Spring Break, Au Revoir Paris!

Thursday and Friday were fairly relaxed, I had a few classes and on Friday night I went to a party at my friend Vicki's apartment, which was crazy, but we ended up being shut down by the the police because of a noise complaint from one of the neighbours. I still think it's hard to take them seriously when they rock up and say "Bonsoir Madame, euhhh".

I am now leaving for Barcelona and then will be heading to Uppsala in Sweden, so I won't be writing for a week, but I'll be back on Friday the 4th so expect some serious updates then!

:)

Une Interview et Un Dîner du Conf

Wednesday I had my 8am economics lecture and then I had to prepare my interview for Monsieur Jacques Henrard, the Secrétaire Général of Jeunesse au Plein Air, a non-profit organisation in France that provides disadvantaged kids with leisure and holiday opportunities. This is an assignment for my course on the non-profit sector, and I've literally been ringing charities out of the blue and asking for an interview. This is the man who finally said yes! haha...

I was furious when my partner didn't show up to the interview (she got 'lost', after already missing our other meeting), but I went in by myself and he turned out to be really nice, not at all intimidating. I asked him questions for about half an hour and I think I understood his replies.

I then had class and after that we all went out for dinner with the teacher in St. Germain, which is called a "Dîner du Conf" (conf is short for conférence). It was great to speak to heaps of the French students, and I met a guy called 'Sylvain Trépide' who is coming to USyd for a year on exchange! What a stereotypically French name.

I then went to bed, absolutely exhausted!

Un Falafel et Du Patinage Sur Glace

Tuesday was excellent!! I woke up early to go to the library and then at 12:30 I gave my presentation on 'La Représentativité Patronale' i.e. employer representation. Given the fact that it was in French, about complicated French law, that not even French people can understand, it went pretty well and the teacher said it was probably worth a credit! (I just love how they give you an approximate grade in front of the whole class at the end. Not).

After that I met all the girls in the cafeteria for lunch, before going to finish my economics assignment with another friend from class.

I then headed over to Le Marais, which is the Jewish/gay quartier for falafels at Pitzman! I swear they are even better than the ones in Israel and they're only 5 euro so I will definitely be a regular. It is very funny to walk in and find everyone wearing kippot.

Talk about cultural confusion, but it's DELICIOUS...

After that we headed over to the Hôtel de Ville where they have an ice skating rink to do some "patinage" (skating). It was so much fun and I even managed not to fall over! There were also some really pro skaters that were good to watch.

Finally after skating we went to the Ben & Jerry's shop for ice cream and invested in a tub of "Chunky Monkey" i.e. banana/walnut/chocolate to end the night. Perfection!

Une Petite Pause and a No-Pants Party

So it appears that my computer has decided to reboot for a while, but the nice man at the Apple store tells me I can maybe get it fixed properly for free... I have an appointment with one of their 'Genius' people on Wednesday.

Anyway now I can get back to writing after that petite pause, but photos will have to wait.

The weekend was excellent, on Friday we went to the Quartier Latin to a Greek restaurant for Zoe's birthday (Celebration Part II) and then a SciencesPo party at Le Players, which was a bit dodgy and everyone there was fairly sleazy. The Aussies all stuck together and we left around 3.

Saturday I went to the library and met Shaun to work on our exposé, which seems to be going well and in the evening I went to Simon and Ross's 'No Pants Party'. The theme sounds a lot worse than it actually is, but we were basically trying to get the French kids to loosen up a bit, because they take everything so seriously! It was a great night, everyone got into the theme and I have to say it was very funny to see all the guys in their suit jackets and boxer shorts.

Monday I spent the day at SciencesPo studying (yeah I'm such a good girl) and had lunch with all the girls at the cafeteria. Sorry for all the writing and no photos, I promise they will be coming shortly!

Fatboy Slim!!!

Wednesday was fairly uneventful, I had an 8am tutorial about the modernisation of 19th century Japan, which was fairly confusing, and then did some work at the library, had lunch with some people at the cafeteria and headed home. I had a run in the Jardin du Luxembourg and then found out my 7pm class was cancelled because the teacher had a 'sore back' or something so I ended up having a nice early night in preparation for Thursday. Unfortunately this is also the day that my computer decided to chuck a hissy fit and it still hasn't fully recovered :( not sure if it's going to 'fix itself' again or otherwise I may be in quite a lot of trouble...


Thursday was a bit crazy. I had my 8am lecture and then went to the library to finish an assignment. I even managed to get the printer to work, score! It was then prep time, because after my class finished at 9:15pm I had to go straight to the metro station to meet Zoe (Italian Zoe) and her boyfriend who is visiting from Genova. It was her birthday, so a huge group of us went to "Social Club".

After pre-drinking in the street again, we paid a fairly expensive cover charge, but then all of a sudden Fatboy Slim pops up and plays the craziest set EVER! 

Everyone was going absolutely nuts, and by the time I made it out at around 3 I was so sweaty I looked like I had jumped into a swimming pool. Now just have to hope my exposé this morning is somewhat presentable...

Promenade en Vélib

On Tuesday I got up to do some work before my class on wage determination, which was fairly uneventful. I did however manage to meet my partner for my exposé, who unfortunately is another exchange student. We both agreed that even though it's awesome to speak English, that fact that we have to speak for 15 minutes, in French, on possible reforms to the current laws governing employer representation, lack of French general knowledge may make things difficult.

After class I went and met Phoebe and Gabrielle for un promenade en vélib! Basically all around Paris are these bikes and you can put in your credit card details, take one and set off. You can then put them back at any of the other stands across the city. We picked some up near SciencesPo and set off along the Seine.

It was so much fun, we rode around the Île St-Louis and finally headed over to the Bastille, where we dropped off our bikes and stopped for a pain au chocolat! The only problem is that everyone tends to take bikes from the same place, and try and drop them off at the same place, so it can be difficult to 'dispose' of the bike when you're finished. Excellent idea though.

When I got home, I just happened to glance at the concierge's door and suddenly discovered that I had mail! Apparently she didn't feel the need to actually let me know that she was holding things for me...
Anyway I received a lovely notebook from Granny Nette (just in case I happen to forget what home looks like...) and an awesome postcard from Chels and Zel from South Africa! Wooo!

Thanks :)

In the evening I did some work before heading to bed early, gotta love those 8am lectures.

Montmartre et le Saint-Valentin

Sunday was extremely relaxed, as I slept in until 1, then dragged myself out of bed to Montmartre to meet my friend Zoe for a crêpe. I had chestnut cream in mine mmm.

The reason that we went to Montmartre in particular was that there was a 'Say No to Berlusconi' day, which seems to be something that most young Italians are quite passionate about...

We wandered around for a while and came across a delicious looking bakery, and I found FANTA LEMON! I couldn't resist. It tasted like Lift.

It was fairly cold so we decided to head home around 4. I then went for my run and was asleep by 9, crazy night indeed.


Lundi
Monday was Valentine's day, wooo so not keen. I had a fairly boring morning given my lack of ticket to Kofi Annan, so I just went running and made myself a delicious baguette for lunch. In the afternoon however I met up with all my sexy dates haha and we had a picnic in a little garden near SciencesPo.

We had a massive girlie-catch-up and decided that boyfriends are really unnecessary accessories, and the French probably have it right with their more 'liberal' approach to relationships.

In the evening I met Hillary, Zoe and Jake for some strawberry mojitos (delicious!) before heading to Place d'Italie for a Japanese dinner. I ended the night by meeting Lucie at Ross and Simon for tea. A very nice day indeed.

Somewhere and Samedi

Friday I had my French class followed by a lecture on the modernisation of authoritarianism, which was a little bit difficult to follow, so thank goodness for lecture recordings! I will definitely have to listen to that one again.

In the afternoon I went for a run and then met Phoebe at the library so we could book tickets to Barcelona for Simon's 21st over the spring break. It's amazing how cheap flights are within Europe, it was possible to get a return flight for 40 euro if you want to leave at 7am! We chose to splurge an extra 15 and go in the evening.

For dinner a group of us went to Rue Monsieur le Prince where there are tons of Japanese restaurants and ate some sushi, before going to see 'Somewhere', the new film by Sofia Coppola. It was quite strange, but I actually really enjoyed it and the soundtrack is excellent.

Samedi
Saturday was quite productive, I wrote half of one of my oral presentations at the library (on fair trade wooo), and then did some washing, did the weekly shopping and then went for a run. It was a fairly rainy day though so I decided to save my expedition to Montmartre for another time.

In the evening we went to our first proper 'French' party. Gabi is seeing a guy from one of the other specialised business schools and he invited us to his housewarming. Whilst there were about 7 of us Aussies, it was nice to actually spend the night speaking in French and everyone was really friendly.

I also got really lucky and on our way out of the party at twenty to four a bus pulled up next to us that just happened to be going right to my apartment, so I got on and was home in no time at all for a grand total of 1,80 euro. The perfect end to a great night!

No Kofi for Me

Thursday was a very exciting day! I had my 8am tutorial on anarchism, which I find ironic given the rigidity of the SciencesPo assessment criteria, and then I managed to skype home which was nice. I then went for my run in the Jardin du Luxembourg and cleaned up the studio in preparation for "préchauffe" i.e. predrinks. That literally means 'pre-heating'.


Then I checked my email, because SciencesPo has incredible guest lecturers every week, but you have to register for a ticket as soon as the email comes out. I was absolutely ecstatic to discover that next week's guest lecturer is Kofi Annan and I rushed to put my details in, but even though the email had only been sent out 15 minutes earlier, I didn't get a ticket :(


To get over my disappointment I headed off to the Jardin des Plantes, which contains many museums. I met some friends and we chose to explore the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution, which was basically just filled with reproductions of all kinds of animals, including some crazy ones that are now extinct.

I think Nick quite liked the polar bear...

After that I headed home and prepared for my lecture on Emerging Market Economics with a development economist from the OECD. It looks like it's going to be a really interesting class and we get to write our own mini 'research paper'.


Class finished at 9pm and then we squished 12 of us into my place and got a bit rowdy. The one neighbour was not impressed, but I consider it payback for the night before when he made a racket till midnight. We then headed to a bar on the Champs-Élysées where there were tons of French students and danced till 2. I have to say it's pretty cool to hail a cab from under the Arc de Triomphe and turn around to see this on your way home...

Un Petit Goûter

On Wednesday I had my 8am economics lecture, which went pretty quickly, and then I just hung around to  print more papers before heading over to the 16th arrondissement to find my friend Gabi's house. Unfortunately the metro decided to stop on her line, so it took me over an hour to get there, but it is on Avenue Foch, a well known street off the roundabout of the Arc de Triomphe, and the area is beautiful.

She had also prepared a lovely tea, we call it 'un petit goûter', which just means that you get to taste a little bit of everything, and between five of us we managed to demolish everything completely...

In the evening I had my seminar on the non-profit sector, which was fairly easy. We just had to discuss the potential strengths and weaknesses of a particular organisation that helps the homeless in France. I then headed home to bed, it is important to be fully recharged for Thursday nights!

Centre Georges Pompidou

Lundi
On Monday I spent most of the day doing my uni work so I don't have to do it during the week, but in the afternoon I finally ventured outside to meet Phoebe, Simon and Ross at the Centre Georges Pompidou.

The centre houses the Library of Public Information, the National Museum of Modern Art (the largest in Europe) and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. It was designed by a team including Italian architects Renzo Piano and Gianfranco Franchini, and the British couple Richard and Su Rogers. Originally all of the functional structural elements of the building were colour coded and placed on the outside (e.g. electrical pipes were yellow, plumbing pipes were green), however most of them have now been painted white.

After going inside the incredible entrance hall and flashing our student cards (free entry, score!) we headed up the crazy escalators to see the incredible art collection.

We weren't allowed in to the Mondrian exhibition (not even SciencesPo students get that for free haha), however we wandered through the permanent collection for ages and even then probably only saw half of it! Picasso, Kandinsky, Miro, architects, mathematicians, furniture designers, it was absolutely huge, with a stunning view over Paris.

After three hours it was getting dark so we decided to head home but I will definitely be returning!

Mardi
Tuesday I got up super early and finished my fiche de lecture on that silly report, and had my class on l'Entreprise et le Dialogue Social which I am beginning to enjoy. I was very glad to meet up with the girls for a nice lunch though and forget about work.

After that Zoe (an Italian friend) and I went shopping!! My boots have taken a bit of a battering the last few weeks, and everything is on sale here so we went on a serious shoe-hunt. Just down my street there are tons of shoe shops, and after only half an hour I hit the jackpot. The perfect pair of black leather boots, half price, in my size. Success.

By the evening I was pretty tired so decided to take it easy as I have class at 8am on Wednesday, not so much looking forward to that.

Superbowl - Go Pack Go

Sunday was extremely lazy, as I had to read and summarise an entire French government report on enterprise bargaining, fun fun, I think I nearly went crazy. If they throw one more acronym in I might collapse: SMIC, OPCA, MEDEF, CDI, CDT ahhhhh

However in the evening it was game time!! There are a lot of American exchange students here, and my friend Jake's team (The Packers) had actually made the superbowl, which is the final of the National Football League in America. We decided to be super-classy and pre-drink a few bottles of wine in the street, stopping at the lolly shop on the way.

We eventually entered 'The Moose' and the atmosphere was amazing! The team colours of the Packers are green and yellow so I felt like I had to support them. It was a crazy mix of American and French fans, with everyone chanting their team songs (Go Pack Go!) and generally having a good time.

The game only actually goes for one hour, played in 15 minute quarters (lame), but the superbowl goes for three hours as they drag it out as long as possible. I made it to half time at 2am before heading home to crash. No worries though, we won!!!!

Year of the Rabbit and Being Cultured

On Friday I had two French classes, all good and nothing too exciting (more on socialism, surprise surprise). Then because it is Chinese New Year over the weekend a few of us decided to go to Chinatown for dinner. We found a place called 'Hao Hao' which ended up being delicious, we had caramelised seafood, rice, stir fry and wontons. They also had an Asian McDonalds just up the road which was pretty funny, and lots of lanterns hung all over the streets.

After dinner we went to a housewarming for four Australians who have found the most ridiculous apartment ever. It's on Place de la République and the entrance hall alone is bigger than my entire apartment. Lots of the other exchange students I know were there so it was a great night.

On Saturday I actually went to the library and did some work, and then went home to prepare for my 'Wine Degustation'. Hillary, Zoe and I went to this amazing cellar just behind the Louvre and over two hours the sommelier taught us all about the wine regions of France, how to taste the wine, what the scents and colours mean, what foods to serve them with etc. etc. It was really interesting, although by the end I was struggling to keep up.

We then went back to Zoe's for a quick dinner and headed over to my French friend Marina's birthday drinks. They were at her boyfriend's apartment, which looks right over the Eiffel Tower. We eventually headed out to Rue Princesse, where there are tons of pubs and bars, and even better it is literally just off my street. We tried a few places, but everywhere was so crowded and it was too hard to dance so I headed home around 1. Sleep time.

Officially SciencesPo.

Mercredi
Wednesday I had my first lecture in English (Industrial Economy) at the charming hour of 8am. Luckily it doesn't seem too hard, but the lecturer has a very strong French accent which is pretty hysterical, especially when he forgets to speak English and finishes his sentences in French. He was talking about "l'amiante" as a potential liability for ages before I realised he was talking about asbestos.

After that I experienced more delightful French bureaucracy. They have five people in the admin office, three who stand around talking/smoking and one who sits at her desk and ignores you. The only lady that actually serves anyone takes 20 minutes per person, so after waiting an hour for the five people in front of me, I finally enrolled and got my student card! Kinda makes me look like a serial killer but whatever. I'm in.

In the afternoon I went for a run then headed to another French class, "Le monde associatif en France", which is all about the non-profit sector. It seems ok, we have to interview a French person who works for a non-profit though, so that could be a bit scary.

I only finished class at 9:15pm, and then headed over to Ross and Simon for a few drinks, and then all us girls caught the metro home around 12:30.


Jeudi
Thursday I had another 8am class, this time a tutorial, which looks like it might be a bit tough but everyone was really friendly. I have to give a 15 minute speech on 'The evolution of totalitarianism from the 1920's' which I know absolutely nothing about, but luckily it's only in a month or so. I then went and finished my visa administration before I met my tutor for the French lecture course, who is going to help with all the tricky French methodology.

In the evening I decided to host pre-drinks, so we squished nine of us into my 13m2 studio and got a bit rowdy. I think it's a pretty clear reflection of the exchange lifestyle that my fridge currently contains a quarter of a baguette, half a wheel of brie and a near-empty bottle of vodka. We then went to Mixclub in Montparnasse which hosts the 'Erasmus' parties for international students, and it was absolutely crazy. We danced till 3 and trekked home with very sore feet.