Though I don't really have to suffer the way that others do through the grève, I'm surrounded by it all the time. Everyone's wondering what's going to happen. I don't know if I explained it properly before, so here's my understanding: Sarkozy and his people would like to implement several reforms at the university level. According to him, France is "way behind" in scientific publications and research overall:
-At the level of professors, he wants to reward professors who publish a lot and "punish" professors who don't publish enough-- with more classes. Essentially he plans on dividing up professors into research and teaching categories.
-He wants to both give universities more financial independence and concentrate more of the decision making power in the hands of the presidents of the universities and select administrators.
-He wants to get rid of the one year paid apprenticeship for people studying to be teachers and replace it with classroom time and a shorter, unpaid period of practical learning.
Anyways, as a result, professors are en grève (on strike) indefinitely, which means that a lot of Brown students abroad have begun to be concerned about receiving credit. I've been lucky enough to take classes at a science university that doesn't really follow the grève in practice (though they are technically in support of it...) and have professors at Paris 8: Saint Denis give cours alternatifs, which means we basically sit around and talk about whatever, which is just as educational for me as real classes, and often more interesting.
One of my profs is a hardcore Freudian-- I'm pretty sure he doesn't actually believe in all of it, but he does take pleasure in psychoanalyzing things. For example, I learned the other day that a lot of homosexuals project their feelings into other behaviors and feelings. That is to say, megalomaniacs are homosexuals, erotomaniacs are homosexuals, people who think everyone loves them are homosexuals, and people who think that no one likes them are homosexuals (Sarkozy?).
Outside of class, some notable things have happened. They fixed the fountain at Place Pigalle, so now it's a lot lighter and prettier at night, and the prostitutes kind of glow. I got a new phone to save money so now I can text a lot more. And I discovered that if you make eye contact with anyone between the Moulin Rouge and Place de Clichy, they harrass you like crazy-- one lady kept calling me her friend and grabbed my arm, so I had to pick up my pace to let her know I wasn't interested.
And I almost forgot-- I've begun tutoring! I'm teaching English to a sweet 9-year-old girl named Sandra. I taught her the continents in English on Monday and had her draw them. She kept complaining that she wasn't a good artist, and I told her I was a horrible artist and she suggested we form an association of bad artists. She also eats inordinate amounts of chocolate-- she literally had a chocolate sandwich on her way home from school, after having chocolate for lunch.
Anyways, I'm looking forward to the arrival of Stephen, Robert, my brother, and Meghan in just a little over a week!
Bien cordialement,
Max
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Bruxelles, Anvers, Bruges (Brussels, Antwerp, Brugge)
So I just got back from a long weekend in Belgium, and I thought I'd write this before I forget everything. I left Saturday morning from Paris at 725am with Sandra, Li Jun, and Robin and, after a small metro mix-up in Brussels, we arrived at our hostel around 1015am to discover that it was beautiful, complete with a balcony, leather couch and television, and full kitchen (at 30E a night). This was not necessarily a good thing, because we were so exausted and so comfortable in the room that it was hard to leave.
But we went out and explored a bit of Brussels. The metro is fantastic there, because they never check your ticket, so you just buy one and never stamp it and you can ride the metro indefinitely. We walked around the downtown area a bit and bought some waffles and went to the music museum, which was definitely the best museum I've been to so far. You walk around with magical headphones and when you stand in front of an exhibit of musical instruments, you can hear them being played. The building was beautiful on the outside and magnificently laid out on the inside. Sadly, my camera battery died, so if you look at the pictures of Belgium, they stop there.
Saturday night we went to what we thought was Delirium, a famous pub that boasts more than 300 different beers on tap. We were, however, disappointed at the seemingly small size and boring crowd. It turns out that there is more than one Delirium in Brussels, and we had gone to the small pub version. Li Jun and I wandered around Sunday night and accidentally discovered the real Delirium tap room, which was packed with people and did indeed have an absurd amount of beer on tap. Across the street was an absinthe bar (about 100 different types of absinthe) which was part of the same company, so we went there and tried a couple types of absinthe too. If you didn't already know, absinthe doesn't really do anything different from normal hard liquor except make your throat feel really really really warm.
Sunday during the day we went to Anvers, which didn't have anything particularly notable, except that every building was really beautiful in a middle age-y kind of way. We went to the printing museum there and saw some illuminated manuscripts from the middle ages and 2 of the oldest printing presses in the world.
This morning we took a train to Bruges, which is famous for it's middle ages architecture and beautiful canals. Bruges also hosts a chocolate museum, which was inevitably disappointing. I say inevitable because I was expecting greatness, but it was basically a giant advertisement for one of the biggest Belgian chocolate companies, Belcolade. And the history of chocolate is really depressing (i.e. a large aspect was the slave trade-- when cocoa beans were used as currency, people were traded for beans, then were used to harvest beans that would then be traded for people...)
Aside from that disappointment, it was a very fun weekend filled with waffles, fries, chocolate, and the biggest meringue i've ever seen, and eaten.
Also, this is what Flemish is like: Uw biljet is alleen geldig in de trein waarvoor u heeft gereserveerd (This ticket is only valid in the train where you have a reservation).
But we went out and explored a bit of Brussels. The metro is fantastic there, because they never check your ticket, so you just buy one and never stamp it and you can ride the metro indefinitely. We walked around the downtown area a bit and bought some waffles and went to the music museum, which was definitely the best museum I've been to so far. You walk around with magical headphones and when you stand in front of an exhibit of musical instruments, you can hear them being played. The building was beautiful on the outside and magnificently laid out on the inside. Sadly, my camera battery died, so if you look at the pictures of Belgium, they stop there.
Saturday night we went to what we thought was Delirium, a famous pub that boasts more than 300 different beers on tap. We were, however, disappointed at the seemingly small size and boring crowd. It turns out that there is more than one Delirium in Brussels, and we had gone to the small pub version. Li Jun and I wandered around Sunday night and accidentally discovered the real Delirium tap room, which was packed with people and did indeed have an absurd amount of beer on tap. Across the street was an absinthe bar (about 100 different types of absinthe) which was part of the same company, so we went there and tried a couple types of absinthe too. If you didn't already know, absinthe doesn't really do anything different from normal hard liquor except make your throat feel really really really warm.
Sunday during the day we went to Anvers, which didn't have anything particularly notable, except that every building was really beautiful in a middle age-y kind of way. We went to the printing museum there and saw some illuminated manuscripts from the middle ages and 2 of the oldest printing presses in the world.
This morning we took a train to Bruges, which is famous for it's middle ages architecture and beautiful canals. Bruges also hosts a chocolate museum, which was inevitably disappointing. I say inevitable because I was expecting greatness, but it was basically a giant advertisement for one of the biggest Belgian chocolate companies, Belcolade. And the history of chocolate is really depressing (i.e. a large aspect was the slave trade-- when cocoa beans were used as currency, people were traded for beans, then were used to harvest beans that would then be traded for people...)
Aside from that disappointment, it was a very fun weekend filled with waffles, fries, chocolate, and the biggest meringue i've ever seen, and eaten.
Also, this is what Flemish is like: Uw biljet is alleen geldig in de trein waarvoor u heeft gereserveerd (This ticket is only valid in the train where you have a reservation).
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Les Cours et Le Coeur
The biggest change that's happened since I last wrote is that I've finally started classes. My schedule's really weird-- I'm taking 3 courses right now, but one of them is pharmacochemistry, which meets from 130-445 on Tuesday and 9am-445 on Wednesday. In fact, it's really the only course that is meeting regularly, as it is at Paris 6: UPMC (Université Pierre et Marie Curie), where professors are "en grève," but still working. I'm also taking a French Literature course on Freud-- yes, Freud was German (I think) but the author we're reading wrote novels that have something to do with Freudian psychoanalysis-- I don't really know yet because I haven't had class.
At Paris 8: Université St. Denis, which is in the banlieue (suburbs), the professors are very much following the grève, though they were in class to welcome us and explain the reasons for it. Basically, the government wants to split research and teaching such that professors can really only do one at a time, in addition to reducing payed internships for graduate students and promoting financial independence of the universities. I'm actually quite glad the grève is happening, because the professor of my History of Gender course (the last of the three) asked us what we wanted to study that was relevant to the current French political situation, so we're going to discuss the basis of democracy and why it is so important for people to be active. There are manifestations (protests) every day, and a lot of educational programs like movies and debates themed around the grève. I never realized how much work it was to go on strike (Alex... I don't even know what to say... I'll send you a postcard?).
As for the coeur half of the title, I went and visited the Sacre-Coeur, in addition to Chartres and some other fantastic adventurous places. I've posted as many photos as possible on facebook, because they tend to take a long time to load on to this thing, and I'm really bad with computers...
Upcoming stuff: I'm going to Brussels next weekend! I've booked my tickets and made hostel reservations!
I spoke to someone on the phone today about tutoring English to a 9-year-old, but the job is 10 hours a week, which would mean a lot of money but a lot of time. We'll see.
Oh, and if you didn't already know, if you write to me, I will write you back.
My address:
Max Mathias
Brown Program in France
27 Rue Mayet
Paris, IDF 75006
France
At Paris 8: Université St. Denis, which is in the banlieue (suburbs), the professors are very much following the grève, though they were in class to welcome us and explain the reasons for it. Basically, the government wants to split research and teaching such that professors can really only do one at a time, in addition to reducing payed internships for graduate students and promoting financial independence of the universities. I'm actually quite glad the grève is happening, because the professor of my History of Gender course (the last of the three) asked us what we wanted to study that was relevant to the current French political situation, so we're going to discuss the basis of democracy and why it is so important for people to be active. There are manifestations (protests) every day, and a lot of educational programs like movies and debates themed around the grève. I never realized how much work it was to go on strike (Alex... I don't even know what to say... I'll send you a postcard?).
As for the coeur half of the title, I went and visited the Sacre-Coeur, in addition to Chartres and some other fantastic adventurous places. I've posted as many photos as possible on facebook, because they tend to take a long time to load on to this thing, and I'm really bad with computers...
Upcoming stuff: I'm going to Brussels next weekend! I've booked my tickets and made hostel reservations!
I spoke to someone on the phone today about tutoring English to a 9-year-old, but the job is 10 hours a week, which would mean a lot of money but a lot of time. We'll see.
Oh, and if you didn't already know, if you write to me, I will write you back.
My address:
Max Mathias
Brown Program in France
27 Rue Mayet
Paris, IDF 75006
France
Monday, February 2, 2009
This has a really corny ending.
1. I discovered today that the bookshelf above my bed has some books that are nearly 300 years old on it. Among them are a 1st edition Jules Verne (not quite as old) and some other French authors. I plan on inspecting more carefully when I have the time.
2. I can cook! I learned how to make pasta (i.e. boil water, put pasta in boiling water), so I had my first non-cereal, non-sandwich meal in about a week last night. Tonight, Sara and Tanya (two kids in the Brown program) came over and I made the same dish (pasta, with deli chicken, tomato sauce, and bell peppers). They brought wine and fondue supplies. We had a fantastic dinner and a very fun stain-fighting adventure with Clara's tablecloth afterwards.
3. I've been talking more with Clara, though one time I was interrupted by the deputy mayor of the 9th arrondissement, who I guess is a good friend. She also told me today that she dated Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a French politician who might one day run for president (read here for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Strauss-Kahn). Clara, being the kind-hearted caring person she is, had told him to get surgery on his face because "let's be honest, politics is about looks too." We had a pretty intense discussion about religion-- the French are all about secularness (laïcité), though she seems to have a thing for Jews-- she told me they're smarter than everyone else.
4. I just returned from a night out at Queen, a famous club that's gay on Sunday nights only. It's on the Champs-Elysées, which means it was a 15E cover and then 5E for coat check, but I've been dying to go out to an all-night club and it was definitely worth the pay. I met up with a friend I met through Chris named Isain, who's here from California, and two of his friends (girls). I met a couple of nice frenchies at the club, but I was determined to find my way home alone, on the Noctilien (the night bus, or the knight bus, if you're a big nerd), which is the only means of transportation after 1am.
So it was that I found myself alone, walking down the Champs-Elysées at 4am, looking back at the Arc de Triomphe through the lightly falling snow, wishing I could share the moment with all of you.
2. I can cook! I learned how to make pasta (i.e. boil water, put pasta in boiling water), so I had my first non-cereal, non-sandwich meal in about a week last night. Tonight, Sara and Tanya (two kids in the Brown program) came over and I made the same dish (pasta, with deli chicken, tomato sauce, and bell peppers). They brought wine and fondue supplies. We had a fantastic dinner and a very fun stain-fighting adventure with Clara's tablecloth afterwards.
3. I've been talking more with Clara, though one time I was interrupted by the deputy mayor of the 9th arrondissement, who I guess is a good friend. She also told me today that she dated Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a French politician who might one day run for president (read here for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominique_Strauss-Kahn). Clara, being the kind-hearted caring person she is, had told him to get surgery on his face because "let's be honest, politics is about looks too." We had a pretty intense discussion about religion-- the French are all about secularness (laïcité), though she seems to have a thing for Jews-- she told me they're smarter than everyone else.
4. I just returned from a night out at Queen, a famous club that's gay on Sunday nights only. It's on the Champs-Elysées, which means it was a 15E cover and then 5E for coat check, but I've been dying to go out to an all-night club and it was definitely worth the pay. I met up with a friend I met through Chris named Isain, who's here from California, and two of his friends (girls). I met a couple of nice frenchies at the club, but I was determined to find my way home alone, on the Noctilien (the night bus, or the knight bus, if you're a big nerd), which is the only means of transportation after 1am.
So it was that I found myself alone, walking down the Champs-Elysées at 4am, looking back at the Arc de Triomphe through the lightly falling snow, wishing I could share the moment with all of you.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Villa Clara
So I finally moved in to my luxurious residence, on the first floor of Villa Clara. My propriétaire, Clara Limage, is a fantastic woman. She is incredibly nice and welcoming, and even forgave me for breaking a glass on the first day (which I was kind of freaking out about). I've posted some pictures of the place on Facebook and a few below-- I actually can't believe how beautiful this house is. And I'm paying about the same as most people in the program.
The advantage of living in the house is that I get to speak a bit more french-- Clara's begun to speak to me mostly in french, except when she get's frustrated if I don't understand something (which is happening less and less) or if she wants to be cute (she spoke to me entirely in English the first time I met her, which I found out is because she likes to show off). I met her 13-year-old son Elias too, who seems to speak english as well, as all he's said to me is hello and sorry. I was a bit concerned at first about having to share the kitchen, but all she asked was that I let her have access to the kitchen during dinner time.
The house comes complete with a maid who comes once a week to clean my room and does the dishes and cleans the rest of the house daily. The maid is a really sweet Romanian woman whose name escapes my mind at the moment. She seems to speak French fluently, though Clara kind of dismisses her and says I likely speak more French than she does while rolling her eyes-- even though she's lived here for more than 10 years, Clara seems to think of her only as an immigrant, and the French are very weird about immigrants.
I went to the supermarket today for the first time and was able to find skim milk for lactose intolerant people, which is quite rare in france (both skim milk and milk for lactose intolerant people are rare, so the combination of the two was quite auspicious) and went on to eat 3 bowls of cereal. I also discovered that you're supposed to weigh the produce yourself in the produce section and not at the register. I got some stares :-/
I also went out to a club for the first time-- it wasn't anything terribly special, but it was fun to finally get a chance to go out and dance. Anyways, I must go to bed now, though I did want to include some pictures, so here goes. More updates to come:
The advantage of living in the house is that I get to speak a bit more french-- Clara's begun to speak to me mostly in french, except when she get's frustrated if I don't understand something (which is happening less and less) or if she wants to be cute (she spoke to me entirely in English the first time I met her, which I found out is because she likes to show off). I met her 13-year-old son Elias too, who seems to speak english as well, as all he's said to me is hello and sorry. I was a bit concerned at first about having to share the kitchen, but all she asked was that I let her have access to the kitchen during dinner time.
The house comes complete with a maid who comes once a week to clean my room and does the dishes and cleans the rest of the house daily. The maid is a really sweet Romanian woman whose name escapes my mind at the moment. She seems to speak French fluently, though Clara kind of dismisses her and says I likely speak more French than she does while rolling her eyes-- even though she's lived here for more than 10 years, Clara seems to think of her only as an immigrant, and the French are very weird about immigrants.
I went to the supermarket today for the first time and was able to find skim milk for lactose intolerant people, which is quite rare in france (both skim milk and milk for lactose intolerant people are rare, so the combination of the two was quite auspicious) and went on to eat 3 bowls of cereal. I also discovered that you're supposed to weigh the produce yourself in the produce section and not at the register. I got some stares :-/
I also went out to a club for the first time-- it wasn't anything terribly special, but it was fun to finally get a chance to go out and dance. Anyways, I must go to bed now, though I did want to include some pictures, so here goes. More updates to come:
Monday, January 19, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Rough Start
So I've been quite sick for the past few days, but I'm finally feeling better. I had a sinus infection for a while, which wasn't a big deal, then I got a horrible stomach bug, and I had to call the SOS doctor (a service for abroad students) and he made a "house call" to my room at the hostel. He didn't speak any English and was very impatient with me as I was writhing in pain on my bed, trying to understand his instructions about the 3 medications he was prescribing for me.
I slept about 18 hours yesterday and about 12 hours today, and I'm feeling a lot better. I even ate 2 meals today. I got to skype with my Mom, which was really comforting-- I think no matter how old you get, it's always nice to talk to your Mom when you're sick. It's kind of a bummer to see everyone going out and enjoying the city while I'm taking it easy here at the FIAP (the hostel), but I have 5 months here and I'm sure I will be spending plenty of time partying.
I picked out my apartment Wednesday afternoon-- it's technically a room in someone's house, but it's super super nice. The propriétaire (landlord) is nice, and speaks perfect English (not necessarily ideal) and has had more plastic surgery than anyone I've ever met. Chris Keel, another Brown student, lives in the other room, and I'm really excited to go party with him. The apartment is in a really nice area right next to the red-light district, which is more touristy now than prostitute-y.
I'm optimistic about the coming weeks, when I'll be posting about all the crazy adventures I'll be having.
I slept about 18 hours yesterday and about 12 hours today, and I'm feeling a lot better. I even ate 2 meals today. I got to skype with my Mom, which was really comforting-- I think no matter how old you get, it's always nice to talk to your Mom when you're sick. It's kind of a bummer to see everyone going out and enjoying the city while I'm taking it easy here at the FIAP (the hostel), but I have 5 months here and I'm sure I will be spending plenty of time partying.
I picked out my apartment Wednesday afternoon-- it's technically a room in someone's house, but it's super super nice. The propriétaire (landlord) is nice, and speaks perfect English (not necessarily ideal) and has had more plastic surgery than anyone I've ever met. Chris Keel, another Brown student, lives in the other room, and I'm really excited to go party with him. The apartment is in a really nice area right next to the red-light district, which is more touristy now than prostitute-y.
I'm optimistic about the coming weeks, when I'll be posting about all the crazy adventures I'll be having.
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