January 17th Thursday

Adrienne and I forced ourselves out of bed at 7:15am. We were planning on going to a workshop concerning the EU (conducted in English) that started this day and lasted until the 18th. I munched on some Muesli with fruit in it instead of chocolate.

We walked out and headed in the direction of the pink tinted horizon. We got to 56 Rue Jacob a bit early and had to wait for the building to open. We finally were able to sneak in and sit in the waiting area. We met another early bird named Egle Svilpaite. She is from Lithuania and was going to the same conference. We were wondering if we were in the right place since it was time for the welcome to begin and nobody was there. Slowly people trickled in and began collecting around the table decked with coffee, tea, orange juice, water, and a collection of pastries. I helped myself to some orange juice and a tiny pain au chocolat.

We went into the large conference room then. Tables formed a large rectangle in the middle of the room with some audience seating off to the side. We settled in and listened to the introduction given by M. Dehousse, the director of our program. I enjoyed his English accent with a slight French accent laid over the top. He ended up presenting a paper as well. They structured the program so that there would be two presentations followed by discussion and questions. Then they broke for coffee, repeated the process, and then had lunch. The title of this section was “The End of the ‘Community Model’?”

I was not able to keep my eyes open during the first two presentations. I wasn’t bored, just very tired. I was extremely embarrassed since one of our future teachers was there and I would sometimes open my eyes to see her looking disapprovingly at me. I decided we should go home at the first coffee break to take a nap and then come back for the afternoon session.

We walked home and bought some sandwiches for lunch in a café next to our apartment building. I had the ham with cheese, tomato, and lettuce. We munched for a bit and then settled down for a quick nap.

We were able to get up and return to the conference at 2:30pm where people were returning from lunch. We had only missed two papers. We got to see the next four presentations before they finished for the day at 6:30pm. This section was titled “Integration as Depoliticization.”
Adrienne and I both had a desire to go to a restaurant to eat dinner. I wanted to call Alberto thinking we could meet him up in Montmartre where he lives. It turned out that he was at Sciences Po near us. We met up at the metro and decided to go to St. Michel to find a restaurant.

We got off the metro in St. Michel at Rue de la Huchette and looked around. The area was full of Greek and Couscous restaurants. As we walked down the street, two drunk guys standing in front of a restaurant started singing at us. An older man across the street yelled at them “Laisse passer!” (Basically telling them not to bother us.) There were people outside of places trying to call customers in. We ended up talking to a guy about a place with Couscous and French cuisine. We decided to go in because they had a menu of three courses for €9. The menu was only for French food so Adrienne and Alberto got that while I ended up ordering a tajine. Mine was baked in a tented clay pot. It had chicken with citrus, potatoes, peas, tomato, and onion. It has a plate of couscous that comes with it. It was so delicious. The couscous was very fine and light. The flavor of the chicken and vegetables was so rich. We each got a free glass of red wine before the dinner. It was pretty good. Alberto and Adrienne don’t drink so I was able to steal theirs. Alberto also let me steal is ice cream after dinner. There was strawberry and mocha. After dinner we had a complimentary glass of hot mint tea as well. Overall, the food was delicious, the atmosphere and the waiter were charming. I had a very fun time. Alberto even bought us each a white rose for friendship.

We left dinner and walked to Notre Dame. We took some pictures of it with the Christmas tree in front. While we were taking pictures, a French guy was walking by with a friend and said “Ah touriste!” I gave him a look that basically said, “WTF. Take that back before I hurt you.” He actually looked really embarrassed and said “Oh, c’est pas vous!” and pointed to his friend that he was teasing. I got a kick out of it because the guy actually looked kind of scared of me for a moment. We got to take some really fun pictures there. I saw some couples sitting on benches and made a comment about how lucky Parisian couples were. They can go to really nice looking places for a date without too much trouble.

I got a text message saying that the Euromasters group was meeting up at a bar. Alberto decided to go home but Adrienne and I walked up past the Hôtel de Ville and ended up on Rue Vieille du Temple. The bar was called La Perle. We were able to meet up with Katharina, Sara, John, David, and Amanda. It was an interesting place. It had loud music but no real place to dance. I was able to get a glass of cheap sauvignon wine. It was very yummy.

Adrienne and I hung out with people there until 1:30. We ended up walking home along the Seine for a bit. It always seems like a long walk when I’m walking it, but it only ends up taking 15 minutes or so. We made it home and I talked to my parents on Skype for a bit. I finally got to bed at 3:30am