I always breathe a sigh of relief come Thursday, which is funny since Thursdays used to be my least favorite day of the week as a child and were often a source of stress back at school in Canada. Now, I can practically taste the weekend, and look forward to getting to class and getting through them, to the point that I often get comments on my good mood on Thursdays. Thursday, April 1st was like a number of others that I've described, beginning with yet another invogorating session at the pool. I am so glad I signed up for swimming this term, and today it was great to talk to Rook, my sport and politics teacher afterwards. She's really cool and this is the closest I have ever come to know a professor and I really like it. This year, I really feel that I have gotten to know my profs way more than in previous years. The value of small classes has really shone through. I had a test in Vichy at the end of the day that I think I killed, and was in a generally great mood since I found out my previous week's expose garnered me my best mark yet at Sciences Po, an 18! Great results motivate me to keep up the good work and validates my decision to lighten my course load. I celebrated after class with Daniel by what's become a bit of a weekly tradition with a beer at Le Basile. After nipping home for dinner, it was off to St Michel area for a Jazz night that I had planned at a well known bar called Caveau des Oubliettes. I really wanted to link my various scattered friend groups, and this term the people remaining are less keen on the initiative of this type of soiree. I'm so glad I did it, and it was a great night of chatting and enjoying the live music with Eva, Annie, Lauren B, Poullette and Pedro. Its often easy to lose touch with periphery friends, but its always worth the effort to get together, and learn a little more about people and in general just catch up. I highlight this because afterwards I walked Poullette back home near Sc Po, and this was the first time we had ever really chatted just the two of us, and it was so nice getting the share the fresh night air, and our reflections on Paris and life together. Had I not taken the time to send the message proposing this jazz night, I would have missed this opportunity. Action over inaction.
Though Thursday's jazz didn't lead to a late night by any means, I still had a tough time dragging myself out of bed and to Sciences Po for 10am to stand in line for a ticket to the upcoming Sc Po Gala at the end of the month. I had wavered earlier about wanting to pay the 35 euro, but in the end, I am so glad people convinced me to get a ticket, and I think it will be a great night. There was no chance to waver, since tickets sold out in about 2 hours! Afterwards, I spent most of the day studying in the library for the first time ever on a Friday, and was so incredibly productive and pleased with myself that I think I might even come again another Friday morning. I took a break to go for lunch with Corina, which is always a welcome reunion. I really value how we try and coordinate it at least once a week to get together since we, especially she, is so swamped with work. When you're far away, the family of friends is so important, and I really want to see this family that plays such an important part in my life for such a brief time as much as possible. In the evening, I had a brief skype call with an advisor for ACE getting some more details about the co-chair position. I think this overseeing position will suit me very well, and am really excited about the prospects of my final year back at UBC. I also got to chat with Vince for a while and he recounted the week's storm the wall drama. I have realized how exceptional this event is and I have missed being a part of the action, and racing with my team Ultimate Altitude this year. Its interesting how you can not want to leave one place yet miss another at the same time. Finally, I headed to Annie's to pre-drink before we went to a concert series called Night in Berlin at Gaite Lyrique with Milena and two new friends Jess and Annika. The building itself was huge and cool, though in the end the concert itself was just ok, with some good music acts. More importantly though Annie and I got into a really great heart to heart. Talking to good friends really opens you up and helps see things clearly, and was it was a funny contrast to be pouring out our hearts in this clubbing experience. A velib ride home and bed by 3:30.
Despite this late bedtime, I managed to be up at 9 with a smile on my face since I was heading to Fontainebleau for the day! This was a much anticipated chateau expedition, embarked upon with Annie, Tom, David, Camila and Ilona. We arrived at the chateau around 11:30 and grabbed some lunch from a boulangerie before beginning to explore the grounds, which were expansive. I love venturing out of Paris and getting into wide open fields, clear of the crowds. You can finally breath. Of course, the fact it was 24 and sunny was a nice added touch. We frolicked in the fields, did cartwheels, jumping pictures, and general photo antics, and the photo session was amazing, though sadly my camera battery died way too early on. Eventually we headed back to town for refreshments and then onto the interior of the chateau. It was huge, and I loved the regal atmosphere thats overwhelming in the courtyard and walking through the corridors and past the rooms. It was interesting to see how in this chateau, even the walls were covered in carpet, or hidden under too many paintings. In general, I find the 18th and 19th century French chateaus to be somewhat overwhelming in their decor, to the point of seeming tacky. Of course I know it was simply the display of wealth back in the day. My favorite rooms were the hall of Francis I, the main ballroom, where you can see the stage where the King and Queen sat, and the abdicating room, where Napoleon I signed his abdication on a small coffee table in 1814 before going into the courtyard to announce the news to his troops. My keener history face sure was getting a workout. After some fresh air overlooking the pond/lake out in the English gardens, we made the journey back to Paris, which seemed incredibly long, though only just over an hour when all said and done. It truly was a great day, and I even got a small sunburn!
Horsing around in a open field.
Inside Chateau Fontainebleau with the crew.Finally home and a yummy pasta dinner later, the whole group ended up coming over to mine to watch a movie, taking advantage of the fact Etienne was in Bretagne for the weekend. I love having a great tv since it means I don't have to go anywhere for movie night. Its ideal. We watched In Bruges, which was both hilarious and a little dark, and has definitely made me want to try and fit it in at some point before I go back. The medieval streets just seemed so charming. Annie and Camila even stayed for a sleepover, which was fun as we all stayed up late gossiping like school girls. Good fun.
Waking up at the same time, no matter how much sleep you got the night before, gets easier with consistency. I headed to the local Convention market with Camila on Sunday to grab some goodies for a planned family brunch at noon. I realized how fortunate it is that sucha diverse array of scrumptious local farm goods is a just right across the street from my house every week. After the groceries were fetched, Annie and I got into our kitchen groove as Camila and the other guests helped with some other food prep as they arrived. In the end the table was creaking under the weight, and the happiness of over group was palpable. Try this brunch on for size: a dozen scrambled eggs, bacon, real English sausages, pancakes with real Maple syrup, hashbrowns, grapefruit juice, fresh baguette, pate de campagne, a trio of farm fresh cheeses, guacomole, strawberries, mango, oranges, bananas and apples! Needless the say we ate until Christmas dinner status of fullness. I love my exchange family and our diversity of nationalities, all brought together, taking time out of a study filled Sunday to enjoy great food together. It was truly a beautiful thing. Afterwards, I skyped the fam for a while, and then actually researched and started booking Tamara and mine's Euro trip for June. Having it finally all solidified was a great feeling, and I am super stoked for the Sagadore sisters to embark upon what will surely be an incredible adventure. Despite the afternoon clouds, thanks to Daylight savings, I got to squeeze in a run in the evening, worked on an upcoming expose due the next day and watched Coyote Ugly before bed. Another great day to add to year full of them.
Sunday Brunch with my Paris Family! Camila, Tom, David, Corina, Eva and Annie.I hate underestimating how long a task will take to be accomplished. Even though you think you've allowed yourself ample time, everything seems to take longer and you get caught rushing. This comment is inspired by the state of affairs on Monday as I scrambled to finish my expose for Russian politics. I thought I had it well under wraps on Sunday night, but somehow, condensing the Russian-Georgian War of 2008 into a 15min presentation was more time consuming than I had budgeted. I did get it done in time though, and overall thought the presentation went well in class. Pheww. Double cause for celebration as it was my last expose of my Sc Po career! Good riddance! Now I only have four term papers to look forward to, goody. I had a celebratory run afterwards anyways, and blogged and watched Entourage at night.
I know I have to really be proactive on these essays, since all four are due in 6 days. However, as all students know, it often seems next to impossible to motivate yourself to start and finish an assignment not sue for another 3 weeks to a month. Yet this was my challenge and I was determined to try and do what I have never been able to do before. I got off to a great start on Tuesday by sleeping in and essentially not accomplishing anything before noon when I let Daniel for a weekly Tuesday lunch. We started making concrete plans regarding a joint birthday party, since our birthdays are only a day apart (Daniel's is the 22nd of April). Back at ballroom, more prep got underway for our performance, this time on Quickstep. In the afternoon though, after a brownie to motivate be, I got my game face on and actually officially began researching for my first paper, which was on Russian Youth Identity in the Post Soviet period for Russian Politics. As I chose the topic myself, I was actually really interested, and the research went well. The hardest thing is to really getting the ball rolling, but once you do the momentum really helps. I ended up staying in the library until close to close, working on the blog. Like I said, this efficiency thing inspires me to be continually more productive. No sitting on the couch watching TV for this kid. Back at basecamp after the full day, I called OSAP about the neverending headache that has been my student loan and finished purchasing the tickets for the Sagadore trip!
Rollin, rollin, rollin! Hello library at 10am even though I don't have class until 12:30! That's right, back at the books researching for this essay. I think I'm largely motivated by fear of stress collapse if I don't do it now more than anything. I even packed a salad lunch earlier this morning and ate it in the garden before class. After Structures and Crises, I took and extra long walk along the Seine before yoga since it was a spectacular day outside, and had a great class to clear my mind. After, I ended up velibing home, and successfully negotiated my way thorough a busy 4pm Paris traffic circle at Concorde. Score! The reason for my early trip home was to prepare for my REC interview for the Point, which I had learned of on Monday. I really want to be on REC for both the social community that my friends who've joined have told me about and to get some experience working in journalism etc and could use some experience. I think the interview went well, though this one had some curve balls I didn't expect, like "why should I not hire you" and "what's the funniest joke you've ever heard?" All in all though, I think I gave it a good shot and now to wait and see if I'm two for two on interviews. As soon as it was done I made my way over to Pont des Arts to celebrate Ilona's birthday. I'm not a very good bridge sitter, but nevertheless you can't beat a nice night outside on the Pont and this night was no exception, especially since Ilona was completely overwhelmed by the huge crowd of people that turned up to pass along their wishes and enjoy 'un verre'.
Though Thursday swims, as I keep mentioning, are great, today's was extra memorable since I swam in the same lane and even talked to my pool crush. I found out his name is Felix, and we did the set together, chatted and he even gave me a high five at the end of practice. Omg. Haha I know its lame, but this brief flirtation in the week is nevertheless exciting. The day unfolded with some cleaning, and then a garden meeting with Ayuli to try and plan out a Roubaix trip on Sunday (more details later), followed by a group meeting for my Vichy group paper before class. After class, Daniel and I decided to venture a bit farther afield for our Thursday beer and ended up having a drink down a cool cobbled alley off Rue de L'Ancienne Comedie by Odeon. This street is one of the oldest remaining ones in Paris. I hardly need say we had a great chat over our beers. Just before 9, we went our seperate ways - for me this meant around the corner to a new Hideout (which I had in fact already been to but not the usual Chatelet one) for end of week drinks with Tom David and Annie. An altogether enjoyable time, being thoroughly entertained by the terrible music that was being broadcast. In the end I peeled off first around 11 to get an early night in anticipation of a big Friday.
I was feeling a little under the gun to get this paper done, and since I hadn't worked on it all Thursday, I was bringing my game face to the library at 9:30 on Friday - the earliest ever for a Friday! I decided to start it off at the garden tables out behind the old library. However, at this early hour, the sun hadn't quite warmed it up. I toughed it out for about an 90min before finding a beautiful Mac in the new lib for intense research session pt.2. By the time it hit 1:30 and my time to leave deadline, I had actually finished everything I had hoped to for that day, completing all my research and writing out my detailed plan so that all that remained was the physical writing. In the world of history papers, the hardest part was accomplished! Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled with my mad skills, and this buoyed my mood all afternoon. Feelin' like a champ.
I swung by Annie's to help her carry some things en route to Parc aux Buttes Chaumont, found in the North East of Paris. I had heard that this was one of Paris' best kept secrets as far as parks were concerned and so I killed two birds with one stone by checking it off my list of touristing things to do and also riding the 3bis metro line. Only one line remains and then I've been on all 16 Paris metro lines! Back to the Parc. We rendez-vous'ed with David and Camila and then went to find some grass to sit on and enjoy Pimms. Pimms is an English alcohol traditionally had chilled with sprite and fresh fruit as a summer beverage. Tom had brought a bottle back with him on his last trip back to London to give to David, and David, being the gentleman that he is, had graciously offered to share it with our crew over an afternoon of sunbathing. There we were, sitting on a hill in an incredible parc, drinking this very tasty drink, being serenaded by Tom on guitar in 25 degree whether. A fabulous reward for my hardwork all morning. After about an hour or so of sunning, we decided to explore the parc a bit further, and this excursion solidified its hold on my heart as by far my favorite parc in Paris. Unlike the famous ones of Tuileries and Luxembourg, this parc is untamed and natural, with trees and rolling hills, as well as featuring a pond/lake and cliff with the lookout temple of Sybil giving a view of Sacre Coeur in the 18th. There was also a cool waterfall feature. All in all, the visit to Buttes Chaumont was a smashing success on a fine spring day.
Getting our Pimms on.
The Temple of Sybil.The excursion left us all a bit drained of energy, and so Annie and I went home to make some delicious food - a vegetable cheese sauce bake. Soo yummy. We also had our first encounter with rancid meat, thank you MonoP. Hopefully I don't have to smell anything like that ever again. The homey food revived us, and around 9pm I started to get ready to meet Eva and Corina for a bit of dancing. We met at Champs Elysees and went to a friend of Corina's in her master for a bit of pre-gaming. I wasn't having anything to drink since I had bit plans for the following day regarding my essay. At around midnight we headed to a club just down the road called Regine's. Thanks to some printed passes we got in for free! Free things are great. The club itself can best be described by the French word "moche", which means ugly. It was kindof tacky, and the music, all pop from various decades, left a little to be desired, but surprisingly, we ended up having a great time just dancing. Eva, Corina and I are a fabulous dance crew. We stayed until a bit before 2 before calling it a night. Best part: 0 euros spent! Now that is student budget effectiveness. I had a nice velib ride home and was in bed by 3. P.S. I have also already received 5 birthday cards this week - Thanks for all the love family!
Saturday = Essay champion. Nbd. (No big deal for those not so up on youth lingo). Basically I got up and got progressively more stoked as I finished writing my Russian politics essay on Youth Identity in one day. Probably one of the best essay writing streams ever. When it just flows out like that, I feel pretty clever, and elequent. Now if only my teacher, dear Gilles, agrees with me... To celebrate I went for a run and then despite initial plans to hit up champs de mars for some drinks, I stayed in and hung out with Etienne and Loic and enjoyed their jam sesh. I also got to hear about their SCANDALE weekend in Bretagne, including the "Ce n'est pas ta voiture story". Oh Loic.
26 and sunny! How many times do I have to reiterate how fabulous Paris has been in the spring. Early morning before going to check out the Paris marathon with Ayumi. The Paris marathon is one of the older ones in the world starting in 1986, but died out before a revival in 1936. Its now also one of the largest marathons in Europe with 37 000 racers. Arriving at Bastille just after 9, we watched people going by the 5km point before relocating to catch the leaders coming through at the 21k mark. We were a bit of a scene with the cheer factor, especially after we were given free 'clappers'. Very appreciated to give the hands a break. All my go to english phrases were nul, so we got creative. The best had to be "Bien jouer les mecs!". Thankfully we quickly picked up the more commonly used cheers of "Bravo" and "Aller". We also tried to read people's names on their bibs to add a personal touch to the cheers, however this largely failed since they print the names much to small to be read when people run by. At least Pascal appreciated our efforts.
The leaders coming through around an hour in.
Ayumi demonstrating proper clapper technique.
Flowering trellises on Promenade Plantee.As exciting as it is watching people run by, we decided had had our fill by 10:30 or so, and after watching Benjamin Kiptoo of Kenya take home the men's title in 2:06:31 and compatriot Rita Jeptoo take the women's crown in 2:22:52, we decided to do some exploring of the quartier. First up was going to Bastille market. The tomatoes purchased were some of the best I have ever had the pleasure of eating (second only to the ones from the organic farm in Bretagne). After strolling through the 11th, we walked along Promenade Plantee, an old elevated railway track that has been converted into a garden walkway. Its lovely to walk above the noise of the street and see the buildings and flowers. Ayumi and I had a lovely time chatting about spring travel plans and revelling in the fine weather before heading back to mine for some lunch.
The afternoon featured some Paris-Roubaix action on my big screen. Unfortunately we were not able to secure a car and take in the race, so we settled for the marathon and then race watching in the end. I was glad how it worked out in the end. It was jokes how we had the French video playing on the tv, but then ended up streaming english commentary from my laptop connected to the speakers. Sadly, instead of my beloved Paul Sherwin and Phil Liggett, we had to settle for some crap commentators, who spoke at about a 40sec delay. Naturally when shit went down and then the commentators freaked out well after we had seen the accident, it was quite entertaining. It was a pretty exciting race, with my fave big Tom Boonen having some terrible luck, while Cancellera and Thor Hushovd were being silly and ended up sucking. A nobody, Johan Vansummeren of Garmin-Cervelo won. He was such a dear, and a massive stick rider at 6'5. Its nice to see a domestique like him have the chance to have the ride of their life and take home the most prestigious race in classics one-day cycling. Cancellera pulled it together and showed why he is a powerhouse to take second. All in all an exciting race, and great to get to watch at a reasonable time.
In the evening I went for a run (I had to get out and burn some calories after watching all those athletics all day). I was loving the weather so much that I even ventured back outside at night to do some readings by the church around the corner from my apartment. After some distractions at night, I settled down to dinner and entourage. A weekend with a little bit of everything!
P.S. I have been a little distracted and so this post has been written ever so slowly over the course of this month. My bad. Good thing I have loyal notes to keep me straight.
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