I think that the classes here are a strange amalgamation of college and intense crash-course coaching. After sitting through a slide show of 2000 years' worth of architectural history (in pictures) and a lesson in how to learn French, I think that I will not only be more proficient in French by the end of the semester, but by the end of the month, I think I will have learned more than I thought one person could learn!
The beautiful thing about this program is that I can actually go out into the city every week with my architecture class to study the things we only read about in the U.S., i.e. a Gothic cathedral or the site of Roman ruins. If you stop and think about it, the buildings in this city hold more collective history than most of the cities in the U.S. In Nashville, for example, we have the Ryman Auditorium and a replica of the Parthenon. In Atlanta, the Olympic Park. Paris? Notre Dame, la Sainte-Chapelle, even the church in Saint-Denis which is as I learned the oldest Gothic church. We don't have those around, though we do have Gothic churches.
Have I also mentioned that there is nothing like being able to speak a language I have only read in books for around 10 years? Granted, the first few years I could hardly read a sentence without pausing to catch my breath. Here I can walk in the street and just read the signs. Sometimes that is my main consolation, since French people often think they're doing me a favor by speaking English to me.
At any rate, this is going to be a good semester. But it's already going by at a lightning pace.
No comments:
Post a Comment