Just under 4 weeks left here, and I'm none too happy about it. I still have soooo much that I want to do while I'm here and I have no idea how I'm going to fit it all in. I've been making lists non-stop lately. Mostly mental lists, but lists nonetheless. Separate ones for all the museums I still want to visit or re-visit, the restaurants that I want to eat at, the presents I still need to purchase for friends and loved one, tokens and mementos for myself, friends who aren't going to be going back to Boston with me who I'd like to have some last one-on-one time with, etc etc etc.
Arianna has been making lists too. Hers are perhaps even more ridiculously involved and overwhelming than mine.
I've got about 293847923573 things I need to do for class too. AUP kills me. Seriously, I would hate to go here full time. For the last three months of the semester professors have given practically no work whatsoever. The only class that I've really had any kind of somewhat consistent work for is French, and even that's stretching it a bit. But now, as the semester is winding down, profs decided it's time to assign all those 10-page terms papers, 20-minute presentations and tons of readings that they forgot to assign at the beginning of the semester, not to mention the constant reminders of exams in a couple weeks. It's horrible. I don't know why this university condones spending the first 3/4 of the semester lackadaisically doing nothing and then expected students to work 24/7 at the end of the semester.
I feel like this has been particularly hard for me, and probably most of my fellow study abroad friends. Not only is this semester several weeks longer than what we're used to at Northeastern, but this semester has also been an anomaly of sorts. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that as study abroad students, our first priority isn't exactly getting a stellar education. Instead, we're much more preoccupied with learning to live in this new, different place and experiencing as much as we can. That in itself is much more exhausting than I think people realize. I mean, I certainly didn't anticipate how tiring just living would be. Traveling is another thing. It really takes the energy out of you. The planning, the packing, the traveling itself, the pictures, the maps, the reservations, getting around, barely sleeping in order to see as much as possible, it gets pretty tiring pretty fast. And 5 months of this really adds up after a while.
I feel bad for a lot of people, though, because there has a lot of events and overall fun things going on lately, especially since the weather has been so beautiful and it seems like everyone's locked up in their apartments or in the library rather than out and enjoying life. I just don't think it's fair on them, you know? I think I've been pretty good about refraining from complaining about or being too critical of AUP, even though criticizing AUP seems to be the most fashionable thing to do in the last couple years whether you are a full-time student or just visiting. But I just really don't think it's fair on students to give them so much work all at once.
I have this one professor who always says, "well, that's what makes you college students" in reply to anything. If we complain about having a million papers and exams and obligations at the same time, "that's what makes you college students". If we collectively mention that we weren't too fond of the reading he assigned, "that's what separates you as college students from high schoolers". It's the stupidest thing ever. The worst part is that this class is a 300-level class, which means we're all either juniors or seniors. We're not new to this college thing. If we have a problem with one of the readings he has assigned, it's not because it was "too long" or "really, really boring"; we've all had enough required readings in our day to know a well-written, effective or book from one that's not effective. And yet he trivializes our opinions. I find it really discouraging, to be honest.
On a MUCH happier note, I've more or less finalized my plans for Nice this week. 13 days until fun in the sun!! This trip is turning out to be better than I ever imagined. Long before I came to Paris, I had been planning on taking a trip to the South as soon as it gets warm. I didn't really imagine anyone would want to go with me, so I always figured I'd just couch surf and bum around by myself for a couple days. I mentioned it to Arianna verrry early in the semester just in case she'd be up for another trip with me. This particular trip came up several times over the course of the semester, with me always hesitating because I didn't know how much money I'd have by May. But once I realized I would be fine financially, we went ahead with planning our beach trip. It took a looooong time and lots of unnecessary stress, but we eventually made some final decisions and concrete plans.
Then we decided to offer everything up to our friends, just in case anyone else was interested in joining us. I figured a couple people would be on board, but in the end, there were about 12 of us altogether who were interested. Far more than I ever anticipated! So now, my little beach break after classes are over that I've had in the works for about 6 months now is essentially going to be our last horrah--our one last trip as a group before finals begin and before we all go our separate ways. I'm really excited!!
I'll be sure to dedicate an entire blog entry to Nice once I get back, because I know it's gonna derserve it.
