It's interesting to see how the French system is different than what I'm used to at Rice: most of my courses meet for 2 hours at a time once a week, and in general they are lecture-based. There's far less daily work and quizzes than at Rice, but the final exams count for more in our grade and we're expected to keep up on readings throughout the semester. It's also quite different to have all of my lectures in French. It definitely takes a higher level of concentration, and there is one professor that I have a hard time understanding, but I'm enjoying the challenge so far.
So I will be taking 2 courses in the JYF Program with the 9 other American students: a Writing Workshop and an Art History Course. The writing workshop is very useful because we are learning how to write in a style for French professors; it will take a little getting used to but our professor is great. It's also extremely helpful to have a brush-up on all the intricacies of French grammar! The Art History course is also interesting because the majority of the class consists of exploring various art museums in the city and looking at different styles of architecture present in Nice. Here's a photo of a group of us in the garden of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, one of the museums that we visited in class:
Apart from those two courses, I will also be taking 4 courses at the University of Nice: a Music History course on the Baroque and Classical Eras, a Literature course focusing on fairy tales and how they emerged in Europe, another Literature course focusing on French Literature of the 19th century, and, finally, a choir class where I will also be learning some conducting.
Everyone else will be taking 5 courses in the University, but I'm replacing one of my University courses with the internship that I talked about earlier at the Palais Lascaris. It is a museum focusing on historic musical instruments, and they have a really interesting collection. One of the curators at the museum also happens to be the husband of the director of my program, so it just ended up working out that I could be an intern at the museum for this semester! (Side note: I've been thinking in French so much lately that I just forgot the English word for curator as I was writing this...had to look up the translation of the French word in a dictionary)
Anyways, had a tiring but interesting first week of classes; now I'm hoping to have some adventures this weekend! The group is going to Monaco on Sunday (nbd). Can't wait!
Au revoir,
Joey
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