October 2009
1 post
100 Days of Reflection
Yesterday marked 100 days since the end of my semester abroad in Paris. One hundred very long, reflective days. I’ve had time to [try to] re-integrate into my surroundings and the time away has given me a great opportunity to really come to understand the trials and tribulations of my voyage.
I suppose that, overall, there are three things to discuss: two big lessons that I’ve learned from this...
July 2009
5 posts
Last Day in Paris.
I leave tomorrow. My flight is at 16h10, which leaves me a little time to do some random things - namely, moping around - but my last full day in Paris is today. And, um, I’m not at all ready to go home.
My experience studying abroad here has been unique, for multiple reasons. The program that I selected is not like most programs. A lot of my friends have studied abroad, and they find...
I just bought my ticket home.
I leave Paris on July 17th and return home some fourteen hours later.
Without a doubt, this is the saddest day of my life in a long time.
I don’t want to leave.
June 2009
6 posts
You know what makes for a really fun test?
The exam in English, written by a non-English speaker that clearly didn’t ask anyone to check for typos.
An absent professor, so that you have no one to whom you can ask questions.
A proctor that doesn’t speak a single word of English.
Multiple choice questions with penalties for responding incorrectly. The real kicker, however, is that YOU DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH YOU’LL GET PENALIZED!
Welcome...
It's really hot.
Apparently French people don’t believe in air conditioning in their houses.
On another note, my mom would fit in just swell in France!
One of the required experiences of being a French...
Getting one or all of the following on your keyboard while writing a paper: baguette, Nutella, cheese.
When in France...
Elliot: are you ever coming back to america, or la vida frances tan bueno?
Me: both
Elliot: how many scarves do you own?
Me: um... five
Elliot: oh my god, i was kidding
Only in France.
Seriously, in what other country would your teacher bring you champagne during class?
I love this place.
May 2009
7 posts
Pictures from Turkey!
Okay, so this post has been about a month in the making. In advance, I apologize for any delays, because as I very well know, your lives have been put on hold, just waiting for this very special moment. Anyway, so I now present to you some pictures!
This picture is from the very first night that I arrived in Instanbul. I came on a plane alone, with my friends coming in about six hours...
Guessing Games!
So, over the past few months, I’ve come to find all sorts of new ways to entertain myself in this new, French culture. I was reminded of one of them last night:
I was talking with a friend, Thomas, who works as a personal fitness coach. I asked him if he had ever ran into any celebrities, and he said yes. He named of Nicole Kidman, which I understood without trouble, and then another person...
“You’re talking like a foreigner.”
– My mom, the other day, in a conversation with me.
Interestingly enough, my mom kind of has a point here. For quite some time now, I’ve noticed a slow deterioration of my English skills. This doesn’t really come as a surprise, since I don’t practice my English nearly as much as I do back home, but...
April 2009
6 posts
Turkey Part 2
After a great week, I got home last night from my trip to Turkey for Spring Break. When I last left off, I was just about to head from Istanbul to Göreme, which is in the center of the country. We headed there by bus, which took an agonizing twelve hours and was for the large part uneventful. Our group finally arrived at our hostel, a “cave hotel,” around 8h00 or so and went to our...
Greetıngs from Turkey!
I´m currently ın Istanbul and have some tıme to spare, so I fıgured, why not Tumbl!
I got here on Sunday evenıng, around 18h00. My flıght was somewhat eventful. I got to Charles de Gaulle aırport wıth barely any tıme to spare. Whıle I was standıng at the tıcket counter, polıce randomly started blowıng whıstles and I had no ıdea what was goıng on. Eventually, though, we learned that someone...
Spring Break 2009: Istanbul, Turkey!
So my Spring Break is finally here. I have a lot of friends that are going to Italy and Spain and other cities in France, but, uh, I wanted to go somewhere exotic. I asked around and found a group that was going to Turkey, and fearing that I wouldn’t find anyone else with similar aspirations, I latched on. I’m leaving tomorrow and come back on Saturday evening. There are six of us...
Observations from Paris.
Some observations from Paris. I have another part that I meant to post before this one, but I apparently forgot:
It’s really weird to be able to know words and terms in French, but not know their English equivalent. This is especially common for me when it comes to foodstuff.
The sidewalk is essentially a giant game of chicken. Oncoming traffic rarely moves, and once you get used to it, the...
Pictures from le CRIT.
So last week, I went to Lyon for the CRIT, which as I explained was pretty outrageous. Anyway, here are some pictures from the event.
This is probably around 9h30, early in the morning, and already people were drunk and feisty. Pictured here one of many confrontations of the weekend, with Sciences-Po from Lille on the left, and on the right is the original Sciences-Po from Paris. Fire seemed...
Sister: Did [person] meet your host family?
Me: Yeah, except she doesn't speak any French, so it was kind of awkward.
Me: It was kind of like watching mom try to speak Spanish to order food at a Mexican restaurant.
March 2009
20 posts
Le CRIT 2009
So this past weekend, I went to Lyon for a sporting competition for all of les Institut d’Etudes Politiques. There are nine of them (I’m attending in Paris). I was expecting an awesome time, but I would have never expected to have the experience that unfolded before me this past weekend.
Going into the weekend, I had very little knowledge about what to expect. I had been told that it’s a great...
More strikes at school.
As you may remember, we’ve been having some strikes going on at/near our school. While our school itself has not been a participant, we have been subjected to other French students who aren’t keen to the idea that we’re, well, not on strike.
Today, I was reading the paper and read a small blurb that said that there had been another “occupation” at our school two...
The Day I Went to Court in France...
So yesterday, I went to court. But don’t worry! It was for a class! (As an aside, I find myself continuously wanting to write French metaphors and idiomatic phrases, except in English, and then I realize that they don’t really make sense in English.) Next week, I have to give an oral presentation for my course, Le Métier de juge (The Job of a Judge, basically). The topic is a...
"En grève" in France
So for the past few months (I guess?), there have been strikes going on in Paris and in the rest of France. From what I hear, this is a common occurrence. Except it’s really bizarre to me, because no one in the United States ever goes on strike (except last year when half of Hollywood went on strike because they’re babies and as such, ruined my weekly TV Show schedule).
The strikes that are...
Late at night, via texting. Only in Paris...
Me: There's a homeless guy sleeping on the metro. He sounds like a honking goose.
Carly: Well to be on the positive side, at least you have some entertainment. Nothing much up on Line 4, except major piss smell...
Carly (a few minutes later): Okay, actually, there's a guy next to me convinced he has won the lotto, so things are getting interesting here too.
I saw Lenny Kravitz today!
As you may recall, a little less than two weeks ago I went to a place called l’As du Fallafel with a friend, Alex. And the food there was awesome. When we went, we noticed that on the placard they have hanging outside the door that there is a note that something like says, “The only falafel recommended by Lenny Kravitz!” We kind of laughed it off, thinking that it was way too...
“Yeah, David, because it’s evident that the table is a girl.”
– Andrew, in French, to me the other night at dinner. I screwed up by saying le table instead of la table. Like most (if not all?) romance languages, the French language has an assigned gender for every noun: masculine or feminine. For example, it’s la table (the table) but it’s le...
Now that I have a pay-as-you-go phone, my...
No longer are they, “Oh hey Jimmy Randomfriend, what’s up? Yeah, let’s go out tonight. Where do you want to go? By the way, the weather here really sucks and there’s never any sun. Oh, a hilarious story: Today I was on the metro and blah blah blah…”
Now, my conversations are more like, “QUICKgetontheinternetsoIcantalktoyouBYE!”
Tourist Time!
So this past weekend, my friend Alex (who is studying in Seville, Spain) came to visit me. I intentionally skipped a lot of touristy things so far, knowing that I would have friends coming to visit and not wanting to repeat things over and over, so I finally got to visit and do some of the standard stuff.
I picked Alex up at the airport on Thursday night and then took her to her hostel, Young...
Dismissed by a twelve year old
Me: Do you know where the nearest metro stop is?
Boy hawking Jewish pamphlets: No. I'm not from Paris, so I do not know.
Me: Oh, okay.
Boy: Are you guys Jewish?
Me: No.
Boy: Okay, have a nice day.
Confronted by a scam artist at Notre Dame...
Scam artist: Excuse me, do you speak English?
Alex (without looking up): Yes!
Me: No.
Alex: ... No!
“Le département ferme.”
– A loud, booming voice heard over the PA system today at the end of my class at 9.15pm. The announcement attempts to cut professors that class is over by signifying that the building is closing. And the grave voice apparently means business: A classmate told me that, if professors don’t stop,...
What do you want?
I was told today that I need to update more, so I apologize for my deliquency in not providing a lot of updates as of late. To be honest, nothing too exciting has happened. I finished up the last week with classes, went out a few nights, and have just lived a standard life. A friend is coming into town this coming weekend, on Thursday night, and we have a few things planned for then - which...
February 2009
49 posts
“They are so tricky, they call it “the garden of plants.”
– Kate, on a zoo in Paris called Jardin des Plantes. We’re planning on going today.
First day of classes at Sciences-Po.
So today I finally started class for my semester abroad. Yes, I realize that most colleges have been in school for at least a month by now, but just remember that the French make their own rules and do as they well please.
First, a little bit about my school. I’m going to l’Institut d’Études Politiques, which is more commonly known as Sciences-Po. The student body is about...