Le Premier Semaine de Mes Cours

This week, brisk as it was, was the first week of classes at ESCP. I only have class Monday through Wednesday, because all four of my courses are 3-hour sessions and thus only meet once a week. My schedule is:

Monday: Multinational Financial Statements(13:30h-16:30h)
Tuesday: Strategic Marketing (9:00h-12:00h); Positional Bargaining & Negotiation (13:30h-16:30h)
Wednesday: International Finance (17:00h-20:00h)

Group Financial Statements is lead by an old English guy with a very proper and hilarious accent. He calls us chaps. The marketing class sounds like it will be pretty boring, but the afternoon will be picked up by the negotiation class, which is taught by a teacher that looks exactly like Johnny Depp. The first session of international finance was cancelled, so I'm not sure what that class will be like yet.

The school itself is very different than UT. For one, it's less than 2000 students, and it only occupies 2 buildings on 2 city blocks. You enter off of Rue de la Republique and go into a central courtyard with five "bâtiments" (or buildings) around it. So it kind of looks more like a high school than a university. It has a cafeteria and a pretty small gym, but differs in the sense that it has two bars and a pub built in.

I am going to take advantage of the sports the school offers. I went to my first fencing practice on Monday and wasn't half bad for a beginner. I went 1-2 in matches, beating one girl that started just a few weeks back and losing to two guys who have been fencing for 10+ years with scores of 2-5 and 3-5. I think I might also try rugby and yoga next week. The only problem with rugby is that it starts at the same time as I get out of class on Monday, so I'd be late getting to the field. Not sure if that will be able to work or not, but it'd certainly be an experience. A kid from Wisconson who joined last week got a significant amount of playing time in th match on Thursday, and has a black eye and a shoemark on his shoulder to show for it. Now that the week is over, time to concentrate on Amsterdam tomorrow.