It’s me – Huiru, your NP Year 3 classmate!
I am in touch with Miss Koh and she mentioned to me that you’re in Israel.
It’s been aeons, hasn’t it?
Hope everything’s good at your side.
It sure sounds like you’re having tons of fun there, gal!

Costumes also great. See:

http://www.ciaovenezia.eu/fora_topic.asp?tid=102

Thanks for reading! It’s nice to think my blog is useful for someone!

1. The weather has been lovely, sunny and warm. When I first arrived (late August) the sun was a bit strong and I almost got sunburnt, but now it is just pleasant T-shirt weather. It has rained 3 or 4 days this month (all day), but it has not been cold even then. I hear however than in winter it is freezing, and I have certainly brought some warm clothes with me for that. I will comment on that when it happens!

2. There are other Australians here and I have run into some a couple a few times, however most of my new friends are other international students as it is with them that I have spent the most time (in the orientation course). Now that my classes with the French students are starting, I will have more opportunities to meet local students. I haven’t made much of an effort to catch up with Australians here at this point, mainly because I want to have a cultural experience and can meet Australians at home! Perhaps if I start getting a bit homesick I will hunt out some Aussies and arrange a Vegemite picnic in the Park.

3. I am at Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 and am studying entirely in French (DEUF program – Diplôme d’Etudes Universitaires Françaises). However they also offer a SELF program (Study in English in Lyon, France) which offers English subjects (although a smaller range) and depending on your level it may be possible to transfer into French courses after a semester if you are staying for a year (at least, I am aware of people doing that). There are people doing DEUF with all levels of French, some very poor. If you are doing post-VCE you should manage. You may not grasp everything but you will learn quickly. They don’t necessarily talk much faster or with more complicated vocabulary than the French teachers at Melbourne Uni in the post-VCE stream. However if you really think you will find that too stressful, perhaps do SELF; you will still learn a lot of French as you have compulsory language subjects and have to do so many other things (admin, general life) in French. As far as I am aware anybody can do SELF (if their English is good enough of course).

4. I will provide details on my subjects in another post this week. Most of my subjects are for law (you have to choose one faculty so I picked Law) however I am attributing the compulsory French language and culture subjects to my French major and I am doing a couple of extra subjects within the Faculté de Lettres which are relevant to my French major as they pertain to French cultural history and language as well. (I am part of the increasingly rare breed of Heritage Double Degree students at Melbourne.) Both Lyon 3 and Lyon 2 have large Philosophy/History/Literature/Letters/Social Sciences departments with many subjects. They sometimes make very basic subject information (read: subject names) available online if you can figure out how to navigate their websites (which is harder than it sounds).

Best of luck and don’t hesitate if you have further questions.

lyonchris

just been reading your blogs as i was thinking of going to lyon next year semester 2…i know you’re probably busy but if you could answer some of my questions i’d love the help, im entirely lost as to how this process works

1. whats the weather like there this time of year??
2. are you with any other australians?
3. which lyon university are you at/ how many of your classes are in french?
4. what are the arts subjects like? how do they relate to your major/s?

im a first year doing media comm but im also doing post-vce french. will they still let me do the Self program? thats what im interested in, not sure i’d survive with everything in french. i’d really appreciate your advice

good luck with the cat, i hate them too. hope people are being nice to you at uni.

Carla