airing some frustrations

A much needed blogger-bitch-fest while I escape my responsibilities.

So, for the most part in my classes, I have very little, if any, regularly assigned homework. Even in my portuguese classes, we don't have to turn in exercises or anything. This means that my entire grade is based on a test taken at the end of the year--often one essay question--that is a worry all in it's own. But one of the classes I'm taking, Constitutional Law, is a little different. It is a two part class, which I get credit for as two different classes. First is the Cours Fondamental, which is a ginormous 3-hour lecture class once a week. The other part is a CDM (I don't remember what it stands for at the moment). This is the equivalent of a discussion class at U of O. it also meets once a week, for 2 hours, and there are about 20 students. The CDMs are not required, but they make it easier for students to be prepared for the final exam, so I decided to take it anyway. For this class, everyone has to turn in one detailed outline for an essay, do two presentations, and then there will be some sort of in-class assignment (not entirely sure what that will be). Normally, the presentations are done in pairs, which I figured would make it a lot easier and would be a way to sort of get to know someone in my class.

Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be much in the way of organization as to who would do the assignments for a given class period. The teacher, in an attempt to give the students some liberty to make their own decisions, left it up to us to decide. Having missed the first class period and then spent the next two sitting quietly in a corner listening, I was pretty out of the loop. Finally, I got onto an email list/forum thing for students in the class and started to worry about when i would do my presentations (now that the semester is almost halfway over). But I still was at a loss as to how decisions were made. So then, this past Thursday (note that the class is on Tuesday), I received an email from one of the guys in class asking me if I was doing the presentation for the next class and telling me I should contact the professor. I did, and I told him I was willing to do the presentation, but I didn't have any clue who my partner would be or how to go about finding one. He said, essentially, that he didn't have a clue either, but wished me luck (thanks, that's useful...). So I emailed the guy who had first emailed me and asked him what I should do to find a partner and he gave me a list of three students who hadn't either done their presentation or already signed up for a future presentation. one of them was signed up to do his other presentation for the same, day, so I emailed three asking for help. I got two responses telling me they couldn't but good luck anyway (again, thanks, that's very nice of you...). I then got an email saying that the teacher had assigned the third guy, Maxime, who I have actually sort of gotten to know, as my partner. Unfortunately, an email and a text message later, I have yet to hear back from him. And it is now Sunday night and this presentation is supposed to take place Tuesday morning. I spent a few hours reading up on the topic, and I think I can probably put something together on my own, but I REALLY don't want to have to do it by myself and then face the class for 20 minutes by myself. Bugger.

To add to the frustration of this whole thing, this week is supposed to be a vacation week. Lyon 2, and therefore the majority of my friends, is on vacation for Toussaint (All Saints Day). This means they are traveling around Europe while I prepare to do a presentation. I also only have one day of classes this week, because my sports classes and my portuguese class are through Lyon 2, so they are on vacation, and one of my teachers at the IEP cancelled class. I was looking at the schedule for the year and realized that IEP students really get the shaft when it comes to breaks. Most unfortunately, Lyon 2 has a break between semesters that lasts from mid january to early february. This break doesn't exist at all for the IEP, which sucks a lot because I was hoping to use that time to backback around Europe with my friend Katie. Also, the IEP's spring break is different than Lyon 2 (which means that if I am taking classes at both universities, I don't get a break at all). So I have decided that, even though administratively it is a bit more complicated, and even though the IEP offers some interesting courses, I am not going to take classes there next semester.

I don't want to sound overly whiney, but I have been feeling whiney and frustrated, and on top of everything I think I might be getting sick and I haven't been sleeping well, which is majorly lame.

On the other hand, so that I finish on a positive note, the last few days have been pretty cool (although I probably should have been trying to deal with this presentation).

On Thursday I had a delicious and very cheap lunch with some friends, and then wandered around a little and then went to this wine festival, which was basically a HUGE wine tasting. There were a couple hundred different niveyards represented, representing the main wine-producing regions. My friends and I wandered through the lines of booths tasting different wines (and learned why you are supposed to spit while tasting wine...although instead we stumbled out the doors after two hours and walked in not very straight lines to the bus stop) and I bought a bottle of wine and a bottle of gold-rated champagne, which I am saving for New Years. Later that night, I went to a house-warming party for one of my friends and had more wine and lots of really delicious cake.
Friday was very chill. I had my portuguese class and then came home and had a yummy salad for lunch and took a nap (since I got home close to 2 am from the party) and then went to capoeira.
On Saturday morning I went to the market with Wei and then watched her make a taiwanese cake for this soirée that she had invited me to. Then I kind of hung out and tried to read up on the Third Republic for my presentation, but mostly did procrastinatey sort of things. In the afternoon, Wei and I made a quiche for the soirée and then went to the soirée, which was an interesting experience. It was at her friend's apartment and the guests were almost exclusively Taiwanese. Despite this fact, everyone was really nice and I ended up having a really good time.
This morning, Wei and I intended to go to this local producers market, but when we got there it turned out it wasn't happening, so we wandered a bit and then went to an asian grocery store. We ended up buying the ingredients for spring rolls and came home to make them (and were more or less successful).

Overall, a very enjoyable weekend!

And now I am going to try to get back to work...blech.