The Basics

Menton, pop. 28,833
Sciences Po, Campus Menton, pop. ~200
# of nationalities represented on-campus: 46
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Montréal, pop. 1,649,519
McGill University, pop. 39,349
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It's been a change. Size-wise, demographics-wise, subjects-wise... The question always comes up, after telling people what I study back home: "... How did you end up here?"
From research-focused linguistics and psych courses to far more theoretical political science, political philosophy, sociology, and history courses, all focused on the Middle East... Why indeed. Well, first off, doesn't this course list sound fascinating?

- Pensée politique arabe moderne (Arab Modern Political Thought, or, "PPAM")
- States and Societies in the Arab World
- Les grandes étapes de la question palestinienne (The main stages in the Palestinian question)
- Wars of Memories: A Perpetual Enmity Between East and West?
- Iran in a Changing World

Essentially, my (simplified) thought process in choosing my exchange location, for those of you who care, was as follows:
'I want to professionalize my French. ... France seems like a good place to do that. I don't know if I would do too well talking all my courses in French though... Hmm, well Sciences Po looks like one of the only exchange option schools that lets me do half and half. They don't offer any Psych or Linguistics courses though, shoot. Well, I was originally thinking about International Relations, and maybe Poli Sci, coming out of high school, and I would like to learn more about the field, so why not give it a shot! Woooo one semester and all my electives are eaten up... Oh well. Hopefully worth it. Ah, say! They have regional campuses, and a smaller city would probably be even better for practicing French, and, oh look, each regional campus focuses on a particular area of the world *link-link-link* the Middle East would be fascinating, and I could take Italian! Or Hebrew! Or Arabic! (Though I ended up being met with the sad news just before my arrival that you're not allowed to start at "Level 0" in any language halfway through the year. Sad day.) *googlegooglegoogle* The city the campus is in is on the Mediterranean on top of that... Ok it's a plan.'

And so, here I am! Living in the relatively small, retiree-populated town of Menton, just a thirty minute walk from the Italian border, a ten-minute train ride to Monaco, and a three minute walk to school (and to the beach!) I live with a "regular" first year student from France, M, and a full-year exchange student from Brazil, S - both are completely crazy and wonderful - in a tiny apartment in the old city, where a walk of more than 10 minutes means a location is "far away".

Those are the basics. Sorry that I took forever to post. Hopefully, now that this is established, I'll find time to write more... Don't get too excited and hold your breath or anything, but I'll do my best ;)

Gros bisous,
Christina