Bonjour à tous et à toutes!

It’s Sunday the 14th of September as I write this, which means that 1) I have officially been living here for over a month and 2) this marks the end of my first week as a proper student here in Poitiers. Serious business now ensues! Well, semi-serious.

I am taking a mix of classes from the Faculty of Lettres et Langues, with which my host university has its exchange agreement : that’s what enables me to study in Europe in the post-Brexit, post-Erasmus UK. While I could attend Chemical Engineering lectures if I wanted, they wouldn’t count towards my semester’s worth of credits, and I don’t think I could handle that in English, let alone French, so I’m sticking to my host faculty with my nice comfortable humanities subjects. As an international student, I have the luxury of picking and choosing my classes. I have no fixed personal timetable given to me by the university’s administration, but rather I have access to any and all classes I want, and until the 30th of September to finalise my decisions and be fully enrolled in those modules.

My approach has been to fill my timetable with as many interesting looking classes as I can find, and then drop the ones I didn’t like. Really that’s only been one class so far: Theorie et Critique Litteraire, which I thought would be on things like Levi Strauss and bell hooks, but was actually about being a literary critic and reviewing books. One of the assignments for the term was going be to start a blog. I wonder if this would count? The seminar I went to wasn’t really my cup of tea though, so I’ve dropped that one. My other classes, however, I have been loving so far. From 19th Century French Literature to Introductory Linguistics to Beginner’s Ancient Greek, I have been thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to explore subjects outside my usual degree course, and getting to dip my toe back into the classical world is giving me a second chance to pursue this in a university that doesn’t grind down my soul (Oxford, I’m looking at you).

In addition to the freedom of subject choice, I am also allowed to pick courses from any year, from L1 (first year of bachelor’s) to M2 (second year of master’s). My current timetable ranges from L1 to L3. This means that in earlier classes I can explore new subjects without a prerequisite for prior knowledge, and I can also take more advanced classes in subjects with which I am already comfortable. All my classes are both taught and examined in French, of course, so learning new terminology in French for subjects I don’t think twice about in English is part of the learning curve, but I think I’m doing okay with that so far.

Unfortunately there were no lessons on Wednesday owing to a “Bloquons Tous” national movement, so for some of my classes I won’t have had a proper taste of them until this coming Wednesday, but I’m looking forward to them. A litterary trabnslation workshop between French and English?? I’m SO excited!! Also on Wednesday is my French course at the university’s language centre. 50 places are available to international students each year, divided equally between 25 on a B1 course and 25 on a B2. Luckily I filled in my application and completed my placement test quickly enough to get one of those places, and I am very much looking forward to starting it. The course itself also counts for 6 credits; I am required to take 24 per semester and pass 15, so it’s nice that this course will count towards my credits, as I would have taken it regardless just to improve my French. Two birds with one free stone!

I’ll write a bit on my daily routine as a student more coherently, to sort of give you an idea of what a day as an exchange student looks like, but I have some photos to accompany that and I’m waiting for them to upload, and I don’t want to postpone this post just because of that. (Also my Dad says I should upload more of my pictures, and I agree with him. So more photos coming!! Especially my film ones once I get them developed.) I hope that if you are also a student looking to study abroad in Poitiers for a year (or a semester) that this has given you a bit of an idea of what to expect. If you have any questions, please comment and I’ll write a post about it if I have anything to say 🙂

à bientôt,

Iona xx