GIG Chat 24/7

[ulalena]

The Geishas are so beautiful, congrats, love! ^-^

[Malwene]

Last message here is from early April?

What has everyone been up to?
We enjoy nice sunny weather all over France recently, give a good feeling of summer holidays!

As for me, I'll be going to Munich next week for a Renewable energies fair! Can't wait but it will be tiring at the same time :p

[ulalena]

Oh, so bad that Munich is 700 km away from us........ ^-^

I was very busy with Tana and his chemotherapies.
However, only 4 more to go and we´re done!
And I have 7 weeks of no teaching in summer so much more time.

Did you get your house finished, then?

[Neytiri-Navi]

Hi !

I just started my bachelor so I am quite busy. ><

[Malwene]

Ulalena, glad to see you are seeing the end of chemos! Good luck to everyone!

House is far from being done, we are still waiting for the date to get the keys... maybe in 2 weeks? Then we are looking at a looong time of works to be done inside

Sometimes I forget Germany is nearly as large as France, and though I'm technically in your contry, I can still be pretty far!

Neytiri-NAvi, whats' your degree about? All the best with your exams!

[Neytiri-Navi]

How to explain this in English... X) In fact this exam shows that I finished my years of study in a high school and I can start studies in other schools to get a job. In French it's the baccalaureate (wow, I don't explain very well )
Thanks a lot Malwene ! ^-^

[ulalena]

Yes, the months flew by and we always lived in this 3-weeks-cyclus.
Best is, last chemo is 11th of August and one week later, we are going to Sylt for 3 weeks.
The cats have a garden there, too, the house we rent there every year for some weeks has a high fenced garden
so they don´t have to stay in.
And I am so longing for the beach!

Only two weeks until you get the keys, Malwene, that´s so exciting!

Ah, I wish you best with your studies and exams, my fingers are crossed for you, NN! ^-^

[Truffula]

Ooh, renewable energy fair, that sounds fun. I worked as a college student for an engineering company that did energy recycling (waste heat into power generation) for factories, I remember it well, even though very long ago now (late 1980s!)

We have some solar energy at my current work site - that's interesting. I don't work with it myself though. But hope you have a good experience Malwene!

And I hope your cats enjoy their outdoor time on vacation, ulalena... sounds really nice

NN I hope your baccalaureate test goes well. I think the only similar test I know of here in the US is the test students can take if they decide not to graduate in the conventional way from high school - which they do if they get sufficient grades and credits over their years in high school typically. The test is called "high school equivalency." But it's probably not much similar really. And typically the word "baccalaureate" here is used to mean undergraduate university studies aka "college" rather than high school. Every place does these things differently -- so it's difficult to translate it!

[Neytiri-Navi]

Don't worry Truffula I understand ^-^
3 years ago I learned some little things about schools and graduations in USA, that's soooo different ! o.o
In France we have one test per discipline (sometimes two, for biology and chemistry (because we'll have to handle laboratory equipment), or for the languages (to check our pronunciation )). After the laboratory tests (this week), i'll have the written exams, beginning with philosophy, then the languages and I'll finish with maths, chemistry and biology (always the written part). Each written test takes 3 hours and half or 4 hours. For the oral ones (which I already passed), that depends of the language and the numbers of years you studied it. For English (which I started learning 6 years ago), it was 10 minutes talking alone on an randomly chosen theme (we learned 3 or 4 themes) : "Myths and heroes", "power", "progress" or "spaces and exchanges". After this, we have 10 minutes of dialogue with the jury. For Spanish (I started learning it 4 years ago), it was the same thing but instead of 10 minutes, it was 5. And to finish (or not, you'll read ), I passed the same thing as English but for Japanese, and, as I am in a "European section" (which requires a better level in English), I passed another oral (and a written part will come too !), a "DNL" one. It's a discipline we learn in English (in my case that's history and geography).

So yes, that's long and veeeeeeery complicated in France

[Truffula]

Oh, the per subject tests, we do have those, they just aren't needed to graduate. Instead they are used to get credit at some universities for already knowing a subject (and if not then the student takes it at the university). I took those kind of tests back when I was a high school student for ... if I can remember that far back.. English, Spanish, Chemistry, Physics, Calculus 1&2, US History and ... I think there was one more... maybe not. But I didn't end up attending a university where they were used - so I didn't really need to take them. I think they're called "AP" tests? Or it might have changed since my high school years. I don't think my son's high school had them, or if they did he didn't take any, it was an experimental type of high school that was connected to a university already and he took some college classes with the university students (two math classes, a college orientation class, and a social science class). Many of his school mates took quite a few more of the college classes than he did.