(no subject)
Jun. 19th, 2012 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lesmisloonyWellllll.
I went to the St-Denis campus yesterday, which is in kinda a sketchy-looking neighborhood made up of old, sketchy-looking buildings but there's something about it that just delighted me. There were trees and grass and students everywhere, and I guess it was just so similar to an American university campus that I was enchanted. The test began with the hot British professor not being able to turn on the lights and a gruff older professor telling us where to eat lunch while we waited for the results by saying that some restaurants were expensive and digusting and others were cheap and disgusting. Everyone was relaxed and cheerful and I immediately preferred the atmosphere to ÉSIT, the massive, sterile institution that I also tried to get into.
For a moment the test scared me: we were given two passages, one in French and one in English, and our assignment was just to translate each one. We had an hour and a half. I finished in forty-five minutes and checked over and over. There was one word I had no idea about, but I made a random guess. For the rest, I was proud. I had even successfully used the passé simple (thanks to all the Balzac I've been reading perhaps). As soon as I started translating I knew that this was work I was going to enjoy one day.
I checked over my test a hundred times until I almost had the passages memorized, then finally turned it in and killed three hours by wandering around the campus, befriending half the staff of their wonderful campus CROUS (the student restaurant that exists throughout France: I ate at one in Paris all the time last year and LOVED it, but this one was infinitely less crowed, more spacious, and staffed by super kind people--it's a huge meal for three euros!). As it got close to two and I was totally attached to the idea of St-Denis (I had already scoped out the bathrooms and decided which was clean enough for me to use all the time next year, plus looked at available housing in the immediate area) I went to see the test results, mentally practising for my interview.
Of course I was shocked when my name wasn't on the list. I read it over and over, blinking back tears, wondering if this was a mistake. I already loved the campus and the professors (especially the hot Brit) and the course content. All morning I had been reminding myself that I wouldn't survive another year as an au pair, and even if I was afraid of housing and finding a part time job and blah blah, being a student was the best way to get my life rolling.
I put on my sunglasses to hide my tears and wore them all the way back to the house, still occasionally wondering if I had somehow missed my name on the list. I looked up the word I hadn't known--my guess was way off--and started mentally composing an email for the lady at my agency.
There it is. I don't know why the universe wants me to spend another year of my life doing this, but it's done. I'll study at Campus Langues again, I'll look for scholarships this time and I'll apply to housing with CROUS so I can get a nice little apartment for less than €200 a month. I'll look for other programs. I'll apply to ÉSIT again. And when the time comes, St-Denis will receive the exact same application from me. Unless I've already gotten into a better school.
My email to the agency will specifically request a family that allows me to live separately from them, that will trust me to leave the room in the exact state I found it at the end of the year, and will have decent wifi and, for extra credit, a piano. I don't care how many kids there are or what their ages are. Maybe no kids older than, say, twelve, because it's harder to gain their trust and I don't want to deal with teenagers.
I went to the St-Denis campus yesterday, which is in kinda a sketchy-looking neighborhood made up of old, sketchy-looking buildings but there's something about it that just delighted me. There were trees and grass and students everywhere, and I guess it was just so similar to an American university campus that I was enchanted. The test began with the hot British professor not being able to turn on the lights and a gruff older professor telling us where to eat lunch while we waited for the results by saying that some restaurants were expensive and digusting and others were cheap and disgusting. Everyone was relaxed and cheerful and I immediately preferred the atmosphere to ÉSIT, the massive, sterile institution that I also tried to get into.
For a moment the test scared me: we were given two passages, one in French and one in English, and our assignment was just to translate each one. We had an hour and a half. I finished in forty-five minutes and checked over and over. There was one word I had no idea about, but I made a random guess. For the rest, I was proud. I had even successfully used the passé simple (thanks to all the Balzac I've been reading perhaps). As soon as I started translating I knew that this was work I was going to enjoy one day.
I checked over my test a hundred times until I almost had the passages memorized, then finally turned it in and killed three hours by wandering around the campus, befriending half the staff of their wonderful campus CROUS (the student restaurant that exists throughout France: I ate at one in Paris all the time last year and LOVED it, but this one was infinitely less crowed, more spacious, and staffed by super kind people--it's a huge meal for three euros!). As it got close to two and I was totally attached to the idea of St-Denis (I had already scoped out the bathrooms and decided which was clean enough for me to use all the time next year, plus looked at available housing in the immediate area) I went to see the test results, mentally practising for my interview.
Of course I was shocked when my name wasn't on the list. I read it over and over, blinking back tears, wondering if this was a mistake. I already loved the campus and the professors (especially the hot Brit) and the course content. All morning I had been reminding myself that I wouldn't survive another year as an au pair, and even if I was afraid of housing and finding a part time job and blah blah, being a student was the best way to get my life rolling.
I put on my sunglasses to hide my tears and wore them all the way back to the house, still occasionally wondering if I had somehow missed my name on the list. I looked up the word I hadn't known--my guess was way off--and started mentally composing an email for the lady at my agency.
There it is. I don't know why the universe wants me to spend another year of my life doing this, but it's done. I'll study at Campus Langues again, I'll look for scholarships this time and I'll apply to housing with CROUS so I can get a nice little apartment for less than €200 a month. I'll look for other programs. I'll apply to ÉSIT again. And when the time comes, St-Denis will receive the exact same application from me. Unless I've already gotten into a better school.
My email to the agency will specifically request a family that allows me to live separately from them, that will trust me to leave the room in the exact state I found it at the end of the year, and will have decent wifi and, for extra credit, a piano. I don't care how many kids there are or what their ages are. Maybe no kids older than, say, twelve, because it's harder to gain their trust and I don't want to deal with teenagers.
