New Year, new adventures

I am back in Grenoble now for my second semester of law after an amazing 2 and a half weeks at home for Christmas and New Year. Thank you to everyone who helped make it so great!

This first week back has been full of studying, exams and thankfully some days off towards the end! I had three exams in under 24 hours, and whilst they were all spoken exams and only lasted 15 minutes each – they were amongst some of the hardest exams that I have ever sat! Imagine going into a room to prepare for the ‘big question’ whilst another student is sitting actually doing their exam – off-putting for both you and the other student! When that other student was finished, it was time to answer the question that you had been given 10 minutes to prepare for and then also many other questions that you do not know in advance before having to answer them. Basically, the lecturer could ask anything on the course and expect an immediate answer! A big advantage of a written exam is that you actually have time to think about the answer before committing yourself to anything, and you can always go back to change it! Some lecturers were nicer than others in their questions and some were more comforting than others!

One thing that struck me about the French exams is that the lecturer may turn up late – be it 10 minutes or, in the case of an exam that I wasn’t sitting, an hour late! I can’t help thinking that if this happened in Britain there would be uproar!

Anyway, my exams finished on Wednesday and I was lucky that the sun was shining and we were able to go into town to celebrate finishing with a glass of wine whilst sitting outside, enjoying the sun!

Classes for the new semester start on Monday and it is of no use at all that we have not been given much information about these classes! Hopefully it will all be sorted out soon and the relevant paperwork can be completed before settling down into the new semester.