La rentrée, human skulls, etc.

Yesterday was the long-awaited "first day of school," however as of yet I'm unable give a full rundown of my classes or an idea of what my semester might be like because out of the four classes I was supposed to have had by now (three yesterday and one this morning), I've only had two. Sciences Po is not "en greve" like the "universites" are, nothing interesting like that. They are just disorganized. I arrived at the main building yesterday morning for a 10:15 class, and was immediately thrown for a loop by all the hundreds of French students milling about the relatively small main floor. Laid-back, small-group, native-English-speaking welcome program days are officially over. The cool kids are back. Exhilarating, sure, to hear French all around and realize school had finally started, but at the same time, it felt noticeably similar to the first day of high school. "Oh yeah," I though to myself, scanning the crowd for a familiar face, "I don't actually know anyone." I was a little early so I sat on a bench and pretended to read a non-existent text message on my phone, then I ate a banana before heading in to what I thought would be my first "cours magistral" (main french lecture course) lecture. I sat in Sciences Po's biggest lecture hall (which is of course nowhere near the size of Wheeler at Berkeley) for about 15 minutes with 4-5 other students before I realized I was probably in the wrong place. Turns out I was in the right place, but many classes don't start in the first week. I made friends with two Americans from Columbia who had made the same mistake (of course it was les americains who had no idea what was going on). So I anti-climactically boarded the metro home, only to return a few hours later for my afternoon classes.
My first successful class was the English elective "Labor and Politics," a small class of about 15-20 people. A first day of school at Berkeley for me will mean a little excitement and general interest about what my classes will be like, but as I sat in this room and the teacher set up his computer and students arrived I realized I felt legitimately NERVOUS. I really didn't expect to be, but the reality was setting in that I was plunging into a very big unknown. The class ended up going very well though. It's too early to judge the professor, as of now all I can say is that he is a little strange...but potentially in a good way. We did introductions and I think half the class was French (they take these classes to improve their english) and half foreign (mostly American, but also Australian, Swedish, and Chinese.) It was actually really cool to be reminded of how international my current setting is. I was the only person from California and my professor got a Phd from UCLA so when I mentioned I was from Berkeley studying Peace and Conflict studies he said "TreMENdous!" (like I said, he's a little strange). He spoke quite slowly so I was a little concerned at first but once he got into the introductory lecture it was pretty interesting and I took lots of notes (but not with a ruler and in multiple colors like the French kids do). The class focuses on the labor movement in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the US from the 19th century to mid-20th century. As a preface to this, the online registration for Sciences Po is the most impossible process (Berkeley kids, be thankful for Tele-Bears) so most of the classes I ended up with were nowhere near my first choice but they all related somewhat to what I'm studying so I just went with it. And this paricular class sounds good so far. My inner commie was very pleased.
Then in the late afternoon I had my first French class, which Melissa just happens to be in too. The teacher is this older French woman who I think works for the ministry of foreign affairs or something important like that, and she's a little crazy but definitely in a good way. She was super friendly right off the bat and made jokes throughout the class that made all of us laugh. She talked about how part of the class will almost always be to discuss articles from Le Monde, which she describes as "le moins mal-ecrit" ("the least-badly-written") of all the French newspapers, so we discussed an article, did some group work on European trivia, and then she read us all the Academy Award results! (This is the point at which I was identified as the loser who has seen every movie known to man). We all felt very comfortable participating and it was an unexpected great time.
As for today, I once again got to school for a 10:15 class, only to sit there for 40 minutes this time with a FULL classroom until a student finally came in, announced it was cancelled, and once again I came home (I did the Charlie Brown walk--just kidding). Of course that initial "yay no class" feeling applies, but I was more disappointed because 1) I'm anxious to know what these classes are actually like, and 2) This is the second day I have woken up earlier than desired for no reason. Upon returning home it occurred to me I had plenty of time to take a nap, but I'm a bad nap-taker so I decided I would spite sleep and stay awake instead. I'll let you know how that works out for me.

In other news, Beth, Neema, and I made it over to the Catacombs this weekend--which I strongly recommend if you've never seen thousands upon thousands of human bones piled neatly on top of one another. It was somewhat impossible to fathom that these were all living people once, but it's a thrill nonetheless. We were also really happy to all speak French, because there are eerie/awesome quotes up everywhere about the living and the dead that many tourists had to just pass by. I respected the no flash rule, but I did gently and nonchalantly touch one of the bones--I mean, come on, am I gonna miss the opportunity to touch a real live ancient human skull? I think not.

The other great decision I made was to take the time to figure out the bus system, which naturally didn't take long at all because French public transportation has this way of being very efficient and user-friendly. I took the bus to run an errand on Saturday and fell in love, so on Sunday I charged up my ipod and picked a couple random buses to ride around in with no particular destination. (The "Navigo" pass is a gift from the heavens. That and Nutella.) At one point I got to the end of a line in the 16th and got off to walk around. It was startlingly quiet and the residential buildings that seemed much bigger and more grand. I walked up Avenue Victor Hugo as that sounded promising and eventually found more signs of civilization. I realized I was hungry and at that moment turned a corner on the cutest-looking boulangerie, only to check the list of prices in the window to see that a baguette was 4 euros. "Uh, nevermind!" It's always nice to visit a new area of Paris but as you can probably imagine, I don't have a huge desire to go back there.

Last night I spent a while watching the Oscars via Youtube clips, which turned out to be a much better system than expected. I was ssooooo happy to see them in some way, as the Academy Awards are one of the only television events I still make an effort to watch, not to mention the fact that I saw all the Best Picture nominees this year except for Benjamin Button. Sean Penn winning best actor for Milk was a pleasant surprise, and I think it was very well-deserved. If you haven't seen his acceptance speech, Youtube it asap. Milk's screenwriter's speech was good too. I finally saw The Wrestler last Friday, and it was excellent. I think I'd put that with Milk and Revolutionary Road as my favorites for the year. I'm okay with the fact that they didn't dominate the Oscars, though, as that takes the fun out of it a little bit.

Not sure why I transitioned into that topic there but usually if I can talk about movies or force them onto other people I will jump at the opportunity. (Hmm, blogs can be used to influence people! *Evil laugh*) That's all for now. Until next time, folks.

Finalement, des photos!

Bonjour tout le monde! I finally got my act together and put my Paris pictures up on Picasa. Turns out there are surprisingly few pictures for how long I've been here, but I'm sure there will be many more as time goes on. No need to be too concerned with documenting everything (so far, so good). Also, I know absolutely nothing about photography, but I have fun playing around. I have become staunchly anti-flash, however, and I stand by my blurry pictures (like the one above!)

http://picasaweb.google.com/rsevenlima

I got my Sciences Po student ID card today, so I'm official! I'm putting the card in the viewable part of my wallet so I can show it off wherever I go. Watch out, France.

Vive la France!

Today is the two-week anniversary of my arrival in Paris, as well as the end of my first week of Sciences Po's welcome program, which is two weeks of classes meant to help exchange students get acquainted with the style of teaching at Sciences Po as well as brush up on their French before real classes start (on the 23rd). Nothing is graded but UC students are getting credit for participating in the welcome program (shh, don't tell). Each day we have either a methodology class or French class, but usually both, for two hours each. Everyone in the welcome program is divided up into groups of about 15 students according to French level, and you take each class with this same group. I was skeptical of my group at first--we are all girls and most of us are from the U.S.--but after actually getting to know some of the girls I've gotten over that. There are three others from the UC Berkeley crew, including Melissa and Beth. There are two fellow Portuguese speakers, two Brazillian girls, one of whom I've talked to a good amount (in English, French, AND Portuguese) and who is really cool, she moved from Brazil to Georgia at a young age. I also discovered that TWO of the girls in my group (who didn't know each other) know people that I went to school with in Cairo. One of them went to elementary school with a girl I knew at CAC and another girl has known my friend Laila (who I've somewhat lost touch with but who I used to be quite good freinds with) since she was little (their families used to vacation in Maine or something). It was one of those instances where she threw out a name in the miniscule chance I actually knew the person but in this case I said, "Uh, yes, I actually do know her!" Not that I needed any more proof that it is a very, very small world, but there you go.
As for my two Sciences Po instructors, they are GREAT. We especially lucked out with our methodology teacher; we've heard some other ones are pretty dull but ours is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about what he teaches, as well as having an interesting background. His parents are Algerian, as I suspected from his name, and he specializes in matters of multiculturalism and identity and race and all that stuff that I just can't get enough of. The point of the class is to learn the format of certain assignments at Sciences Po--namely the infamous "expose"--but we learn about many other French themes in the process, including history of the 5th Republic, immigration, the economy, etc., essentially giving us a more well-rounded view of the country we are studying in. We all had to sign up for expose topics on the first day, and both Beth and I did ours on Thursday (as we did our best to get in on the "multiculturalism" day as we took the same wonderful immigration in France class last semester). My topic was "la laicite," which is the French version of secularism. The expose is a ten-minute presentation with a very specific format--don't try to get all creative like you can at an American university--so of course I was unsure if I understood it completely, but it ended up going very well. The professor even interrupted me at first to say "votre introduction et problematique sont exellentes" (!) Beth's went well too and we enjoyed a high-five after class (I don't think it's a secret that we are both huge dorks). Another thing about our methodoloy teacher is he appears genuinely interested in what we say and really tries to help us, which I can't imagine is always easy. I suspect that he is a little more lenient than other teachers, though, as apparently another methodoloy teacher said that some professors will give you an automatic zero if you read at all from your notes or if you make hand gestures that are too casual ("what does that mean, like if you flip someone off during your presentation?")
I also really like my French teacher, she is not overly friendly but we also learn and have discussions about interesting topics (the French education system, for example) and she corrects us when we speak (amazing how many teachers I've had who don't do this), but does so in a non-condescending way. Even though two hours often seems a little too long to sit in class for me, I'm mostly struck by how beautiful the french language is (especially with the classic Parisian accent), and I'm pretty sure I could sit and listen to either of my teachers for a very, very long time without getting bored. I'm quite certain if an American were lecturing me on some of the same topics in English my rate of zoning out would be much higher.
What I've seen of Sciences Po itself so far I really like. There is a table every morning with every major french newspaper sitting there for free, and a cute cafeteria with REALLY cheap sandwiches and espresso (yay) that are quite good. It's very small both physically and people-wise, which is probably better when you're studying abroad, although I've always liked the mass anonymity of Berkeley. There is one main entrance area, and us UC kids have commented that it's a little like high school again, in terms of running into people. A first-time random encounter with someone at UCB will usually end with the thought "I may never see you again," but here all you have to do is say "that guy from New Zealand" and everyone knows who you're talking about. Of course, this is probably something that will change once school starts and the majority of kids are French.
Life outside of school hasn't really calmed down either, which may be the reason I seem to be getting a bit of a cold. On Wednesday night the girls all went out to a famous gay club on the Champs-Elysees, which is quite a high-end place but Wednesday is ladies night and thus we got in for free. It was the most fun I've had in a while and as the night went on the music got progressively louder and better, from more unrecognizable Euro-techno to Daft Punk and Justice, with some Whitney and J-Lo thrown in, naturally. We left somewhat early because Beth and I had exposes to finish in the morning, but not before two men dressed up like James Bond got up on platforms and started stripping (we were unknowingly standing very close to said performers--not sure if this was a good or bad thing!)
Thursday night we did some bar-hopping in the Bastille area that was semi-set up by the Sciences Po welcome program. It was actually a great area to bring students, lots of young people and not too high of prices, with lots of places on a few cute little streets (a little like Bairro Alto of Lisbon, although nowhere near as cool, of course). It's actually turned out to be very easy to talk to French people (admittedly, it's probably easier if you're a girl). Everyone thinks it's really cool when you're from California and even cooler when you tell them they can speak in French because you understand. We were all very happy to practice conversation skills although every time we've gone out we've been very aware of "cultural differences" between France and the U.S. we've been warned about. As Shelby from UC Paris says, "Americans like to get on the Metro and look around at everyone and smile from time to time...DON'T do that here. A smile means more than you think, DOT DOT DOT" While we appreciated the advice, us girls have decided it may have been better had they not told us this, because all this has turned into is a continual effort to frown every time we unintentionally make eye contact with someone. I have this feeling like we are not pulling it off every elegantly.
To conclude with a vast generalization about the French people, they are NICE. Okay, scratch that. More like, that stereotype about French people being grumpy and brusque and hating Americans? It's exactly that, a stereotype. I tried not give it any validity when I was "warned" before I came here and it has no more validity now. Me, Melissa, and even the UC students who are in lower levels of French, have all found the majority of people here to be extremely friendly. The only dirty look I've gotten was from a woman at the check-out counter at Champion when I didn't put my groceries away quickly enough (I'm sorry I don't want to pay for a plastic bag and thus have to figure out how to stuff this gigantic bottle of olive oil into my purse, okay?), but it'd be quite ignorant on my part to attribute that to her being French. I could say the "trick" is to do your best to speak French even if your accent sucks or you make mistakes, because they do really appreciate that, but even that sounds like I'm saying that I have the key to getting along with the impossible French people when in reality it turns out that people are people wherever you go and for the most part, a little bit of kindness and effort go a long way.

Well, it's a beautiful sunny day (albeit a million degrees below zero, if you come form California), and I'm off to join Allie for some sort of walk in some sort of park. Looks like I've written another novel, but once again believe me when I say these are very few words to encompass my experience here so far.

Stay away from Hallmark today and a very happy birthday to my respective besties in New York and London.

Bienvenue à Rue Rollin

I went back and forth on the idea of blogging while in France, fearing mainly that I would prove right the author of "Stuff White People Like" in that I believe my life to be very important and every moment worthy of documentation, and then being in Paris (what could I possibly have new to say?), but in the end I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it out. If people do happen to be interested in what or how I am doing but can't get a hold of me some other way, well, there will be this.

So. Paris. The rumors are true--it is magical. As of today I've been here a week, but it's hard to believe it's only been that long. There hasn't been a dull moment. In fact, I don't think dull moments exist here. My roommate Melissa and I are fully settled into our apartment, which is located on a little pedestrian street in the 5th arrondissement, pictured above on a beautiful night. Our apartment is perfect, we really lucked out. There is a big (by Paris standards) living room, and one bedroom that we share comfortably. The kitchen is really cute and just big enough for a little table and chair, and everything is fully stocked. The bathroom is tiny--you essentially have to enter it sideways--but who's complaining? Our landlady is really nice and has good taste, we didn't rearrange any of the decorations, ha. And our neighborhood is fantastic and continues to awe us. There is a wonderful boulangerie around the corner that sells delicious organic ("bio") breads and pastries (although there are many others), a cheese place, a fish place, a newspaper place, little supermarkets, various cafes and restaurants, and two metro stops. The most amazing outdoor market makes an appearance three times a week. In a different direction there is a cute little square with outdoor cafes and a small busy street that goes for a long time with restaurants of all kinds (already tried a phenomenal lebanese place), as well as bars and some clubs. Basically great nightlife around the corner from us.

Melissa is a fellow Berkeley student who I did not know before we decided to live together (although we met up for coffee once before France), but who I get along with very well so far. We have a lot in common and she's really sweet, as well as having the generally desirable roommate qualities of common sense and positive energy. She is also half French and speaks just about fluently. So far we've been hanging out with some of the other UC students going to Sciences Po who we met at the UC orientation. There are only about 11 people on the program, and Berkeley definitely dominates (there are 6 or 7 of us). One girl, Beth, I knew from before because we had two French classes together, but it's been really nice getting to know her better here. Allie is Melissa and my mutual friend who is at Sciences Po for the year and who actually went to look at this amazing apartment for us. She has a laugh that is contagious and it is very easy to be silly around her. Then there are two other girls that live together, one from Irvine and one from Santa Barbara, who are both really nice, and a guy from UCSD who I approve of because he has already paid a visit to Shakespeare & Co. (which I decided to track down on the second day here and which has arguably become my favorite bookstore in the world...I'm sure it will be mentioned again soon). He has twice been the only guy among us, but he holds his own. We're still on the prowl for French friends, of course, but we figure it will be more promising when classes start. In the meantime I am pleasantly surprised by how well we all get along.

It's been such a whirlwind that I can't remember what day I did which things but I've seen a surprising amount of the city already. The other day Melissa, Beth, and I walked from the Pantheon (3 minutes walk from our place, no big deal) in the general direction of the Eiffel Tower, and it turned into a lovely 3-hour journey. We walked through the Luxembourg gardens (we had great weather that day) in the 6th and then through the 7th. We found the Musee Rodin and just went into the garden part (which is free) and stared at all the wonderful statues. Then we went on past Invalides (where Napoleon is buried, also part museum) and were temporarily trapped by a large dried-up moat that surrounds the compound, which we found quite amusing ("I like how we can't get from A to B because there is a MOAT in the way"). We eventually made it to the Eiffel Tower which I hadn't seen yet, and stopped to take some obligatory jumping/we're-excited-because-we're-in-Paris pictures. At some point in the day we made the decision to only speak in French and kept it up for quite a while (which we've done a number of times since being here). That day ended with a night out at a British bar/club that had a "student night" that meant cheaper drinks and all that annoying American pop/hip-hop that you tend to love when you don't expect it. It was a lot of fun but we decided we wanted something a little more "French" for next time.

In regards to the French language, I've so far used it very successfully and have really enjoyed myself. The first couple days I was overly amused by everyone just speaking French...here is this language that I've studied for so long and all of the sudden I'm in a place where everyone actually speaks it like it's no big deal! And the first restaurant that my mom and I went to where I had to order I kept thinking "is it UN omelette or UNE omelette OMG I DON'T KNOW" but beyond that first day it has felt really natural and not too scary. Barely anyone has responded in English when I've spoken in French to them (which I've heard can be a common occurrence). I even got my phone completely set up speaking only in French to the guy and only when I had to show him my ID did he say "Oh vous etes de Californie!" My courage has been growing by the day and I figure it can only get better.

Today was a late-start kind of day (I've been waking up pretty late here which I'm not used to) but it's been nice because there hasn't been much of a spare moment to just sit and chill (and you know, blog). We weren't up too late last night but we did go to the Louvre in the evening because it's free for us on Friday after 6. We tackled the Italian renaissance and French paintings, but we'll be back (you may have heard, it's quite a big museum). The weather has also not been very inviting, it is much colder today and snowing! The flakes have not stuck to the ground, though--Melissa and I expressed annoyance at this.

I've left out tons, of course, but before this turns into War and Peace I think I will wrap it up! Looks like I got through my first blog post in one piece, and hopefully I'll be back. (Although knowing me it could be a while.) I also hope to get pictures organized and up soon.

Merci beaucoup et a bientot!