Seventh Week

Hi everyone!  I am currently a bit overburdened with midterm exams and assignments this week, which has limited my traveling this week.  I had originally wanted to visit Versailles and Vimy Ridge during my break this weekend, but I opted for the academic and more responsible route and chose to delay these trips to another weekend.  While I’ve certainly had the opportunity to visit many different cities (Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague, Mont Saint Michel, Juno Beach, Dieppe, Dublin, London, and Oxford to date – and more to come!), it is important to remember that my primary purpose for this trip is academic in nature, and that it is an academic exchange.  As such, I believe this past weekend to focus on readings and studying was the mature route to take.  See Mom? I’m being responsible!

I did manage to tour around Rouen a bit when I wasn’t studying, and attend one of Rouen’s largest student concerts.  For students that plan on attending Rouen on Exchange in the fall, be sure to keep your ears open for the annual concert: Rouen2gether. The concert was at a large venue and had 5,000 students in attendance.  The acts were mostly electronica/house bands from France, with Fatman Scoop, a DJ from New York City as the headlining act.  It was exciting to participate in a ‘European’ moment, as the genre of music was certainly different from popular concerts in Canada and the US.

A photo from the organizers of the concert. Over 5,000 students packed into the arena for the concert.

For students that are hoping to go on exchange in Fall 2012 (not necessarily to Rouen!), keep in mind the following:

• If you are considering attending an exchange and have some hesitations, come speak to Michelle Fitzgerald from the Exchange Office or send an email to exchange@uwindsor.ca.  They are a very helpful resource to any questions.  If they don’t know the answer to your question, they will direct you to someone who does.

• There is an upcoming Student Exchange Information Fair in the CAW Centre on Campus on Thursday, November 10^th from 11am to 2pm. 

• The application for Fall 2012 can be found online from November 1^st.  The deadline for applications is typically in January.

I apologize for the lack of adventure in this blog.  In my upcoming blogs I will go into detail on classes that are available, the different residence options, along with other Rouen-specific aspects that an incoming exchange student should know.  As always, thanks for reading!

Sixth Week

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for coming to my blog and reading about my adventures.  It is scary to think that my adventure is almost halfway though.  In less than two months, I will have completed my final exams for my classes and will be anxiously awaiting my flight back to Canada where I can enjoy Christmas dinner with my family.

Looking back, I must commend the International Exchange Office at uWindsor for assisting me with the exchange process.  Michelle Fitzgerald and Dr. Alan Gold at the Exchange Office have been very helpful in assisting students to the best of their capacity.  For students that are contemplating an exchange, it is good to note that they host an Academic and General Orientation sessions to prepare you for your exchange.  While they were a bit lengthy, they covered a variety of information that you might not have considered.

 Additionally, Michelle introduces you to either a student that has previously attended your host school or a student from the host school that is participating at an exchange at the University of Windsor. During this orientation, I was introduced to a student from Rouen Business School who has been enormously helpful during my exchange. She helped clarify procedures at Rouen Business School (in particular that there isn’t a lengthy add-drop deadline as there is at uWindsor) and has assisted me with some French communication (such as how to ask for a cab in French!)

I once again took advantage of my lengthened weekends by visiting England. I visited a fellow exchange student that is studying at the University of Hertfordshire and visited London to view some tourist attractions.  While in London, I took advantage of the bicycle rentals and started my exploring by biking around Hyde Park – London’s large park in the center of the city. Below is a picture of me in motion:

If you ever visit London, you must rent a bicycle and roam around Hyde Park. It was an incredible experience.

My day continued with a boat tour on the Thames River allowing us to see a variety of attractions.  Particularly interesting to me was a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, in the same location as his original theatre. Browse through my Flickr photo album to see some pictures of the theatre.

My second day exploring London consisted of visiting a variety of the attractions in person. I saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, the market in Camden Town, London Tower, Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and ended the night with some traditional Fish & Chips in Leicester Square.

On Sunday, I visited Canary Wharf and Greenwich.  If you do decide to browse through my photos on Flickr, I warn you that you will have to browse through an endless amount of large skyscrapers from Canary Wharf, London’s major business district.  It is the headquarters of numerous major banks, professional services firms and media organizations.

Me standing in front of the KPMG building in Canary Wharf.

I also visited Greenwich, which is most famously known as the Prime Meridian of the World and the Greenwich Mean Time.  It is the official starting point for each new day and year. 

The museum did not allow us to take any photos inside, so the photo above isn't of myself.  The concept of standing between the Prime Meridian however is the same.

On Monday before the airport, I took a detour and visited the City of Oxford.  I was given a tour of the city and its various buildings by a University of Windsor alumnus, Josh Chauvin. I was shown New College, Rhodes House, and the famous debate society – Oxford Union.  While looking through the Oxford Union, I was pointed to the photo from the 1933 team. See if you recognize anyone in the photo:

If you guessed Albert Einstein, you are correct.  He is in the bottom row, second to the left. The Oxford Union has had a variety of influential speakers attend in the past, including the Dalai Lama, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, and Stephen Hawking, Richard Nixon, and Albert Einstein.

Thanks for keeping up with my exchange and travels.  I’ll be sure to write again next Tuesday.

Fifth Week

Thanks for coming back and keeping updated with my adventures in France! I have a few exciting announcements to write about this week, as well as a few lessons that I have learned from my travels.

First, two of my friends from Canada have confirmed that they will be heading over to France to visit me during my fall reading week in November. In the 14 days that I have away from school, we hope to travel around Europe and visit a few countries. We’re still finalizing our plans on where we will end up visiting, but regardless of where we end up, it will be great to see some familiar faces.

For students that are preparing for an international exchange abroad, it is important to know that the facilitation of classes are a bit different in other countries than they are at the Odette School of Business. I am accustomed to creating a schedule for a semester, and having lectures each week in the same classroom unless some excruciating circumstances develop that cause a class to be cancelled. At Rouen Business School, it is important to be more alert and aware of the classes that you are registered in. Some of my professors teach alongside working in industry, so classes for one of my classes may not have a lecture scheduled one week while all of my other classes do have classes scheduled. This appears to be very sporadic; while I will have the same amount of lectures in each class by the end of the semester, specific classes will not have a lecture on some weeks. As a student, you have access to a personal timetable on the MyFirst section of Rouen Business School’s website which dictates which class is taught at what time and in what classroom the class is taught in. While trends show that most classes are taught in the same classroom, it is important to keep an eye out as classrooms for classes do change on occasion.

I took advantage of the four days each week that I do not have classes – this time by visiting Dublin, Ireland. It was very comforting to visit a country whose main language is English! It was convenient being able to read a menu from a restaurant, ask for directions without having to ask in another language, and read magazines in English. While I have attempted to stay up to date with current events, reading the latest edition of The Economist gave me a comforting feeling of being back in Canada. While in Dublin we visited a variety of historical sites with the ‘Hop-on, hop-off’ bus, toured the campus of Trinity College, and absorbed a bit of Irish culture at a local pub that had a band play some Irish folk songs. We also experienced the second day of protests at the Central Bank in Dublin from a group of protesters that call themselves “Occupy Wall Street”. There is an article about the protest in this Irish newspaper.

Pictured above is the 'Occupy Wall Street' protest at the Central Bank in Dublin.  Click on the image above to view the rest of my album from Dublin.

Thanks for staying updated with my adventures while on Exchange.  Be sure to read my article next week.  I will be in London, England this weekend and will be sure to have some interesting stories to share.

Dublin

Dublin, a set on Flickr.

Fourth Week

Earlier today I had realized that a full month has gone by since I have arrived in Rouen. A full thirty days later and I feel more mature, more experienced, and thinking more globally about my career.

If you are considering an international exchange, it is wise to research about the different courses that are offered at the schools you are considering attending. Specific universities may have some courses that may be of interest to you, and most universities tend to be known and recognized for one of their concentrations. As I am hoping to familiarize myself with finance, I opted to attend Rouen Business School. Some universities also have classes that are focused on a particular topic that isn’t taught at many other schools. At Rouen, a popular course for international students that falls into this category is “The Economics and Culture of Wine”. While I have been taking advantage of the ease of traveling, it is important to remember that you are a student first, and that it is an academic exchange.

This is my third week of courses. One of my largest fears was not being able to understand and communicate well with my professors. However from my first day, I became very impressed at how well the professors can communicate in English. While some of my professors have a bit of a French accent, the courses are taught entirely in English. At my school, there is the opportunity for students who wish to improve upon their French to take courses that are taught in French for those that might be a bit more daring. There are also some Universities that teach exclusively in the country’s main language – see the uWindsor Exchange Website for more details. A course website similar to uWindsor’s CLEW is also utilized at Rouen so that we can look over the PowerPoint Presentation and other notes from the lecture.

The finance courses that I am enrolled in are taught similarly to courses at Odette. The courses are primarily lecture based, with some student involvement through some simple problems. International Negotiation however, is taught in a much different manner than my past courses at Odette. Each lecture is 3hr and 15min in length, and is split into two parts. One part consists of a similar lecture style as I am used to at Odette, however the other half of the lecture is a roleplaying exercise. In last week’s exercise, we were paired into a group of 6 students and were to negotiate on a variety of issues with a second group of 6 students. In our exercise, we were told to act in a certain manner and what objectives we hoped to reach in our negotiation. Through this roleplaying exercise, we witnessed the difficulty in negotiating between cultures, and were later told that the exercise was based on a real life negotiation between General Electric and Hitachi. While this method of learning is certainly different, it is also very engaging for all of the students.
Finally, I couldn’t conclude this week without arranging a few trips. This weekend was dedicated to experiencing the cities nearby Rouen and Canada’s involvement with France during WWII. Last Friday I had visited Juno Beach. For those that don’t remember, Juno Beach was one of five sectors during D-Day that lead to the Allied control of German-occupied France. As a Canadian, this site is of significant importance as this raid was performed by Canadian troops.

Seeing the Canadian Flag for the first time in a month made me a bit at ease. Click on the photo above to view my Juno Beach album.

On Saturday, my second adventure was to visit Dieppe. Dieppe is also a historical location during WWII, where the devastating Dieppe Raid occurred, which consisted of predominately Canadian troops. While this raid resulted in significant casualties, it is a symbol of Canadian’s desire to fight for what they believe in.

Pictured above is me with a view from the Dieppe Castle overlooking the beach.  Click on the photo to view my Dieppe album.

Thanks for reading. Be sure to come back and read my blog next week as I have some exciting travel adventures planned!

Dieppe

Dieppe, a set on Flickr.