Bonjour de Mons!
So, I’ve been in Mons for just over a month now, and apart from the few hiccups that have occurred it’s turning out to be quite enjoyable! The people are warm and friendly, the drivers courteous and most of the Université de Mons’ staff pleasant and approachable.
Gone are the warm days of 24°C+ we experienced at the start of our séjour, but never the less, the trees’ leaves are changing colour thus adding a nice touch of the autumnal season to the environs of the city. That said, to cast a somewhat more sombre mood on the experience, the Université de Mons has serious issues which it must speedily remedy, most of which are centred on the speed and efficiency of its various administrative processes. Today is 2 October and it was only yesterday that I received my student card (3 weeks after enrolling!) and some 2 weeks previously I obtained the details of my network username, password and email address, needless to say, under my own steam of course!
The farce that is the timetabling system is also crying out for it to be reworked (at least in the FTI-EII anyway!) and my halls are by no means modern or have the amenities that one would expect, say for example, an oven…
Let’s wait and see what the incoming month brings. It can only be better, can’t it?
3 comments
Julia
08/10/2010 at 08:18 (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Indeed, the FTI-EII has some organisation problems. For the oven, you can go to the Ecole Sociale’s “kitchen”, there’s a microwave oven. I was sure I had already seen you somewhere !
I hope you’ll enjoy your stay in Mons anyway, but we all know these probs about the eii, and we hate that ! We hope it will change but..
Jon
11/10/2010 at 00:45 (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I know that not every University/College is perfect – my own home one is far from it, but I suppose we just have to take it in our stride and get on with it. I’m usually around the EII most days, mostly in 3rd BAC Spanish and French< =>English classes.
Julia
17/10/2010 at 13:12 (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Yeah, sometimes in my group