Because I have decided to be a student, things have been much more complicated - and much less fun. On the 3rd of October (yes, I did a lot of things that day...), I had to fill a document to send to Nanterre which said: " I, undersigned Julie, something something something, want to study civilization with missus *********, literature with missus **********, translation, phonology, grammar, theatre, oral and all that stuff in Nanterre, etc etc". I emailed it to our dear secretary, praying, crossing my fingers she would register me as a student in Master 1. To be sure I won't be forgotten, I also emailed all the professors whose lessons I will study. Two of them, the professors of grammar and translation, answered nearly as soon as I emailed them. One of them answered me only when I told her "Missus ********** gave me your email address because I think you didn't receive the previous mails I sent you" ( she did receive them... no comment), and another one answered a month and a half later, to tell me that " this lesson cannot be studied if you're not at University!!!" Well, thank you miss, you answered so quickly that now, it's too late for me to follow another lesson. You B****...
In this case, when you don't have support from the professors, you have to have friends. Really good friends. The kind of friends who will scan all their sheets to send you the lessons (thank you Caro, Aurélia, Aurélie, Hélène, Aziz, Nathalie, Gwen, Marion...). Thanks to them, I could enjoy the lovely fact of studying in England. I wanted to do my best. I wanted to succeed. I wanted to pass this year not to waste time ( though this year in England was not a waste of time at all). Missus B****** sent me all the texts I had to translate, I went to the Watergate in Durham to order several books for literature and theatre, I brought my netbook with me at school to work during breaks, and to revise as well. I worked all day, I studied all evening. I was SERIOUS! The only problem was civilization, I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do...
When December came, I didn't know what I had to do. One of the professors said that we (the assistants) could stay in England and have our exams in September. Another one said we had better to come to university in January, have our exams, so that we could resit it in September. Because I was not sure what to expect from exams, I decided, and I was not the only one, to come back to France in January. The headteacher agreed that I leave school for two weeks, I would only have to work on Fridays when I would come back. Nick, you rock!
Yes, my room looks like a library...
With Nath and Gwen, we had almost the same exams. We were together through the highs and lows... Such as when we had to get our exam of phonology. None of us knew what it was about, and the professor in charge of it never answered our emails. We knew what it consisted in the night before. We all passed it! :-D
Concerning civilization, well... Because I didn't have the documents to learn, I revised monarchy and royalty in England between 1509 and 1901. The subject was " unemployment of children in Northern England between 1680 and 1820" ===> OK! (No surprise, I didn't get a really good mark for that one...)
For the other lessons, though I expected good marks, I did better. Not that good, but better. It was just hard to enjoy a novel which deals with pedophilia and necrophilia (thank you Angela Carter). I need to tell you something that happened at the end of my exam of literature: I told the professor "Miss, I need to ask you something. I wanted to use the word "threesome" in my essay, but I think it's a bit rude" ans she answered "No No, that's fine, you can use this word". When I came back to Bishop Auckland, I asked Chris if I really could use that word, to which he answered " Noooooo! You can use that word with friends, but don't say it again in this school!" Ok, so, to be clear, I was right not to use it in my essay, though Miss IknowEnglishBetterThanYouForIamTheTeacher said I could... I'm disgusted I am judged by people who don't know anything about slang. So what else miss, you think a blue waffle is something you can buy in a bakery??? Silly thing...
Time went by, and the next session of exams was at the beginning of June. I'm waiting for the results. I hope I pass! I worked a lot on Shakespeare ( I read
Henry V and
Richard III several times, I watched the movies, I searched a lot of documents about it... cross my fingers!) and now, as you are reading me, I have to write a "mémoire" ( around 60 pages) of what I did this year - of course I won't write the same things I write here, I rather have to write my educational project as I want to be a teacher.
So, I spent my days at school and my evenings studying. However, I chose not to work on weekends. After all, I was there only for 9 months, I wanted to take the most of it and discover England!
