I've becoming more and more French everyday...

Everyday is filled with a new challenge and adventure. I really do enjoy being here. It's different and I like that.

Let's start with school...
I started classes last Monday. School is completely different here. You don't have to offically enroll in your classes. You just show up to the classes that you want to take and take the exam at the end. That's how you'll get a grade. So, you could go to classes for the entire duration of the class and not take the exam, or show up for the exam for a class you never attended. In addition, classes start and end randomly. It all depends on how many hours the class actually meets. I have 1 or 2 classes that last the entire semester, but some that only last 5-6 weeks. Some of my classes start later in the semester. Here, they require a sports class for a grade. It's sick. So, I picked tennis for a grade and ski/snowboard for pleasure. It's going to be sweet.

Here's my schedule:
Monday 8am-12pm - Dynamics of system processes
Tuesday 10am-12pm - Tennis
Wednesday 8am-10am - Management of Enterprises (Marketing, Strategy, and Law)
Thursday 8am-10am - Thermodynamics
Friday 8am-12am - Conservation of energy and mass & Mass transport

Classes that will be included later in the semester:
P-chem lab, thermodynamics in electrochemistry, and this course that deals with the statistical analysis of tests that ChemE companies have to perform before and after building a plant.

Classes for me are kind of rough. I only have 12 hours of class a week, so I do have quite a bit of free time, but I do need more time to translate and learn the vocabulary. Also, the French are a bit more theoretical with their teaching and exams, whereas we are practical in the US.

In Grenoble, there are so many students. I think there are over 60,000 college/high school students in Grenoble, of which about 3000-4000 are international. There's a great student atmopshere here. They even have a bar on campus. It's amazing.

In other news...
Right now, I'm dangerously low on cash in Europe. It's been a hassle attempting to send money over. Thankfully, I found a way to do it and the money should be coming within 2-3 days.

I am going to Oktoberfest! I am pumped. All the international kids are going the weekend of October 3-4. We're leaving Friday night by bus, sleeping the entire way to Munich, waking up, celebrating Oktoberfest, then, leaving Sunday morning and arriving back to Grenoble in the evening. I think it's about a 9 hours drive by bus.

I'm tired and have an 8 am class tomorrow. I'll update some more tomorrow.