January 30th Wednesday
I had my alarm set for 8:30 but I didn’t get up until 9:00am. We all got ready to go to our first class. I ate my fruit muesli cereal and yogurt again for breakfast. We walked toward class fearing we might be a little late. We actually arrived before anyone else.
Karuna joined us in class again. I really like Padis’ classes. He’s much easier to understand because he talks so slow.
We stopped by the cafeteria to grab lunch afterward. I love the cheap little menus they have. I was able to get a ham baguette sandwich, an apple, and an orange juice for €2.80. It’s definitely much cheaper than anything near our house. This was why we grabbed some lunch and then took it back to the apartment. It was raining pretty steadily outside and I’d left my umbrella at home. I snuck random bites of my sandwich as we hurried home. Once there, I hooked up my computer to charge it for the next class and ate my lunch. I also read a bit for Irondelle’s class.
We made our way back over toward school. Irondelle’s class went better comprehension-wise. I even almost spoke in class but I wasn’t quite certain of the answer so I stayed quiet and timid.
After class Amanda invited me to go to a round table with her that evening. Adrienne and Karuna ran off to try to catch Astrid and talk about the program. Leonel joined Amanda and me. First we stopped off at my apartment since it was on the way. I made myself a little peanut butter and honey sandwich for a snack to hold myself over. I grabbed an iced tea for the road.
Leonel’s friend called him and needed his help for something so Leonel had to go. It was just Amanda and me. We walked down Rue de l’Université. This was the same group that Adrienne and I had gone to for the talk about renewable energy. The talk tonight was called “D’où vient le malaise de la jeunesse française?” (Why is the French youth so upset?) It was a very interesting talk. The statistics were also very interesting. When asked the question “Do you think you will have a good job someday?” 60% of the American youth said yes when only 27% of the French youth said yes. I didn’t realize that Americans are so optimistic but with all the questions asked I found that I would answer yes as well. I have lots of magazines and books from it with the rest of the statistics. It was a very interesting discussion. I am excited to go to the next week’s presentation as well. It’s amazing that I get to go to such neat presentations for free.
Amanda and I walked back to my house from the presentation. I was going to try to pick up some food from the Chinese takeout place, but when I called Karuna to see what she might want she told me they’d made dinner. Amanda and I went up so that she could get her bags. Karuna was in the kitchen cooking away. She had made beef patties, a mixture of pasta and Mediterranean vegetables, and rice. It was all very good.
We did not do much after dinner. We pretty much messed around online and went to bed.
Showing posts with label conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conference. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
January 21st Monday
I had my alarm set for 9:00am. It went off and I wrestled with it through a few snooze and time resets before finally just turning it off. I felt exhausted. We were awakened by the buzzer to our door at 12:30pm. Adrienne was the fastest getting up so she answered the little phone mechanism. There was a man on the other end that was talking very fast. She asked him to slow down and finally understood that he was trying to find keys to the “cave” which usually means wine cellar. She told him we have no such thing and hung up.
Now that we were awake we got ready for the day. I made myself a popeye with bread and an egg. It was actually very good. I also had a peach yogurt to go with it.
We threw in our towels for a load in the washer. I finished folding some socks that had finally dried. You have to really be patient without a dryer. I also sent an email to register myself for a conference that would happen that night. They said there were still some places. Adrienne registered too. It was free as long as you reserved a place.
After a while it was time for lunch. We just fixed up a little vegetable soup and had some madeleines. I didn’t want to make too much because it would be time for dinner soon. After eating I got to talk to my parents on Skype. We talked for a little before Adrienne and I had to get running.
Our conference was at 6:30pm but we needed to run by school in order to print a few things. It took us a long time to find a room to print in. We were finally able to print the emails confirming us for the conference as well as our plane information to Madrid.
We were then off at a very brisk pace toward Rue de l’Université. We needed to find the 137 address. We thought it would be near this end but discovered that it was actually on the 18 address here. We went as fast as we could through a rising cold wind down the Rue de l’Université. We had 30 minutes. We actually arrived at the conference only one or two minutes late. There were other people coming in still too. We were able to find some seats together and sat to watch the conference.
This was sponsored by the Fondation d’Innovation Politique (Foundation of Political Innovation) and titled “Europe de l’énergie à l’heure de l’hydrogène.” The main speaker was an American named Jeremy Rifkin. I looked him up once we got back and found out he was born in Denver, Colorado. The point of this talk was the importance of renewable energy and what role hydrogen played in that. His theory is that once we develop efficient ways of creating renewable energy, we can store it with hydrogen. He compared it to the internet. He said “Everyone under thirty in this room is use to producing his or her own information on the internet. Then these people are able to share it with friends through the web.” He said that energy could work that way. Each building and home could be its own power plant and if there is extra energy, send it through the grid back to a hub. It was a very interesting talk. There were two other speakers as well. They were both French and their names were Michèle Pappalardo and Edouard Laurent. There was also the theme of cooperation. It will be important for Europe and the United States to work together in leading the world toward renewable energy. The talk was very inspiring but still struck some people the wrong way. One point made in Rifkin’s talk was that France’s beloved nuclear power plants were not enough for future energy needs. One woman said that she didn’t understand how he could discount nuclear energy so fast.
Adrienne and I are hoping we can write some papers on renewable energy possibilities in Europe or perhaps something in the environment aspect. It’s a very interesting and current subject.
We made our way back home with our stomachs growling. We’d had a small lunch thinking we’d have time to eat before the talk. It was now close to 9:00pm. We stopped long enough to grab Adrienne’s ballot from the mail that her mom had forwarded to her. Then while she talked on Skype with Chris about the issues, I started making dinner. I made couscous and ratatouille again. It cooks up pretty fast. I had some lemonade to drink. I scarfed it all down like a starving wolf. I was so hungry. Adrienne ate some while she was talking on Skype. I had some fromage blanc with peach halves for dessert.
Afterward, I got to talk to my parents for longer on Skype. I worked on finishing the reading for the next day’s class. I was up until around 1:00am.
I had my alarm set for 9:00am. It went off and I wrestled with it through a few snooze and time resets before finally just turning it off. I felt exhausted. We were awakened by the buzzer to our door at 12:30pm. Adrienne was the fastest getting up so she answered the little phone mechanism. There was a man on the other end that was talking very fast. She asked him to slow down and finally understood that he was trying to find keys to the “cave” which usually means wine cellar. She told him we have no such thing and hung up.
Now that we were awake we got ready for the day. I made myself a popeye with bread and an egg. It was actually very good. I also had a peach yogurt to go with it.
We threw in our towels for a load in the washer. I finished folding some socks that had finally dried. You have to really be patient without a dryer. I also sent an email to register myself for a conference that would happen that night. They said there were still some places. Adrienne registered too. It was free as long as you reserved a place.
After a while it was time for lunch. We just fixed up a little vegetable soup and had some madeleines. I didn’t want to make too much because it would be time for dinner soon. After eating I got to talk to my parents on Skype. We talked for a little before Adrienne and I had to get running.
Our conference was at 6:30pm but we needed to run by school in order to print a few things. It took us a long time to find a room to print in. We were finally able to print the emails confirming us for the conference as well as our plane information to Madrid.
We were then off at a very brisk pace toward Rue de l’Université. We needed to find the 137 address. We thought it would be near this end but discovered that it was actually on the 18 address here. We went as fast as we could through a rising cold wind down the Rue de l’Université. We had 30 minutes. We actually arrived at the conference only one or two minutes late. There were other people coming in still too. We were able to find some seats together and sat to watch the conference.
This was sponsored by the Fondation d’Innovation Politique (Foundation of Political Innovation) and titled “Europe de l’énergie à l’heure de l’hydrogène.” The main speaker was an American named Jeremy Rifkin. I looked him up once we got back and found out he was born in Denver, Colorado. The point of this talk was the importance of renewable energy and what role hydrogen played in that. His theory is that once we develop efficient ways of creating renewable energy, we can store it with hydrogen. He compared it to the internet. He said “Everyone under thirty in this room is use to producing his or her own information on the internet. Then these people are able to share it with friends through the web.” He said that energy could work that way. Each building and home could be its own power plant and if there is extra energy, send it through the grid back to a hub. It was a very interesting talk. There were two other speakers as well. They were both French and their names were Michèle Pappalardo and Edouard Laurent. There was also the theme of cooperation. It will be important for Europe and the United States to work together in leading the world toward renewable energy. The talk was very inspiring but still struck some people the wrong way. One point made in Rifkin’s talk was that France’s beloved nuclear power plants were not enough for future energy needs. One woman said that she didn’t understand how he could discount nuclear energy so fast.
Adrienne and I are hoping we can write some papers on renewable energy possibilities in Europe or perhaps something in the environment aspect. It’s a very interesting and current subject.
We made our way back home with our stomachs growling. We’d had a small lunch thinking we’d have time to eat before the talk. It was now close to 9:00pm. We stopped long enough to grab Adrienne’s ballot from the mail that her mom had forwarded to her. Then while she talked on Skype with Chris about the issues, I started making dinner. I made couscous and ratatouille again. It cooks up pretty fast. I had some lemonade to drink. I scarfed it all down like a starving wolf. I was so hungry. Adrienne ate some while she was talking on Skype. I had some fromage blanc with peach halves for dessert.
Afterward, I got to talk to my parents for longer on Skype. I worked on finishing the reading for the next day’s class. I was up until around 1:00am.
Friday, January 18, 2008
January 18th Friday
Knowing that it didn’t take us long to get to the workshop and that it was later, we got up at 8:00am. We were going to try to be brave and go to the presentations on five hours of sleep. I had some of my 3 chocolate Muesli and a strawberry yogurt.
We got to the building and watched people come in for the workshop. They had another welcome coffee set out on the table. I wanted to stay awake so I went ahead and grabbed a little coffee. I poured a lot of milk and sugar in. I actually liked the drink and even though I couldn’t taste the coffee that much, I was worried. I don’t want to get hooked on coffee.
We settled in and the presentations started at 9:35am. This section was called “A New Public/Private Boundary” and addressed private actors in the EU. I was able to stay awake through the presentations. I ended up doing some class reading in the in between time.
Adrienne was feeling really tired so at the coffee break she went home to sleep. I ended up having an orange juice and staying for the next section before lunch. I didn’t always understand the entire presentation but I still enjoyed attending.
I left between 11:30 and 12 to go home. On my way home I was noticing all of the interesting door handles. I started taking pictures of them and decided to start collecting pictures of strange door handles. In certain places I’m sure they can get really weird. I tried to hurry home because it was drizzling on me.
I got home and made some lunch for myself. I went ahead and made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Then to combat my unhealthiness I sliced some tomato and cucumber and put balsamic vinegar on the pieces. I had a few madeleines for dessert.
I played on my computer for a little while. I was really tired so I decided to take a nap. I got into bed and slept until about 5:30pm. I set an alarm so that I wouldn’t oversleep.
Adrienne and I woke up for a little bit. It was getting near dinner time so we tried to figure out what we wanted. We ended up making some curly pasta noodles with marinara sauce. We added some chicken to the sauce and it actually turned out pretty good. Adrienne got a baguette to go with it. It was very yummy.
After dinner, I was still in my pajamas from my nap. I got a text message from Carlos that was half in English and half in French. Basically Carlos, Yannick, and Katharina were going to go out to a club called Favela Chic and he wondered if I would like to go. I debated and noted the fact that I was already in my comfy pajamas but finally replied that I would come.
I got dressed up in a new gray skirt, a nice black shirt, and my high heeled boots. I was kind of worried about being bothered by guys on my way there but I shrugged it off. I met the group a little after midnight by the République metro stop. We went down the street to the club. The place was very interesting. It’s Brazilian themed and is a restaurant by day. Tonight it was quite packed with people. It made it very hot and sweaty there because they turned off the air. Now that France has a no smoking law, they don’t have to pump in fresh air. They take this law very seriously too. I saw at least five people light up and then get forcibly removed from the club by a large bouncer. They didn’t mess around. The guy would walk up, grab the people by the arm, and start pulling them out. He might stop long enough to give a quick reason as to why they were being kicked out.
I had fun with the Euromasters. When I paid to get in I received a free drink card. I got a mojito and it was very good. The drinks were expensive so I didn’t buy any more after that.
I was lucky enough to only have one stranger talk to me. I couldn’t ever understand his name. He was Italian and speaking to me in French. It was hard to understand him over the pounding music. He directed the shouted conversation toward French cuisine and asked if I liked it. When I replied in the affirmative, he offered to take me out to get some. I politely declined. When he asked why I invented some fake boyfriend back in the states. He eventually drifted away.
The only other weird part of the night was the strange text messages I received from Alberto. He kept asking me if I was awake. I told him I was but couldn’t talk on the phone. I asked if something was wrong. He said he was fine but he kept asking me if I was awake. Finally, later in the night, he told me that he’d gotten locked out of his house and his roommate was asleep “but I’m fine now.”
The club finally kicked us out at 4:00am. We went out and walked around the area debating what we could do. We had to stay out until at least 5:30 because that’s when the metro starts running again. We walked for a bit while Carlos fumed over the injustice of the club closing so early. That would never happen in Spain. There you can stay out until 7or 9 in the morning. I was glad I understand Spanish because I would have missed the amusing swearing.
We finally ended up going to a bar called Les Tonneaux (The Barrels). The crowd was much older there. I was surprised to see so many adults beyond college age there. I went ahead and ordered a Coke. It came in a neat bottle with a Coca Cola glass. I was pretty psyched. I wasn’t psyched about the large woman who approached me at the bar. “Ça va mademoiselle?” I got a big creepy vibe so I merely muttered “Oui ça va.” Before moving closer to my friends.
Finally it was late (or early) enough for the trains to start running. We dropped Yannick off at the metro and started walking toward Châtelet. Carlos walked Katharina home and I went to catch the metro. I was getting on the metro at 6:00am. I was surrounded mostly by people beginning their day, not ending it. I pulled out my iPod and listened to music for the ride home. The sun still hadn’t risen by the time I came home. My feet were killing me.
I found Adrienne still awake. She had been playing games with her sister online since I had left. We both got ready for bed and chatted a bit. I even got to talk to Tom online. I finally went to bed at 7:30am.
Knowing that it didn’t take us long to get to the workshop and that it was later, we got up at 8:00am. We were going to try to be brave and go to the presentations on five hours of sleep. I had some of my 3 chocolate Muesli and a strawberry yogurt.
We got to the building and watched people come in for the workshop. They had another welcome coffee set out on the table. I wanted to stay awake so I went ahead and grabbed a little coffee. I poured a lot of milk and sugar in. I actually liked the drink and even though I couldn’t taste the coffee that much, I was worried. I don’t want to get hooked on coffee.
We settled in and the presentations started at 9:35am. This section was called “A New Public/Private Boundary” and addressed private actors in the EU. I was able to stay awake through the presentations. I ended up doing some class reading in the in between time.
Adrienne was feeling really tired so at the coffee break she went home to sleep. I ended up having an orange juice and staying for the next section before lunch. I didn’t always understand the entire presentation but I still enjoyed attending.
I left between 11:30 and 12 to go home. On my way home I was noticing all of the interesting door handles. I started taking pictures of them and decided to start collecting pictures of strange door handles. In certain places I’m sure they can get really weird. I tried to hurry home because it was drizzling on me.
I got home and made some lunch for myself. I went ahead and made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Then to combat my unhealthiness I sliced some tomato and cucumber and put balsamic vinegar on the pieces. I had a few madeleines for dessert.
I played on my computer for a little while. I was really tired so I decided to take a nap. I got into bed and slept until about 5:30pm. I set an alarm so that I wouldn’t oversleep.
Adrienne and I woke up for a little bit. It was getting near dinner time so we tried to figure out what we wanted. We ended up making some curly pasta noodles with marinara sauce. We added some chicken to the sauce and it actually turned out pretty good. Adrienne got a baguette to go with it. It was very yummy.
After dinner, I was still in my pajamas from my nap. I got a text message from Carlos that was half in English and half in French. Basically Carlos, Yannick, and Katharina were going to go out to a club called Favela Chic and he wondered if I would like to go. I debated and noted the fact that I was already in my comfy pajamas but finally replied that I would come.
I got dressed up in a new gray skirt, a nice black shirt, and my high heeled boots. I was kind of worried about being bothered by guys on my way there but I shrugged it off. I met the group a little after midnight by the République metro stop. We went down the street to the club. The place was very interesting. It’s Brazilian themed and is a restaurant by day. Tonight it was quite packed with people. It made it very hot and sweaty there because they turned off the air. Now that France has a no smoking law, they don’t have to pump in fresh air. They take this law very seriously too. I saw at least five people light up and then get forcibly removed from the club by a large bouncer. They didn’t mess around. The guy would walk up, grab the people by the arm, and start pulling them out. He might stop long enough to give a quick reason as to why they were being kicked out.
I had fun with the Euromasters. When I paid to get in I received a free drink card. I got a mojito and it was very good. The drinks were expensive so I didn’t buy any more after that.
I was lucky enough to only have one stranger talk to me. I couldn’t ever understand his name. He was Italian and speaking to me in French. It was hard to understand him over the pounding music. He directed the shouted conversation toward French cuisine and asked if I liked it. When I replied in the affirmative, he offered to take me out to get some. I politely declined. When he asked why I invented some fake boyfriend back in the states. He eventually drifted away.
The only other weird part of the night was the strange text messages I received from Alberto. He kept asking me if I was awake. I told him I was but couldn’t talk on the phone. I asked if something was wrong. He said he was fine but he kept asking me if I was awake. Finally, later in the night, he told me that he’d gotten locked out of his house and his roommate was asleep “but I’m fine now.”
The club finally kicked us out at 4:00am. We went out and walked around the area debating what we could do. We had to stay out until at least 5:30 because that’s when the metro starts running again. We walked for a bit while Carlos fumed over the injustice of the club closing so early. That would never happen in Spain. There you can stay out until 7or 9 in the morning. I was glad I understand Spanish because I would have missed the amusing swearing.
We finally ended up going to a bar called Les Tonneaux (The Barrels). The crowd was much older there. I was surprised to see so many adults beyond college age there. I went ahead and ordered a Coke. It came in a neat bottle with a Coca Cola glass. I was pretty psyched. I wasn’t psyched about the large woman who approached me at the bar. “Ça va mademoiselle?” I got a big creepy vibe so I merely muttered “Oui ça va.” Before moving closer to my friends.
Finally it was late (or early) enough for the trains to start running. We dropped Yannick off at the metro and started walking toward Châtelet. Carlos walked Katharina home and I went to catch the metro. I was getting on the metro at 6:00am. I was surrounded mostly by people beginning their day, not ending it. I pulled out my iPod and listened to music for the ride home. The sun still hadn’t risen by the time I came home. My feet were killing me.
I found Adrienne still awake. She had been playing games with her sister online since I had left. We both got ready for bed and chatted a bit. I even got to talk to Tom online. I finally went to bed at 7:30am.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
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
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
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