school school school

I realized that I never updated on the classes that I’m taking this semester, so I thought I’d do so now. I decided to take one less than I’d taken last semester since, on top of work, I felt over-loaded. Thus I’m taking five classes, with a conference section for one class making a total of six class periods a week. Every class period here is two hours long, therefore I have 12 hours a class a week. Not only is this less class time than we have at Colorado College (which comes out to a total to 15 hours a week, not counting lab classes or time on the baca campus), but also it means that over 12 weeks, you only get to a total of 24 hours of class time for any given class. This is where the biggest discrepancy lies - at CC, you take a minimum of 45 hours per single class, almost double that at Sciences Po. It’s been very interesting for me to see how this difference plays out in my experience as a student. 

So far, the conclusions I have come to are:  At CC, you get much more time with your professor, gleaning and gathering tidbits of wisdom from his or her extensive knowledge and experience on their topic. At Sciences Po I would love to have more time with my professors, even just to sit and listen to them. With an exposé or two every class and sometimes a press review (during all of these fellow students have the floor and the teachers is quiet), teacher to student wisdom-transference time feels remarkably small. However, I find that Sciences Po has made a much more independent student out of me. Every exposé probably takes me around 20 hours of work total. Having to speak in class and, most importantly, to defend my presentation to the class at the end when everyone can ask questions, forces me to prepare extensively. Furthermore, Sciences Po is a big institution, and many of the teachers are teaching in their spare time and do not consider it part of their duty to teach you the basics (even though these are basics that they will grade you heavily on), and that at CC are often communicated to you in every class. By basics I’m referring to how to find resources, how the library works, what a “problematique” is, how to format your presentation, bibliography, etc. While the professors are very helpful when you need clarification, it is, or maybe just feels, harder to get in touch with them when you can’t count on running into them in Worner three times a day.

Ok these are the classes I’m taking this semester: On Mondays I take “Approches des Extrémismes en Politique and “Le Changement Politique en Russie”. The first one is about the study of the rise of extremist parties in political systems, with a general focus on France and then some other regional case studies. I’m doing an exposé with a friend on the National Anti-Capitalist party in France. The teacher is super eccentric (and wikipedia tells me he was a child actor) and wants us to go to rallies and meetings and get interviews of party leaders so that should be cool, I’ve never done anything like that for a class here before. The next one is about modern politics in Russia and is quickly becoming one of my favorite classes. Especially since I’ve never taken a class on Russia before, the class material is always new and exciting for me. The teacher is, on the contrary to the last one, very Sciences Po meaning super intense and serious and rigid, but he definitely knows what he is talking about. I’m doing an exposé on the second war in Tchetchnia (sp?) in the 2000’s. Tuesdays I have a conference for my lecture, and a french language class. Wednesdays I have my lecture, entitled Coping with Multipolarity in American Foreign Policy. Essentially it’s learning all about the recent history and currently changing foreign policy in the US. While there are a fair amount of obnoxious american government buffs in the class, I’m liking it and did an exposé earlier this week on the role of AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, in shaping American Foreign Policy. It is the only class I’m taking in English. I almost didn’t take it since I wanted to do an all-French semester, but there were no French lectures that worked with my work schedule. And I’m happy to be in this class! It’s so helpful in understanding current events and it gives my brain a little breather from French classes. Thursdays I’m taking a class with the loveliest of ladies Mademoiselle Camilla Vogt, a friend from CC who is taking classes at SciencesPo part-time with me this semester. We are taking a class called “Géopolitque de l’énergie” about energy politics and global energy management today, as seen through an economic and a political perspective. Camilla and I are doing an exposé together entitled, “Is there a resource curse?”. Love having a class buddy! This class is very interesting but also challenging for me, since I have such a limited economics background. I think it’s a good reminder that I should devote more time to understanding all this crazy money business everyone’s always talking about...

Thats’ my jabber on academics for today, and probably for this semester. Paris and Colorado - two amazing and opposite experiences. I’m loving everything Sciences Po has given me, and taught me, as a student, and may try to come back here for grad school... but that’s to think about in the far future, I have another year of colorado living to soak up first.

gros bisous mes amis, 

ariella

Photos de l'hiver

My Street after the first snow

@ Eric Kayser Bakery for a delicious snack 

Some familiar faces in the Jardin des Tuileries

Me!

French ladiez

Hmm.

Beautiful winter colors

Le Grand Froid

Here in Paris we are experiencing nothing less than “Le Grand Froid.” Every banner (these electronic billboard things they put on street corners that tell you the time, temperature and the like) is displaying grave warnings to “restez pas immobile” along with a “hypothermia alert.” Due to a cold front moving down from Siberia, it’s dropped below freezing here! I don’t mean to mock Parisians, for I have certainly been doing my fair share of moaning and groaning and holing up in my apartment. I think I’m losing the Boston in me. Upon re-reading what I just wrote, I think that yes, I do mean to mock Parisians for their response to the cold is a little, if not very much so, ridiculous. I think instead that I should just include myself in this mocking for I can’t in good conscience pretend that I myself have been baring Le Grand Froid with anymore elegance than them ...does this make me french?? 

On another note, it has started snowing here! Meaning, it’s snowed twice and we had almost half an inch on the ground this morning. The whole city looks breathtakingly romantic. Additionally, I have been encountering, on a daily basis since le grand froid struck, a copious amount of fur. I have never, in my life, seen so many old ladies in fur. You find them popping out of every building, riding the bus with me, taking up every sidewalk (waddling through with an increased circumference of minimum 6 inches on all sides) — these mink-covered creatures are omnipresent, always hovering nearby in their warmth and luxury. I am both entranced and insanely jealous. The best part is the hats. Big fur hats. I’ve seen white, black, brown, blue, red, teal, burgundy, orange fur hats!  Cap style, beret style, floppy I-don’t-care-I’ll-wear-my-fur-how-I-want stye, soviet-Russia style, amelia earhart style - anything. It’s le grand froid and the runway show is on, open to everyone from babies to grandmothers (who seem to compose the majority of participants). While there may be only one grand froid a year in Paris, if that, these Parisians will not be taken unprepared.

I am doing well, serious lack of fur notwithstanding. It’s the third week of classes and things are moving along like always, routines are established, tutoring and nannying like always. I’m off to Bordeaux this weekend with some lovely ladies for a wine-filled extravaganza, and hopefully a little escape from the cold (even though its only 3 hours south...). 

On a funny note, my water heater seems to have stopped working. Isn’t that hilarious? Well, I’ve decided to take on the strategy of not-dealing with it, and I’ll let you know how that plays out. (Side note - I’m realllly hoping this one works itself out, and have resorted to heavily, and regularly, cursing the grand froid for all of my life’s problems, this one included.) On a positive note, this broken water heater has provided me with some interesting observations. Mostly what I’ve noticed so far is that I can go longer without a shower than I realized. Always learning things about myself, I am! The actual funny part is that last night I was cold, feeling grimy and fed up with it. So, I bet you’re thinking I got up, called my landlord and demanded answers? Guess again! Having just seen Eat, Pray, Love, in which Julia Roberts is told by a charmingly rude Italian landlady that she has to fill up her bath with hot water from the stove, I got an idea. Bet you guessed it now — I decided to try to fill up my bath tub by boiling water on the stove! 

Long story short, we should all be very thankful for the romans (weren’t they the ones who invented plumbing?) It took me about an hour or more to get the water to half a foot high, at which point I got annoyed and just got in the bath, exhausted. It was pretty nice at first, since I hadn’t bathed in a while, but I soon learned that sitting in a little puddle of hot water leads, very quickly, to a personal “grand froid.” And so I had my 5 minute bath. 

Just thought that you all out there might benefit from knowing that I a) am overcoming every and all obstacles to bathe regularly, b) am taking my conflict resolution studies to heart and nurturing my creativity here in good ol’ Paree. 

I’m going to try to upload some pictures of le grand froid (although there’s no snow in them, sadly) but the Morocco pictures refused to upload so I’m not sure how these ones will go. Hope all is well on the home front! Ciao amigos, and remember - ne restez pas immobile!

Pictures from Morocco

Vacation Jubilation!

(Preface: i looked up "rhymes with vacation" to get the title. I wasn't going to admit it but I just had to be honest, it was tearing me apart.)

Hello everyone! 

I’m sitting here at my kitchen table, waiting for the kettle to sing (metaphorically speaking of course, my kettle is oh so woefully electronic), and I thought I’d write a little update on what I did over winter vacation. It’s been about two months or so - that’s about my regular blogging interval! 

So. Op! Got overexcited about blogging, and spilled my tea almost all over my computer. But not quite, phew. Funny story about this tea... I’m fighting, and have been fighting for about two weeks now, a nasty fever/cold/cough ensemble and so I thought I’d go to the Carrefour and buy myself some lovely tea to woo health back into my life. I found the tea section, picked up a tea that came in a soothing teal box imprinted with a faded image of a woman doing yoga on it (read: femininity, relaxation, health) and called it a day. However once I got home, my new “drainage and élimination,” tea, upon second glance, did not appear to be just a regular get-healthy-milk-and-honey sha-bang. It seems that I got a little carried away by the “drainage” part of the tea, wistfully picturing the end of my loogie filled days, and failed to consider how the meaning of “drainage” might change when paired with “élimination.” Seems I bought myself a little “suggestion for digestion” if you know what I mean. Constipation tea.

Needless to say, when living in Paris all year — waste not want not! My digestion has never been better, the flavor is slightly strange but fine, and I think there’s probably some sort of tea-placebo affect out there helping my cold anyways. I do like the idea of finishing my “drainage and élimination” tea box before holding any gatherings in the near future, and so have about 3 cups a day. 

To continue: my computer was saved from liquid élimination, I just polished off a square of dark chocolate, the dishwasher (you remember Darling?) is running, and I get to sleep in tomorrow!!! Tout va bien.

I think I’ve gotten the long-random-story bug out of me with that tea tidbit so hopefully will be able to somewhat concisely summarize my vacation. 

SciencesPo gave us what felt like an eternity off of school, but was actually just four and a half weeks. In the first two weeks, I trekked across the pond and went home for two weeks to have Christmas with the fam, see friends, freeze my tushy off, and drink legally in America. I had a wonderful time, however trans-atlantic travel is absolutely exhausting and I was happy to return to my lovely apartment in Paris (for a night) and then fly to Morocco the next morning for another two week vacation! In a few words, Morocco was stunning. It has been far too long since I have had the opportunity to travel to someplace so different from my norm. Memories of my semester in India came flooding back to me and dozens of future travel plans blossomed. The latest, and I’m posting it here in hopes of finding travel partners, take note, is a South-East Asia trek to take place the summer after graduating, with a month long emphasis on traveling around India... any takers? Essentially, Morocco awoke the soul of the vagabond who lives in my belly (and who, for the last four months, has been getting lazy and fat on brie and baguette), and reminded him how much satisfaction I get from traveling! Travel plans for the rest of the semester are currently in the works. Small detail: during the one night we spent a night at a surf hostel in a surfing town 15km outside of Agadir called Tanghazout I became convinced that the best way to see the world is by kite-surfing around it. Literally the coolest sport I have ever not yet tried. Who’s with me here? 

I landed back in Paris on January 22 for good. Phew! After two very different vacations, and with loads of dirty laundry and a whopping cold/fever on top - I was home :) A friend from CC once told me during my first semester when I was still settling in, as I was a Winter start and beginning a semester after him, that I wouldn’t understand how much I loved the school until I had experienced a “return.” At CC I felt the effects of the return: how fun it is to catch up with everyone and immediately start pounding shots the Sunday before classes start... but with Paris, coming back to the first real home I’ve created for myself, was the first time I have felt so content to just. be. home. Ahh. Feeling sentimental.

Back to life in Paris. Round Two. Nothing that exciting to report just yet. I’ve finally decorated my apartment with some tapestries from India, silks dyed by my mom, pictures of friends and family back home, and postcards of Edward Gorey sketches (from mom -that i love! thanks mom!) and vintage Vogue covers (from Sophia bought at the art and design musée next to the louvre - that i also love! thanks soph!) I should take some pictures to post. Needless to say, the apartment is looking much more beautiful and homey. 

Another entry on classes coming soon.

gros bisous à tous,

ariella