Just another Sunday afternoon

Yum, space. Yum, cleanliness. Yum, books. Yum, movies. People are okay too.

I am loving how my Asian Cinema course, and my Litt course are forcing me to watch and read critically. There is so much to be learned.

I don't have any news today. I shall go to the evening service of church tonight. I am a bit sick and was unable to wake up this morning. I woke up in the middle of the night FREEZING cold and had to get a bunch more blankets. I hope I am not getting the flu or anything gross like that. I am seeing a doctor on Monday, but to get a medical certificate that says I am fit to play sports. Just another added pretty much redundant step to be able to join sports here. However, I cannot ask that doctor about my sickness... I have to see a different one. I am getting good at making circles here.

The weather is getting gross here again. Grey is so the new blue. Parisians and their sky don't like colour.

Volleyball

I was worried coming to Paris that I would not the normal dose of volleyball that I am used to, and that concern has become reality. However, not to the extent I thought. The school has an Association Sportif where students can choose from about 25 different sports ranging from horseback riding, fencing, Judo, chinese dancing, toVolleyball! I was tempted to try out one of the more obscure sports but I stuck with Volleyball and may venture to another one next semester if it fits my schedule. Since the summer volleyball has been destined to occupy my Friday nights.

The team here is great! There are about 40 girls who come out to play and then we are split into skill level. Being part of the competative group we will get to play every Thursday against other Grands Ecoles. The team is allowing me to meet non-international students here. It will also allow me to see some more of France in the spring. We will go away one weekend for intense training, and then another weekend to the Crit. The Crit the large Sciences-Po tournament that occurs in the Spring where all the campuses compete against each other. To pump up for this tournament our team will do more bonding activities as well as advertise our team. This years will be held in Lyon!

Practice time!

Lisa and I bought Louis Vuiton purses!

So the first day I met up with Lisa we met at the Arc de Triumph, walked down the Champs Elysees, and bought Louis Vuiton purses. Real, and nearly 500 Euros a peice. I would definatly not have done it had she not been there. That is not due to pressure, coaxing or flattering though, it was due to her ability to speak Mandarin.

We did not get to keep them though, and we did not use any money. I suppose we purse laundered, and I hope I don't get in trouble for saying that here. It was perhaps a bit risky since there are things we realized later that could have gone wrong, but it was a fun experience. I doubt I will have another opportunity to go and buy a purse from there again. Not that I would want to. We both thought the purses were not all that great and had a hard time pretending to be excited about buying them.

If you want more explanation, I'll send an email. Speaking of the internet, I finally ordered it for my studio. My comp stopped picking up wifi there so I am ordering a Neufbox through SFR. This will include internet, TV, and telephone. I will get(in about 2-3 weeks) unlimited calling to all French landlines and all phones in North America and many other places around the world, however, if I want to call a French cell phone it will still cost me between 0.19 and 0.40 Euro cents. Crazy!

Upcoming travel!

Hello,

So, I am a day early in announcing my upcoming travel. I have book flights to go to Berlin and then Stockholm during my November reading break. I will be spending 4.5 days in Berlin, and then 1.5 days in Stockholm.

I am seeing Berlin because I have always heard good things about the city, and Stockholm because I have a friend who will be there at that time, and it is actually cheaper (after taxes, service chargers, everything) to fly back to Paris through Stockholm.

I am flying to Berlin on EasyJet with the only concern being that I need to get to the airport at about 5 am somehow, and the metro doesn't start until 530 am. I have 2.5 weeks to figure out the night bus system though, and it was a lot cheaper to get this flight then one that got me there in the afternoon and would waste half my day.

I am then flying to Stockholm on Ryanair. The annoying thing about this airline is that is has its airports outside the city, but the shuttles aren't too expensive in Stockholm. My return flight cost me the equivalent of 12 Euros all fees included.

Now, I need to figure out accomodation in both cities. I will stay in a hostel in Stockholm most likely with my friend, but I am considering alternate options for Berlin (aka, friends of friends perhaps).

Other than that, things are going well in Paris!

Busy Busy Busy

What happened to me having no life in Paris? I do not know.
So much has gone on the last few days, and so much is yet to come.

School has picked up and I had my first expose (ex-pose-ay), aka an oral presentation, on the Korean film Memories of Murder (it is a really good film based on the first serial killings in South Korea). The teachers here are crazy about them. Every class requires you to do one. I have my second one next week (in French!) on renewable energy. Luckily I'm paired with a real French girl, so I should have some help with my grammatical issues.

This past week I missed Canadian Thanksgiving, but sported a super cool maple leaf fake tattoo on my hand in support. For the election day many Canadian students united at the great canadian pub to try and be at least a bit patriotic. Very few were able to vote. This I largely attribute to the short notice we had on the election. 5 weeks is not a lot of time for dealing with all the paper work. A few students received their ballot the day of the election which was useless.

My friend Neil, from Hornby Island is in town this week with a friend he is backpacking with. It is nice to see people from home. We played ultimate frisbee with the group from Sciences-Po and it felt great to run! This weekend a former co-worker of mine will be coming and I will spend some time with her perhaps visiting a museum, shopping, or seeing a show. Having tourists around gives me a good opportunity to get see things I haven't had a chance to thus far.

I am also trying to book tickets for my November break. It is proving difficult for me to decide where I want to go. I have until this weekend to decide, so come back by Monday to see the decision!

Homesick?

Family, where are you!? I have heard from noone for the past week!
This week was my first week spent entirely at my studio in Paris. With this time to slow down and get focused on school I once again have come to the realization that I do not know what I want to major in! Browsing graduation requirements is something I should only do when in the presence of a hire professional who can consol me after :P.

Everyone in Vancouver sounds like they are getting very busy with school themselves, all preparing for midterms. This is only my third week of school and is only just starting to get intense. I therefore seem to have a lot more time to contact them then they do to me. At least, I shall believe that in order not to be sad by the lack of contact. I am very thankful for the notes people wrote me before I left, which I look at when I am feeling really alone. Thank you!

On another topic, I need to book some trains/planes to take me somewhere for my november and christmas breaks! At the moment I want to go to Berlin, Poland, Croatia, other cities in France, Italy, Spain... + everywhere else! The problem is trying to logically organize the trips in a way that I can hit them all up in the cheapest manner possible. If anyone has ideas, let me know.

Market Saxe-Breteuil + 5 Euros

This beautiful Saturday morning I finally decided to investigate the market prospects nearby. It turns out that there are 2 markets very near by: the rue de Grenelle market and the Saxe-Breteuil market. Grenelle is open Wednesday and Sundays and the S-B is open Thursdays and Saturdays. Therefore, today being a Saturday I went to S-B and it was literally a 2 min walk away.

The market is about a block long and filled with produce, meat, jewellery and clothes. The air smelled of an odd combination of fish and flowers. The stalls would have furry dead rabbits hanging by their feet. I found the sight of the meat quite unappealing. As I walked down, the vendors would call out to get your attention to try and sell you their goods, or their friends yelling out "il est celibataire madame!".

With my 5 euros I had on me I bought:

• 6 tomatoes (because I am addicted to them)
• 10 eggs
• A red pepper
• A baguette
• An eggplant

Now, I need to figure out what to do with an eggplant. I bought it spontaneously and it is now sitting in my fridge. I also need to find something to do with the red pepper... hmm.

I love the whole world

I love the whole world.

Check out this video which was brought to my attention via the lovely Sarah :)

Nancy Cecilia Barcelona

I just got back from my trip to Barcelona with my two new American friends Cecilia and Nick. Nick's name is not included in the title due to pop culture, and is not an attempt to make his presence insignificant.

Barcelona is just what I needed after being in rainy Paris and Switzerland. However, realizing how nice and sunny it is so near by, I had ask myself, what am I doing living in Paris?

Barcelona is a beautiful city filled with colour and life. It is small enough that we managed to get around most days by foot. We visited works by Gaudi, which were I have to say amazing. The church being constructed is approximatly 20 years from completion and the outside is at the moment a lot more impressive than the inside. Due to this one can almost feel ripped off after paying to see inside, but since the money goes towards the construction, it is at least towards a good cause.

I was alone my first night in Barcelona and arrived at the hostel at about 1030. I walked to the hostel from the train station because I found the bus system confusing and didn't want to wait around. I took my hand drawn map and found the hostel 30 minutes later with little trouble. I do not reccomend this hike to others though because I was approached by 3 people during the walk who all seemed very sketchy, I had all my belongings on me, and Barcelona has a lot of pick-pocketers and theifs. I arrived there and met the 2 Australian girls staying in my room and went to sleep. (exciting details... I know)

The second night me and Cecilia went to see Vicky Christina Barcelona at a theatre with no other tourists. We had seen just enough of the city that day to be like "Oh! I know where that is!" throughout the movie.

On the third night (Cecilia's second, Nick's first) we went to watch FC Barcelona vs. Madrid. We found out about the game through other's at the hostel. The crowd there was amazing. It was the biggest stadium I have ever been to.

The next day we saw the Picasso Museum, also very neat, and hiked around the city some more. We ate tapas and had bread with tomatos mushed on it (yummy!). We then, as requested by Nick, had a siesta. :)

Long time no see!

Hey everyone,

I have not been updating lately since I have been on the move. I went to Switzerland for Michael's wedding, and then I went to Barcelona just to see the city.

Switzerland was really nice, I took a train there and as soon as i got to Switzerland the view was much better! I stayed with Simon's family and helped them with their last minute wedding preparations. The wedding itself was in a small church in Bern. The ceremony included a lot of music and a candel lighting event where everyone lit a candel for them and placed it into a large metal bowl of sand.

After the ceremony came the apparatif (?) where there were drinks, finger food, and more music. This time the music was Hans Martin's choir.

We then walked to the river where a small boat took us to the other side. Upon arrival we were greeted by 4 musicians playing medieval music.

The reception was in a green house. It was very magical especially when it became dark as we weaved small christmas lights throughout the vines the night before. The reception also had a lot of music, choirs, bagpipes, and a very awesome accordian type instrument.

It was neat to experience the wedding and not be able to understand anything. My table at the reception had some people who could speak English, but since they all couldn't the conversation was nearly all in German. Not being able to understand anything hightened my aweareness to the emotions at the wedding. I was nearly brought to tears in the ceremony even though I could not understand their vows.

After the reception, at about 12:30 we went back to the church, to light these odd candel air balloons that we sent up in the air. The wedding was similar enough to a Candadian one, but it definatly had unique twists, such as the balloons.