16 October, Clermont-Ferrand part 2

So the week has gone well, several days of orientation for me, as well as one French class and a couple of days of class that centers on our main project for the year.  

I will be taking French 2 evenings a week, usually from 5:15 to 7:15.  I am also going to sit in on a German class that meets on Monday evenings, also from 5:15 to 7 or so.  The schedule can be different every week.  That is not what we are used to - in the US, university classes are usually held every week and are at the same times. 

Anyway, the Tuesday French class is a regular language class and the Thursday class is to prepare us for a language test we will take in December.  It is a well known and recognized test here in France, that will give us a rating on our French language skills that other schools and businesses are familiar with.  We will have the same two instructors we had for the first month.  We will practice speaking, listening, reading comprehension, and grammar/vocabulary.

We also had training/presentations on the internship program and on use of the library/media services area, received our class schedules for the semester, and met individually with our program head.  During that meeting, we were asked to update and provide a copy of our CV (resume) and a cover letter we will use to apply for internships.  

Our Thursday and Friday class were on the DRIVE project, a small group project that we will start this semester and finish next semester.  In our groups, we will decide on an entrepreneurial project or a possible startup business.  We will fully develop that idea and present a sort of business plan for the final in the spring.  In the midst, we will have more intercultural training, and some project training related to this class.  

Our DRIVE project class is only the students in the IPM program (International Project Management).  So now, there are 6 of us, all women, 2 from China, two from France, one from Spain, and me.  They say we expect a couple more.  There are another 16 or so students in the finance program, but we are small group and have been able to get to know each other pretty well.  

In the DRIVE class, we also di personality inventories, knowing each other made it easier to be open about our goals, our strengths and weaknesses.