Complaining aside, I’ve done a bunch of stuff since my last post. The last one before the last one, since I decided to separate this one into two. I went to Disneyland, went to Versailles, went kayaking at the fake beach, went to a few Polytech parties, went shopping unnecessarily (you know when you get home and wonder whether your new tutu and cowboy boots will go with your purple suspenders, then you take a step back and disown yourself?). Also, May marked the annual Joan of Arc festival in Orléans. Joan of Arc is pretty much the hero of everyone in France since she drove away the pommy bastards who were trying to invade back in medieval times. After she saved them, the French turned her over to the English, who burned her because she saw dead people who told her to do things. Essentially. So anyway, the festival was pretty good.. personally I was surpised at the number of nerds in Orléans who owned their own medieval costume and/or lute and/or vulture. When we went to see a light show on the Cathedral we were also surprised at the number of people who live here at all; apparently this is the only night they leave their homes all year.
Anyway I was going to write more stuff but I just realised I have not studied yet today, despite having two extremely difficult courses to teach myself within the next 3 days. Bye.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Fac Off
On the first of May I received the following email in my Sydney Uni mailbox:
“Please note that as the Union and the University has reached an agreement the strike scheduled for next Tuesday 5 May 2009 has been called off, so all classes will be held as usual.”
I actually burst out laughing and could not stop. When I read it the university here had already been on strike for 3 months and the semester was technically over. Now most teachers have started trying to summarise their courses in weekly meetings so that everyone can sit their exams in June during what would normally be their summer holidays.
As a foreigner though, I am required to organise my own assessments with individual teachers so that I can get them done before I go home. In some cases this means obtaining the lecture notes for a subject, studying them for under a week, then sitting an exam.
Sure, this is the most study I would ever do under normal circumstances anyway, but usually there’s the bonus* of actually being taught things in class. As I said to someone recently, “what are they assessing me on? my ability to teach myself? if i can teach myself then maybe they shouldnt have their jobs”. Last week I was interviewed for the tv about how the strikes were affecting me and I was asked something about money. Obviously I’ve spent a hell of a lot of money coming to france and paying rent but I was never annoyed about it because I still got to live in Europe for several months. But suddenly I realised that I’ve spent $2500 in university fees this semester, to pay for my actual courses. I just payed $2500 for less than two weeks of class. That’s like $125 an hour, if you include the classes where the professors just explained their reasons for the upcoming strikes. I could’ve spent that on 200 movies and learned almost as much.
*Is it weird that when i wrote the word bonus my brain was like "Ah Latin, you're a fusional language. This is why I will never learn you. One morpheme for masculine, singular AND nominative? That's too much for me to handle."
“Please note that as the Union and the University has reached an agreement the strike scheduled for next Tuesday 5 May 2009 has been called off, so all classes will be held as usual.”
I actually burst out laughing and could not stop. When I read it the university here had already been on strike for 3 months and the semester was technically over. Now most teachers have started trying to summarise their courses in weekly meetings so that everyone can sit their exams in June during what would normally be their summer holidays.
As a foreigner though, I am required to organise my own assessments with individual teachers so that I can get them done before I go home. In some cases this means obtaining the lecture notes for a subject, studying them for under a week, then sitting an exam.
Sure, this is the most study I would ever do under normal circumstances anyway, but usually there’s the bonus* of actually being taught things in class. As I said to someone recently, “what are they assessing me on? my ability to teach myself? if i can teach myself then maybe they shouldnt have their jobs”. Last week I was interviewed for the tv about how the strikes were affecting me and I was asked something about money. Obviously I’ve spent a hell of a lot of money coming to france and paying rent but I was never annoyed about it because I still got to live in Europe for several months. But suddenly I realised that I’ve spent $2500 in university fees this semester, to pay for my actual courses. I just payed $2500 for less than two weeks of class. That’s like $125 an hour, if you include the classes where the professors just explained their reasons for the upcoming strikes. I could’ve spent that on 200 movies and learned almost as much.
*Is it weird that when i wrote the word bonus my brain was like "Ah Latin, you're a fusional language. This is why I will never learn you. One morpheme for masculine, singular AND nominative? That's too much for me to handle."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)