Sorry it has been so long between updates. Last week and this one are crunch time for getting work done. One class totally down; it's final paper written and sent in. Finish up another Wednesday when we have our final Council of Ministers roleplay; the write-ups are already sent in. Thursday takes care of French (final exam) and EU Econ (turn in paper). That paper is the big focus of this week: a comparative analysis of French and Danish welfare/social protection systems, and whether these explain variable growth rates. And then a final in policy issues next Tuesday. It's crazy how quickly this is all wrapping up.

I spent the weekend down in Toulouse, visiting my friend Lindsay, and had a great time. I'll update more about that when I've got more time and get my pictures uploaded.

For the moment, just a quick thought about the French language. Something I've noticed and brought up with my French teacher last week: French is less subtle than English, in so far as one word will more often have several meanings, where in English they are each given their own word. Not to dig too much into Barthes, but I think I can be more clear if I French often uses the same signifier for many signifieds, while English gives each signified its own signifier. English makes a distinction between sirens (generally more malicious and ancient Greek) and mermaids (more recent and often friendlier), whereas both are siren in French. I had another, better example, but I can't come up with it at the moment. I would guess, with nothing to back me up, that this is a product of having the language so strictly regulated by the Acadamie Francaise, and English being open to more free development and borrowing.

Happy Thanksgiving

So my first Thanksgiving not spent with family went over pretty well. It is my second-favorite holiday of the year (after the Christmas season - which is really more of a season), so though it isn't at all a part of their history, it still causes pitty to think that the French don't celebrate. Yes, your lack of pilgrim ancestors might be a problem, but it's just such a great day. Family, parades, good food, and festive Fall-ness. So though some things were missing off that list, we did our best to carve a little island of Plymouth for the French today. We cooked and ate dinner at my friend John's apartment with his extended host family and did a pretty good job of it. No pumpkin pie, but a full meal and plenty with which to fill outselves.






Cick here for the full album.

I've had many things to be thankful for this year and much appreciate them. Hope you have all enjoyed yourselves and the long weekend. Love to familiy and friends - though we pulled off a successful version of the day in France, I still wish I could have been there with you.

Pilgrims, Abe Lincoln, Turkey.
Stephen

And a tradition:

Part 2, Part 3

Childhood Nostalgia Moment

Today was pretty uneventful, so lacking any new stories, here are some thoughts introduced by YouTube videos.


Sadly, this one isn't really that good, but it gives me an excuse to mention Howards End. In my political economics class yesterday I was struck by how much our discussion could be broken down and explained as that book. The question was what to do about child labor and other such practices in China and elsewhere. Is this a cost to be paid on the only road to development and growth? Should we declare a universal standard of morality that we owe responsibility to prevent this happening? Suddenly, one side of the room the Wilcoxes, and the other the Schlegel sisters, the workers cast as the Basts, and the professor's proposition perhaps the child. A question a century ago and now.


Monsterpiece Theatre presents "The Sound of Music." Possibly less strange a re-telling than this marionette version I read about.


Can't believe they managed a Twin Peaks segment.

And so we have the lesson for today: Sesame Street and its eventual dumbing down. About two years ago I attended a presentation on puppetry and Jim Henson given by Stephanie d'Abruzzo, star of Avenue Q and longtime Sesame Street puppeteer. Besides a chance to see some early Henson work, the most interesting part of her talk was her discussion of the changes she noticed during her years working on the show. At its inception the show had a strongly education purpose and contained a mix of simple children's humor to some directed to go over their heads. Turn on the show now and you might not recognize it from its original format. Now, while the educational purpose is still there, the visuals are an overwhelming, overstimulating mess, the humor reduced, and long-running character plots given less weight. What this is reflecting is a shift in television habits and consquently audience targets. Originally, the target group was children ages 3-5 with parents, hence the more sophisticated material. They needed to engage both these young children and their parents. But then, according to Ms. d'Abrubzzo, the target shifted in the late 1990s, gearing itself at kids ages 1 (or earlier) up to two or three. At this age, the focus shifts to visual stimulation and pure entertainment. This doesn't help to fight against viewership patterns, encouraging parents to watch with kids, nor does it act in the same role it once did, targeting education in underserved culutrally-deprived youth.

My problem here, why I feel this is a loss, is the same problem I have with the Disney-ification of classic fairy tales. By removing the death and other challenging elements from these stories, they're neutered of their original purpose. They're not just entertainment, but a way of introducing kids to some of the realities of life. And while Sesame Street once did this (and mentioned inflation - on a kid program!), I really doubt you'd see that today. And kids go unhelped by pretty pictures.

This NYT piece from this past weekend looks back at early Sesame Street from a contemporary perspective. Just one quote to back up my earlier point: "I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody 'Monsterpiece Theater.' Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, 'That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — 'so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.' "

And if you're still up for more, after all that, one last link: Fred Rogers before the Senate on Corporation for Public Broadcasting funding in 1969.

Great Writing for Today

So I can't claim any credit for finding this, but one line out of this AP piece on America's most dangerous cities was too good to pass up:

"Detroit was pegged the nation's murder capital in the 1980s and has lost nearly 1 million people since 1950".

In an Alex Ross piece I was reading the other night, he mentions an architectural guide during a tour in Germany complaining that a new building in the Potsdamer Platz had too many right angles and thus revived an authoritarian aesthetic. This was a new perspective through which to view my earlier comments on the modern architecture in Strasbourg. Has European architecture been put through the same Adorno-esque neo-classical rejection that German music has? Are purposely esoteric atonal musical events and the ECHR drawn from the same well?

Later I was listening to John Adam's Nixon in China. The hyper-classical pronunciation managed turned a chorus of cheers into a running call for chairs. Cheers/Chairs. Adams and frequent collaborator Peter Sellars have a new piece, Doctor Atomic, which premiered at the San Francisco Opera in 2005 and is part of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's season this winter. I hope to see it in January when I'm back there. Concerning the test of the first atomic bomb, it paints Robet Oppenheimer as a modern day Faust, the question of his soul hanging in the balance against the bomb. Though while Fuast in the end loses his immortal soul, Oppenheimer's journey is to the discovery he has one - so the librettist decides. The construction of the libretto is also pretty fascinating. Every line comes from transcripts of the sceientists, declassified documents, related poetry (Oppenheimer had a book of Baudelaire in his pocket at the first test and supposedly reacted to the detonation by quoting from Donne; his wife is given voice through the words of her contemporary, poet Muriel Rukeyser), and other contemporary writings on the Manhattan project.

...

So I'm liking the French a lot less this week. The metro has been on strike (again) since Tuesday night. And while my line is running some of its trains, packing myself into these over-crowded cars has given my new sympathies for sardines. And I'd also like to issue a blanket apology to every person in whose back/side/chest/thigh/head I've found my elbow/hand/knee/bag/hip. Wednesday wasn't so bad, most likely because everyone else assumed the metro would be closed, so it was only a little crowded. But then on Thursday I couldn't even get into trains. And yesterday was somewhat violating.

And then supposedly early this week ahead, the museums, postal service, and other general services. Meanwhile in the university system (and being in a grand école, this I am spared) the student strikes still piddle on. I still don't really get student strikes - seems like they're only hurting themselves - but this is what the French get for making this some sort of constitutional rights. It kind of makes me miss the US, where we can just declare this illegal.

Still yesterday was fun. Got a haircut, went to Shakespeare & Co. with Tony and then grabbed coffee, then we had a dinner party at Garrett's apartment for his and Tony's birthdays, which had been during the last two weeks. We made a surprisingly good dinner, too (credit largely to Garrett and Gracie).

My internet in the apartment hasn't been working since Wednesday either, so I'm in the library at Sciences Po right now, taking care of email, checking up on the world, and trying to save some articles and research for these papers I've realized are due in two and three weeks. The end is coming surprisingly fast.

Strasbourg

So yesterday we had a field trip to Strasbourg, to visit the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. The former is not actually a body of the EU, but rather a separate organization which has been around since 1949 and has 47 members to the EU's 27. Also, its only real power is limited to the European Convention on Human Rights and running the European Court of Human Rights, which ensures compliance.

The Parliament, meanwhile, is one of the legislative arms of the EU. It has confirmation powers over commissioners and new members and is one of two bodies that must vote in laws. We sat in on an hour of a session and then had a brief lecture. Unfortunately the session was not debate on current proposed legislation, but instead a hearing of the interests of EUMPs. They had a dozen different translators running, to keep everyone up with the changing speakers. Some of these were legitimate - asking the EU to consider how to ensure border security on the edges of the Schengen area - but others seemed a little further outside the body's competencies - complaining about FIFA rulings regarding Northern Ireland's status within soccer leagues.

But the lesson here has nothing to do with European governance, it has to do with architecture. Strasbourg has best presented to me so far the enormous gap France seems to manage between its older buildings and its attempts at modern architecture. I had gotten a bit of this last Friday passing through the business center of La Defense and looking out at traditional Paris, but Strasbourg beat even that. The main part of the city is absolutely beautiful. Little cobblestone streets and buildings that give the look of some sort of German fairy tale. Brothers Grimm without all the gristly endings. Or maybe Santa’s village. And then you have the more recent additions. The train station is a strange, glass bubble. The Council of Europe headquarters is some sort of Japanese temple gone wrong. The Parliament looks like the dystopian future. And the Court of Human Rights looks like the Jetsons threw up. This problem was present in Brussels too, at the Commission. It was one of those glass and colorful piping playground buildings.

I have nothing against modern architecture, only the ugly and ridiculous variety. Maybe I’m just biased, but I like the more dignified Greek revival look of American government centers. The columns of the Supreme Court, the dome of the Capitol building. There’s a certain staid respectfulness these buildings force upon you. And perhaps that’s Europe’s problem. It’s hard to take the EU seriously when their buildings look like Isaac Asimov. Well, that and EUMPs who decide the Parliament is the best avenue to argue with FIFA.

See the difference:
Classic Strasbourg

The Train Station Bubble

I suppose what's really necessary, in a much more general sense, is to strike the balance between decently looking architecture and decently functional buildings. For though they fall too far into spheres and city-of-tomorrow with their new work, the older buildings show their age a great deal when it comes to facilities. So I'm not against new buildings (or even replacing the old ones), I just don't want to feel like I've wandered into Jules Verne's voyage to the moon.

The rest of the Strasbourg pictures.

And the last set of pictures from Italy, including the Vatican.

Roman Holiday

So now that’s it’s the weekend and not a terribly inviting day outside, I thought I’d sit down and write up some notes on last week’s trip.

The weekend before had been great. Mom and Dad got in Thursday and stayed through Tuesday morning. In the four days they had, we managed to do most of the city, hitting the big monuments, checking out some museums, and even getting down to Versailles. I loved getting to visit with them and being able to show them around.

Then Tuesday, while they made their way up to Germany, I took off to enjoy my week’s break from classes, heading to Italy. My train didn’t leave until early afternoon, so that day was spent just traveling. I got into Milan fairly late in the evening, found some authentic Italian pizza for dinner, and turned in so I would be refreshed for the next day.

Wednesday I wandered around Milan before taking a train to Rome. I first went to the Duomo, the cathedral in the center of the city. Impressive both in size and design, it may top my list of favorite church interiors. The stained glass captured the light perfectly and paintings were hung along the sides of the aisles. From there, I walked to La Scala, Milan’s famous opera house. Compared to other houses I’ve been to and seen, particularly the Met, City Opera, or the Operas Bastille and Garnier in Paris, it’s actually rather small. The theatre itself is probably no larger than a mid-sized Broadway theatre. The intimacy has to be good for acoustics, though. Attached to the theatre was a small museum, with a collection of famous composers’ scores, instruments, paintings, and some costumes and designs from past productions. I wandered back through the historic center of the city, through the Castelo Sforzesco (the moat of which seemed to have attracted a large band of stray cats) and back towards the Duomo. I also found the best gelato I’ve ever had. After a little confusion with train details, I was then on my way to Rome. I got in late there and again turned in for the night.

The next morning two of my friends from the program, Delphine and Jenna, arrived from Florence. We found our hotel, dropped off our bags, and started on day one of sightseeing. We focused on the north-center of the city, walking from the Spanish Steps and Trinitia dei Monti, down Via del Corso to the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon, over to the Piazza Navonna, up to the Piazza del Popolo. One of the best things about Rome is that you can be walking through streets and suddenly, mixed in with the buildings one- or two-hundred years old, there are suddenly ancient remains as well. Even more than Paris, the history of this city was tangible as you passed through it. Another fun moment was at the Piazza del Popolo when we climbed up a hill to see the view and realized the big dome in the distance was that of St. Peter’s.

Day two took us down to the ancient Roman ruins. We started at the Coliseum, which is just as impressive in person as it is in pictures. The classic image of Christians and lions, it turns out, isn’t a terribly accurate depiction of the building. Those were rare, and only under one emperor, while criminals (and later fame-seekers) fighting to brutal public deaths, re-enacting famous fights or showing off exotic animals were much more common. Before the maze beneath the floor was built, it would be flooded and famous naval battles re-enacted. Also interesting, the one emperor (the one from the movie Gladiator, I think) who would compete as a gladiator in fixed battles and the slaves dressed as Charon who would take away the dead after battles. Centuries later, after much neglect, botanists took an interest in the building as seeds that had traveled with the exotic animals had grown up into a botanical gardens.

From there, we climbed the Palatine Hill to see the ruins of Dioceltian’s palace. It must have been one of the most massive structures I can imagine. The social room took up at least two football fields, while the indoor racetrack was the size of another. And the building was five stories in total. One small, but very interesting place of note on the hill was the stone beneath which is supposedly the heart of Romulus, founder of Rome. I also had to notice all the pine trees – Respighi’s Pines of Rome? We then circled down, past the Circus Maximus, of which only a small bit of wall remains. At the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, we saw the Bocca della Verita, a carving of a face, the mouth of which will supposed bite off the hand of anyone telling a lie. While wandering back north from there, we ended up at the Museo Capitolini, where we were able to see Bernini’s bust of the Medusa and the famous bronze wolf sculpture from 5 BC. The museum also gave a great view of the ruins of the Roman Forum.

Saturday took us to the Vatican. We wandered through the museums, which have a great collection of ancient sculpture and artwork as well as Renaissance works. The Sistine Chapel, though small than I expected, is just as astounding as I’d thought it would be. Just the scope of it and the painters who contributed are enough to amaze. Two fun facts: One cardinal became annoyed with the liberties Michelangelo was taking in his depictions and complained, but was not heeded. Michelangelo heard about his complains, though, and painted him with donkey ears in hell in “The Last Judgment.” The other fun fact isn’t really fun; it’s more something I found absolutely absurd. Pictures aren’t allowed in the Chapel. Only this has nothing to do with preservation, but rather than the restoration in the mid-1980s was funded by Fujifilm and for it they were given exclusive rights to images of the Chapel. St. Peter’s was also pretty amazing. While not the most beautiful church I’ve been in, it is still impressive for its size and the amount of art contained in it. There is also at least one mummified saint on display. There’s just something about the Vatican and being surrounded by so much great art.

That afternoon we ended up back over by the Spanish Steps. Delphine took us to this café, famous for the writers, musicians and other people of note who frequented it in the 1800s. Found more gelato by the Trevi Fountain, though it wasn’t quite as good as that in Milan.

Delphine and Jenna took off Sunday morning, while I had the day to wander, as my train wasn’t until the next morning. I retraced many of the places from the first day, glad to do it sun rather than rain. The ruins and Vatican had been great weather, but the first day in Rome had been light rain for most of the day. I also took in a few small churches in the more eastern areas of the city, including Santa Maria Maggiore. While heading back at the end of the day, I ended up near a government building at the Quirinale and happened upon a military band presentation, with full pomp and circumstance.

Monday’s train trip back to Paris was a long one, but the views between Rome and Florence were great and I managed to finish both E. M. Forster’s Howards End and re-reading Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. It was a trip I was really glad to have made. It also came at the perfect time, just before the last big surge of work for classes hits and gave me a break to get my head clear, relaxed, and ready for the end of the semester.

This past week flew by, with classes, participating in a debate on the relationship of national parliaments to EU decision-making, and a midterm on EU Political Economy. Friday morning we had a nice visit to Chateau Malmaison, the home of Empress Josephine – sort of like Versailles on a more modest scale.

I should hopefully have the last set of pictures up tonight. In the meantime, here’s a famous Rome movie moment, starring the Trevi Fountain:

Another set of photos

More Rome photos, this time it's Day Two: Ancient Ruins. Again, I promise real stories will come eventually, but I've been distracted taking a position on the level of influence national parliaments need to have in EU Decision-Making.

See Ancient Ruins here.

Quick update

Sorry it's been so long. I've been busy and away, but I'm finally back into routine in Paris for bit. First we had Mom and Dad's visit. It was great to see them and we managed to do most of Paris in the five days they were here. Then they left for Germany and I headed off to Italy, from which I returned just last night. One day in Milan and then four in Rome. Really terrific cities, especially Rome.

So for now, some pictures to tide everyone over until I have time (in between registration for the Winter, one last midterm, and starting some papers) to write some proper notes.


Catacombes/Versailles



Mom and Dad in Paris/Milan/Rome: Part I

Video can be fun

These are some of the things I did this summer (they don't look as good on YouTube, sadly):



So look forward to more video (as well as some traditional posting) from this weekend and from Italy.

Coming Soon...

So I can now promise a fun and photo-filled update in two weeks. Here's a little MSPaint-style preview:

"Of course I have played outdoor games. I once played dominoes in an open air cafe in Paris.”

So I finally have material to write about again. This past weekend had a fairly uneventful Friday and Sunday, but a very fun Saturday. Friday the trip to Chateau Malmaison was postponed on account of the strike (which has since ended). So I slept in, and then spent the day reading. I finally finished off the ninth of the Nine Stories and re-read Watchmen. We were going to go out that night but by the time plans came together, I was ready to call it quits, so I bailed on the group, read this New Yorker piece by Alex Ross, and went to bed.

Saturday I met up with Tony after his Germany lesson to grab some dinner. We were supposed to go see this Rite of Spring at the Pompidou Center, but some friends had gone the night before and warned us that it was not the ballet we were all expecting, but rather some performance artist’s interpretive dance/conducting to a recording, so we didn’t feel too badly about avoided that. Instead, we met up with Gracie, Patrick, Garret and their friends Emily and Trudy to go back up to Oberkampf. That neighborhood is starting to become a weekend spot for us.

One thing I’ve noticed while out among the nightlife in this city is that all the music that gets played is American or at least in English. We went through The Cure, Mika, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, The Strokes, and Franz Ferdinand, a voyage through two decades, but there wasn’t a single French artist to be found. The closest I’ve come yet has been Daft Punk, but they sing in English. The government evidently noticed this too, a while back, and mandated that all radio stations have to fill something like at least 40% of their playtime with French language music. Even then, most of that ends up being Canadian artists. So lesson: quotas fighting American cultural hegemony don’t work because you can’t regulate tastes.

This morning I had probably the easiest French test I’ve ever taken. Conditionnel, futur simple, and un peu de temps. After class I met up with Delphine and Clarissa to search out this small Indian district up in the 10th (N.E. Paris). It was a tiny little street, almost an alley, full of Indian restaurants and grocers. I was finally able to find some well-spiced curry for the first time over here, asking for it plus épicé. A really terrific meal. One thing I love about Evanston is having numerous Thai, Indian, and pan-Asian place within a few block of the apartment.



We then trekked a ways southeast to Pèrre Lachaise Cemetery, the most famous in Paris. Among its notable residents are Jim Morrison, Chopin, Molière, Sara Bernhardt, and Oscar Wilde, as well as several leaders of the country. Flowers are still regularly left on these graves and the cemetery was full of visitors looking for these notable deceased. Oscar Wilde’s grave is a particular standout. The large stone, with vaguely art deco-ish carvings, is covered in notes, quotes, and hundreds of kisses left in pink lipstick. A grand gesture rather fitting Wilde’s flamboyant persona, it has become tradition for women (and I’m sure more than a few men) admirers to leave these in tribute.



Later in the evening, I attended a live television taping at the Canal+ studio, a popular news/talkshow called Le Grand Journal. After an extensive security procedure, we were strategically seated to balance out color, and then led through the ropes of applauding. The guests on this edition Jean-Pierre Raffarin (ex-Prime Minister under Jacques Chirac), an activist for the poor, Marc Lavoine (singer/actor), and part of the French rugby team including Frédéric Michalak. I occasionally lost the thread of discussion, especially when the activist and Raffarin started yelling at one another over whether the government or associations did a better job protecting the poor, but it was quite interesting to watch and see how the show itself was produced as well. So I can now say (stretching) I’ve been on French television. You could definitely see me in the backgroud in some shots.



It looks like I’ll be heading off for a few days in Italy next week, spending one day in Milan and a few in Rome during the Toussaint Holidays. So now that I think I have my time frame lined up, I need to go to the train station tomorrow to get tickets booked, so I can then book accommodations. Once those are all set, I will be able to breathe again.

I'm taking advantage of this small breathing space in my workload before it starts piling up again. Having finished off the Sallinger, I started Howard's End (say it fast, it sounds like Howard Zinn), which, once done, I think will leave me only two books from my supply I haven't finished. And a month and a half. One of my better packing jobs. Also, looking at these pictures, I'm getting badly in need of a haircut. It's been almost two months, which is a long time for my hair.

Credit for this week's quotation goes to Oscar Wilde.

The Break-Up

Update: So the rumour that Line Four of the metro was in service turned out to be true. I still walked back though. After class I went down to catch it, saw that there was a 20 minute wait (must have only been one or two trains in service on the line), and decided that I'd be two-thirds of the way back anyway. Got a nice stroll through the Jardins de Luxembourg.



For anyone who hasn't seen it on the news yet, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has separated from his wife. Evidently it is by mutual agreement, and they both seem to have other relationships ongoing already. One of my professors made an interesting media relations point about this in class today. Rumors had been circulating for a while about this; I remember seeing some almost two weeks ago. But the timing of offical annoucement was planned to be released yesterday afternoon, so that it would be on the newstands today, diverting attention from the strike. Two observations on this. First, the French seemed to take it for granted that Sarkozy had a mistress and haven't seemed to care at all about the divorce. According to my French teacher, they all are completely willing to separate the private life from the public figure. Which leads to the second point: if this were happening in America, I'd say odds are good that a politician would try to use the strike story to bury the separation. Preferably on a Friday afternoon. This divorce is raising some interesting legal issues for the French, namely the question of whether it is even possible, given that the Constitution bars legal action from being brought against the President. Both candidates from the Presidential race how left their partners: Ségolène Royal left her partner François Hollande back in June after losing the race to Sarkozy. As you can see, I've decided this needed some commemorative photoshopping.

Strike Update

So the streets are a mess of cars and mopeds, but the walk wasn't so bad actually. I grabbed my Starbucks and made it to school in half the time I had given myself. In the wilderness between Denfert-Rochereau and St. Germaine, I managed somehow to get off my path, but figured as long as I kept the sun on my right I could continue North despite the random angles of street direction.

Update: Once I got to French class I found out that half the metro lines were running today, including mine. Oh life. At least it saves me the return walk.


Photo: Alexandra Samur

An interesting story I came across while checking up on news and blogs this morning. Evidently over the last two weeks Toronto has been struck by a graffiti artist who appears to have a slight infatuation with Gustav Mahler. Washington DC evidently had their own Mahler graffiti back in 1976. In the great oneupmanship of urban art, I'm sure before long we'll see our neighborhoods tagged with the likes of Schnittke and Meyerbeer. (Via The Rest Is Noise)

All Sorts of Fun

If everything went according to the announced plans, the transit workers in France began a strike this evening. Thus, no metro, no trains, no busses, no planes. This is in response to potential plans looking to incrase the retirement age by two years as a possible method of dealing with the looming funding crisis that will be attacking the nation soon as the population ages. The (political) problem with welfare policies is that is impossible to take them away. The same reason that the Common Agricultural Policy holds on well beyond what's needed.

On a less-national level, this is just extremely inconvenient. (Almost as much as trying to print in the library here. Today, there was one working printer, only about six computers from which you could print, and it requires about seven steps.) Walking is looking like my best bet to get to class tomorrow, for which I'm giving myself at least an hour and a half. It's only about two and a half miles, but I've only ever gone underground, so there will be many stops to check the map. We were supposed to have a Halloween party this evening (yes, very early) but had to take a raincheck. Though getting back is always tricky, given how early the metro shuts down at night normally, it would have been a pain getting there as well. A trip to visit the Chateau Malmaison on Friday for class is in question now, dependent on how long this goes on.

The professors don't think it will last terribly long - unlikely that it will be another 1995. What has amazed me is how in-stride all the French have been taking this. Evidently, from what I've heard and read, they tend to take these as part of the normal relations between the state and various sectors, putting up with the inconvenience for the sake of right, activism, and the like. I doubt I'll be as magnanimous as I'm wandering my way up the Boulevard Raspail tomorrow morning. Also, seeing as this isn't New York, I'm doubting there will be tee-shirts celebrating our survival once it's all over.

I'll give you updates as this goes along. Hopefully it's short and doesn't cause too much trouble for my weekend plans.

Headscarves in France

So I over-studied for the midterm again. Staying up late to finish readings, meeting before classes for a study session and then last minute cramming while we grabbed lunch. Overkill. I always expect to be asked something more than to simply trace a coherent argument regarding the general trend at which we’ve been looking. Today is was the reasons for the decline of French state power in the economy. Post-war dirigisme, ENA and state-business ties, industrial plan, Monnet, government spending, inflation, exchange rate mechanisms, oil, war, Nixon, end of Bretton Woods, privatization, liberalization, European integration, SEA, EMU, Maastricht, globalization, pensée unique. And then the counter: government adaptation, European-level protection of standards, thirty-five hour work week.



Following the exam, we spent the next hour and a half engaged in a discussion of the 2004 ban on the wearing of the hajib and other headscarves in French schools. 1, 2 It was interesting to hear the position of the French students, who tended to side with the law, in the interests of maintaining the public space of the school as an area free of religion and in the interests of protecting the rights of girls who may not want to wear the hajib but feel pressured to by family or peers. The French conception of religious freedom is quite different from that of Americans. It is founded on the principle of laïcité, the basic secular nature of the state. In practice its separation of religion from political life tends to extend to removing religion from all public life, a sentiment expressed by those French students who commented. Thus, they felt, it was appropriate to prevent such religious displays in schools, be they hajib or crosses.

Additionally, they made an argument that because of social pressures, both from families and from peers, there were some young Moslem women who wore the scarves not as a personal choice, but as a necessity for safety, to avoid conflict with fathers and brothers or being bothered in the streets of more traditionally Moslem neighborhoods. The state, they said, had a role to step in and create an environment where no one would face that pressure, by removing all religious displays from the school.

Some of the Americans in our group found that argument compelling, but what seemed like the majority of those joining in the discussion felt this went outside of proper state action, to the point of anti-religious policy. One particularly interesting opinion was that of a Moslem woman in our group. The hajib is worn in modesty and is part of the religious worship and practices of many women, by choice, because it is something important to them in their faith. With such a central place, restricting its use was basically a restriction on an article of the faith. Others Americans expressed similar ideas, noting that this was a personal action that didn’t impose upon anyone else the way organized school prayer would (to draw parallel to an instance of religion being banned from American schools).

On the issue of family pressure, in the case of the children and teenagers this law was directed towards, many felt that it was along the lines of other parental requirements for modest dress any parent might require (“You’re not leaving my house wearing that mini-skirt” as one example.) The idea of the state coming between parental rules and the child in this situation seemed overreaching. Furthermore, while banning the headscarves in school provided an area free of peer pressure there, it did nothing to address the streets and neighborhoods where, from what we were hearing, the real pressure (and very possibly danger) to those women who went sans scarf was problematic.

Looking at the difference of opinion, there are two key factors about the French and American conceptions of the state that I see as background for these viewpoints. The American nation, especially at its conception is a federal system. Americans are not only Americans, but also members of their individual states, regions, and increasingly in more recent history identified with their ethnic histories as well. Thus, being an American necessarily involves a somewhat tangled web of identities. The French meanwhile have historically worked to reduce regional differences, unite the nation around Paris, implement the same law, language, and systems across the entire country, and derive national unity from developing French as the primary identity of its citizens. Regional governments did not come into play until the very recent past. Thus identity has been a more unified concept, and as such would seek to avoid elements that draw clear distinctions in its citizens.

Furthermore, the French have always expected a greater level of involvement from their state. Just look at their social welfare programs – they’re extensive and supported by high taxes because the people are willing to pay for that much involvement. Another case, the post-war economic dirigisme. Americans, meanwhile, have always seemed to treat the government as more of a background figure, there as a safety net of sorts when its needed, keeping things orderly but not getting overly involved. Half of the political system gives at least lip service to the idea of limiting government. So while the Americans felt that the French state overstepped its bounds, the French expected such action.

It’s core differences like these that I find fuel most of the divergent views we’ve experienced with our French classmates in discussion.

My Visitors

An illustration of where you are reading from.

First by country: (Click to enlarge.)


And then by city:


This feels so Big Brother-y.

“In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language”

Yesterday I re-read the better party of Salinger’s Nine Stories. The constant mention of New York and Connecticut had me thinking about home for a while. I had my homesick period during the third week here, a few days when I was acutely feeling the differences and wanting oversized portions of American food, but it passed quickly. It seems for most people that period hit them this week. I’ve had at least three different conversations with people who started feeling all that this week. It seems pretty much a phase that everyone is going through at some point. Mine was brought on by hearing about my roommates’ return to Evanston, others seem triggered by news from friends or finding themselves living a long distance relationship. I’ve decided that the length of the program is probably the perfect time for me. It strikes the balance between being here experiencing the culture and the city, and falling too far out of the loop back home. I don’t think I would want to do a full year, but this time is great.

Last night, my hostess had over some friends to watch the rugby world cup semi-final, England against France. This competition has been a big deal this year, bigger than usual, because the games are being hosted in Paris. A few weeks back, I watched a match on the screens outside the Hôtel de Ville (the city hall) and it resembled Times Square on New Year’s Eve a bit. This England-France match was close for its better part, until England pulled ahead in the last ten minutes. They extended their lead and then held the French at bay through the end. France was eliminated from the finals. The reaction from the assembled hosts and neighbors was unexpectedly large. Lots of yelling at the television, cursing the English. And perhaps, most unexpectedly, lots of reference to Joan of Arc. It was like – hey, history! It’s funny, the place that comes back into play.

Last Saturday was the Nuit Blanche, a fall festival of sorts. We began the evening with a birthday party for one of my program friends, hosted at the apartment of one of the French students. Pizza, France beating New Zealand in the quarter-finals, and cake. I ended up bailing on plans to meet Tony and Gracie to go back to Le Showcase because I just didn’t have the energy for something so late that night, and instead stayed with the program group to check out the Nuit Blanche festivities. Along our path we found an actor recreating some speech from a balcony about the libraries, crowds everywhere in the streets, the plaza at the Louvre crowded for an event that remains a mystery, and the Tuilleries filled with fire. Pots of flame lines the walkways, frame sculptures hung with jars of flame sat throughout, there were tubes that occasionally shot flame to the sky. You would think packing people into an area of so much open flame would be a bad idea, but I didn’t actually see anyone on fire. We made it though, watched some of our companions ride the Ferris wheel at Place de la Concorde, and then called it a night, just in time to catch the last metro back. This night began a bizarre week of coincidental meetings. In the Tuilleries we managed to run into several of our program members amongst the crowds and then on the metro I ended up in a car with a friend of Tony’s girlfriend. Sunday was then used to take care of readings and presentation assembling.



This last week has been, if not uneventful, at least low key. Monday, we spent French class conducting a scavenger hunt in the Marais, the city’s Jewish quarter. Just lots of running around finding names of famous museums and cafes and figuring out the purposes of different tubes on the side of the Centre Pompidou. Really terrific falafel for lunch after. After the rest of my classes that afternoon, I sent Priyanka a text about trying to get together sometime soon. On the metro, returning home, who should enter my car at Monteparnasse, but Priyanka? We wandered around our neighborhood for a bit, figuring out finally how all these streets lined up and grabbed an afternoon snack. The afternoon snack, I have discovered, is essential. Meal portions are small and it’s impossible to go from a noon lunch to an eight or nine o’clock dinner without one. The French seem to have an obsession with carbs (a topic that came up in French class last week, noting that they’re also dismissive of protein and fruit), and somehow all that bread just isn’t filling for long enough.

Tuesday was our Czech Republic presentation, of which all that is essential is that the spectre of Russia and the inspiration of Vaclav Havel pretty much shape the entirety of Czech-EU relations. That evening I met up with John to see this French film about the Algerian War that had interesting-looking posters, L’enemie Intime. It was well done and, not knowing all that much about the war, served as a good bit of history too. Several elements of the war’s methodology and tactics reminded a lot of Vietnam. From what I could tell, it has a similar psychological place for the nation as well. Wednesday and Thursday were more class, with some naps, as I found myself exhausted midweek. Thursday after class, walking around with John and Jonas, I ran into Priyanka, again, out exploring with Dartmouth people.

Friday we ended up with no trips, as there are no reform Mosques and Friday prayer times aren’t really conducive to group visits. In the evening I met up with Tony, Garret, and Freya to explore the area up around Oberkampf, which was supposed to have a bit of a Village-y atmosphere. I wouldn’t say it did, but it was still fun and we finally found good-ish music on the third or fourth try. Wandered back south and ran, yet again, into Priyanka and friends, who had been looking for Oberkampf, unsuccessfully until that point. We will have to actually get our friends together someplace that isn’t the middle of the street. Tony and Garret were hungry to we ended up back off of Rue de Temple at the one open creperie and then walked down and sat in the plaza outside of the Pompidou. The conversation soon wandered to politics, I think my fault when I mentioned Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize co-win, which prompted a discussion of whether political figures can be legitimate front men for scientific topics, then moving to international news, looking at why the Armenian genocide bill was causing hubbub, to the philosophy questions raised by torture in Iraq, and finally to the presidential race. At this point I think I ended up going on for about forty-five minutes as we headed off in search of the noctillion busses, overshot our destination to the Louvre, and circled back to Chatelet. This is what I get for having half a dozen different election podcasts in my subscription list. We managed to get Freya onto her bus, but then Tony couldn’t figure out how to get back, so I split a cab with him, after crossing back over the Left Bank to find one that would actually go south.

Saturday was Salinger, class reading, and the rugby match, and then today has mostly been spent preparing for another midterm. It’ll be the last one for France and the EU, so that’s an upside at least. Only I’ll have to write another on Tuesday for Law- and Decision-Making in the EU. But classes have been going well.

I think that’s about it. Let’s see if Glen Gould and the Goldberg Variations will help me concentrate through the remainder of this chapter. Sorry this installment has been so unillustrated. I've been forgetting my camera when things get intersesting.

Night.

The quotation is Twain's, by the way.

Comments

So I hadn't realized comments had been restricted before. They're now open without any registration. Not that this is begging for more or anything.

Weeks Four and Five: Belgium and Friends

So what have I been up to? A lot. It’s been almost two weeks since the last real update. Both of them seem to have flown by. This is the end of week five, bringing us officially to the one-third mark. Apologies for the wait, also. I’ll add another entry on the French or something to make up for it later this weekend.

So, what I can remember for the week four recap? Monday we spent French class scavenging Montmartre, the neighborhood of Paris famous for its artists, cafes, and hills. Since the scavenger hunt didn’t count for much, we found the bits that interested us then grabbed lunch in order to have time for review before our midterm later that day. (A note: this was my first midterm and it fell on the same day that began the quarter back at Northwestern. I feel it was my glimpse into life at normal schools.) The midterm was in France and the EU and focused on the point that Professor Loriaux seems to have made it his mission to drive home to us: that the French state is the backbone of France. This was the repeated topic of every class leading to that point. The upside, of course, was that this made it fairly easy to prepare for the midterm. So, because I had basically assumed the question ahead of time, I also had an essay planned out, threw in a bit of extended metaphor that managed to include Athena and Pygmalion, and had it over without much pain. And it sounds like I ended up with a much more organized paper than many other people to whom I talked. I don’t remember doing anything the following Tuesday (aside from class), but that’s probably because I didn’t, because it rained. This week marked the beginning of a solid ten-day period of non-stop rain. Which led to listening to lots of Tom Waits, The Smiths, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Billy Budd and covers of Randy Newman (I like his songs, just not when he sings them).

On Wednesday Lindsay arrived from Toulouse with her program for their stay in Paris. I met up with them briefly in between events at a café. Thursday was more class, and the discovery that when my professor says debate, it really only means student-led discussion. That evening I met up with Lindsay & Co. at the Eiffel Tower, where I finally went up. I had been waiting for someone to come to town to do so, since everyone wants to anyway and it’s always more fun with friends. It’s actually a lot of fun, even if it is the most touristy thing you can do in Paris. And that heights thing that used to bug me seems to have gone away. Paris is very interesting to observe from up high. The city’s layout is a mess, streets packed in every which way, not at all the clean grid of other cities, so from above it’s a fascinating sprawl of lights and buildings. We managed to pick out the notable buildings without using the maps and then decided to call our families from the top. I left a message, which it turns out cut off, leaving only the bit where I announced where I was. (Click to enlarge images).



Friday was another day trip, this time to Giverny, home of Claude Monet (not Jean Monnet, see below). It was raining, so the gardens were probably a lot less picturesque that they normally are, but the lake and stream where he painted the famous bridge and water lilies were beautiful. (Fun fact, my roommate Matt has this painting on a fleece blanket we keep on our wall.) Went back to the Louvre for the second week in a row that night, this time with John, and saw the Venus de Milo, which I had managed to miss last time. We also found the Starbucks in the Louvre. I should probably track down that picture of me in front of it, seeing as it’s become my American comfort food of choice while I’m here.



Spent Saturday wandering Paris with Lindsay. We began at the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, which has great stained glass, on the steps watched a show that made me scared of clowns again, and walked down to see the Moulin Rouge. Sad to report, there are no giant elephant apartments. Colorful neighborhood – a bit like a pre-Guiliani 42nd Street. Took the metro from there down to the Île de la Cité, and then wandered the Fifth and Sixth. The Indian restaurants here have all been good so far, even if they do tend to bland down the spices. Actually the French don’t seem to do spices so much. Priyanka called just as we were finishing up, so we met her for a bit before we all had to take off.



Week five began with the Brussels trip. We left Monday morning and came back Tuesday evening. The train was easy enough, even if I just barely made it there in time to leave. (Note: The lines at ticket machines on the first of the month are much longer than should be expected.) Read some Bret Easton Ellis for a bit, then when I switched over to my Jasper Fforde audiobook I fell asleep pretty quickly (no fault of the book). We arrived at the Central Station, dropped our things off at the hotel (somewhat reminiscent of Swansea’s Dolphin, but without skeleton keys) and wandered for a bit. Found the Central Square and sampled waffles. Then it was back to the hotel to meet the rest of the group (half of us had gone to Amsterdam for the weekend and arrived from there). I hadn’t even thought to bring an umbrella with me, so everything in Brussels has taken place trying to stay under other people’s. The bulk of the day’s time was spent at NATO (or OTAN for our friends who put the adjectives last). We had three two-hour lectures from various staff, focusing on NATO organization, missions, and post-Cold War transformation. Really very interesting, informative, and may play into paper topic ideas for one of my classes. The really fun part, though, was the swag (Note: The promotional merchandise they gave out). It was one of those lucky days when my irresponsibility was rewarded and, lacking my own, I was given a NATO umbrella, in addition to the standard hat, notepads, pens, and booklets.

Tuesday we visited the European Commission, also housed in Brussels. Something I realized visiting these places, looking at the city beyond the historic square: Brussels isn’t a terribly attractive or interesting city. I wonder how public opinion would react towards the EU had it been headquartered in Nice, for instance. The Commission was a good visit. We again had a series of presentations: EU/Commission Structure, US-EU Relations, and Eurozone Development. These corresponded well with the material we have been covering in Professors Grossman and Saraceno’s classes. Here, we received only folders and tote bags, useful though not quite as fun as that NATO umbrella. The Commission gave us a nice lunch, too. After the visit we had time to grab dinner and then met the train back to Paris.



It’s finally stopped raining since we got back, and while this is generally a good thing, I am a little disappointed I don’t have the chance to use the umbrella. I’m a little obsessed with it; it’s a really nice umbrella. Classes finished up the week well, including the very interesting Fed-ECB comparison (inflation and growth objectives) we looked at today with Saraceno.

And it’s somehow the weekend again. I suppose this week feels like it never happened since we spent half of it in Belgium. Looking forward to getting together with Priyanka as well as the Tony, Gracie, Garret group, since I haven’t seen them since they got back from Normandy, and getting them to all meet each other.. I think there are also some special citywide events this weekend in addition to first-Sunday-of-the-month free museums. And the down time will let me watch American TV (sorry Mom, I know this causes you pain). Yet another reason the internet is great. There are all these sites that stream every show you can think of, so it lets me feel a little less cut off from that half of the world. And, c’mon, it’s premier season – how else am I supposed to know what to get TiVo-ed? And you can’t say I’m not keeping busy or reading (back down to being the middle of three books).

So until next time. And the whole album as linked below: http://northwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2095542&l=569c8&id=2411663


Une parapluie, mais pas de Cherbourg.

Mea Culpa

I'm sorry. I've been remiss and didn't update this past weekend. But I just got back from two days in Brussels and offer up pictures until I have time to put together some thoughts on the last week and a half.

The pictures:
http://northwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2095542&l=569c8&id=2411663

The short version of the trip: It rained a great deal in Brussels, so NATO gave me an umbrella.

I went to the Louvre two nights ago. It’s free for students every Friday evening. It’s a really incredible museum. I love the Art Institute in downtown Chicago, but the sheer size of this place just lets them show off so much of their collection. You’ve got rooms with paintings stacked three high on the wall. As far as the famous ones go, it’s true what everyone says about the Mona Lisa (la Joconde for the French). It’s small, you’re back way too far from the painting, it’s behind a few inches of glass, you can’t see any of the interesting detail in the brushstrokes, and the crowds are a pain in the ass. And I also have to say I totally underestimated Chris. That painting on the opposite wall is the most impressive thing. The Madonna of the Rocks (or Virgin on the Rocks, as Gracie called it) is a much better example of daVinci, though there are many others I love more than him. That Italians Hall also manages to have like eight different paintings of St. Sebastian. But I guess everyone loves a martyr shot full of arrows. The Delacriox of Victory on the barricades is great. The Goya ink and watercolors in the special show were fantastic. And surprisingly funny. They have two Vermeers, both smaller than you expect, because you (meaning, of course, I) forget that you had read that about them years ago. One looks nothing like a Vermeer, the other pulls out all the classic Vermeer light tricks. The Richelieu wing, where the North European painters are, increases its impressiveness by surrounding an interior sculpture garden. The exterior of the museum at night might even be better than the exterior while the sun is setting. And of course, there’s a new facebook album for it.


(Click to enlarge)

I've always had this habit of running into poeple I know in the most unlikely places. Like old friends from high school at a crosswalk in midtown. That really hasn't changed at all here. Wednesday, after class, I had lots of free time to kill, so I decided it would be a good time to finally check out Shakespeare and Co., the famous English bookstore. (It's really great, by the way. The upper floor is set up like a small apartment with cots and typewriters and walls full of books for reference.) I'm browsing one of their outside displays when who should find me there, but Tony's girlfriend Anna. Turns out that they had also decided to go visit. So we, along with a high school friend of Anna's, ended up spending the afternoon wandering around. Then Friday, at the Louvre, Garrett and I manage to run into half a dozen NU students from the IES Nantes program, visiting Paris for the weekend, and while talking to them are discovered by another four or five kids from my program. So you end up with a dozen Northwestern students all congregated in a hall of the museum by chance. Small world.



This city certainly has its moments. When you’re walking through the middle of the city and suddenly catch a glimpse of the illuminated Eiffel Tower from across the Seine, it’s a little magical. And the Tower itself, while it looks unexpectedly small from far away, is really impressive when you get under it. I’ll have to go up at some point, though I’m going to have to go with someone so they can force me into those awfully precariously suspended elevators. And just to be able to wander around and find yourself walking past Notre Dame. As, I think, Tony said last week, no wonder they were all so religious. You get some farmer in from his provincial little town, show him that, and think he’s not going to accept the idea of divine power?



And of course, the full album:
http://northwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2094482&l=63ae8&id=2411663

Week Three Begins

Another week has gone by. I'm starting to fall into routine now: classes, heading back to the apartment to take care of reading and other work, meeting up with friends a few evenings a week. That was the pattern this past week progressed along, culminating Friday with a trip to the house of Jean Monnet. Jean (and not Claude) Monnet is the "father of Europe." By laying the conceptual framework for a coal and steel community between France and Germany in 1949, his work led to the implementation and adoption of the ECSC, which paved the first steps towards a European economic community and, by extension, the EU.

Monnet was born in Cognac, France, son of a brandy merchant. Leaving school in his late teen years, his father sent him abroad to act as a liaison with their foreign clients, advising as he left to take no books, but look out the window and talk to people. The advisibility of that as a whole I might debate, but his business contacts helped him to become an important figure in the coordination of British and French shipping during World War I, and later parlaying that success into the number two spot at the League of Nations. But it was his proposal, presented in the Schumann Declaration (Robert Schumann, statesman, rather than Robert Schumann, composer) that sealed his fame. Fame being a relative term: when his ashes were moved to the Panteon in 1989, a minority of Frenchmen could actually identify him.

The Jean Monnet house (click to enlarge):


Caught more rugby on Saturday, Ireland against Georgia, which Ireland barely managed to pull out. There's another student doing her homestay in John's apartment, a senior from SMU, and John wanted us to meet her and some of her friends. Fun to meet even more new people.

Sunday (and actually Saturday as well, but I didn't find out until Sunday) was a Journée de la Patrimoine, a day on which all the museums, monuments, and government buildings in Paris are open and free to the public. We thought we'd look in on the Presidential residence, but the line outside looked to be a good six-hour wait, so we decided we could make better use of our time and headed south to the Luxembourg Gardens. There we were able to walk directly into the Senate tour. The Senate is housed in the Palace de Medicis, built by Marie de Medicis. Consequently, their official rooms must be among the most ornate used by a government. They even have a gold-leaf room. A gold-leaf room, but no power. In fact, the French Senate is a relatively weak body of their legislature, mostly a dumping ground for old statesmen who can continue to receive the perks of running things without taking on too much burden themselves.

The Senate chamber:


After this, we grabbed some lunch and walked to Les Invalides, where Napoleon's tomb is housed. It was original built as the first element of France's ever-expanding social entitlement programs, a hospital for wounded veterans. The first piece of France's ever-expanding social welfare system. Donc, Les Invalides now house the tomb of Napoleon. Impressive in both size and intricate mural work, Joesephine as well as the WWI French General Foch rest there as well. Attached to the main building, in the Hôtel des Invalides is the Museum of the Army, of which the World Wars wing was all we were able to make it through before the day's walking got to us all.

Les Invalides:


I'll perhaps write about my experiences with food tomorrow, but for now, here's the rest of the set:
http://northwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2093807&l=feb1e&id=2411663

"They're all about duty. And it's from Pinafore."

The Normandy Weekend

So this past weekend was our group trip to fine and fair Normandy. I'm sure it was designed as a group bonding exercise, and was pretty effective as such.
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Friday:

Wake up at 5:30, meet the bus in front of the Opera Garnier at 7:00. Sleep for half the hour-and-a-half bus ride, start reading Brideshead Revisited for the rest. First stop, the World War II memorial museum in Caen. Several interesting artifacts in the museum, including a shelf of bullet hole-ridden books, some tacky Mao merch, and the tanks. Didn't necessarily add much to my knowledge, but a good start to the trip.

The Germany cemetery was next. With all the war dead in France, it was created to burry those who were not returned to Germany, and is maintained by an international foundation that enlists young people to work on sites like this as a way of promoting international cooperation. The statues looked extremely, imposingly German. Strange to think that this yard was full of soldiers who were probably younger than me, and who likely had little choice or real knowledge of what they were getting into.


Point du Hoc, where Americans scaled the cliffs to disable a series of Germany gun emplacements that guarded the coast. This part of Normandy is a land where the terrain was created mostly by bombings evidently. On the whole, actually, Normandy reminded me a great deal of Ohio, only less gray. I was glad not to have matching bright orange hats like one tour group.


Omaha Beach, where you wouldn't know its history were it not for the monument up the hill. Expansive coast line, not particularly looking like a swimming area, but showing no signs of D-Day.


Finally, the last of our monuments was the American Cemetery, which looked like Arlington transplanted. The same long, symmetrical rows of white markers. This is evidently American territory.


We spent the night in Caen, at a hotel that was much nicer than everyone had expected. Went out with some friends in search of dinner, then met up with another group who had sampled local dishes. Went out to watch the first game of the Rugby Cup, in which France was painfully defeated by Argentina. Knew little of the game, but understood the action well by the end.
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Saturday:

Left Caen around 9:30, after a large breakfast of croissants and coffee at the hotel. Drove an hour to Honfluer, a small extremely picturesque seaside town. The streets near the harbor were filled with an open-air market that we wandered through for a while. Took a look through the winding, narrow side streets, then had mussels for lunch. Very tasty.


Drove next to Deauville, another seaside town, though this one leans more towards the beach-resort side. Spent two or three hours at the beach, swam in the Atlantic, played soccer. Then we walked through the town, past an American Film Festival that was wrapping up (though there was only a Ben Stiller film being promoted at this point). A nice, relaxing afternoon, and I definitely got some sun. My nose is finally starting to fade from red.


Tony and Gracie had gotten to Paris late on Friday night, so I met up with them and their friend Garrett, also from Northwestern, after we got back. We wandered through the city, amazed by Notre Dame at night.

Sunday was mostly spent taking care of reading for today's classes, on the systematization of the French language, the legal organization, and history from the Revolution through the First World War. Long classes today, but nothing tomorrow morning.

I was sad to see that Madeleine L'Engel had died. The Wrinkle in Time series was one of those landmarks of my childhood. Goodbye, Meg. This past year has been terrible for the greats: Vonnegut, Sills, Bergman, and now L'Engel (along with many other I'm sure I am forgetting).

For the rest of the weekend's pictures: http://northwestern.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2092769&l=fea69&id=2411663

Pictures

So, as promised, pictures. I finally set up my wireless at school, so that should make life easier now.

I'm too lazy to actually copy them over, but everyone should be able to get into this album on facebook:
My first few days in Paris

Off to Normady tomorrow morning to spend Friday and Saturday there, seeing the beaches of World War II and some towns. It's pretty much a group bonding trip, and looks like it should be fun. My battery is going, so more when I get back.

So no pictures, but one of my journal entries instead

Found some more wireless at a McDonalds and, though I had to buy a milkshake to get it, thought updates would be good. I will hopefully have my Sciences Po wireless set up tomorrow, now that someone else has figured it out, and then I can do even more. These free WiFi places I've found so far limit you to 30 minutes, so that's been a pain.

A note on the food here. It's no wonder the Europeans are skinnier than Americans (something I was thinking about after reading that Times piece today). The food is overpriced and the portions are small. Which, yes, is probably better for you, but is kind of a pain every time you get your bill.

Ok, so you don't actually get pictures today since it seems the McDonalds WiFi doens't want to upload them in anything close to a reasonable speed. So instead, an update from yesterday, and today was just class and buying a phone, so not too much interesting there. It's overcast and I've got to head back for dinner soon. I've been trying to keep fairly deatiled track of what I've been doing, just to have something to read through in a few years.

TUESDAY:
So I again had trouble falling asleep. But I managed to drag myself from bed in time to arrive at school for my French placement test. It has been a long time since I’ve done more than stumble my way through a few simple sentences in French, but I was surprised to see how much came back. It certainly wasn’t brilliant; sloppy with the more complex tenses and moods, and my essay was more on the simple side, but nice that it comes back with some prodding.
First Lawmaking and Policy-making class today. The professor, German, seems energetic and knowledgeable, as one would hope. The discussion helped to straighten out some basic organizational points I had begun to glean from the text, but was missing the big picture on. The EU group seemed, during that class, to have established some level of camaraderie. I have my first project now, too. I will have to present on the role of the Czech Republic in the EU, what that represents being a newer member, a former communist nation, and hopefully I can tie in some of what I have been reading more recently about its push to be a champion for human rights. After, I ended up with the same people from yesterday, so perhaps that is beginning to develop into a bit of a group. Failed to get the wireless set up, since we had no idea what we were doing and Lucie was having some issue on her computer, trying to get us the client or whatever it was we needed on ours. But I got to check my email quickly, so that was good, just to make sure nothing major had happened while I was out of touch.
Walked all over the area north of the Louvre today. Up to the Opera and the Bank. We found a little street market where we got crepes. I will, at some point, have to buy food besides those. Found a small coffee place with free WiFi, so I was able to respond to some email, post some pictures, and promise more to come.
So it's not just me, after all, when it comes to Chicago. I always complain how it doesn’t make sense to me as a city. I’m surprised how quickly Paris is starting to make sense to me. I can already get myself to places, know relative locations, and am beginning to put together ideas of the different neighborhoods’ characters.
Failure trying to buy a phone. The store did not have any Orange phones (the main mobile company and the cheapest), and the others were more expensive, so I decided to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully, I can get my internet issues straightened out then as well. Successful at doing all this in French, since the clerk didn't speak English and therefore automatically switch when he heard me speaking French like so many of them seem to.
Today’s wanderings were less directed towards specific sightseeing, but were nonetheless interesting and good time spent with the others.
Between waking up earlier and walking for at least four hours after class, I’m feeling rather exhausted tonight. I will probably eat, go over my reading, find a book for a bit, listen to some music, then go to bed.
Fish for dinner. And potatoes (again). Very good though. Talked with Mme Lancelot for a while while we ate. Her husband was a doctor and they lived in Africa for a while, years ago. Good practice for my French.

I Am In Paris

Got into Paris Saturday afternoon after flying for hours, delays, sitting on runways, and a little sleep. I've been doing lots of wandering, walking around to different sights. Taking lots of pictures. I'll upload more once I've got better internet. I'm at a coffee place right now, using half an hour of free WiFi. These are just some highglights, since the pictures are taking forever to upload. Anway,

First view of the Eiffel Tower as we drove in from the Airport.


Louvre and Pyramid during sunset last night.


Eiffel Tower last night. There much better ones than this in my set, but this is a nice full view.


Again, I'll update more when I'm not racing against my connection.

Also, just noticed the unfortunate fact that in the address "Un Americain" looks like "Un-American". Whoops.