Happy Bastille Day!

 

          

I just talked to my son in France!  He said that most of the Bastille Day celebrating -- fireworks and dinner at outdoor cafes -- was last night.  They don't have class today, but they do tomorrow -- and this month his group has class until 5:30 on Fridays.  Their schedule is effectively squelching their myriad plans for European travel on the Eurailpasses that they all purchased here (as required) before leaving last month.  They are hoping for better luck in August.

He is still learning to navigate: the city, the groceries, the cafes, the schoolwork.  The professors are French and teach in the traditional French fashion: marking off every tiny error, giving no indication of how to correct the mistakes, switching from topic to topic, and grading on a scale of 1-20 with 10 being a good grade and 14/15 being truly outstanding (and rare).

He says that the main thing he has learned so far is that EVERYTHING in France is different than its counterpart in the U.S.  Well, that's the point of living abroad -- to adapt to life with people who see and do everything differently than we do.  What an experience for a young person!