Thursday, October 12, 2006

La Semaine Blanche (The White Week)
When you have a big night out in France and don’t sleep at all, they say that you had ‘une nuit blanche’ – a white night. For me, it has been a bit of a white week…
Last Wednesday night (4th Oct) there was a huge party for all the international students to mark the end of the orientation program (it ended on Friday). In the French spirit, the party started at 11pm (and nobody gets there in the first hour), and the boat set sail along the Seine at 1.30am. The boat was great, it had a dancefloor on the lower deck, then a middle deck and top deck – great to get some fresh air and take in the views of the Eiffel Tower and an illuminated Paris. It was a lot of fun… let’s just say that I didn’t make it to my 9am class the next morning… apparently only two people turned up to that class!
On Friday night (6th Oct) Barbara, Mathilde and I had a big party to celebrate moving into our new apartment and also for Mathilde’s birthday. It was a great success – everyone had a great time, they all loved our apartment, I was really happy! We had a cocktail party, so people dressed up… and we had some great drinks. A lot of people came but we didn’t get any complaints from the neighbours. We put up a note in the lobby as a forewarning, with our phone numbers, and I actually got a call halfway through the night from one of the neighbours asking if he could come to the party! And although the kitchen was a bit messy, the rest of the apartment was ok. For parties in France, everyone brings a bottle of alcohol/wine that they share with everyone else. So the result is we have about 15 bottles left over in our kitchen… enough to have another party… some are half-full, but there is still a lot of vodka and red wine!!! See Flickr for some photos of the party. I was testing out the ‘party/indoor’ mode on my camera, which is why some of the photos are a bit blurred.
I finally had a chance to do some sightseeing on Sunday afternoon – it was a beautiful sunny day, so I thought I should make the most of it. I visited the flower market on the Île-de-la-Cité, as well as the church of St Chapelle. It was so beautiful – the stained glass windows are incredible. I went to Notre Dame afterwards, but I think St Chapelle is much prettier. I also visited the memorial to the deportation of French Jews in WWII (I just happened upon it but it was very moving), and an outdoor sculpture garden. I then decided to walk along the Seine for about an hour, all the way to the Eiffel Tower. This was around sunset so I got some great photos.
I’ve also been exploring the area around my university (St Germain-des-Près), which is very chic. There are many exclusive little boutiques, as well as the big brands like Prada, with prices way beyond the means of any student. There seems to be a large number of Americans in this area, I don’t know if they are tourists or expatriates, but I’m sure that there is some correlation between their presence and the local prices! It’s a bit annoying, because you can’t really afford to go out to the local cafes (people tend to use the university cafeteria). But it’s a lovely area. I saw my first policemen on rollerblades there yesterday, trying to give a woman a traffic fine. I think she was having a hard time taking them seriously, so would I! Just imagine the policeman from the Village People with his tight pants, and then in rollerblades… and you get the idea.
My real uni classes started on Monday. It was a bit intimidating, as I had class with French students for the first time. However, it was better than I expected. My first tutorial (23 students, mostly French) was ok, the teacher is nice even if it is a subject (‘History, Justice and the Press’) that does not interest me that much. I had to take it because there were no other spaces left in other subjects. I also had a lecture (Introduction to the Contemporary Middle East), which was a bit hard to follow (some very formal French) but I understood most of it. My French language classes don’t start until next week. My other two subjects are taught in English (although the majority of students are French), and they are both really interesting. One is on the role of NGOs in international relations, and the other is on the concept of humanitarian intervention. Both of the lecturers have had a lot of experience in the field, which is fantastic.
Hopefully internet will be installed soon in our apartment. I can’t get the WiFi to work at uni, so now I am using the free Wifi at MacDonalds… classy…
I’m going to try and put some photos up now on Flickr...