Preparation Home Stretch

Greetings all, it's been a while.

Well my Fall semester at Concordia is in high gear, so it's been some very busy times, and things are about to get even crazier as final preparations must be made for my January departure.

I received an e-mail today from Annissa who is in charge of incoming exchange students at ESC Rouen welcoming me to their school for the winter semester. Yay!

I now must decide between 3 different on-campus housing options, which you can read about here:
http://international.esc-rouen.fr/apply/docs/Details%20on%20On-campus%20residences%202006-2007.pdf

Even though it's the most expensive of the three, I'm leaning towards La Pleiade, with the middle-level Ango Residence coming in second. I need to rank my choices in order and submit an application on October 25th.

Aside from housing, I need to find a day/time to obtain my student visa. I will either head out to the French Consulate here in Montreal bright and early one morning, or head down to Ottawa for a day and go directly to the French Embassy. Ottawa is probably the more likelier of the two right now, because I'll need my passport for a trip to New Jersey in November, and the processing time through the Consulate can be lengthy.

I also need to look into health insurance for my trip. There are a few large providers, though I also have to see what - if any - my current coverage here in Montreal provides me with. If I don't find anything that seems good, ESC Rouen has an insurance package I can purchase as well.

Furthermore, I need to select the courses I would like to take while I'm away. I'm hoping to take most - if not all - in English, and there are some pretty interesting-sounding classes. One is called "Oenology, the Wine Industry," and I think it certainly could be interesting to study wine-making in France. Of course, there are also a number of business and marketing classes to choose from, including International Retail Marketing, Marketing Plan, and Brand Marketing. Finally, there is a class on Sports Marketing, which I would very much like to take, but unfortunately it's only offered in French. I might try it all the same. We'll see.

I have found out my semester dates, and they're kinda strange really. I am expected to arrive on January 4th or 5th and settle into residence. Lectures begin on January 9th, 2007, and run all the way through to May 25th! There are, though, two 1-week breaks, being before midterms from February 26 to March 4, and then from April 16 to April 22. Perhaps the strangest thing of all is the final exam period, which is listed as being from May 28th to May 30th. Either all exams are scheduled within a 3-day period, or there is some kind of mistake on the school's website.

The good thing about the long semester is that it means I will receive my government bursary for the entire period of January 4th to May 30th, so that means pretty much 5 full months of money.

Anyway, that's it for the time being. More to come in the near future, especially once classes are done here in December. Oh and I'm hoping to buy a cheap-ish digital camera before I leave, so I'll be able to upload pics of my journey to my laptop straight from Europe.