My courses for Spring Semester

I have enrolled in 10 courses which add up to 13 credits, plus I've been assigned to three CUFCO courses to help facilitate my French speaking, comprehension, reading, writing, and understanding of the French culture. That adds up to 13 classes that I am taking this spring semester. I'm in my fourth week of classes now, and the CUFCO classes began last Friday. CUFCO classes are free for foreign students. CUFCO is an organization or an association who's mission is to preserve and diffuse the French language and culture globally.

My other ten classes give me enough credits for maintaining my status as a full-time student at the University of Maine and for maintaining my Financial Aid. Twelve credits is the minimum for full-time status. The ten classes that I am formally enrolled in here are: French language and the Francophone; Environment; 2 classes in Techniques of Expression in French; French Language; French Grammer; 2 classes in French/English translation; Myth and Symbolism; and the History of Art. Voilà, that makes 10 classes, plus the three CUFCO classes. Consequently, I am very busy. Each class meets once a week. Some of my classes meet for one hour, whereas others meet for up to three hours (the CUFCO classes).

I have been fortunate to discover many of the vegetarian foods that I am accustomed to eating at the local market. Over the weekend I even bought some tofu and incorporated it into a vegetable stir-fry in the community kitchen on my floor at the residence hall. I also found containers of hummus at the market over the weekend, along with multi-grain bread. This is part of my Cap-stone project at the University of Maine--surviving as a vegetarian in France. It's both challenging and fun for me to hunt for different vegetarian ingredients and then to come up with recipes for preparing the ingredients in the community kitchen. I have not yet found sea vegetables, which I miss in my diet, however, I've been told about a food co-op that exists in the city center, which I plan to investigate.

The strike is still ongoing here, and many students and professors don't show up for classes because they are on strike. President Sarcozy adressed the nation for almost two hours last week on television and I watched the entire speech. He gave no hope to the students and professors on strike. He even mentioned the United States and President Obama three or four times during his speech. I'm not sure if Sarcozy was trying to demonstrate that the United States supports his stand on the higher-education economic issue here, or if he was using the U.S. as an example. In the U.S., of course, there is no free college education for all young people, just as there is no health insurance for everyone. Students who are coordinating the strike at my campus here in Angers think that President Sarcozy is crazy. They don't think that Sarcozy is in his right mind. They blame Sarcozy for not supporting positive reform that will guarantee free higher education to all students, no matter what profession they are pursuing and no matter what economic background or class they come from. My only hope is that the ongoing strike won't interrupt my classes very much.

All for now. Keep following my blog for future posts.