So I just cooked myself some dinner... and let's just say I am def no Julia child yet... but learning to live and cook on my own in a different country with different grocery stores and stuff like that has been quite interesting that is for sure. I am a pro at cooking noodles... and rice... and crepes actually. But so far that is adventurous as I have gotten... I am always taking suggestions of easy cheap things to cook if anyone has any suggestions! To explain some of the pics below... the one all the way at the bottom is a pic of some people working hard at IFE... the next one up is a picture of the building i am living in. If you can see the room with the colorful curtains that one is mine! Then the next one is my little neighbor hood and the other two are Sacre Coeur and the view from the steps. So there. I will put up more with this post of La Defense and some other things.
But last weekend was a blur... on Friday night I went out to an Australian bar called Cafe OZ with my new friends... which was really fun, and I got to know them better. They are all really fun, good people and I can't wait to spend the rest of the semester getting to know them. In fact in a little while I think we might go have dessert at a cafe or something. But I am not sure yet. Tomorrow starts the first of our three day weekends which is awesome! We also have plans to go to some discotech on a boat tomorrow... which I promise to write about after the fact.
Last Sunday was an interesting day as well. Matt and I tried to go to the library. Which doesn't sound all that hard right? Well what I learned from the experience was don't assume that you know how things work in a different country. They are liable to be very different, and even if you ask people to explain them to you, they leave out major details that they think are so obvious that they don't need to explain them. (Ie...where are the books?) But one can't just go into an library and ask... "where are the books" because you will look like an idiot. Even though that is really exactly what I needed to do. Needless to say I didn't want to pay 3.30 euro to try and figure out what it meant when the side said that the rooms were full, and I did not have documents proving that I was a Doctorate student. So in two words our attempt to go to the library can best be summed up by: Epic Fail.
But later I decided that is why they invented the internet right? Anyway I asked about it at IFE on Monday and they explained it all. Now I know what to do if I want to go to the library. And if you want to know... just ask :) But it was a good lesson in realizing that sometimes when you are someplace different you have to relearn how to do things that at home are so easy, if just because they are different. Anyway I took it as a life lesson, what else was there to do? And I got a really good crepe with sugar out of the deal from a stand near the library, which almost made the whole ordeal worthwhile.
I can't believe how quickly this week flew by at IFE. My classes are good, and anyone who has been following me on Twitter knows that I had an expose this week which I did today. But I will get to that in a minute. As far as my classes go, This week and last week were about the development of the Modern french state, which was right up my ally. Even though 3.5 hours in the morning is a long time to spend in class all in french, it def improved my listen comprehension, and I really enjoyed it. My prof was great, and very willing to answer any questions that we had. Today was our last day with him, we have a new prof on Monday, which will be fine, but I really liked him.
Now about my expose... first of all my prof in the afternoon has really loosened up. I like him much more now. Yesterday, wednesday, I tried to explain the concept of it being 'hump'day. Which led to a 15 minute discussion which was hilarious. Needless to say, the concept doesn't translate very well! But it was funny! But I had an expose on the memory of colonization in french society... which is exactly what I came here to study and understand. Thus my research that I did was really cool and interesting. There is this strange silence surrounding the whole thing, and a large debate about what will be taught in schools to kids. But the most interesting thing to me, is the fact that France is the only European country that does not have a museum to commemorate their colonial exploits. They have not done a a very good job incorporating the memory of colonization into their history, nor have the done a very good job incorporating their citizens who are the children of people who immigrated from the colonies. I am really glad I did this project, even though it was large and kinda scary! But I gave the presentation today, and it went much better than I though it would, even though I was kind of rambling on about colonialism at points. But in the end he only corrected me on two grammar points and I have other presentations to give, so if this one didn't go super well that is ok.
Next weekend I am off to visit Mac and Anne which I can't wait for! I am going to see their wonderful kids and spend a weekend in the country! I just can't wait. Ok now I am going to upload some pic with this post too, and i might have to do one more to get the last of the pics up.
So the pics are of the arch at La Defense... and of the Efiel tower, since I have to prove that I am really in France! I will write again this weekend about the boating discotech experience, and I will try not to get a week behind again! I resolved to write 2-3 times a week, and I want to keep up with it!
A bientot!
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