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!!