First Final in France Finally Finished

I haven't written in 3 months, mostly because I've been caught up with work, traveling, eating and just being too lazy. I've uploaded pictures of my stay in in France for those who are interested and have let those speak for themselves. I'm writing this blog post mostly to vent about the most terrible and comedic final I just endured at the university in Montpellier (Universite Paul Valery UM3 for those who weren't privy to that information).

 The class: Grands Defis: Transport, Communication, Energie. Translation: Great Challenges: you can figure out the rest.

 I signed up for this class judging it by its name and the level of difficulty, in order to show UNC we're doing "work" and not on vacation you have to take a class(es) with the right level of difficulty arbitrarily defined by some European bureau of universities and the level is arbitrarily chosen by the UNC Study Abroad Office. In France, there is no online registration, not even an organized course catalog, not even much of a course description. Without blinkness or myEDU you can't see if a class should be avoided like the plague. Nothing, all I had to base my decision on was a fancy title and the fact that it fit my schedule. Well, in going along with the theme of everyone of my semesters at UNC, the end of the semester shows just how poorly I had planned at the beginning. From 8am CHEM 101 lab to HIST 127H to LING 101H to Grands Defis, I find myself asking "why the f*** did I choose this class" repeatedly, often out loud as I trudge to the final, every time hoping that some meteorite would miraculously crash down on the stack of finals in the room thus canceling the final. Unfortunately no such meteorite fell from the heavens this morning, just a bit of wind and grey skies, a dreary day to mirror how I felt, how cliché.

 Why this class sucks: the professor sits in front of the class and reads off his computer for 2 hours a day, twice a week.

 I know right! I'd rather plank for two hours while watching paint dry, at least I'd get more out of it. Listening to a guy read in a monotonous voice is hard enough in English, but forget about it in French. At least in English I could afford to space out for a bit, doodle, text whatever and come back to the lecture at will, not here. If I so much as sneezed, or looked at my watch I'd get lost and never get back into the class. In order to understand even half of what he was saying I would have had to give him my undivided attention for 2 hours, yeah not happening. Also it's a last semester class for people doing a license (major) in geography and as I learned halfway through the semester each class in the major builds on each other. Basically I took a 400 level class with prereqs in the 100s and 200s, a course catalog would have helped. Granted he was not the only professor, he taught the communication and energy part and a different prof taught the transportation part and he was great, he'd interact with us and write stuff on the board, I actually learned from him. Unfortunately, the boring guy handled our final and is responsible for our grades.

 Which brings me to the funny part about this class: the final. I'd make sense to give us an exam that would judge us fairly on everything we learned during the semester. If a class consists of three subjects and the final is our only exam of the semester (yeah forgot to add that) then of course we should all be tested on all three subjects and each student's evaluation should be fair and equal. Yeah I forgot that I'm not at UNC or any other institution where these things matter. Nah, here at UPV the professor can decide what to do for the final on the spot and we're supposed to come prepared for anything he might throw at us. So I don't know why I was surprised when he held up a sign in front of the class at before giving out the finals that said "Sujet 1" (subject 1 in case you were about to pop that into google translate) and said that the first half of the class (alphabetically) would do that subject and the other half sujet 2. Ok cool, this would be great if we would have given us both subjects ahead of time and we could have prepared for one or the other. Yeah that is asking for too much. But, to my amazement he rescinded on the idea and I began to think that maybe he wasn't such a bad guy, maybe I could choose which subject to write about (not that it mattered, I was doomed anyway). But no, again I expected too much. What he did instead was comical on so many proportions. He looks at us and says that he will give us two options, but we don't have a choice and he said so with a big, almost cynical, grin on his face that made most of the class laugh. What played out after that was something straight out of a game show. He called someone down from the audience (us students) to go to the front of the class and pick from two pieces of paper, one that had subject 1 on it and the other that had subject 2 on it. He then proceeded to shuffle them as if there were several choices, taking his time and building the anticipation. He even asked the kid if he was nervous and how he felt, then telling him that pressure was all on him and that his classmates had confidence in him. The kid was picking among two pieces of paper and I felt like I was watching Deal or No Deal, which piece of paper to pick? very hard choice. When it finally gets time to choose the subject, the professor takes the choice out of the kid's hand, literally. The kid is holding both folded papers but before he got a chane to pick the professor takes one from him and gives it to a student sitting in the front row. Essentially these two students became like the models opening the briefcase, they just smiled and unfolded the pieces of paper. The chosen students represented the first half of the class and he picked subject 1.....exactly where we were 10 minutes ago. And so, everyone was given a subject depending on their last name. My half, the first half, had subject 1 and we had to write about oil crises since 1970. I just hope that the professor would have added "and may the odds ever be in your favor." I knew I was going to do terribly, I had no idea what to write, so I threw a Hail Mary. I went over to the professor and asked, rather pleaded, if I could use my notes, explaining that I was a foreigner but he politely said "non." I ended up writing enough, I'm hoping he grades using the quantity over quality rule. When I finished all that was going through my mind was "F."

 As much as I complained and vented in the entry above, I know it's ultimately my fault. Had I learned to take better notes and listen carefully I would have done well. At least it's over.