HC Abroad: Finals in France

Winter is rolling around to France, slowly but surely plucking the leaves from the trees and inspiring me to break out some of my winter gear. Unfortunately, I realized that I forgot to pack both hats and warm gloves, so I had to go out and buy them (you’ve see them in the pictures of my trip to Oslo, Norway!).

With the arrival of winter comes a looming finals season. At my university, there are two finals periods: one in December and one in January. The only problem is, we don’t yet know when our finals exams will be within these general periods. Hopefully we’ll know by the end of this week (but please keep your fingers crossed for me)!

I am currently in 8 separate classes, and each of those will have either a final or a final paper (or two!) due between now and the end of the semester. Which while it seems like a lot, this is a lot luckier than having as many final exams. I have more classes than a lot of other people in my program, though, because of the way I built my schedule. I completed my credit requirement by taking a lot of low-credit courses, which means that I ultimately have more assignments due.

To be honest, I thought that coming abroad would be more of an academic “break” for me. People who study abroad say that the classes are so much easier than those in the United States, and that they have more free time than they know what exactly to do with. And while some days I wholeheartedly agree with them, other days I feel like I’m working and busy all the time.

And the truth is, in a way, I am working all the time. Just not like I was before. It’s true that I haven’t had as many assignments due throughout the course of the semester. But I have also enrolled myself in this immense foreign language class that is living in another county. All the time, my brain is working. All the time, I am learning vocabulary and getting up to speed on how to best operate here.

Although I thought I would have more lounging around time, I think it is ultimately better for me to have a constant brainteaser and work to do. Otherwise, it would be easier for homesickness and other emotions to creep into my mind. If I keep busy, I keep afloat.

So right now I’m focusing on budgeting my time and starting to knock major assignments out of the way. This way, I’m not completely overwhelmed later on in November and December. No one wants to waste their time being overwhelmed in France.

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