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I spent this last week in Berlin, visiting my (third) cousin and her parents for the first time! It was such a fantastic week; their family was exceedingly generous, so friendly and accommodating, and I had the chance to learn some German while exploring all over the city with my cousin, Vero.

By the end of the week though, I was happy to come back to Menton. I kept feeling overwhelmed by the sensation that I have less than two months left, and it feels like it's just now that places and people are beginning to feel more familiar and comfortable. (Isn't that always the way?) But really, all one can do is treasure the remaining time, and give up looking to the end of things, other than for how it serves as a reminder to make the best use of the present.

Today, we fêted a friend with a picnic lunch on the beach. Some third years were visiting for a couple of weeks (at Sciences Po, all of the students spend their third year abroad, usually in the Middle East or somewhere else in Europe, and some come back occasionally to visit), and we started talking about the things they miss, and the things I know I'll miss, about studying in Menton. I don't write this to be pre-emptively nostalgic, but rather to share some of the unique parts of this experience:

- Everyone is like a family. As an exchange student here for just a semester, I experience this to a lesser extent, but, given how nice it's been, even for me, I can imagine how tightly bonded the students become who are together, in mostly the same classes, for two years. You see your friends basically every day! Kind of like high school, I suppose.

- The town, based on my impression, is like a university campus. There are some parts of the town, and specific buildings even, where many students have apartments, making it feel like student residences are scattered throughout. I said it in the last post, but again, rare is the occasion when I walk more than ten minutes to get somewhere.

- Everyone's home is an extension of yours - at least, that's what one of my friends said today. And it really is kind of true. Because of how relatively close together everyone lives, it's easy to pop over for quick hellos or to borrow something, and you're not worried about staying late, because a five-minute walk home at the end isn't all that daunting, compared to the typical 30-45 minute trek (at least) with multiple transit transfers in Montréal.

- I love the conversations. To have the chance to study with students coming from everywhere from Brazil to Palestine to Morocco to Germany to Lithuania to Lebanon is an amazing experience. McGill is very international as well, yes, but Sciences Po Menton is so... densely international. At McGill, you can have your various small groups of friends, and a few of them may be from outside Canada or the US, but it's much more unlikely that everyone in a group of five will represent a different home-country, whereas here, that would be the norm. On top of this, being Middle Eastern studies/Poli Sci/International Relations/whatever the heck the label is, students, they're all generally well-versed (at least compared to me and most people I know back home) in Middle Eastern history and politics, plus, everyone is learning Arabic! It makes for a fascinating confluence of backgrounds and thus world-views, and I'm really going to miss this. I like being one of the more ignorant ones in a conversation about politics, because you learn so much more that way, and I definitely get to experience a lot of that here ;)

- I'm made inordinately happy by how many languages everyone speaks, and uses in regular conversation. It's not perceived as weird or pretentious or "trying too hard" to throw random French/Arabic/Italian/German/Spanish/etc. words into conversation, because chances are, some of the people you're speaking with have one, or more, of these as their native language. So, just for the record, if any of you back home are reading this, you're probably going to be referred to lovingly as habibi or habibti, because, at this point, I can't not :D

- The atmosphere is, generally, more relaxed. I know I'm biased, being an exchange student, but even though the "regular" students do have a crazy full course-load, the library still closes at 8pm every night, is also closed on weekends (which I actually won't miss), and it seems that a lot of people aren't overly hung up on a paper being turned in a day or two late. ... Rethinking this, I probably am not fully representing regular students' sentiments on this front... But, when you wake up to this:

And this is your view from the library/where one of your sailing/kayaking courses (which you can apparently get credit for if you're an actual Sciences Po student!) ...

And this is what a study session can often look like...

Then yes, I do stand by my statement that, on the whole, things are more relaxed.

So voilà, there are a few little pieces of what makes being here special! I'm leaving the people out of it for now, because that'll get me too worked up for the time being.

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

Off to France

Hi all,
Another adventure is afoot. In eight days, I'll be flying to Paris, then on to Nice, and from there bussing or riding the train a short way to the town of Menton. Why? Well, other than the fact that Montréal is brutally cold this time of year, while Menton has been dubbed France's most temperate city, there is also a university there. Sciences Po has a regional campus in this town, whose population is less than that of McGill's, at <30,000, specializing in studies pertaining to the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Ever since we first starting attending college and career fairs in grade ten at school, I've been on the lookout for universities with good exchange programs. McGill, of course, has partnerships with many universities worldwide; the reason I chose Sciences Po, and specifically its Menton campus, is... multi-faceted. I'll update this later as to why I chose to study a subject area (political sciences/international relations) that is so wholly different from my current program in linguistics and psychology; as it's New Year's Eve, and I've just been informed that we are moving on out, I'll leave you with this lovely Google Maps screenshot of a location 2.5 minutes from my apartment-to-be: