DECISION TIME!!!

Yesterday (May 17th) I received a phone call from Amanda who is the person in charge of ISEP at Concordia, giving me my choices of host institutions for next year.

Much to my shagrin, the spots at the University of South Florida were already full, and California State University wasn't accepting further exchange applicants. There were, however, openings at other schools, the two most interesting of which were University of Western Sydney (in Australia), and ESC Rouen (in France). I took the evening to think about it, even though it meant conceivably missing out on some of the openings as at this point it is basically first come, first serve.

This morning, I called back, and with the spot at University of Western Sydney having been taken, made ESC Rouen my choice destination.

And so, assuming that all goes according to plan, I will be spending the Winter 2007 semester studying at ESC Rouen in France!

ESC stands for "École supérieure de Commerce," and Rouen is the name of the city it is located in. The school's website may be found here: http://www.esc-rouen.fr/.

Rouen is a fairly small city (compared to Montreal, anyway) with about 500,000 inhabitants. It is rich in history and culture, and is located next to the better known Normandy. Rouen is about a one hour train ride from Paris, and despite its size and culture, boasts all of the luxuries and ammenities of a large, modern city - movie theatres, malls, stores, bars, restaurants, pools, arenas, etc.

As for the school, it is the second oldest business school in all of France, and is accredited on national, European, and world levels. Its departments include Marketing, M.I.S., Law and Accounting, Economics and Finance, Management and Strategy, and Language and Culture. It is home to a large number of international and exchange students, and courses are taught in both English and French (as well as 8 other language courses). The school is located all on one campus, featuring 3 cafeterias, 2 restaurants, and a shopping centre within 5 minutes walking distance. There are three main on-campus residence buildings that vary in price and accomodation style. Off-campus residence buildings that are more central to the city of Rouen are available as well, though they are somewhat more expensive. Again because of the size of the city, most of the life revolves around the University students, and as such the greater area is the youngest in all of France, with the average age being around 25.