La rentrée

Hi everybody!

So the past week has seen the end of the Welcome Programme, more parties, more sightseeing, a visit from Dane, and the beginning of the school year! Here is my schedule:

lundi
10h00 - 12h00  Globalisation, etats, et marches financiers (basically globalization and finance)

mardi
10h00 - 12h00 Tennis
12h30 - 14h30 Sociology of Immigration, Race and Ethnicity (very interesting!)
14h45 - 16h45 La construction europeenne (the construction of the EU/EU law)

mercredi
8h00 - 10h00 European Integration/Economics of the EU (like the economic integration of nations into the EU)
12h30 - 14h30 Globalisation, etats, et marches financiers - the recitation I guess

jeudi
12h30 - 14h30 Clivages socio-politiques en Europe

So it's nice! Thus far I've really enjoyed my classes. The ones in French are quite difficult - I can understand it's just the biggest headache to really follow the whole time. And all of them are borderline over my head but oh well, it just means I will learn a lot this semester. As I mentioned with the Welcome Program, we have these main things called "exposes" which are just oral presentations but in this specific format and typically from 10-30 minutes and besides that the other things are papers, 'fiches techniques' which are basically essays and 'fiches de la lecture' which is probably the easiest I imagine, a 3-page document outlining and developing a reading. It's all a lot different from assignments at home and so far at each intro lecture, it is when we schedule who presents which expose when (or which day my paper is due etc) depending on the subject. So I've been intentionally making them all as early in the semester as possible while still being spread and balanced so that I can get them out of the way so I have more freedom in the rest of the semester and don't have any stress come exams! Well...it's a great idea to me now but I will kicking myself in a matter of days since my first oral presentation will be next Thursday and it's in a French class so...well...I will learn fast.

Other than that has been nothing but fun! Dane came for the last weekend and we did lots. Went shopping for some room stuff (like big pillows for my futon that you can't sit up straight on), picnicking in the Jardin du Luxembourg and all over town really, climbing up and strolling around Montmartre and visiting the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur, and more. The highlight was the picnic in the Jardin du Luxembourg...I've spent a lot of time there already, meeting up with friends, picnic with the Welcome Program, and even laid there with other students in my group discussing French immigration policy and its conflict with the National Identity of France to prepare our expose (another surreal French experience). But the day we went it was just SO nice out it was unbelievable and we had great food and it was just packed and 'gezellig.' Sacre Coeur was also spectacular. The view from atop the hill is more beautiful than one could imagine (I could even see the Notre Dame and Pantheon so tried to pick out which house was mine in between), but inside the church is what really took my breath away. It really must be one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen and I just found it really unsettling and kind of scary with all the imagery and the style of the design so I really liked it. The dome in it is also amazing with its windows and the way the sun shines through them onto these stone angels. I never knew what the inside of the Sacre-Coeur looked like but wow it was amazing. I will make sure to upload photos when I get them from Dane!

There have also been several "Integration" events the past few days. On Sunday was the Journee d'integration with the Buddy Program. It was in the Bois de Vincennes for all the exchange students. It was amazingly fun though in typical French fashion was completely unorganized and didn't begin till an hour later than scheduled. We were basically assigned to groups (Dane just went along with me which was luckily perfectly fine) and in those groups we went around to different activities and yeah met a bunch of other international students and French students. Dane and I both had fun with the games and meeting people, we were particularly champions with this "Bike Binouze" organization that had a station with things like monocycle races and other strange bike contraption races. Bike Binouze is a student organization at ScPo that I guess once a week or so they are told a bar somewhere in Paris but are only given the name of the bar and the arrondissement, then they hop on their bikes and race to find it. He who gets there first gets free drinks all night and other than that just really cheap beer for everyone (2,50 euro pint which is ridiculously cheap here as it's typically 5,50 6,50). What a great student organization right?! By winning our little races too we kept winning free beer. Great great. Then we did different icebreaker style games at other stations and played soccer at one but more like human foosball so holding hands in lines and having to stay in that straight line etc. Fun. I ended up meeting quite a few nice people though, one girl from Philly too! After the Journee was a bar crawl through the Bastille area which was even nicer. Just more meeting people etc. Since Dane's obsessed with meeting new people especially international students we really had a blast! So no worries, my boyfriend visiting doesn't cramp my social life ;)
Then Monday night was the Soiree d'Integration for the whole school hosted by the Bureau des Eleves (main student board, basically student government). Unfortunately Dane was gone early early in the morning but I got tickets with friends for this party at this cabaret. I went to my friend's little studio apt in Montparnasse with friends for some drinks beforehand then headed out to the party. The venue was absolutely beautiful, all wood with dark red curtains and everything yeah I guess like an old-fashioned cabaret. The DJ was absolutely fantastic so we really had a nice time. It was just too bad it was on the outskirts of town so getting home after the metro closed (at 1230 on weeknights, crazy) was a nightmare. I didn't look up where it was and I figured I'd bike home but noooo nevermind, took a cab with others.

So anyway. Now I'm just doing classes and getting excited for this weekend and the next weekend! There's too much fun to be had here. But right now is business. Today I was productive, I finally got fully registered with Sciences Po by giving them all the documents needed and getting my student ID card and bought my social security. I also got all the needed documents to the bank so now I'm just waiting on an email confirmation with my RIB and I'm set to get my phone and everything. Of course it wasn't a fraction as easy as it sounds, especially with the bank. They kept sending me to different branches and whatnot and oh just awful I really hate the French I really do everything is SO overcomplicated. Now I will organize my schedule and do work because Friday I am meeting with this girl to prepare our expose for next week and I want to have the time to devote my entire Saturday day and night to this Inox Park Festival with some of the biggest and my favorite DJs in the world.

Wahoooooou Paris Paris Paris. Pictures and all coming soon. Love x

Introduction to Sciences Po

The fact I'm a student at Sciences Po is not something that I really walk around bragging to everyone here in Paris. I've learned that there are generally two reactions to it: 1, worst case scenario the person takes you for being arrogant, rich, snooty etc or 2, the person just looks at you in absolute awe. In France there are the universities which are public like La Sorbonne (Paris I), the rest of the Universities of Paris, University Aix-Marseille, etc etc. I'm not an expert so I hope I'm not telling you BS, but these are open to the public like anyone can go to university. Then above that is les grandes ecoles, of which Sciences Po Paris is one. It's extremely competitive to get into and it's where all like the political geniuses study at, it's like a factory for presidents and ministers and leaders.

On the first day of Orientation there was a welcome speech in the main ampitheatre of Sciences Po and apparently the last three Presidents of France studied at Sciences Po...except Sarkozy, the current president, he flunked out. That point scared me very much in two ways: the French Republic is led by a man who flunked college (well idk where he went from there so I won't judge too much but still) or that the President of the Republic failed out of Sciences Po -- is it really so hard?! The second thing I found out later in my methodology course that I found fascinating was that apparently Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a professor at Sciences Po and his lectures were SO brilliant and popular that he would speak in the largest ampitheatre on campus and it would be filmed and streamed live so students in other ampitheatres would watch it live like they were in lecture too. Wow.

So yeah, Sciences Po! It's a pretty big deal! So yeah I think there's almost 10,000 students maybe? And it's 40% international students so that's pretty amazing. For the French students, the third year is mandatory abroad at one of ScPo's 300 and some odd partner universities (like Pitt!) and that would be the main factor into such an international population. There is this system called the Buddy Program to help integrate the international students. So far they have been hosting this event called "A Bar A Day" where yeah they list a bar every day with reasonably priced drinks (eh pretty expensive but I guess with good Happy Hours and whatnot) that are good places to hang out in different areas all around the city. So it's really nice exposure and of course an amazing way to meet so many people. I've made a LOT of friends through it, they're all very fun. The only problem is is that Paris bars are all very small and then the Buddy Program is hosting these events so 100+ students show up and it's just packed, everyone's always just hanging out out front of the bars socializing. On the first night, last Monday the 22nd of August, I met up with girls for dinner (just someone posted on FB "hey anyone wanna meet up to eat before the bar?" great how that works nowadays;)) and it ended up being such a fantastic group of people, three Americans and two Australians -- not so exotic, but really nice girls I've hung out with all of them several times since then! And the first night at the bar was really nice, I met many many people. I've been quite the regular with the Bar a Day events and I really don't even go in the bars but it's good to learn the locations for later, but it's always a great place to meet up with people/meet new people and do whatever you want from there! Like the one night was our one friend's birthday, we left the bar, got some bottles of wine at a grocery store, and went down to the Seine right across from the Notre Dame cathedral and celebrated! Permission granted to be very jealous. It's just unbelievable the beauty all around -- I don't take it for granted! It's absolutely surreal.

And okay yes I have gone out every single night for an entire week but I am working hard too I swear. The Welcome Programme began last Wednesday and goes until this Friday. The first day was kind of just a welcome and all the basics and since then I have class every morning 9-11 on methodology. Sciences Po has its whole own unique methodology and it's really horrifying and demanding. So my enseignant, teacher is fantastic, at least when he's not speaking French too fast, but he explains it all so well. In comparing and contrasting the American methodology for an essay to the French, the American is like "here this is what I'm going to prove - Argument/proof - there, look, I proved it." whereas the French is more like...hmm...I can't remember how he explained it but here's what it's all about: introducing les problematiques, the paradoxes. So the mega-parts of ScPo grading are essays and oral presentations and we will need to do an oral presentation in class. Mine will be on "pouvons-nous choisir nos immigres ?" (can we choose our immigrants?) and on Thursday. And see it's not exactly just like talking about the subject or establishing a thesis and proving it...it's just like...about asking questions. I don't know it's really very difficult for me but this approach I think will be AMAZING for me at home university/through future studies and just life I guess. And it's not even like I introduce a question, answer it through several arguments, then voila, but it's like ask a question, of course try and answer it (I think? I can't even tell) then ask another question and conclude with another question. I don't know sounds unsettling. They're also very strict in having perfectly balanced sub-arguments, like the same size paragraphs haha.

But yeah there's fun too in the Welcome Programme! We have a Sciences Po student as our little group leader (we're divided into small groups of class size, maybe 20 people?) and she took us on a tour of the neighborhood ScPo is in -- St. Germain des Pres. On the first day we had a massive picnic in the Jardin de Luxembourg. Yesterday there was a scavenger hunt through the city that lasted five hours my goodness -- I came in second place, won a nice little French book. There's also other lectures like politics in France and the History of Paris. There'll be a soiree cinema, a wine and cheese tomorrow night, an evening on the Champ de Mars, a ride on the Bateaux Mouches (the boats along the seine), library visit, and more. So it's really full of nice fun things to get to know people :) 

Dane will come visit Paris for the first time on Wednesday and in the evening is the first big party of the year, hosted by the Association Sportive, the student athletic board, on a boat on the Seine. I'm very well looking forward to it! But well...I have an oral presentation at 9am on Thursday so I'm working hard to prepare for it now and the coming days and no worries I have my priorities 100% in order! There's just way too much fun to be had here, all the experiences, all the beauty my god. Did I mention I'm like 3 blocks away from Notre Dame? Like 5 minutes walking. Then 3 minutes the other way, I'm at the Pantheon. Isn't that AMAZING?! It's really unbelievable here. So now that you have a novel of my experience so far, I will wrap this up and continue researching immigration and trying to formulate some problematiques. Thank you for reading ! x

Les premiers jours

It's 6pm on August 28 here in Paris. I have officially been here for one week now and I swear it may have been the busiest, most exhausting, most unique, and funnest week of my life. Last Sunday I left my boyfriend, Dane in Holland and arrived at Paris Gare du Nord at 18h30 sharp by the Thalys (which will be my lifeline for the year as it's only a 3 hr ride between Paris and Rotterdam/Amsterdam and 60 euros r/t).

It was scorching hot in Paris and sunny. I immediately took the taxi straight to my place and I kid you not, it was the scariest the drive of my life. That cab driver was weaving in and out all over the place crossing between traffic and the bus lane and constantly flooring it and slamming the brakes. My mother would have been sobbing. It really scared me at first but when I realized after a few minutes we weren't dead yet and how inexpensive the drive was going to be at that pace, I relaxed and just enjoyed the thrill ;) Only a 10 euro fare too!

So my place...it's beautiful. Jocelyne, the woman that owns the apartment welcomed me and she even made dinner for the two of us in the evening since it was Sunday and no where's open in France on Sunday and I obviously had no food. I wasn't even hungry or worried but yes very nice of her. Then the next morning she took me with her to run errands to show me the neighborhood and particularly the marketplaces and best places for grocery shopping. Really entirely too sweet I lucked out beyond belief! Psh just now I ran outside to one of the few markets open on Sunday to get some stuff to cook for dinner tonight and as I entered the door she came shuffling out of her room with a box of classy chocolates saying "tiens, tiens!" and a huge smile. My landlady welcomes me home with chocolate it's fantastic.

That's how it all began and since then well...I have learned a lot, met so many people, and drank way too much. I don't want to make this entry 10 years long so I will end here and talk about my school and the Welcome Programme in the next post. But anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this and it keeps me close to home ;) I will also be posting pictures into a Picasa album! So voila! Going to prepare dinner now and relax before another long week begins. Bisous a tous!