Forgive me followers (if there are any regulars) for I have neglected you. In my defense, the past few weeks have been incredibly busy (surprise surprise). I know, normally I am known for my vegetative state and never undertaking practically more than I can handle, but with less than a year here in Paris and Europe, I occasionally pack the itinerary a little full. Believe me when I say, however, that each time I think of the blog and what a slacker I am, I feel a tinge of guilt. Fear not, for this post marks the first step towards my recovery.
Last time we chatted I had just returned from the most fabulous weekend in London with Annie and Christie on Tuesday morning and hopped fully into the swing of things by heading to salsa and history of fashion. It was also on this Tuesday that I learned in my idiocy, I had written my french essay on the wrong topic, and that I would have to submit a detailled essay plan on the correct one as soon as possible, while my first essay would be counted as extra credit. Lucky me. Got that out of the way by Thursday morning, and it ended up doing well so I can live with that.
The week was rolling along quickly, but a few cool things did arise at Sciences Po. The first was a guest lecturer in my History of Chile course. Patricio Guzman, a international prize winning documentary maker came to class to discuss his films and violence and memory in Chile during and after the Dictatorship. It was very very interesting, and I continually impressed by the number of reknowned Chileans our professor has brought to class. It really does enrich the learning experience. And yes, apparently I am a huge geek. (I know that this might come as a huge shock...)
Continuing on this geeky trend, that evening I attended the Grand Final of the 1st annual Transatlantic debate being held a Sciences Po. Among the participating schools were Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Princeton and a joint delegation of Sciences Po and Ecole Polytechnique. The debate topic was "Should Obama care about Europe", a face off between Yale and the French coalition. The resulting debate was very entertaining, as the French team, defending the position that Obama should not care, obviously had the tougher side and thus resulted to very entertaining metaphors of the United States and European relationship. The style of debating between the two teams was evident, with the French debators favouring, humour, slow careful arguments, while the US delegates rattled away and spoke a whirlwind a minute. While good points were made on both sides, the victory went to the Yale team. This was my first experience truly watching university debating and I really enjoyed myself. Before, I had been quite unaware of the debating world, but this exposure made debating seem 'cool'. I might just look into it upon my return to UBC. Who knows.
By the time Friday hit, I was pretty tired, but managed to finally accomplish some errands that had been on my to do list for about a month and meet my partner for expose for French on Tuesday so I was feeling like a champ. In the evening I had a very needed movie night at home with Nadir and Etienne, Garden State (which is such a great movie if you haven't seen it). A relaxed day Saturday due to sheet of rain was also in order, and featured the most massive grocery mission ever by Etienne and I. That night, I lucked out on a scrumptious falafel dinner party at Timon's and ended up going to a bar/club in Montparnasse after with Timon, Boudewijn and his visiting twin brother Sebastian, all Dutch. The resulting night of dancing must definitely be counted among my most fun nights out this year. I also had the new experience of riding on the rear rack of a bicycle. This my first time on a bike in Paris, and being perched seemingly precariously on the back of a bicycle sans helmet at night riding through the city caused a few yelps of 'of dear lord'. However, it was incredibly fast and exhilarating and I not only accepted a second ride home at the end of the night, but also set in motion my application for a year long Velib pass (Paris' bike-lending system).
Despite my 4am bedtime, I was up at the reasonable hour of 11 on Sunday and got right to work. Not to brag, but I was a bit of a champ on the homework situation all day. I even managed to go for yet another swim.
Monday got off to a good start with putting the finishing touches on my expose, wrote my coup de coeur (short oral annecdote fro French language class) and discovered that I had an etude de texte on a French short story the next morning, so I was able to read it in advance. I got back my French Politics paper on the Lucie Aubrac memoir and got a 15! By Sciences Po standards, this is pretty darn good. Work is evaluated out of 20, but in reality, anything over 17 is unheard of. Of our class of 42, only 7 people got 15 to 17, so I was very satisfied with my efforts. I then headed over to Daniel's for an impromptu dinner with he and Karem, as we had both yet to visit his apartment in the 13th. This was great, until the end of the night when, on my metro ride home, my nose started running uncontrollably and my throat all of a sudden felt incredibly disgusting. I feared the worst - this was the worst possible week to fall ill with my Amsterdam trip coming up on Thursday morning. My worst fears were confirmed as I got home and finished up my work and got to bed.
Tuesday was death. I dragged myself through French class for my coup de coeur and expose, both of which I nailed before nearly dying in my French novel class. By noon I was so sick I skipped ballroom dance class (which was the hardest thing ever) and rushed straight home to hot soup, many cups of tea and a 3 and a 1/2 hour nap. I felt a bit refreshed after the nap and was able to make a hearty dinner to keep my strength up and proceeded to drink my body weight in tea and orange juice. I logged an 11 hour night of sleep and woke wednesday determined to get healthy before my departure. I napped, had a short shuffle jog to flush toxins and skipped dance. Did some homework for the next week and attended a short 1 hour play at this really cool theatre La Lucernaire with my French class. The play, le Gorille, was a rendition of Kafka, and was a critique of European attitudes of assimilation of foreigners. The actor was amazing, and I really enjoyed myself. It was also a great test for my French oral comprehension skills. Home to pack and another good night's sleep.
Up next - a recount of my fantastic weekend in Amsterdam!
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