Christine wants me to move out because her boyfriend, who doesn't even live permanently in our apartment, doesn't feel "comfortable" knowing I might show up at any time with friends (Because Sciences Po friends are sooo sketchy).
For some reason I feel like that's not really the issue.
1) Christine never established house rules, and this is the first I'm hearing of the "disruptive nature" of my friends. Rather than establishing new boundaries, she would rather just encourage me to find a new place to live.
2) I bring friends (no more than 3) over for lunch or tea during the day (1-2 times/week) when people are normally at work.
3) The two occasions when friends came over in the evening, we stayed in my room so as not to disturb Christine in the kitchen.
4) I am cleaner than Christine, I am more energy conscious than Christine (definitely not running up the bills) and I am quieter than Christine.
She said I can stay while I look for a new place, perhaps until the end of the year, but I want to get out as soon as possible. I don't want to give her any more of my money. I'm paying as much as I would for a studio in Paris and this is no longer an inhabitable environment.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Reason #3
The number 3 reason why I love Sciences Po: free popcorn.
PricewaterhouseCoopers came to Sciences Po today to woo hungry students into joining the "exciting" world of auditing (and consulting) with free popcorn, plush couches and big screen TVs. In the altered state of my popcorn buzz I almost fell for the syrupy promises of internships, but then I remembered a remark I heard the other day. Apparently some big firms are continuing with the appearance of heavy recruiting in order to save face in the business world and maintain brand confidence, even though hiring has been drastically cut back. That may not be the case for PricewaterhouseCoopers; if anything, we are more in need of auditing now than ever. However, the cutbacks in other industries are going to increase competition for available jobs.
I am not so naive to think companies will be drooling over me, but neither am I desperate enough to be won over by free popcorn. I'm going to explore my options, which means cocktails in 2 weeks with Boston Consulting Company, a consultancy I find much more appealing than PricewaterhouseCoopers. BCG is doing a special sustainable development event for Parisian Grande Ecole students. Sustainable development and cosmos . . . could life be any better?
PricewaterhouseCoopers came to Sciences Po today to woo hungry students into joining the "exciting" world of auditing (and consulting) with free popcorn, plush couches and big screen TVs. In the altered state of my popcorn buzz I almost fell for the syrupy promises of internships, but then I remembered a remark I heard the other day. Apparently some big firms are continuing with the appearance of heavy recruiting in order to save face in the business world and maintain brand confidence, even though hiring has been drastically cut back. That may not be the case for PricewaterhouseCoopers; if anything, we are more in need of auditing now than ever. However, the cutbacks in other industries are going to increase competition for available jobs.
I am not so naive to think companies will be drooling over me, but neither am I desperate enough to be won over by free popcorn. I'm going to explore my options, which means cocktails in 2 weeks with Boston Consulting Company, a consultancy I find much more appealing than PricewaterhouseCoopers. BCG is doing a special sustainable development event for Parisian Grande Ecole students. Sustainable development and cosmos . . . could life be any better?
Friday, October 17, 2008
Reason #2
This video makes me so insanely happy. I needed to share the joy. It got me so revved up I went running too soon after my breakfast and almost threw up my coffee. It was still worth it.
Reason #2 why I love Sciences Po: Diversity
Not only do my fellow students represent a wide variety of nationalities, they also have unique combinations of cultural backgrounds and foreign experience. It's so common to run across students with two or even three nationalities that I'm something of an anomaly having been born, raised and educated in the same country, not to mention the same state. Two examples: Audrey, born in France, raised in 9 countries. Ingunn: Norwegian, raised in Botswana, Norway and Malawi.
Why so many students with foreign experience at Sciences Po? When English is such a important part of the selection process, students that have lived abroad get an edge.
Fun fact of the day: Sarko (the French president) actually failed to get his diploma from Sciences Po because he couldn't pass the English requirement.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Reason #1
Have I said how much I love going to Sciences Po? I think about how I should write more about how lucky I feel every day on my way to class, but I haven't found the time so far. This school just makes me blissfully happy to a point where it's a bit sad that I get so excited about education. I fall asleep every night surrounded by papers and articles and in the morning, I barely have one eyelid pried open when I manage to turn on my computer to listen to the latest debate or watch the Colbert report during my morning "free time" (aka breakfast).
Reason #1 why I love Sciences Po: I am busy!!!
I spent first few hours of my morning scraping chocolate goo out of a pan and then scrambling to Monoprix to buy pre-made cookies for my collective project's bake sale. I somehow managed to mess up 2 box cakes. All you have to do is add eggs and butter, but Christine's oven is a Jetson's style fancy-pants oven and I think I used the wrong setting. It was not the intellectual highlight of my day. We'll leave it at that.
However, the day quickly improved. After two hours of selling cookies, I had two hours of my favorite class "Philosophy of technology." I know it sounds impractical, but trust me, it's not. It's actually more about how to think outside of the box, formulate arguments and critique the rationalization of common knowledge. Today we talked about the ethics of GMOs in terms of legal, economic and health concerns.
The professor really liked my idea for my paper. I am going to research the efficiency of profit-driven enterprises as opposed to philanthropic projects in sustainable development with a special focus on the $100 dollar computer program and the "Bottom of the pyramid" concept. My exposé topic isn't quite as developed, but it will deal with the precautionary principle and our conception of risks.
After that I had a meeting for all master students about the services Sciences Po offers for internships. They gave us packets with an initial list of offers to check out, and the World Food Prize in Des Moines was listed. I actually want to earn a living, so I won't be applying. It was still cool to see.
After the meeting I had an hour to finish watching the debate from last night (AMAZING! So much fun) start scouting internships and scan Le Monde (Multi-tasking is much harder when done bi-lingually) before heading to my second class of the day "Politics of Sustainable Development" where we had a surprise special guest: Olivier Godard, a well-known French economist. (I can tell my French is kicking in when my sentences begin to get rather lengthy) He gave a wonderful presentation (not terribly uplifting in light of the current circumstances but enthralling none the less).
My day ended early since my last class ended at 7pm and I have tomorrow morning to prepare for my Model UN project meeting tomorrow afternoon. So, I went out to dinner with a friend and her boyfriend.
Yesterday was insanity:
I went to the library to work in the morning, gave a 15 min speech about Sarah Palin in my 2-hour French class (I even made jokes, I'm so "forte"), went to my 2-hour discussion section for "Sociology of International Relations," managed to make lunch around 3pm, tried to bake the infamous cakes for the bake sale while reading for class, ran off to Asnieres (not paying much attention to the cakes I pulled out of the oven a bit prematurely) to tutor my favorite French kids, had dinner with the family (raclette and crepes: I have no idea how the French stay slim) made it back into Paris by 9 to meet a friend for a drink who I had to cancel on last week, home by 11 and typed up a document for my Model UN project.
I'm just in a state of bliss. I don't know if you all took me seriously when I complained about not having anything to do in Poitiers, but I really do prefer to be busy. (Not mindlessly busy, but busy in a purposeful way.) Well, I got my wish and I have no regrets!!
Reason #1 why I love Sciences Po: I am busy!!!
I spent first few hours of my morning scraping chocolate goo out of a pan and then scrambling to Monoprix to buy pre-made cookies for my collective project's bake sale. I somehow managed to mess up 2 box cakes. All you have to do is add eggs and butter, but Christine's oven is a Jetson's style fancy-pants oven and I think I used the wrong setting. It was not the intellectual highlight of my day. We'll leave it at that.
However, the day quickly improved. After two hours of selling cookies, I had two hours of my favorite class "Philosophy of technology." I know it sounds impractical, but trust me, it's not. It's actually more about how to think outside of the box, formulate arguments and critique the rationalization of common knowledge. Today we talked about the ethics of GMOs in terms of legal, economic and health concerns.
The professor really liked my idea for my paper. I am going to research the efficiency of profit-driven enterprises as opposed to philanthropic projects in sustainable development with a special focus on the $100 dollar computer program and the "Bottom of the pyramid" concept. My exposé topic isn't quite as developed, but it will deal with the precautionary principle and our conception of risks.
After that I had a meeting for all master students about the services Sciences Po offers for internships. They gave us packets with an initial list of offers to check out, and the World Food Prize in Des Moines was listed. I actually want to earn a living, so I won't be applying. It was still cool to see.
After the meeting I had an hour to finish watching the debate from last night (AMAZING! So much fun) start scouting internships and scan Le Monde (Multi-tasking is much harder when done bi-lingually) before heading to my second class of the day "Politics of Sustainable Development" where we had a surprise special guest: Olivier Godard, a well-known French economist. (I can tell my French is kicking in when my sentences begin to get rather lengthy) He gave a wonderful presentation (not terribly uplifting in light of the current circumstances but enthralling none the less).
My day ended early since my last class ended at 7pm and I have tomorrow morning to prepare for my Model UN project meeting tomorrow afternoon. So, I went out to dinner with a friend and her boyfriend.
Yesterday was insanity:
I went to the library to work in the morning, gave a 15 min speech about Sarah Palin in my 2-hour French class (I even made jokes, I'm so "forte"), went to my 2-hour discussion section for "Sociology of International Relations," managed to make lunch around 3pm, tried to bake the infamous cakes for the bake sale while reading for class, ran off to Asnieres (not paying much attention to the cakes I pulled out of the oven a bit prematurely) to tutor my favorite French kids, had dinner with the family (raclette and crepes: I have no idea how the French stay slim) made it back into Paris by 9 to meet a friend for a drink who I had to cancel on last week, home by 11 and typed up a document for my Model UN project.
I'm just in a state of bliss. I don't know if you all took me seriously when I complained about not having anything to do in Poitiers, but I really do prefer to be busy. (Not mindlessly busy, but busy in a purposeful way.) Well, I got my wish and I have no regrets!!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Poitiers
I took a quick jaunt down to Poitiers this weekend to see my pals and former colleagues Jeanette and Elaine, from Canada and Ireland respectively. Jeanette is still teaching at the university and Elaine now lives near Nantes. The weather was AMAZING, and we enjoyed the lazy day together catching up.
I also went for a coffee with Christele, the professor with whom I taught interpretation; the experience reconfirmed my suspicions that Christele is a spot-on replacement for "Debbie Downer" on SNL. (You know, the character that always brings down a conversation by mentioning a depressing topic). It was a lark.
The highlight of the day (besides the bone-cracking back massage Jeanette gave me) was dinner with the girls at our favorite French resto Les Bons Enfants (The good children). Kitchy décor and creepy photos of children abound in this hole in the wall restaurant where you can feast on a shockingly reasonably priced 4 course meal. We knew better than to plan anything after the 3 1/2 hour event besides rolling back to Jeanette's place to put on sweat pants. It was glorious!
I caught the Sunday train back to Paris and the reality of my mounting pile of homework. I'm really enjoying my classes and even my collective project seems like it will be a good experience. The "projet collectif" is mandatory for all master's students. There are all kinds of projects going on that are organized by students. I applied for one that involves running Model UN simulations for junior high and high school students. We take care of every aspect of the program from finding sponsors to writing position papers to organizing partnerships with schools where we run the simulations.
In the midst of my back to reality shock Sunday evening, Christine knocked on my door with a dinner tray. I had homemade organic vegetable soup and homemade apple compote (sort of like apple sauce). I also had some bread since I'm not on a liquid diet. :) I may never figure out her bourgeois ways, but there are many a day when I am thankful for Christine.
I also went for a coffee with Christele, the professor with whom I taught interpretation; the experience reconfirmed my suspicions that Christele is a spot-on replacement for "Debbie Downer" on SNL. (You know, the character that always brings down a conversation by mentioning a depressing topic). It was a lark.
The highlight of the day (besides the bone-cracking back massage Jeanette gave me) was dinner with the girls at our favorite French resto Les Bons Enfants (The good children). Kitchy décor and creepy photos of children abound in this hole in the wall restaurant where you can feast on a shockingly reasonably priced 4 course meal. We knew better than to plan anything after the 3 1/2 hour event besides rolling back to Jeanette's place to put on sweat pants. It was glorious!
I caught the Sunday train back to Paris and the reality of my mounting pile of homework. I'm really enjoying my classes and even my collective project seems like it will be a good experience. The "projet collectif" is mandatory for all master's students. There are all kinds of projects going on that are organized by students. I applied for one that involves running Model UN simulations for junior high and high school students. We take care of every aspect of the program from finding sponsors to writing position papers to organizing partnerships with schools where we run the simulations.
In the midst of my back to reality shock Sunday evening, Christine knocked on my door with a dinner tray. I had homemade organic vegetable soup and homemade apple compote (sort of like apple sauce). I also had some bread since I'm not on a liquid diet. :) I may never figure out her bourgeois ways, but there are many a day when I am thankful for Christine.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Yammering in French
I gave my first presentation yesterday on international public institutions in sustainable development. It went well. :)
Friday, October 3, 2008
no more afternoon naps
I know I haven't posted any pictures recently. They would only be of the inside of my room, the library and my classes if I had managed to take any. I knew the day would come when I would stop complaining about not having anything to do. That day is here!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Yoga rage
Classes are off to a running start. I already have a presentation to give on the role of public institutions in sustainable development on Tuesday. I am getting to know the people in my classes rather quickly because there are only 50 of us in the program. There is always a sprinkling of students from other programs, but many of the faces are already familiar. My program has a very high percentage of international students (maybe 1/3?), so that has helped calm my nerves about presenting in French. My only disappointment has been my yoga class. The instructor was 15 minutes late, and she talks way to much. When we finally made it to our mats, we spent 20 minutes practicing our breathing. The teacher thinks we need to work on the fundamentals (this is supposed to be an advanced course), improve our concentration and clear our minds. When I'm lying on a mat breathing, all I can think about is how much time I'm wasting and how I could relax much better at home taking a nap. The only exercise I got was the 30 minute walk to get to class and return home. If it doesn't improve, I may need to go to class in order to relax after yoga.
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