I'm sorry that I haven't been able to post in a few days, but things have been VERY hectic here in Dijon! We have a number of assignments and papers to turn in over the next couple of days, so we've been working non-stop. We've still been having lectures in the morning and visits in the afternoons.
Monday's tour was a trip to an auto parts manufacturer here in Dijon. We visited a company named Jtekt just across town. Jtekt makes rack and pinion systems as well as other steering system components. We took a tour of their plant and then had a question and answer period with their HR director. Even though he did not speak English, we carried on quite a lively conversation. He spoke a lot about the strategy of the company as well as some of the issues in the French business world (can you believe that they have a 35 hour work week here?).
Tuesday's visit was a trip to a medical research facility called Oncodesign. At Oncodesign we met with the Director of Business Development. Tuesday's trip to Oncodesign was quite interesting as well. Apparently they are strictly a pre-clinical testing facility only. They contract with other companies to test compounds on rats and mice with cancer. They do not hold any patents, but they are growing like crazy.
Yesterday's jaunt was to the Regional Council. The Region would be comparable to our State. Dijon is the seat of the region (equivalent to Sacramento for us). A staff member gave us a presentation on the area and then we had an interesting question and answer period. We learned a lot about the political systems that work in France. Its surprising how little Federal oversight there is in France. Most of the political work is done at the Region level.
Tonight is our big certificate dinner. We're all going out for a formal dinner where we will get our certificates of completion. Tomorrow we have presentations scheduled (our team gets to just sit because we're going to present here in just a few minutes) and then we take our finance final. I think I'm going to do a bit more shopping on Friday afternoon. We'll be getting ready to go Friday night, and then we're up and out on Saturday morning! My train leaves Dijon at 6:30 am and we pull into Paris around 9. I've had a great trip, but I'm REALLY looking forward to getting home. It will be so nice to see Marjean and just relax at home. I'm also looking forward to a little TV in ENGLISH (I saw Grey's Anatomy in French the other night - no joke)!!
I'm not too sure how many more posts I will make. We're not doing anything too terribly interesting between now and when we leave. I also apologize for no pictures, but I figure you guys don't really want to see pictures of the insides of conference rooms, especially after the previous pictures.
I hope all is well at home. See you all very soon!!
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