day 2 or is it 3 I don't know anymore

Hello everyone!

Man, I am exhausted. Today was many things but fun was not one of them. The closest thing I can liken orientation to is those required video modules at work that are supposed to train you and teach you company values. Endlessly frustrating, a bit blasé, with information that could have been condensed into 3 hours but was instead stretched into 8. Can you tell how cathartic complaining about this is for me? One of the images attached is a picture of a "goal setting" exercise that we were forced to do, and even though my parents might think its a great thing, the fact that I was required to fill it out and share in with 3 other people made me feel like an anxious kindergartner again. Goals are so personal, why would you want to share them with someone you barely know and don't trust?

There were a few helpful bits of information in there, including how to respond to street harassment and what clubs/activities you can participate in to meet Parisians. But for the most part, it was a drag. The academic advisors were also pretty condescending and talked to us like schoolchildren. Apparently if you are more than 15 minutes late to a class (for any reason), it counts as an unexcused absence and you only get two a semester. Most professors supposedly "require" handwritten notes and won't let you write them on a laptop. Maybe I'm a spoiled American but the strict standards only compound the immense anxiety I feel about starting classes.

The intercultural section was funny too. It was clearly intended for Americans who have never lived in a foreign country, which (at the risk of sounding stuck-up), I managed to do when I was only 15. They described so many of the experiences that I had in Germany (xenophobia, stereotypes, culture shock, adaptation, etc.) and it's crazy to think that I confronted so many of these big topics at such a young age. I say this only to give myself (and maybe you, if you're worried) some hope that I am capable of being independent and thriving in a foreign environment. European life has a certain rhythm to it that I know I can get used to. I also have to give my wonderful parents some credit for exposing me to different cultures through travel and art and music. The intricacies of cultural norms, the "unspoken rules", is something that I think might be lost on some of my fellow Americans, and I feel lucky that I don't have to experience these things for the first time. I love when I'm in the supermarket or in public and have an entire exchange in French without the other person realizing that I'm American, or trying to speak English with me. I pick up bits of French everywhere; overhearing conversations, reading signs and labels, looking up words, collecting them like a magpie collects shiny things. I hope that my father will be sufficiently impressed when I get home :)Read more