Becoming Legal.

At the end of last week, I finally sent in my passport to get my name fixed. Due to an unfortunate misprint, my name was twice as long as it was supposed to be. Although I've traveled with it before (Ireland/England in 2006), I figured it'd probably be a good idea to have my real, legal name printed on it since I have to get a visa this summer to study in France for 4 months. Since I sent it in last week, I should get it back mid-June (I HOPE) so that I can make a trip down to Houston to get my visa situation worked out.

I have about 3 1/2 months until I'll be in France and I am beyond excited. I'm also getting my work situation figured out for this summer; I'll be babysitting for 3 different families and I'm also thinking about applying for a part-time job at the recreation center since my good friend Marlen just got a job there. Yay for her! With work and everything else happening, I know this summer is going to go by so quickly. 2 weeks until school is done, 1 1/2 months until my birthday, etc etc etc. Amazing.

Scholarships & Classes & Passports, Oh My.

Upon returning from spring break, I finally met with the Program Coordinator for Caen. She helped me apply online to the university along with figure out which courses I will take while I'm there. We decided on the following: grammaire, composition et expression orale, littérature et histoire, presse spécialisée, France contemporaine, et langue et société. It may sound like a lot, but I have to take at least six classes there in order to be considered a full-time student. In France, university is a little bit different; one spends much more time in the classroom but isn't assigned nearly as much homework. So while I may be in the classroom for over twenty hours a week, I won't be spending as much time studying there as I do here. I'll come back from Caen with eighteen hours of upper-level French to add to my major requirements, which is awesome. Now that I've finished all of the application process for Baylor, I need to work on making it legal for me to study in France... aka renewing my passport and obtaining a visa at some point this summer.

I also received an email today informing me that I was awarded the scholarship that I applied for in February in the amount of $2,000. Any amount helps, so I'm extremely grateful for that. Now, if I could just get back into the habit of saving money with every paycheck that I receive... I plan on working a LOT this summer, plus I'll be living back at home. 150 days until my first day in Caen, and I cannot wait!

Connections

Here at Baylor, I work for the Office of Campus & Communitiy Involvement at the Center for International Education. With the arrival of awesome new exchange students last week, it became known that there were FIVE students from France! Four of those five are from l'Université de Caen. How cool is that.

I immediately introduced myself and let them know that I will be there next semester. I can't wait to hear about all of the differences between Baylor/American culture and Caen/French culture. I definitely need to work harder on trying to speak with them in French - they all speak English so well, it's hard to try to get them to speak French with me instead! Maybe this is because my American accent is horrible? Or because of my lack of knowledge of French vocabulary? Hopefully by the end of this semester, I will have improved. Listening to them speak to each other is a little overwhelming. They speak extremely quickly and, shall I say, "non-textbook." Of course. This will be good practice for me for next semester, when I will hopefully meet lots of French students and be able to keep up with the conversations.

This semester I am taking two French courses: Conversation & Composition, and Civilization. Both are taught by the same professor, and both have some of the same students in them. One of the girls in my classes is the other student who is planning on studying in Caen next semester also. It will be good to know her so that we both have a fellow Baylor Bear during our time there!

After meeting the French students, I feel that much closer to getting to Caen. It's only seven months away! Already, half of a year has gone by since I've decided that I want to study abroad. It's so exciting!