4/6/09 or 6/4/09 depending on the country :)

Bonjour. I’m getting more and more behind on my blog as the days go on. I wish I could keep track of every experience but it just isn’t possible. I’ve been asked what my internship is exactly and where I am so I’ll give a brief overview. I am at the Université Catholique de Lille, a private Catholic university in the North of France in a city called Lille. It is said that Lille is the fifth biggest city in France but that is only if they include the dozens of suburb towns. Lille itself is a student town and the population increases exponentially when the semesters begin. More specifically, I am interning in the FLSEG which literally translates as the “school of liberal economic sciences and management.” In this department I have two responsibilities; first and foremost: to prepare the graduating students for their English interviews that they will have to enter graduate schools and masters programs. I love doing this because it gives me a chance to meet students from everywhere and help them build their confidence as we have several practice interviews and they progress. For example, one of my students, Elyse, just came for her fourth interview and she is starting to understand the texts we discuss so much better, as well as me when I ask her questions. We’ve been working on the “th” sound so she can say “this and these” instead of “zis and zeese” and she’s coming right along. Some have a better level than others and I interview them accordingly. My second mission is to help as an administrative assistant to Dean Van Peteghem and his two vice deans. This is also fun but in a much more challenging way; I am overloaded with new information every day and sometimes feel like I will never understand how this business school works. However, I am getting to the point now where I can answer some of the phone calls and help about half of the students who come in with questions. Besides this I’ve been asked to start helping translate the university’s website into English. The programs here range from three year degrees in economic-finance, management, or accounting and auditing to masters degrees in all three, as well as what is called “prepa-commerce”- basically an accelerated bachelor’s degree that prepares the student for graduate studies simultaneously. All students are required to do a 1-2 month internship in the summer so it’s been fun for me to see where the students are going when they come to get the dean’s approval. I feel privileged to have this internship seeing as this is one of the top business schools in France and one of the best private universities on the whole.
Yesterday, there was a “Colloque Juridique” conference where donors to the university were invited and I was asked to help guide the guests. The woman in charge said it was a good idea to have me speaking with the donors to show the diversity of their program. She was right; they asked where my accent came from and what I was doing here and were interested. Funnily though, I was speaking with one of the men who donates a lot each year and she purposefully came up and said, “Oh I see you’re practicing your English?” and he responded, “Oh no, your intern speaks wonderfully. We were just talking about what a neat exchange this is for her to work here.” Haha, I hope I didn’t look confused as she set him up for that compliment. I am so thrilled that I’ve finally got a handle on things now. Too tired to finish my thoughts, I'll wrap up tomorrow. Bonne nuit.. xo