February 13th Wednesday

I got up around 9:00am and had some cereal for breakfast. Adrienne and I walked to class. We had class with Padis first. In here we had an interesting side discussion spring up about how in the states you have to check a box saying whether you were ever convicted of a felony when you’re applying for a job.

After class we went to the cafeteria. I got a four cheese Panini for lunch. They heated it up and made all the cheeses melty. I also bought an orange juice. The sandwich was very good. Again, it was a good change from the ham sandwiches. I sat down and ate with Heidi and Amanda. Soon Katharina joined us too. We ate and chatted and then Amanda and Heidi went to the library to do some work. Professor Irondelle had told us that we could try to get our subjects into him today. It didn’t sound like he expected them all today. He seemed open to being told the subjects later.

Katharina stuck around for a while before running off as well. I stayed to charge my computer for the next class and to try to finish the reading. I saw Yannick in the cafeteria as well. He got his lunch and came to sit with me. Eventually Katharina returned. Then the silliness with the webcams started. Our laptops have webcams in them so we started taking silly pictures of each other. It was a good way to blow off steam before the next class.

We had our class with Irondelle next. I found out that the research subjects were more required than I thought. I would have to write it and send it to him that night. I also witnessed something I’d like to call a cultural event. One of the readings we were about to discuss in class treated the decline of France. The author, Kramer, blamed the decline mostly on Chirac. He also made the claim that French immigrants now have it worse than the blacks during the civil rights movement in a way. I could understand the idea that the author was going for, but there still wasn’t a comparison. Many students in the class did not like the reading and strongly disagreed with it. When we began discussion Matteo led the charge with a little speech directed at the professor that amounted to “Who do you think you are making us read this? This reading was poorly written and the author presents stupid ideas.” He was able to get some of the other European students to join in and voice similar ideas. The Americans sat back and watched in a kind of horror. I couldn’t believe students were talking to a professor like that. It just really surprised me. From what I’ve seen in the states, if students disagree with a reading, they say why. They don’t ever attack the professor for having assigned it. It was very strange. I talked to the other Americans after class and they had the same feelings as me. We wondered if it was a European thing. Did average French students behave the same?

Luckily, the professor kind of steepled his fingers and smiled, letting the students get it out. Then he told us that he assigned the reading because it was a very influential article. It was the first in its area to be published in the US. People in the states were trying to understand what was happening in Europe. He conceded that the author may have indulged in a little controversial language, but that was probably because it was an article published in Foreign Affairs. We were able to move past that and discuss the article but people kept throwing out comments about how stupid the author was or how poorly written the article was.

At the end of class I had a different kind of exchange with Amanda. She had purchased a Navigo yearly metro pass and they told her it wouldn’t be ready for a month. She went ahead and bought a February month metro pass. Then she got her Navigo pass very quickly. She offered to let me buy the month pass for €10. I jumped at the opportunity because even if the month was almost half over, the pass is originally over €55. I ended up buying it for €14 because she only had €6 change for my 20. It was still an awesome deal. I’m debating whether or not to get a yearly pass or to just go monthly at this point.

Adrienne and I walked home and stopped by the boulangerie along the way. We bought a baguette and (since the next day would be Valentine’s Day) two chocolate hearts. The store was decked out with chocolate hearts everywhere. We bought the tiny ones.

We took those home and dropped off our backpacks and computers. Our next stop was at Franprix to get groceries. I bought some different cheeses and wines. I was planning a big dinner for Valentine’s Day so I needed to get some ingredients. I bought two whole chickens. One unfortunate event occurred while shopping there. I was examining a case of milk and apparently made it nervous because the next thing I knew it was peeing on me. There was a hole in one of the boxes and as soon as I picked it up it started to leek. I put down the case and went to the front to tell them. They gave me some paper towels to wipe off the front of my jacket. I led the clerk back so he could see where the spill was. He teased me by saying “On va chercher le balai à laver et vous pouvez le nettoyer?” (We’ll get the mop and you can clean it up ‘kay?) The rest of the shopping trip happened without incident. We made our way home.

For dinner I made a hamburger patty with cheese on top. I made green beans to go with it and also had baguette with my new cheeses. I had some goat cheese and some Rondelé red pepper cheese spread. I had a little bit of chocolate for dessert.

After dinner I tried to figure out what subject I wanted to research for Irondelle’s class. I got distracted a bit but then kept researching. I had a general idea of looking at the environment and the EU but I needed to figure out a more precise question.

M. Choupin dropped by to say hi and give me a mail slip that had been put in his mailbox. We also told him that we went to the bank and they said that they needed him to fill out their form instead of the letter we gave them. He agreed to look at the forms so we gave those to him. We also gave him some Spanish chocolate that we’d bought on our trip. Karuna told us that he’d said we were too timid and he was worried we were afraid of him. I wanted to be able to show him that we weren’t scared of him, just trying to respect his privacy.

M. Choupin left and I got back to researching. I ended up calling my parents around midnight to try to get some help talking out my question. It helps me to talk out problems to my parents. Even if they don’t have much to add, it helps me think. I’m sure they can expect calls from me even after I become a career woman. I’ll say “Dad, can you help me think how I should word my speech for the next EU talk?”

They did indeed help me talk out my problems and figure out how to word my question. We talked it out until 1:00am. I wrote out my question and sent it in an email to my professor. I didn’t get to bed until around 3:00am.