Day at the IUT – Institut Universitaire de Technologie

09/02/09
Today we sat in on some classes with our parinage, our conversation partners and pen pals who go to a special school part of the Universite de Nice, the IUT which is a two year program where they get degrees in various business fields. Today was the first time that I met my partner, Severine, who is a second year student at the IUT studying business. She is so nice and her English is so good! Unfortunately for me her classes weren’t really in my subject field, but it was still a fun day, albeit long (9-5)! The first class was marketing, which is coincidentally enough is called marketing in French as well. I, however, don’t understand marketing in English, so that didn’t really help. My partner made us sit front row center and thought it would be a good idea to take notes (hers were way more detailed..). After and hour and a half of that, we had a 3 hour break since she didn’t have a class in the next block. The class schedule was like high school; everyone has the same classes together who are in the same group and they go to school like all day. They don’t even know their schedule for the next week until the Friday before! So after we sat around for a little in some business club office (or something) we went to the cafeteria for lunch and then sat outside with some other Americans and French people and spoke English/French. We talked about all sorts of things: travels, where we’ve been and would like to go or live, the school system in general, prices in the states and things like tuition and healthcare. Finally it was time for our next class, math (gross) from 2-3:30. This class was probably worse than the first, even though I understood what she said, I have definitely emptied my mind of all that math stuff (today was limits). Plus I don’t know the French terms for things like that. The professor told me I should sit in the middle of the room so that everyone could talk to me, but luckily Severine said she didn’t think that was a good idea. The teacher referred to me as “the American” most of the class, mostly while threatening her students that “the American” would come and teach the class in English” since, just like in high school, the students talked and texted during class (my girl did her nails). Then she asked me, in English, if I wanted to teach the class and I said no. I think she thought that I actually knew what was going on because this French guy sitting next to Severine said to the teacher that I was very good at math, as a joke. After I said no, the class tried to get her to teach it in English but she said she didn’t know how. When she made the rounds later I made sure to tell her that I study languages, not math. After math there was another class right away, gestion de la relation client (client relations management?) which was like another math class. This professor was pretty interested in talking to me, mainly about school, like how we pay a ton, and they only pay 250 euros a year! I didn’t really get the exercise but the teacher said that Severine should explain it to me. She didn’t really get it either, though, so I guess that made me feel a little better. All the classes were with the same people today, so I saw a lot of the same faces. Then finally, after I had been at French school for 8 hours, it was time to go home!