Work Started - Finally!!!

So, after nearly two months of waiting to get some action going on, it all comes in one big heap! Thats always the way it is I guess....
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I have a number of good things to mention. Firstly, I got news that I won the EDC student scholarship, a $3000 prize! On top of the cash is the added prestige that the award will bring to my resume....awesome! There is also the possibility of working with the EDC in an internship for the summer, something that is a great opportunity, but is kind of away from my plans to stay in Europe over the summer. I guess this is a good dilemma to be in though eh?

The second good piece of news is that I got myself a job here in France! Its actually in Belgium, but it is only a 20 minute train ride to the town, so its not that bad. I will be teaching english at a private company that caters to professionals mostly I think. I started training last saturday, and it was pretty interesting....I arrived and the trainer started speaking to me and my collegues in Arabic! He continued to speak in Arabic for the next 3 hours :) The point of this was to try to put us in the shoes of our students, arriving and knowing very little (in our case nothing) of the language. Needless to say it was an interesting experience, and I actually left with a few words of Arabic under my belt....salaam alakoum!

I started a class on Monday, the first one that will actually be worth credits for me....it was an intense case study on the wine industry. We were in the place of a Bordeaux winery that is looking to expand internationally. We had two days to analyse the market and create a marketing strategy for the company....we ended up working 12 hour days, but made the presentation today. Intense, but fun.....

Anyhow, thats all for now. Im off to Brussels tommorow and have my second day of training on saturday (maybe itll be Hindi then :) Ill be writing soon!!!