5-29-07 Brussels

I enjoyed our presentations today. I hadn't realized what assumptions I had made about Bologna until she explained it. I wasn't trying to be the bad American, but sometimes it is hard to realize that the words they are using have different definitions and connotations even when they are English words about higher education. I was entertained to everyone's reaction to the grading system. We all know and understand the bell curve, but we are also horrified to see it implemented and enforced. I think what is hardest to accept for us is that in a true bell curve system, a C is not bad. We can all say it, hear it, and know it, but we can't believe it. We are all in graduate school which means we are successful students, and we've been conditioned that Cs are bad. I had a professor who used the bell curve, and tried to assure us that Cs were ok, but he was wrong. He was happy with my grade, but Financial Aid was not, the Honors College was not, and the SURF committee was not. I spent the rest of my undergraduate time trying to explain away all of the courses I took with him. I understand the entire group's uneasiness with the bell curve, but I worry what this will lead Europeans to think of American grades. She had joked that a 15/20 was an 18/20 somewhere else. When the system works the kinks out here, what will an American A be worth?

If UCL (the Catholic University of Levon) had the beautiful architecture that I've been spoiled with for the past week, I would have had to get my bags off the bus. I am very excited about everything I've heard about these university communities that they are thinking about in the U.S., and working in one that has been up and running for a couple of decades sounds like a great opportunity. I don't think that I'm ready for French language immersion, but it would speed up the process of becoming fluent.