First Week of School

Rue St-Guillaume, Street to main buildings

The bookstore "La librarie" and the Library "La bibliotheque" (a bit confusing!)

                         

Main Building, easy identifiable by the hordes of students milling around outside of it at all hours

Unfairly just around the corner from school, so I can drool over 600 euro dresses daily.

Les Deux Magots, famous café

A chocolate shoe I saw today! I couldn't help but put this up...

Bonjour tout le monde,


In case it is of interest to all of you out there, I'm going to talk a little bit about my first week of classes at Sciences Po. Technically it's already one day into week two, but my Monday class was cancelled (which I didn't remember until I was sitting alone in an empty classroom at 12:30...) so I have only had each class once so far! Unlike the glorious Colorado College, where 9-12 is reserved for all things academic, my classes here happen at all times of the day. The noon ones, I enjoy, the 7:15-9:15 PM ones, I do not. Luckily, I made sure not to schedule any before 10:15 AM. Waking up early has never been my strong suit.


Before I came to Sciences Po I assumed that the campus, being in the heart of the 6me, or 6th district of the city, would be similar to NYU – somewhat integrated into the city, but dominating of a two block radius at the least. I could not have been more wrong. Sciences Po is fairly easy to miss. The buildings are spread out throughout a very posh, commercial district. I pass Ralph Lauren and Armani every morning, as well as the clients sitting and smoking outside of their respective cafés, on my way to class. The main Sciences Po building has a modest sign above the door, as do the library and student bookstore. However, the other buildings don't even go so far. One just has to follow the map, walk into the courtyard and look for lots of fashionable students smoking and speaking a variety of european languages. It's nice, in a way, to feel as though you are part of the city. Rushing down the street past the famous café Les Deux Magots, I pass so many tourists stumbling along with their heads in a map. For the first time, I am not one of them. In fact, I'm often late for class on Rue des Saint-Pères, so I feel perfectly legitimate when I shout out, "PARDON MESDAMES!"



Speaking of class, this is what I am taking this semester. Apparently you're allowed to take 4-6 classes, however, I either didn't quite understand this or was just overexcited and signed up for all 6 without really thinking. One class at a time, six classes at a time, what's the difference? (I will soon find out...) Also, I chose to obtain the French/English certificate. In order to do so I have to follow some regulations about my classes, including that at least 40% of my classes have to be in french. This semester I'm taking the minimum of two in french, but I hope to take 3-4 in french second semester. 


My classes are:


1. Structures and Crises in the Middle East (Lecture accompanied by a conference, each once a week)
2. Global Public Goods (23 person elective)
3. Guerre et Paix dans le Village Global ("War and Peace in the Global Village," elective)
4. Democratic Change and Authoritarian Resilience in North Africa (elective, a comparative politics class on Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria)
5. Redefining the International Community: From Humanitarian Intervention to a Responsibility to Protect (elective)
6. Francais, Niveau 3 (french language class, level 3)


There was the option of also taking seminar style classes, which have usually 40-50 students, but I decided to stick with electives because I found the subjects more interesting, and figured the small class sizes would be nicer, more reminiscent of CC. Oh and I also signed up for "yoga debutant" (beginner's yoga – missing CorePower, clearly).  That's all for now, going to put up some photos and go to sleep. And for next time, I think I might write about the food here. This will naturally require some field research on my part... I haven't been to Lauderée yet!


Grand bisous, ("big kiss")


Ariella

My room at Cité Universitaire

Seine

Only picture of me in Paris so far... 

Musée D'Orsay

Favorite Graffiti, in le Marais

Gordie comes to Paris!!

Busy, busy Paris

Beautiful City Details

Apartments

Bonjour de Paris!

Hello everyone!

I've finally started a blog! While I debated many wonderful and clever titles, I decided to go for simple over chic, taking a cue from a German friend here who was absolutely confounded why I wouldn't just call my blog "paris" or "myblog"– as the German students here are teaching me, there is rarely a need for frivolity.  Thus, I invite you to read my blog "Ariella in Paris" or "Une Anneé a Paris" throughout this school year as I study at Sciences Po in Paris, France. While I'm writing this blog for family and friends, (and anyone who stalks me on facebook) I'm also sending it to Colorado College's Study Abroad advisor, Heather Browne. She wants to put it on to CC's website in hopes that prospective students, or current CC students considering this program, will be able to learn a little bit more about it.  Therefore, I will start by introducing myself, and the exchange program at Sciences Po (bear with me, mom).

I am a 20 year old (soon to be 21 year old!) Junior at Colorado College, majoring in Political Science, with a concentration in International Relations, and minoring in French. I actually started at CC a semester late, choosing to do the "Winter Start" option, and studied abroad in Varanasi, India for Fall of 2009.  If it isn't obvious, I love to travel. Even though I was behind in credits, I knew that I wanted to study abroad in my Junior year, and since I have a strong background in french I decided to look at french language programs. Early on, the exchange at Sciences Po caught my attention. I realized that I didn't want to join a group of American students studying abroad - I'd already done that in India, and I thought that I could handle something more challenging, more independent this time around, and Sciences Po is definitely that. So I applied, interviewed, was accepted, and now am currently sitting on my bed in a dorm in Paris with a student ID card from Sciences Po! Whew!

A little bit about why I chose Sciences Po for my year abroad: it is a much larger university than Colorado College, and therefore offers not only more classes, but classes in much more specific areas of study. For example, I'm taking a class this semester called "Redefining the International Community: From Humanitarian Intervention to the Responsibility to Protect." The class looks into the reasoning behind (be it financial, moral, political) and reality of foreign intervention, and the ways in which it can hurt or hinder a state in need. This is exactly what I am interested in. I want to work on with an international organization, specifically in conflict resolution - deciding what constitutes a "need" for foreign assistance, how best to address these "needs," when it is legally and/or morally allowed to intervene with force in another nation-state. Therefore, this class is exactly what I'm interested in! This is just one example of class at Sciences Po that a small college like Colorado College cannot offer. Don't get me wrong, I love CC and I have continually been impressed with the professors and classes offered in the Political Sciences department, but part of the trade off of going to a wonderful, intimate college is having limited class options. By going to Sciences Po for a year, I think I'm managing to get the best of both worlds.

Okay, so onto Paris! I'm loving it here so far! It's been almost three weeks in, and I'm starting to feel fairly comfortable in the city. I chose to come to Paris a few weeks early in order to attend Sciences Po's welcome program – an orientation program in which you learn about the "methodologie" (which I'll explain in a later post) and you get a french "buddy" to show you around, assist you in setting up a bank account, etc.  I think it was well worth it. While the methodologie classes were a bit dull, I enjoyed having a few weeks to settle into my temporary room at the Cité Universitaire and get to know some of the other exchange students.  And now I've had a week's worth of classes! But I'll get into that another day, I think this post has been long enough. I've got to keep some level of suspense to get you all to come back, right? Now I'll try to figure out how to put up pictures (I feel very inept at all of this...)

A bientot! (translates to "until soon")

Ariella