Ciao! I’m currently writing this from my hostel room in Venezia, Italy where it is beautiful, and not raining every day (cough paris i’m talking about you). Plus, it’s socially acceptable to mange on pizza/pasta/gelato a solid three times a day, doesn't get much better than that. All in all, I’m so happy I finally made it to Italy, a country that has been on my to-do list for ages now. With Sciences Po almost over (another thought that feels totally crazy), I had free time between my last class and my one, single exam and couldn’t think of a better way to both fill my time AND procrastinate studying, than going off to Italia for ten days - talk about two birds, one stone! Thus I planned my trip: Florence, Venice, Capri, Positano. I started by going alone to Florence, a city I loved and which made paris look horribly gray and huge in comparison, and where I unabashedly channeled Julia Roberts re: Eat Pray Love — sitting comfortably by myself, eating pizza, drinking rosé, journaling and feeling oh-so-sophisticated throughout the whole weekend. I felt like the shit, and pretended no one could see my sunburned face (Julia wouldn't have sat in the shade, please) and it turned out pretty nicely.
Additionally, and I am very proud of myself for this, I brought the Hunger Games #2 with me around Florence! Why "proud", you ask? Well, I bought the book in French, effectively finding a way to justify carrying a pre-teen novel around Italy with me, "its actually for educational purposes thank-you-very-much," and also I enjoyed thinking that people behind me in lines (so many long, long lines) would see me and think I was French (I do understand that this would make me a French person readying a pre-teen novel, but the French part seems exciting enough to cancel the pre-teen part out). All in all, Florence let me try on a few different personalities — primarily the lone, proud, very important, French, independent, traveling woman who happens to bear a striking resemblance to a much shorter Julia Roberts. Other Florentine personalities include the crying, stressed out American girl who just so happened to get confused and accidentally not pay for the bus. That one did not turn out nearly so well. Regardless, I do so love to travel alone if only to try on all of these different hats, so to speak. Highlights in Florence include beautiful churches, quiet afternoons eating paninis in sunny piazzas, and a nice dinner I had with a Belgian archaeologist staying in the same hostel as me. It was the nicest start to Italy.
More on Venice, Capri and Positano later, as I’m still here! I have some time to blog right now because my venice chica, the lovely and voracious Nicola, left tonight while I spend another night here before heading South. Venice has proven to be a wonderful, windy city which puts my previously invincible sense of direction to shame. Still, I can forgive her, Venice that is, because she does feed me so well. More later. For now, I thought I’d update my woefully neglected blog with other life things.
First and foremost, I have currently joined the celebrated ranks of unpaid laborers! Meaning, I got an internship! Through a friend, I found a place as an intern this past february for an organization called the Global Forum for Counter Radicalization. It’s an NGO in Paris run by this most amazing Hungarian woman from Switzerland who spent four years in Israel and Palestine. The organization works to counter extremism through coordinating efforts with other NGOs and spreading moderate, mass media. Andrea, the founder, is hoping to conduct counter extremism workshops in Paris in the next few years. The organization is really young, and so I’m actually contributing in ways that feel much more substantial than an intern might get to in a bigger organization. I’m currently transcribing this conference that the GFCR held in October and it’s SO interesting listening to all of these speakers talk about the ways in which they work to combat extremism - from people who talk to would-be terrorists or suicide bombers on a theological level to prevent them from acting, to those in academia who study the psychology of terrorism through field work with the Tamil Tigers, for example. It’s fascinating. Not to mention that this internship brings my list of relevant experience up to a grand total of 1 on my résumé!! Wahoo! But truthfully, I’m really enjoying participating in an organization relating to conflict resolution, a field I’m considering going into after CC. Real life folks, it's coming for me!
Now... onto summer plans! While I failed thoroughly at finding an internship through the traditional means — applying to various NGO and governmental international relations organizations in the U.S. by writing cover letter after cover letter trying oh-so-hard to hit that perfect note between eager and just plain desperate — I managed to get a lovely internship in Paris through a family I know here. Seriously, France is the land of connections. From May through the end of July I’ll be staying in Paris (it’s like the city can’t get enough of me!) working in the president of the senate’s office under the diplomatic advisor. Should be exciting, and luckily it is only about a 25 minute walk for me! Pretty worried about what I’m going to find that could possibly pass for an appropriate work outfit... but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
So! I’m still here! I’ll still be here, in my Rapunzel top floor apartment with baguettes down the street and cheese for days. With bicycles, lux gardens, smoky bars and never-ending striped shirts. Looks like my adventure’s not over just yet, and I do believe I’m about to live a very different Paris life than the one I’ve been leading so far. Hopefully this one will include a bit more exercise and cultural outings and a bit less chocolate croissant "exceptions." I’ll let you all know how this one turns out, and I’ll see if I can’t get a nice photo of Sarko and I for all of you blogger fans out there (wink wink).
Ciao amicis, à la prochaine!!
