Histoire du monde contemporaine
Most of the classes I am taking for credit are offered by the IIEF (l'Institut International d'Etude Français). Besides a quantity of language hours, in order to fulfill general education requirements, I am taking two politics/history courses: European Political Institutions and History of the Contemporary World. The first class of Histoire du monde contemporaine was on Tuesday. Apparently, we will be studying, more specifically, the decolonization of the world. As an introduction, we covered today why nations wanted to colonize. Reason number two: they wanted to proselytize (professor's word choice). At this point, we departed from history and the professor ranted about the what a terrible reason this was; how horrible it was to go "force" these people to profess our religion, to worship God our way. After all, according to Voltaire (and he agreed with Voltaire), all religions worship the same God, just different ways. We should have let the people alone to worship God their way. bah humbug! Unfortunately, I could say nothing, partially because I lacked the French to properly express myself, but more because professors here tend not to appreciate interruptions from the students. The students generally only talk when the professor asks a question.
I did take pictures on Saturday of the cathedral, but I don't have time to upload them right now. So to tide you over until I can get them up, I have a picture of Elliot. Mme. Merceris tells me that Elliot has quite taken to me, more so than he did for the last student. The proof? He likes to lie on my bed and be in my room with me. Perhaps, though, I'm just a softie and don't have the heart to kick him off the bed. With eyes like that, what can I do?
I'm taking the train to Nancy tomorrow to spend the some time with my cousins. The rest of the BCA group is coming Saturday morning and we will tour Nancy and a nearby village, St. Nicholas de Port, returning to Strasbourg in the evening. I guess I'll owe you two posts when I come back!
À bientôt!
Wow, you followed all that in the lecture? Or was it just 'cause of who was talking and you deduced the rest?
RépondreSupprimerI don't have anything important or revolutionary to say, but I know it's always nice to get comments on posts. I watched "Voyage au pays imaginaire" and thought of you and the cinema to which you were supposed to have gone. Mom keeps asking, "How is Mary doing in Italy?" I tell her, "France, you mean." She says, "Right.....What's she doing next year?" "I don't know." "She should come to Iowa and get a master's in music. Your old piano teacher - what's his name? - is there." I sigh. "So I've mentioned." Mom keeps driving. "I wonder what the weather in Italy is like right now...." (This is what comes of having two daughters that sing arias regularly in both French and Italian. The two countries are bound to get as mixed up as the operas. At least, that's my theory.)
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