No tags yet.
I've been on this island for over a month and I think I've now finally settled in. Uni admin has taken too long, and sorting out my timetable also took some time, but I've now chosen my modules.
We have to take 30 credits and the modules here are between 2 and 6 credits each, meaning I have to take a lot more modules than I usually do at UEA. It's also been difficult to sort because of timetable clashes! So I've chosen:
3 Spanish modules ;
'Civilisation Hispanique et Espagnole' - studying the history in Spain and the Hispanic world.
'Littérature Hispanique et Espagnole' - learning about significant literary movements in Spain and the Hispanic world.
'Art Visuels' - which covers the history of Spanish cinema, and famous works of art.
4 ERAMUS modules (i.e. modules specifically run for year abroad students) ;
'Traduction littéraire (thème-version anglais) - basically a translation module to and from English
'Société et culture réunionnaises et de l’océan indien' - studying the culture and society of Réunion
'Langue et civilisation du FLE' - French language lessons
'Francophonie, littératures et cinéma' - specifically studying quebecois through the use and analysis of films and linking this to important topics
And then a history module and a sport module to fill up the credits ;
'Introduction à l'histoire du monde contemporain' - history of the French Revolution
'SUAPS' - pretty cool but basically the theory of a certain sport, so I'm going to do scuba diving.
The lectures themselves are very different to what I'm used to. This is mainly because at UEA we didn't really have lectures, mainly seminar style lessons since there weren't many of us taking the classes. Lectures here however follow the traditional style, where the lecturer sits at the front reading from his notes using a microphone, and we (the students) write notes from what he says. The technology here is basic, to say the least, so we rarely get a powerpoint to assist the speaker. Surprisingly I actually quite enjoy this style just because its something I've never had before. Though saying that, I don't think I could deal with this the whole of my degree.
Lectures aside, I wouldn't say theres an abundance of things to do here. Sport is offered, and I was interested in doing more however they often clash with my timetable. I'm hopefully going to take scuba diving and I have my first pool session to learn the basics this week. Nightlife is also a bit of a bummer. Theres not much on, especially in comparison to Norwich, but in some ways thats a nice change I guess.
Culture Shocks? Something our teachers warned us about! To be honest, I wouldn't say I've experienced culture shock as such. I find certain things a bit of an inconvenience but its something I've been able to adjust to easily and its allowed me to appreciate what I have back home. Like the nightlife or ability to do things in the evening. Most of the shops close as soon as it starts getting dark (sunset at 6ish) and nothing is open on Sundays. The busses are also a total pain here. Weekdays are okay (though they do stop running at 8pm), but at the weekends they are always full and don't run very often. This is especially annoying because at the weekends you want to do things, since theres no lectures. Oh, how I regret ever saying bad things about Firstbus. The climate is also something I think I'm still adjusting to. It's currently winter here, yet its 25 degrees Celsius, and fairly humid, so I just need to be sure to drink plenty of water and eat healthily.
Despite these things, I've been getting on really well and managed to visit some really cool places. I've even managed to experience a few pretty beach sunsets!
