went to a meeting about getting a maitrise (and the meeting was, of course, a waste of my time), because I want to do Master's 2, not Master's 1, because Master's 1 is the equivalent of your last year at university in the U.S. So I go to talk to the prof in charge, and she says it's not the equivalent, not if I haven't done a 40-50 page paper (which I haven't, only 20, and it's not even saved on my laptop, but my dismantled computer back home). But, those students, that is ALL they write for the whole year. AND they only take 2 classes/semester. So if I were to add up all the pages I've written for 4 English classes, I bet it would be more than 40-50.
Before the meeting, I was thinking I wouldn't even do it, but then they started talking about all these interesting classes, and I kind of changed my mind. And then the prof made it seem like I was being ridiculous for thinking I could be equivalent without said long-ass paper, despite the fact that I am already a Master's student, and now I am so irritated by her I just want to do it anyway, to spite her. Not the best reason to get a degree, really, but if I get a Master's 2, I can toy with the idea of getting a doctorate here, thus making it possible to flee the U.S. when necessary.
We'll see.
i've been out of the news loop a bit because I only recently got internet, still no TV, and I would just like to say, I am very, very happy by the fact that I got my first (in Euro) paycheck a couple days ago.
hopefully you all already knew about the canadian dollar's triumph, but, this may sound stupid, I was little shocked. oh the woes of the dollar.
in other news, Rick and I met a really cool guy at this thing called Cafe Polygote, where they set up language tables at this bar in Dijon, and you sit at whatever table you want and only speak that language. I stuck with English, and we met this guy from Guadeloupe. We started discussion mildly enough, sports, music, etc, but worked our way into talking about the Caribbean and eventually the U.S. It was a good talk, but parts of it made me so depressed. All the things I was telling him made me feel so depressed. Our politics, our situation, Iraq, (and the whole middle east for that matter), Al Qaeda hunting, how our next president is going to inherit fuck all garbage and be screwed. I don't want to quit the U.S. but I've only been here a month and I know it is going to be the most difficult thing in the world to go back. Honestly, I think it was good planning on our part that we made our wedding fall right after we're scheduled to return. It will probably be the only thing enticing me to come home.
France has been great so far, my only other recent frustration has been that yesterday, I went to a meeting about getting a maitrise (and the meeting was, of course, a waste of my time), because I want to do Master's 2, not Master's 1, because Master's 1 is the equivalent of your last year at university in the U.S. So I go to talk to the prof in charge, and she says it's not the equivalent, not if I haven't done a 40-50 page paper (which I haven't, only 20, and it's not even saved on my laptop, but my dismantled computer back home). But, those students, that is ALL they write for the whole year. AND they only take 2 classes/semester. So if I were to add up all the pages I've written for 4 English classes, I bet it would be more than 40-50.
Before the meeting, I was thinking I wouldn't even do it, but then they started talking about all these interesting classes, and I kind of changed my mind. And then the prof made it seem like I was being ridiculous for thinking I could be equivalent without said long-ass paper, despite the fact that I am already a Master's student, and now I am so irritated by her I just want to do it anyway, to spite her. Not the best reason to get a degree, really, but if I get a Master's 2, I can toy with the idea of getting a doctorate here, thus making it possible to flee the U.S. when necessary.
We'll see.