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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.

Classes

I heart physics. And deductive logic, because it's like math. Why am I in arts? Bonne question.

The first couple weeks of classes have been overwhelming, to say the least. I love my mash-up of courses:

French - Français fonctionnel avancé

Psychology - Intro to Psych

Poli Sci - The Government of Canada

Philosophy - Intro to Deductive Logic

Physics - Space, Time, and Matter

(I should probably start spelling French with "ph" - Phrench, so that it can fit in with the "P" theme!)

But, this mash-up means that there is next to no overlap in my courses' subject matter, and so my mind is constantly being yanked all over the place! It can be fun though.

My Poli Sci course may sound dry, but the professor is a gem - he brings in all kinds of current issues, and is passionate about the subject matter.

In Psych, our prof wants so desperately to find some way of connecting with his 650 students that he read through the entire class list, every single name! Something about how priming the brain like this will make him more likely to remember our names if any of us go to talk to him in person. He also looked at each of our pictures from the university database to get a better idea of who we are - you might think that that sounds creepy, but really, it's endearing.

And my physics professor is so friendly! He keeps telling us about his work with lasers, which sounds so cool, and is very open to questions. Plus, come on, it's theoretical physics for non-physics majors! How much better can it get?! Special and general relativity, time, light cones, quantum theory, time travel, matter and anti-matter, cosmology... :) :) :)

For Philosophy, I really have to read the textbook to make sense of anything, but I am always able to pay attention in class - the professor makes me laugh with how he mutters that certain propositions (or is the correct term "premises"?) would be "utter nonsense", and how "we certainly can't allow for that". And he says things in a such a dead-pan way, with a dry British accent. Win. Plus I get to learn a new language for the class: FOL! Points for philosophy.

And well French, need I say more? It's French, and I can tell that this year-long course will help me improve by leaps and bounds ... At least I hope! Plus the professor is completely comprehensible, with no difficult accent, and is so clear and organized.

Wow. Haha, I'm assuming that that would be a tad boring to the outside reader, but I do believe this has been a therapeutic exercise - I now feel quite fortunate to have all of the professors that I do, they're really quite a good lot :) Though I'll let you know how I feel once mid-terms roll around...