EXCITING!

I purchased my ticket to come home at Christmas! Hooray! Woo! I arrive very late on the 19th, possibly the 20th with delays (oh Chicago O'Hare, you will be the death of me) and I stay until January 2nd. I bought my ticket with American Airlines, so until I have safely come home and returned, lets all think happy thoughts for the airline to not go bankrupt.

Yay!!!!

Ups and downs

Today I attended a 3-hour debate on France's 5th Republic. The panel included some illustrious speakers including former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur and National Assembly member Jack Lang. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay focused for more than 5 minutes. As I am not terribly familiar with the French Constitution and its many reforms, I was lost from the start. It was frustrating to say the least.

On a brighter note, I went to see the film "Entre les murs" last night, and succeeded in understanding 95% of it. It's based on the experiences of a French junior high school teacher (who later wrote several books and stars as himself in the movie) in a poor Parisian school with primarily immigrant students. I liked how it isn't the story of an extraordinary teacher that manages to rally his students around him in admiration (this isn't the story of Susan Cramer), but more the story of the frustrations, small successes and setbacks this teacher had to go through. I could only find the trailer in French, but I think you can get an idea of what it's about.



Now if only I could understand elderly French people as well as I can understand teens from the streets. :(

the other side of the crêpe . . .

We learned that you can reference crêpes in academic settings when referring to two sides to an argument. I don't know if I'll ever use the expression, but it did succeed in whetting my appetite.

In honor of the end of our 3-week welcome program, our class went out to eat at a crêperie near my house (how convenient). The food was . . . ehh, but the company was delightful.

Below: Zoe (China) and Spencer (South Dakota) are excited to order their crêpes.

Spencer, Viola (Germany) and Anna (Denmark)

Viola, Anna and me (USA!)

Yes, there were more of us, but I only got pictures of our table. I failed to get a photo of our super attractive professor who was also in attendance; I am sorry to disappoint. :(

Montmartre

Today in French class we talked about the financial crisis and the presidential elections in the US. It was horribly depressing. I can't even talk about it.
Fortunately, Ingunn invited me to go check out an apartment with her in Montmartre where we found the corner grocery store used in the film Amelie! Awww. Nadja joined us soon after for a bit more strolling and exploring. It never gets old.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Today my French class went on walking tour of the neighborhood around our school. We all presented facts about different sites, and it was amazing how many historical sites I have passed dozens of times without noticing. We checked out one of the towers still standing from a wall that encircled Paris in the twelfth century. How crazy is that!?

Some other sites we stopped by include the following:

Musée National Eugène Delacroix : This painter would not have been successful in a post Janet Jackson USA. (Viola & Nadja, German)














l'Académie française - where the language police reside

La Sorbonne: famous alum include Sartre, Marie Curie and Philippe Guibal (our French professor pictured below with Zoe from China and Lieke from the Netherlands)















Just a touch of the 17th century (relatively new)

Jardin du Luxembourg: my jogging park












Café le Procope - founded in 1686, this café managed to get a thumbs-up from Benjamin Franklin (Anna - Denmark & Ingunn - Norway [my favorite from the class])

A sigh of relief

I presented my first Sciences Po exposé this morning, and it went fantastically well! My group was prepared, poised and engaging. The professor offered some constructive criticism, but overall our exposé was very well received. The group presenting the same topic after us, however, crashed and burned. One of the girls had a mini panic attack and stopped several times throughout the presentation. Speaking in public is rough enough, but doing so in another language can be murder. I felt bad for her, but at the same time, I was all the more proud of my group members and the work we did. It was a good start to the semester, and now I know where I should improve for future presentations.

I've signed up for a yoga class at Sciences Po. The teacher is a woman so I'm hoping she won't do the strange stomach wiggles of which the Yoga instructor at HEC was so fond. *shudder* I think it will be a good way to get to know other French students since that is how I found my French girlfriends at HEC.

Room videos

Sneak preview:

I've moved into my new room! I just love fresh starts and the feeling of having everything organized. I will post a video of it tomorrow, but for now, I'll leave you with a preview.

My favorite part of the room:

This one's for my homies

. . . my study abroad homies that is. You know who you are.

Spoke too soon . . .

Ohhhh, dollar. What has become of you!!! Why didn't I pay my tuition a week ago. Whyyyyyyyy!!!!

I don't even know if the following music video will cheer me up, but it's worth a try:

Course Registration . . . EXCITING!

Check out my exciting new schedule (whoo!):

Innovation and Sustainable Development
Sociology of International Relations
Tools of Auditing
International Institutions of Sustainable Development
Science, expertise & regulation
French
Philosophy of Technology
The Politics of Sustainable Development

Each of the courses are two hours (except for Sociology of IR which has an extra 2 hour discussion section) and are conducted all in French. I have 3 classes on Monday and 2 classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Now that I've gotten all of that exciting information out of the way, I can move on to the more mundane update details. ;) I wish I were saying that sarcastically, but unfortunately I am so boring that the politics of sustainable development is all I have for excitement.

Featured above: The Magical Shoes and Guizmo (Christine's cat and my new buddy/shadow)

I wore these shoes out to meet some international students for an obnoxious bonding event. An unexpected 3 miles later, I was still standing and in no (physical) pain whatsoever. I have found my magical shoes!

As for my tolerance for the bonding event, it wore thin fairly quickly. I'm all about meeting new people, but I don't exactly enjoy stretching out the process of "and where are you from?" to last a month and include hundreds of other students. I gave it another try Saturday with a picnic event. After realizing there wasn't even one recognizable face from the evening before, I completely gave up. I don't mind the meet & greet with the people in my classes, and I will be happy to do it again when I get into actual classes. Until then, meet Guizmo, my new best friend.

Saturday I had a positive interaction with my non-feline friends. I went to a going-away/birthday party for my friend Mathilde from HEC. She's leaving for a year of abroad in Mexico. A bunch of my French girlfriends were able to make it, and it was just so nice to catch up after the summer. Most of them will be living in Jouy-en-Josas (Parisian suburb) this year, but a few are sticking it out in Paris and planning to commute.
Above: Prune, Nathalie, Mathilde's friend, Sophie's boyfriend Alexis, Mathilde & Sophie.

Hallelujah!

Three cheers for the dollar! It's now mustered up enough strength to be worth .717 to a euro!!! What does this mean? If I transferred 1000 dollars to France a few months ago, it would have been worth about 653.59 euros, but now it would be worth 716.85 euros! It seems to be improving a bit each day (or the euro is just falling). I don't really care as long as I get my tuition paid. Go, dollar go!!!

Tied my shoes on the first day of school

Well, I actually buckled them, but it sounds better if I say tied. It conjures up fuzzier memories of sack lunches, backpacks and apples for the teacher. I, however, strutted off in a pair of heels and dark sunglasses. It is Paris after all.

My first day of non-class class went well. I say non-class because it is ungraded. It is simply part of a 3-week prep for us foreigners so we don't go into shock come October.

The groups are organized by French level. Together we take a French course and a course on methodology. I will also have a course on the history of Paris which begins next week. My class is composed of a at least a dozen Germans, a couple Chinese girls, a Brazilian, a Cuban-American, a Dane, a Greek, an Ecuadorian, a few I forget, a South Dakotan and lil' ol' me. Iowa represent.

I began the day with two hours of French class with a wonderful middle-aged gentleman and father of 5 who kept cracking jokes about the Germans invading (in reference to the proportions of the class). I think he only got away with it because his wife is German and he speaks the language fluently.

After a brief break we had two hours of methodology with an extremely attractive Frenchman who completed Sciences Po in 2003 and now runs his own consulting company. I didn't even think French men could be this attractive. I'm just baffled . . .

. . . but I digress. Sciences Po has extremely strict rules concerning the structure of papers and time limits on presentations. In the methodology course we are supposed to prepare a practice presentation and go over other various structural guidelines.

Tomorrow we don't have class so we can register, except only the exchange students can register (grrr!). Normal students have to wait until Monday and figure out a way to get out of class and register before the good courses are taken.

This evening I went to my tutoring job. The 2 hours of class I gave went well and afterwards I had dinner with the family. They made me Mexican food since we talked about it on Sunday. I've never seen Mexican food served with a cheese course. Vive la France! We talked a bit too long so Dometille (the mother) drove me back home so I wouldn't have to take the train at 9:30. She's so sweet. I love my new part-time job!

Tomorrow I'm going to take advantage of the day off to work on getting my reimbursement back from my bank for the zoom airlines ticket and get cracking on my homework.

Muscles for Obama

In my quest for a photo for a friend of my dad's I stumbled upon a picture of myself on flickr.com that I didn't even know about. I think the photo really captures the intensity of the Obama rally in Guthrie Center. I mean come on; check out my bulging arm muscle. Intimidating . . . eh? (the eh was just for you Ada, my wonderful Canadian friend).

Here are a few photos you might find more "inspiring."
Ok, enough with the inspiration already. I know all you really care about is muscles:


Click here for more G.C. Obama rally photos

First day of the Welcome Program

I began a whole rant about my frustrations with the first day of the welcome program, but then I realized that it wasn't very interesting. I don't want to subject any readers to the pain I had to endure. If you are really curious you can e-mail me for the details, but for now I'll sum it up by saying I hate listening to presentations about administrative details that were all available online. Listening to them twice (in French and English) is even more aggravating.

There were a few good parts of the day:
1) The facilities are nicer than those of HEC.
2) I signed up for two organizations:
Junior Consulting - You actually get hired for consulting jobs. Yay resume builder!
Bureau des Arts - A club for the arts. Among many events and perks, you get reductions on tickets to the cinema, theater, opera, etc.
3) I don't feel nervous anymore about going to this school. There are a lot of international students that have no idea what they're doing. I seem to seek solace from the anxiety of others. Does that make me a bad person? ;)
4) Day two should be better. I have a French class and a methodology class.

temp housing

After 22 long hours in a car, airports, airplanes and a train I finally arrived at Christine's apartment in Paris, where I will be renting a room for the year. (Fun trivia: I lived with Christine in 2005 on my first semester abroad. She just happens to live about 5 minutes from where I will be going to grad school. What a coincidence.) The building's super was able to let me in and lend me a key. I went to the room I had been shown in the spring when I dropped off my luggage, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed.

The room hadn't been prepared as I expected. The rowing machine sat on the floor, the shelves were full of books and blankets. I started to wonder if my discounted rate meant fewer perks, as in no storage whatsoever. I peeked longingly into my old room just next door. So warm and inviting, I wanted nothing more than to crawl under the red comforter. I glared at the belongings of whom I assumed to be Christine's new American student and shuffled off to my room in a Charlie Brown fashion, my bulbous head hanging down in a rather pathetic manner. Not wanting to move any of Christine's things I decided to save my suitcases for later and settled into my less comfortable bed for a nap.

Half an hour later Christine called and all was right with the world again. I seem to have fast turn-around time with disappointments. Apparently, her friend had been staying in the other room and wouldn't be leaving for another 10 days. After that, the room would be mine! Hooray! When she got home, she helped clear out some space so I could get my things temporarily organized. My suitcases are doubling as dresser drawers. Then she fixed me a dinner of green beans, homemade ratatouille made by her mother and salmon. She even asked me what sort of things I would like for breakfast. I can't believe I doubted the perks of this situation!

I also got a call from Domitelle, a woman whose four children I will be tutoring this fall. I am going out to her home Sunday for lunch and we'll dive right in with lessons. I have to pay off my last minute one-way ticket!

Rachel at ISU

A few weeks ago we moved my little sister into her dorm for her freshman year at Iowa State. She's now in her second week of classes and seems to be settling in well. I still can't believe that little Rachel, who daydreamed about mermaids in the gravel pit and helicopter rescues in the washing machine, is all grown up and taking chemistry.


Her dorm is pretty nice. It's about half of the size of my old dorm room in Iowa City and twice as big as my old dorm room in France. She lives with an engineering student from Dubuque. The girls on her floor have access to a kitchen/lounge at the end of the hall.

Rachel came home for labor day weekend so that we could spend a few days together before I head off to France. Our grandparents, Vera and Harrison, and our great-aunt Kathy came out to Guthrie Center on Saturday. Our cousin Kelsey paid us a visit on Sunday; it was a crafty good time ;).

Zoom . . . bah!

My travel plans hit a bit of turbulence when Zoom Airlines declared bankruptcy last Thursday evening. At least I had a week to find a new ticket unlike those who were only alerted to the change in plans the day before their flights. There's not much chance I'll get a refund since I paid for my ticket with a debit card an not a credit card. Sometimes it doesn't pay to avoid credit card debt, I suppose.

I managed to find a new flight, but I won't get to have a layover in Toronto, where I planned to stay with my friend Ada and her family. I'm pretty bummed, but I can't be choosy at this point.

So, the new plan is to fly from Des Moines to Chicago to Toronto and then directly on to Paris. Here's hoping my luggage doesn't get confused.

An Introduction:

For a long time I've considered shifting my mass e-mails into a more user-friendly blog format. However, I have to be honest; the main factor holding me back from doing so was the mental block I always ran into when trying to think up a title for my blog. Armed with inspiration from one of my favorite musicals, Oklahoma, I now embark on my very first blog.

I hope to use Chicks and Ducks as a tool for staying in touch with friends and family in much the same way I used mass e-mails in years past. For those of you unfamiliar with my e-mail correspondence, I tried to e-mail regular updates about my travels and life overseas. I then replied to e-mail responses on an individual basis. I am hoping the transition to the blog will not discourage people from e-mailing me while overseas because I certainly enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to stay in touch!

I couldn't find the video clip of the song The Surrey with the Fringe on Top for which I named the blog. Here's the next best thing: