Snow...take 2!

The second time it snowed was on 5 February, but many of my pictures of the Catho are taken after then. 

Snow the day of...

The next morning...

Roads like this and still classes went on as scheduled. Very few, if any, buses ran, however.

Walking to work was an adventure...NOT.

So pretty :)

The week following this snow was like freaking Siberia. I don't think the temperature was above freezing that entire week. Michel said this has probably been the coldest/snowiest winter Angers has seen in 20-25 years!! Lucky me, I guess!

This semester I was accepted into a special program called "certificat Art, Langues, et Patrimoine (ALP)" at the Catho. It's a multilingual "course" that revolves around art and heritage of the Anjou region, comprised of two parts. There's the theoretical aspect, which takes place in a classroom setting (on a Friday evening, nonetheless), where we learn about the technical and symbolic approach to the artistic, civil, and religious heritage (châteaux, churches, etc.) of Anjou, including the history of the region. We learn the proper terminology in French and then in each of our chosen "foreign" languages (obviously my foreign language is French, not English). Then there's the practical part of the class the next day (Saturday), where we actually visit the religious and civil buildings, museums, etc., that we discuss the evening before. We learn even more in the field however, which is hard as I don't even freaking know what. I'm a visual learner, including seeing things written down - something that doesn't happen as much while we're physically in the field visiting places.

This is all just the course. To actually obtain the certificate, in May, there's an ENTIRELY ORAL final exam in front of a jury for each of our chosen languages. We have to remember EVERYTHING we've learned the entire class because the jury could ask us any number of things. We even have to know things like opening hours for museums/buildings/etc. and whether or not there are special exhibits. So basically, I will most likely have a meltdown in the middle of the oral examen...in front of an entire jury...because I will instantly have blanked on everything I will have "learned."

Ergo I'm just wondering WTF I got myself into.

I'm also taking Socio-cultural studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on the contrary, that class doesn't stress me out at all.


I'm going to post a third time because I have a few pictures from the visits in the ALP course that I'd like to share and Blogger won't let me put them in this one for some reason...