Discovering Paris: January 2013

Friday, January 25, 2013

1 of 12

Current Week

Week of 21/01/2013

Reaching the date (DD / MM / YYYY):

Janvierundi 21/1

Tuesday 22/1

Wednesday 23/1

Thursday 24/1

Friday 25/1

Saturday 26/1

Sunday 27/1


8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 1:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. 7:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.	08: 00-10: 00 Public Choice Eco & Pol (58233) 12: 30-14: 30 Public Choice Eco & Pol (57843)	08: 00-10: 00 FRENCH BEGINNER LEVEL 0 (51,092) 12: 30-14: 30 LABOUR ECONOMICS AND EMPLOYMENT POLICIES (53204)	12: 30-14: 30 Theories of International Relations (57320)	08: 00-10: 00 FRENCH BEGINNER LEVEL 0 (51,092)	10: 15 to 12: 15 Entrepreneurial ECONOMIC ANALYSIS (53721)

This week was the start of classes at Sciences Po. Try as I might I didn't get any of my classes switched so I'm stuck with the above schedule Over all pretty doable except for Labor Econ, which I'm pretty sure is already sucking my soul out of my body. I won't take you through all of my classes, but will give you highlights. My classes on Monday, which is a two part deal, discussion and lecture, is taught by three Italian men. So far I already have 4 classes cancelled for this class!!!! My French teacher is by far my favorite teacher. She rocks some bright blue 1 inch sole Doc Martins, has crazy curly hair, and makes us do silly faces when we pronounce things. For an 8 am I appreciate her upbeat attitude and kindness for my lack of language skills. My roommate Lena and I are both in the Theories of International Relations course, but she's taking the French version. I'm interested to see if there will be much of a difference. This guy seems cool and he openly calls himself a "soft grader". But my Entrepreneurial class will take 1st place for being the easiest. We will only have one test which will be over one reading and it's multiple choice! We can earn extra points by talking in class, awesome! French school is way different than American school. Each course meets once a week (except French) but for two hours. So over all we only meet 12 times, then there is a month for finals to take place, which I only have one of! Some teachers give breaks in class others don't, but you can only miss two classes per course or you will be deferred from the course. K now on to the craziness of my week, or should I say Thursday......

Thursday: PARIS FASHION WEEK!!!!

After French class my friend Wade and I decided to go try to sneak into a show or at least soak up the atmosphere of fabulous-ness of Haute Couture week! We ended up at the Zuhair Murad Haute Couture show at the Westin Hotel. We started outside the hotel and kinda away from the main entry, we were sure if legit photographers would come or not, but they didn't! So once people started showing up we got out into the street to snap shots of Paris's finest. This was so much fun, some people would stop to pose and others wouldn't. We wound up making friends with some other students and decided to go into the hotel to see if we could sneak in! Well we didn't get into the show, but we did make our way into the runway room after everyone left. We snatched up some invites and the program for the show. We tried to wait around for the designer to come out, but he never did :[ But we did get to take pictures of this famous French Actress. I was floating on cloud 9 after we left the Westin, I couldn't stop smiling! I felt so accomplished. But before I knew it I had entered the fiery pits of the Paris Metro Police, aka Stupid People, according to my landlady. I got off the metro and was walking down the stairs to head to my flat, when I got stopped by the devil man. I got out my Navigo pass, which is a monthly pass that allows you ride the metro as much as you'd like. I hand him my pass he scans it and I get the green light, but responds with "oh this is no good". So I say why?, I bought this 2 weeks ago with in my 1st hour of being in Pairs. Turns out YOU HAVE TO HAVE A PICTURE ID on your Navigo. So I tell him, I'm sorry I didn't know that, no one told me when I bought it. Long story short he threatens to take me to the police, because I said I didn't have money to pay the fine/ I'm not paying the fine because that's my pass. After a good 20 minutes of laughing at me, loads of head shaking, and silencing of the other police officers when they started to answer my questions, I get to walk away with a slip for my 45 euro fine. I then walk home crying and freaked out, but end up being comforted by my lovely landlady, who will take me to the police station to deal with the fine. I was afraid to take the metro to get my picture taken, so I walked to get my picture taken. Now I avoid metro police as much as possible, and have major hate for this rude french man. Learned my lesson and now have 10 pictures of my face for future Navigos!

Today:

After class I went to Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise with Sally. We saw Jim Morrison's grave and looked at a bunch of other really cool ones. The pictured one was our favorite! Now I'm off to dinner with sweet Lena!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Sorry Paris! I guess I brought some IN weather in my suite case!

Friday Night

More snow! and lots of it! Friday was the last bar-a-day put on by the university. They ended with a slightly larger bar than the ones tues-thurs but it still couldn't trump Cafe Oz. I managed to smuggle some wine in my coat, and took the first empty glass I could find to pour it into, so not to upset the bar tenders. It worked! But eventually got me got out the bar... Once I finished my wine after playing a funny drinking game called bottles ( you can't say any number that has relation to the number 7) I was feeling pretty warm so I stepped outside to cool off. Well once I stepped outside a huge line of people formed to get in, and the bouncer wasn't letting anyone else in so I went home. On the metro!!!!

Saturday:

I woke up and decided to do some serious grocery shopping. I had to laugh at myself because my total ended up being the same from the day before when I bought my 20 euro bottle of wine, and I got so much food! I found the Paris version of Ramen noodles and am curious to see how they compare. I also treated myself with some lox, yum! Then a few hours later I was off to the Bateaux-Mouches which is a river tour on the Seine. It was a lot of fun, but Sciences Po picked the coldest night of the year to do it! I roughed it on the upper deck, because you couldn't see any of the sights down stairs. Everything looked so lovely covered in snow. Unfortunately I left my flat in a hurry and forgot my camera (sorry mom). But I plan to go on the tour again in the spring. After proving my true girl scouting abilities I was hungry! And so were a lot of others. We decided to track down a pizza joint, and boy did we find a good one! I ordered a pizza with' fried eggplant, sun roasted tomatoes, pesto, and basil! It was so good! I definitely want to go back. After we stuffed ourselves we went to a bar called the "Hide-out" and drank Mojitos which made me miss my gal pals back home! After a few drinks the group decided that I was time for bed! I personally have never gone out to the bars Monday-Saturday, it takes toll on your body!

Sunday (today):

Today was Instigation day, put on by Sciences Po. I had the idea that I was supposed to meet my "French Buddy" at this program and we would chat and get to know each other, but no. It ended up being a picture scavenger hunt around Paris. I have to add that today was the third day of snow and Paris had no idea what to do with all of it! The streets and sidewalks were just a mushy mess of brown sludge. I went on this picture hunt for a few hours, but was not very pleased. We were put into groups, but our leader never introduced himself or gave the group a chance to meet each other He also didn't wait on us or make sure that the entire group was on the metro ect. So after a while I decided to head back home into the dry warmth of my flat. In a few minutes my landlord Sylvie is making dinner for us girls. I'm excited to have a nice "family" style dinner and learn a little bit more about Sylvie and finally meet my other roommate Dena! Lena who has taken such good care of me knocked on my door today and invited me to go to a party with her on Thursday! I can't wait to see how the French party in these small apartments! And tomorrow will be the first day of classes!

Friday, January 18, 2013

Karma?

Thursday:

So I will skip the boring activities of my school day ( but including a picture of another blue Paris sky in my school's court yard) and take you straight to my over adventurous evening! To start off my evening I went over to Sally's house for a proper dinner (ie not sitting alone in my room on facebook!) We made some homemade pasta sauce and I brought some bread and cheese. It was really great having a meal with some real humans! After dinner a larger group of people came over to Sally's to pre-drink. This was a lot of fun to drink and talk, without being crowed in a small Paris bar with super loud music. Speaking of small bars Sciences Po picked another one for Thursday night! Sally, Wade, Bende, Shane, Beatrice*, and I decided to leave the bar for some free ranging. We ended up at a French McDonald's which I will say has nothing on the American original. Then we headed back to Sally's. This was were I went wrong. It was already about 12 and the metro closes at 12:45, but I told myself I had time for one more drink, WRONG!!!!! We'll I got to my first metro just fine, but it was my transition where everything went south. I got to the platform at 12:47, which I guess is 2 minutes way to late. After watching the other 15 or so people leave the metro I concluded that I had gotten myself into quite the tizzy. I exited the metro into a street that I had never seen before, but found a map and started in the direction of the River Seine. I knew that I was on the other side of the river but I had no clue that a 5 minute metro ride equates to an hour walk! Well keys between fingers (thanks Bryna Capshew for this lovely street wise tip) I was headed home! I tried my best to keep a level head and not burst out into tears, which I accomplished. Blah Blah Blah big toe blisters and BHSN track shin splints later I had made it to my cross walk!!!! I was looking to the heavens shouting THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I had made it home with zero kidnaps! So the moral of the story is never leave for the metro after 12, because you will have to walk home and have your mother hate you! I must add I've never had such a sound sleep in Paris!

Link to see my journey!
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=7+Rue+Jean+Arp,+Paris,+France&daddr=Nation,+Paris,+France&hl=en&sll=48.837634,2.373304&sspn=0.007118,0.018475&geocode=FYgx6QIdwTYkACl3sMDzGHLmRzH62LJzM1lsPA%3BFQpe6QIdBo8kACmj-uAScXLmRzGsvc3BFHMkSA&oq=Nat&t=h&mra=ls&z=15

Friday (Today):

Well I managed to drag my sore body out of bed this morning to make it to my last class. Bless my sweet roommate Lena, whom I met in the hall this morning. I told her of my evening and she made me a lovely cup of cappuccino, which tasted like rainbows and butterflies! Once I got to class I was pretty much useless staring out the window in an opened eye sleep! Well once class was over I knew I had to get back to the safety of my bed, I took a glorious nap and woke up hungry. I went to the store and this is were my second round of Karma comes in. I decided that I am better off to drink before going out because its so pricey, well yeah it's cheaper if you get the right bottle of wine that corresponds with the price! I ended up grabbing a bottle that cost 20 euro when I though it was 1.97 what a bummer! Me not knowing how to ask how to return something in French I just took the bottle. I got on the crowed metro where a man was leaning up against the pole to hang on for your dear life, so I took my surfer stance and road the crazy waves of the metro. Two stops later I was almost home and ready to feast on my frozen curry dinner, when I spotted a women laying face down on the escalator! This is where I earn my 20 euro bottle of wine, I tried my best to pull the women up as other simply walked by!!!!!! By this time the people a few stairs behind ( who didn't run up to help) were getting clogged up at the top of the stairs. I had the women half way up when a man finally decided to help us out! Thankfully no coats got caught in the conveyor belt so the lady was able to walk away! So I will end this post by saying "What comes around, goes around" and "Do onto others as you would do onto yourself"

Wish me luck on my way home from the last Bar-a-day!

Just kidding mom!!!!!

-Learning Lily

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Bar-A-Day/Bore-A-Day

Tuesday/Monday Night:

To start off Monday night has been by far my favorite hours in Pairs. The school is hosting an event all week long call "Bar-a-Day". Monday's bar was called Cafe Oz. I was expecting to walk into a wizard of oz themed bar but it turned out to be Australian themed ( which all of the Australians found to be tacky). This was a great way to meet some new people while having some liquid courage in me! I met two really great guys from New Zeland whom knew every single cricket player on a photo in the bar. I was almost shunned when I didn't know what the Haka dance was enlighten yourself (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RpW507Y7ek). I also met girls from Canada and South Africa that were a lot of fun! There was also a live band at the bar that played a mix of American tunes with a Cuban beat. Monday night it also snowed, which I was told never happens in Paris!

Tuesday was the second day of methodology classes ( Bore-a-Day), I learned my lesson from Monday and decided the skip the second lecture to take a nap. Rumor has it I had the right idea! The bar for Tuesday night had nothing on Monday's bar, it was soooo small! Imagine 200+ people in a place that should fit 100 people max! It was basically a big smooshing of bodies! So I spent most of my time outside ( after it stopped snowing, yup snow two days in a row!). I was really looking forward to getting off the metro at Strasbourg St. Denis because it is the title of one of my favorite songs, but it ended up taking the title of smelliest metro station. :[

Wednesday:

Today I had to give a "grand oral", which is a glorified way of saying 10 minute speech! I picked the topic of Sustainability of Organic Agriculture, so at least it was something that I was interested in. The speech went fine, and now I am considering not going to any more methodology classes because I've fulfilled my duties. After class I went to the store and bought my first bottel of cheap french wine, not to shabby! In a few hours I'll be off to the wine and cheese party put on by Sciences Po, hopefully there will be a little more elbow room at this event!

Sante! (Cheers!)

Monday, January 14, 2013

Latin Quarter

Yesterday:

I was feeling brave! My group was meeting at the Paris Mosque, which looked fairly close to me on the map so I decided to walk. My walk took me past the Museum National History and the Jardin des Plantes ( which is huge!). For the first time in Paris I found my destination problem free! We had some really great tea and pastries , and were surrounded by beautiful lamps and birds! Yes birds, little “street” birds were allowed to fly in and out as they pleased and some would even land on your table looking for some snacks! Afterwards we walked around the Latin Quarter, which had a bunch of little food stands and a frozen foods store where you can buy whole lobsters. Our tour took us to the Pantheon and ended a little bar. The bar was a strange experience for me as a fresh 21 year older, they never carded you! You can just waltz right in and buy drinks. The second weird thing about the bar was that it was about a euro cheaper to buy a drink if you stand at the bar rather than sat down. Since we had a massive group of about 15 we had to pay the fee to sit down. By this time it had started to rain/snow, just in time for my walk to find some cheap food! I made friends with girls from Poland and California who were also starving. We ended up at La Petite Gostellerie, where I had my first menu experience. In Paris you can order off of the menu, which is basically a three course meal for a very good price 10 euro! I got some amazing onion soup, and me feeling brave I ordered “crittersnthings” which was a type a sausage…I was not a big fan, and for dessert I got a lovely chocolate muse. The I navigated my way home on the metro :]

Today:

Today was no fun! As exchange students we are required to take methodology classes which are supposed to teach us the French way of doing school. Well it ends up that you write an essay the same way in America as you do France! But I had to sit through two 2hr lectures on how to write a French essay that literally said the exact same thing! Blah Blah Blah, so by the time this was over my bank was closed so I am still bankless! Hopefully tomorrows classes won’t be a redundant! Well I’m off to “Bar-a-Day” which is put on by the university! Hopefully I can find a cheap drink!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Bienvenu!

Today marks the third day of my stay in Paris, but I will start this post from day one.

Day 1:

Before I could start my journey for Paris I had to frantically sign up for classes online. I say frantically because every exchange student in the Paris program signs up for classes at the exact same time, this led me to only getting 1 class that I actually wanted to sign up for. Once enrolled i=I started my 13 hour journey to Paris!Blah Blah Blah a few hours later and airplane food in my belly I arrived at the CDG airport. While trying to figure out how to buy an RER ticket I made friends with Brittany whom had been through this experience before. Lucky me she happened to be taking the same RER! Everything was smooth sailing till I departed from Brittany, and lost my metro ticket. A few exhausting flights of stairs later I was on my way to my apartment, where I ran into my second road block....where are the street signs! Although my apartment was directly across the street from my metro stop I didn't notice because the street sign was tucked away on the side of a building. Thankfully I ran into a very nice man outside of the "Red Balloon" bar whom called my landlord for new directions. The nice man drew me a map and I made to my apartment in no time! I had only spent 3 hours in Paris, but I was ready for bed!

Day 2:

My second day in Paris consisted of the Sciences Po welcome program. The best part of this was getting to meet the other exchange students. I now have some familiar faces and some new Facebook friends! I also got to go on a tour of the "campus" which consists of 4 buildings that are all about 5 mins away from each other. The streets in Paris are a little confusing so I will definitely be relying on my campus map for the next few days! After the tour I went out to eat with some really nice Australian boys at a Lebanese restaurant.

Day 3:

I slept in super late in an attempt to cure my lingering jet lag ( I think it worked!). I then proceeded to try to get into some of the classes that I actually want to take, keep your fingers crossed for me! I hadn't had a chance to go to the grocery store yet so that was my big adventure for the day. I asked my roommate Lena where the closet one was and she said it was just a few metro stops away but wasn't sure which one. Well I ended up getting off at one stop to far, but it gave me a chance to walk around the streets which I really hadn't done. To my surprise the supermarket Carrefour had everything that I wanted except for peanut butter! I then went home to make my first meal and this blog!

Tomorrow I will be meeting up with my exchange group at the Paris Mosque, which is very close to me so I will attempt to walk there! Wish me luck!

au revoir!