Paris me manque

AHH This is the end of my 8th week here! I stay only for 15! And this coming week will be spent in Barcelona =)

So last week, I had a lot of time to walk around Paris and just wander. In wandering, I took pictures of lots of things, some that I will miss a lot when I leave. Here are five:

1. Round-abouts


In paris, there are a lot of roundabouts, circles, etoiles... instead of four-way intersections. and these circles aren't huge. Traffic in the circle is usually self-regulated (no lights).

When you ride a bike in Paris, (it's quite common) you ride with traffic and next to cars... it can be a bit scary.

2. Newstands

They all look about the same... like this all over streets of Paris =)

3. Toilettes (they're free, gratuit)


I've never been in one, I don't think I want to go in... it's like a fancier looking Johnny located on streets of Paris. Closer... it's occupied.

4. History of Paris Signs
All over Paris, these signs exist to tell you the history of a certain building, park, square, fountain, etc. This one is about the Seine River. They're in French, and sometimes easy to miss if you aren't really looking for one.

5. Public Trash
All are in green see through bags. The material is TOUGH... I've seen some that were filled with lots and lots of heavy things and still didn't break.

The story behind the see through is so that terrorists can't hide bombs in trash cans.

----
I just had the most wonderful lunch at a restaurant called "Vin et Marnee". It was super expensive... but I didn't have to pay >.<

Les Sports

1. Rugby - Coupe du Monde 2007

World Cup ended last weekend with South Africa taking 1st place! They won 14-6 against England, not one goal was made (except the really close one by England)... points were all from kicks.

And sadly, Argentina beat France 34-10 (i think) for third place. It was very sad for France. My host mom said, "ils sont nulle" which i think means, they suck. heh.


And that's a picture of a sparkling Tour Eiffel from the window of a friend's studio. It sparkles at the top of every hour at night. You can see the rugby ball at the bottom of it with green lights shining on it. I think the rugby ball will be coming down soon.

2. Tennis - BNP Paribas Masters 2007 (aka Paris Open)

I found out that the Paris Open (Men's Tennis) will be going on next week, in Paris, at a stadium that's 40 minutes away from my homestay!! The qualifiers are this Saturday and I'm going to try to go and then I'm going to get tickets to the Semi-final matches (next Sat, Nov 3)!! I am super excited. =) My first tennis match live! and so far, I think Federer, Ferrer, and maybe Roddick will be there.

3. Quidditch à Poudlard - Quidditch at Hogwarts

kidding. It's not really here in Paris... BUT I'm reading Harry Potter et la chambre des secrets in French. =D It's super exciting to see how the translations are made. My favorite so far:

He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named = Celui-Dont-Le-Nom-Ne-Doit-Pas-Être-Prononcé

Gros Grève

Question of the week has been: Will it be like 1995?

In 1995, then Prime minister Alain Juppé under president Chirac tried to introduce a new plan that included changes to pension rules. Some workers in the public sector who normally were allowed to retire at the age of 50 after 37.5 years of service will have to now complete 40 years of service just like in the private industry. This plan was supposed to help the deficit of France's social security system and make France more competitive in the European economy.

As a response to the government, the national railroad and subway workers went on strike---a strike that ended up lasting three-weeks. Those three-weeks, Paris was paralyzed.

Fast forward to present day, president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to implement the same change. So back in September five of the eight unions decided to strike on Oct 17th----but then they realized that the 17th was UN's official World Poverty Day so they switched it to Oct 18th. So this past Thurs was the strike---thanks to the strike I decided to take an unofficial day off from school (yAY! like a snow day!). I told my teacher since I lived in Boulogne (which means it usually takes 40 minutes to get to school), I wouldn't be coming to class (because I'd have to walk for two hours for a two hour class and walk back).

In Boulogne, everything was fine, nothing out of the ordinary---I guess I was expecting huge crowds of people walking or lots of car traffic, etc. but there was none of that. I think everyone just decided to stay home that day.

BUT Friday... Oct 19th, the second day of the strike, some metros were running and that was worse than having no metros running. I checked on www.ratp.fr site every so often to see if my line was running. Sometimes it said ligne 9: 1 rame sur 6. sometimes it said ligne 9: fortement perturbé. sometimes it said ligne 9: 1 rame sur 3. So I decided to give it a shot. At the station, you normally use your ticket to get through by take the top ticket (in the picture) and put it through a machine. below is my monthly pass:
But I got to the station and ALL the doors were open, no ticket needed, no on at the counter to buy a ticket from, and I was like... SWEET. and then realized, well that makes sense since metros aren't guaranteed to run at all.

I was waiting for my metro and it said the next one was in 12 min. That was a shock. Usually, metros come in 2 min, 5 min, or at MOST like late late at night 15 min. But it was mid-day. Anyways, I waited and I was afraid that the whole metro would be jam packed (as warned by my host mom)... but when it finally came, to my disappointment, was pretty empty. =\ I wanted to experience a strike in Paris!

Hah, so five stops after mine on the metro, I was SQUISHED because people kept coming in! And by the seventh stop, I was experiencing the awkward situation of not being able to hold onto a pole because it's too far from reach, being squished between bodies and sort of swaying between them for balance, watching people TRY to push onto the metro when they obviously canNOT, and seeing this one dude squeeze onto the metro, holding his bags on top of his head because there was no way for him to put it down... it was very unpleasant feeling to say the least, but very funny (I just couldn't believe I was in the middle of all that). So THIS is what a strike is like... I so wanted to take a picture then but I couldn't reach into my bag to get my camera since there was no room to move.

I ended up doing a transfer to line 14 (which is automated =)) to avoid all the crowded people but had to walk 40 minutes to where I needed to be. But it was an awesome walk, because I was in no rush. So I ended up taking pictures of little random things in Paris that I think I'd miss.

Ah... I have some awesome pictures to post but blogger is not letting me right now. I'll try again later.

Pursued and Pursuing after many things

1. Student life (learning what it means to be a student, a student wanting to go to medical school)
This week was the first week where I actually felt like I was in Paris to study, like I was a student in Paris... and not on some long vacation. My two midterms last week on public health went okay--although for the first one, I didn't completely finish. Then the third midterm today, on France and the European union, was tough because of all the readings that we had to do for it. It was all very interesting, learning all the different political party systems and the changes they have gone through and how with globalization, the extreme left and extreme right share a more similar view than with other groups within their side. And out of that, a center has evolved, which are the mainstream parties. If you'd like to know, I'd love to explain it all to you... history is fascinating.

2. L'invite (learning again that i love learning language)
After the midterm on Thurs, I went to see a French movie with Monica and Greg. L'invite. It wasn't great... I wanted to see a French movie to practice my French. L'invite is about a husband, who invited a CEO of a company over for dinner, hoping to be hired. The whole movie, the neighbor keeps giving the husband and the wife advice on how to prepare this dinner and he also criticizes their simple old-fashioned taste in art (Picasso) and music (some French oldie). So they try to remodel their house and blah blah... Finally the CEO comes for dinner, and apparently likes simple old-fashioned people... and in the end they get the job. and that was the end of the movie. I think I would've enjoyed the film much more if I understood more of French humor and if I understood more French. So until then.... I'll stick with dubbed in French American movies.

3. Pursued by God, Pursuing God (learning that He is my creator and I was created in His image)
Friday night, I had my group's first bible study. It went very well--I'm with an awesome group of girls. It just so happens that we are two Americans (i am one), two Canadians, two Russian, and two Brazilian girls. There, we answered four basic questions:

1. What are your goals for the year/your time in France?
2. What are your fears?
3. What is one area in life that you are struggling with?
4. How can this group best support you?

I think those are really simple questions that every person should take the time to sit down and ask themselves. Well questions 1,2 and 3. And they are questions that you don't ask yourselves once... but every quarter or every new school year so that at the end of that quarter or the end of that year, you can assess yourself.

This summer, I learned to ask myself three questions that were very simple but profound as well.

1. What did I learn about myself this past week?
2. What did I learn about people this past week?
3. What did I learn about God this past week?

If I can ask myself these questions, it presumes that I am learning. At least, they allow me to evaluate IF I'm learning and what learning those things MEAN in my life. How should it affect me, the way I relate to other people and the way I relate to God? Otherwise, I guess can go on living my life without ever stopping to think about it. I think it's possible to live a pretty good life that way.

I'd say this past week, I'm learning that God pursues after me, even while I'm in Paris, He runs after my heart and tugs at it. When I think of God pursuing after me, I think of Jonah being thrown overboard and eaten by a great fish. Because even though Jonah ran away from God (well he thought he could run away from God), God provided the great fish to swallow him up and give him a second chance.

I feel as if I'm in a big fish right now, because I'm so disconnected with the life I had at home, I'm just in a big space where I have lots of time to myself. Jonah spent three days in the fish praying to God. I have three months in this fish, and I feel like I should be using my time so much more wisely!

I had set out to figure out who I am (choosing my favorite type of eggs, so to speak ^__^) and I know that (well after a month of meandering) my identity comes from my relationship with God. So I will pursue after God, in these next two months.

4. Loss (being a part of the culture, finding that i like the rugby but not the movies)
Saturday went to Chinatown for dinner with Monica and Rachael. Watched the big game, France vs. England... France was up 9 to 8 until 73 minutes into the game (a game lasts 80 min). Then England's number 10 (he's cute but I cannot forgive him for what he did) scores 3 points by a kick. And the French was losing 9 to 11! I almost could not watch... and sadly, with four minutes left, England scores again.... winning 14 to 9. Five points... in the first five minutes of the game, England scores a touch down---5 points. I bet the French wish they didn't let them go that easy that early in the game. I was so sad on Saturday night.

Well, in the other semi-final game, South Africa won against Argentina. So this Friday, France will play Argentina for third place.

5. La Bagagerie (still hanging on to materialistic things)
Then Sunday, I went shopping at Gallery Lafayette... an amazing store to walk through and shop at if you have tons of money at your disposal. But since I'm a poor college student, I just drooled over many things with Monica. Well... they were also having a sale, so I ended up buying a bag (from La Bagagerie)... but I was going to buy a bag anyways...


en fait, that's all folks!

bon soiree!

"It's beautiful, it's beautiful, alors, it's France"

In Rennes, there were lots of lectures for three days... my brain was a mess, full of info about health this and health that. I was glad it was over when it was! Now I have to organize the mess into some coherent essay for my two midterms this coming Wed. and Thurs.

The major highlight in Rennes was visiting the cardiology department of the hospital there. The cardiologist who was showing us around asked if we wanted to see an open heart surgery! So we said, "bien sur!" We put on scrubs and I thought we were going to walk into a room where you can peer into the operating room through a window, you know like for family members or visitors who can't be in the operating room.... But nope, we went straight into the operating room and I found myself peering into an open chest, pried open by clamps, looking at down into this guy's thoracic cavity... it was unreal. The heart looked pink-ish, mushy, and like meat. The thing was the room had a funny smell, kind of like the smell of raw meat at a meat market... and I didn't want to think it... but that smell made me think of slabs of meat and how we're maybe like slabs of meat? It's not pretty. Anyways... this guy's valves started calcifying so they had to be removed and be replaced. The cardiologist picked up his calcified valves (they were cut out already) and was literally waving it in front of our faces... I was just thinking... oh gosh, it looks like a piece of fat with little white balls growing on it. Then he showed us the replacement valve (made from a pig), which he handed over to the surgeon. The surgeon started talking to us, showing us how to sew it back into the heart... he was looking at us while he was stitching... and I tried to avoid eye contact and look at the heart because I wanted him to look at where he was stitching instead of me. But I guess, if it's his third surgery since the morning, with each surgery lasts about 4 hours, so he's probably bored. Imagine that...

On a side note, we had dinner at a Creperie, salty crepe (called galettes here) for dinner, and crepe for dessert. The Cidre came in a pither and our "cups" were bowls. It reminded me of two things: China, where we drink from bowls, and my dad, who sometimes drinks hot water from bowls... I remember when he used to do that, it was so 'not a la mode', so 'back-in-the-day', and just 'not cool anymore' (maybe Chrissy and Teresa can sympathize here)... but when it was happening in Rennes, I realized how normal it probably is... or that parts of France are still able to keep their culture. Going a little deeper, it makes me think, I was so quick to reject my dad's ideas---and in essence, it's so much easier to think my parents' are 'out-of-touch' with what's going on today than to accept their words or rebuke as 'words of wisdom' or take it as good advice. It's easier to just ignore them and go on doing what I want than to have to actually listen.

Back in Paris, we had a "game day" on Friday, near the grass field by the Eiffel Tower. A few of us organized it, and we just played games.. turned out very nice, a lot of fun. When we were organizing, I suggested "moo-cow" and they all thought I was evil! The french students were like, that's horrible!. keekee.. So we played taboo, twister, cowboy, tomates, and some relays instead. Still fun... some pictures are on facebook.

Afterwards, I went to meet up with Sarah and we went together to Ben's BBQ at his architecture school. His school looked like a museum--statues and paintings all over.

Then Saturday night, we had a surprise party for Maggie's 22nd birthday. It was also the BIG GAME... France vs. All Blacks (new zealand). Oh.. man, it was an intense game! The touch downs that the teams made were just amazing. At the beginning France was down 13 to zero... we were starting to lose hope! but out of nowhere, we tied 13-13. Then All Blacks scored to 18-13. They didn't get the extra two points from the kick. So we're all cheering for the French to score and finally they did! AND they got the two points from the kick. So it was 20-18 France ten minutes before the end of the game. When they scored to 20, we SCREAMED.. Mathilde was just like, "it's beautiful! it's beautiful! (what can I say) it's France!" I thought that was so cute and basically sums up the French.

So the last ten minutes of the game was torturous because we didn't want the blacks to score, knowing that if they did, there's not enough time for the french to score again. But the blacks were so close to their touch down line the whole ten minutes... it didn't help that Julie kept crying, "pas maintenant, pas maintenant, pas maintenant..." and Mathilde going, "no no no" and Jessica saying, "on regarde! on regarde!". And then.. finally, it was 80 minutes and the blacks didn't score! So we JUMPED and SCREAMED but the game didn't stop! And the blacks had possession so Julie just screamed, "C'EST FINI! C'EST FINI! ARRETE! C'EST FINI!". OYE... and after like 3 minutes, the french gained possession of the ball and THEN we were estactic... singing "on a gagne! on a gagne!" Two more games and we'll win the championship... I think I'm going to have to buy a French flag to wear for the last game.

Man, I really had no idea that I would be so into Rugby and that it would make it into most of my posts.

So after that, Saturday night was "La Nuit Blanche" where line 14 metro was open all night long. The Louvre, the Tuilleries gardens, the Center Pompidou, Notre Dame, etc... were open all night. It was amazing.. I was standing on the steps, looking straight at the huge lit up ferris wheel in the distance (near Place de la Concorde, at the end of the Champs Elysee, built as a response to Navy Pier's ferris wheel), with huge torches of fire in front of the wheel in the Tuilleries that coughed up huge balls of fire every five minutes, with hundreds of people moving through---some very drunk---some singing La Marseillaise on repeat, with the Louvre behind me, the sparking eiffel tower to the left of the ferris wheel in front of me... I could not have even imagined to be standing there in my wildest dreams! Too bad I couldn't figure out night settings on my camera... it'll just have to be stored forever in my memory.

Now it's Sunday. I JUST finished my final report from my summer research... I had forgotten about this report until this past Thursday when my Dean emailed me and asked if I'd submitted my report to Dr. Wong for review.... but glad it's done now.

I'm excited because I'll be off to church in half an hour. And after all the gray weather, we've finally got some soleil today =). Je suis tres heureuse parce qu'il fait tres beau au'jourdhui.

A bientot.