the french dissertation

Who would like to know what a french dissertation is? Oh, ill tell you. Its an original of its kind. Doesn't even exist in Italy apparently because my italian roommate and I have been stressing over writing this monster of a paper for the past month. In a french dissertation, one must take either a subject or a quotation and from there find a problem with this subject or quotation. After the problem is found, you are then somehow expected to create and argument for this problem, then one against, and then think up this miraculous new literary idea that no one in the history of literature has ever thought of before. Easy, right? Wrong. Natalie spent the first week of her vacation pondering this dissertation and the second week locked in her room (seriously, I left my appartment three times all week, I actually started running out of food) attempting to write this dissertation. It's due in a day and do you think I'm finished? Of course not. French high school students spend their entire student career in preparation for writing this. But hey, I'll master it on the first try- in a foreign language to boot. Pas de probleme.