Oh yeah. Blogging.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009

In addition to researching internship opportunities (and mailing off about fifteen applications), I have been my usual busy self, stretching time between seeing the city, reading, school, and social engagements.  The good news is that my February intensive six-hours-a-day French course is over, so I have more free time.  What's more, I can officially state that I received my first rejection letter from National Geographic.  While the intern apps are still rolling out via the French postal system, I've begun a new set of classes at the Institut Catholique de Paris, the school I'm attending this semester.

Here's the course load.  Pretend like you're interested:

• The Media in France: A course taught in French about, well, the media in France.  It's a bit like what I imagine journalism 101 is in the US -- lots of talk about newspapers, layouts, different types of titles, when publications were founded, how they've changed, etc. etc.  The French press may have more in common with the US press than it has differences, but still.  A country whose modern press began after the Revolution, and who still has a tabloid founded by Sartre called Libération certainly has my attention.  It's fun to gather more information than I will ever use about which newspaper is on which side of the political scale.
• The EU: A course taught in English by a professor who has my heart.  She was schooled in Britain, has Norwegian citizenship, speaks French, English, and Norwegian fluently, and has lived in France for twenty years.  Also I feel like she should be teaching at Hogwart's.  She wears purple every day, which matches the purple she wears up to her eyebrows.  Also she has frizzy hair that defies gravity, and peppers all conversation with bon, donc, and ouais, regardless of what language she's speaking.  In the EU class we learn about its foundation, its treaties, and its purpose, building up to issues within the EU today and debates concerning its effectiveness.
• France today:  After attending my first EU class, I immediately dropped a course titled "Contemporary Art" without even sitting through the first session.  I then joined this France class, taught by my EU professor.  Beginning with the Revolution we discuss the Fifth Republic (and how it came about, taking into consideration the Republics that preceded it).  Using the Revolution as well as the structure of its government, we use France's history as a lens for today's culture.  Supplementary reading that I have been devouring: Sixty-Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong by Jean Benoit-Nadeau and Julie Barlow.  Once I finish I'll move on to their book on the French language, The Story of French.  I highly recommend both as relatively in-depth look at French culture.  Their writing style is a bit dryer and more textbooky than say, Adam Gopnik's, but it's still a good read.

In other news, travel plans are shaping up for the semester.  First up are American visitors.  Last weekend Melinda, a graduate of UA's French program, came to Paris.  She's been living in Nantes and we finally managed to cross paths.  We saw Fontainebleau and Victor Hugo's house (pictures forthcoming).  Next up are three other Alabamian friends who found affordable tickets and have nothing better to do for their spring break than to visit me.  Immediately following is a trip to Dublin, to see another Alabamian friend from high school who's studying at Trinity for the semester.  The following weekend I see Adis in Sarajevo.  Then for spring break I'm going to Greece for a few days with friends.  All I can say is that even with terrible service and inconvenient airports, thank goodness for RyanAir and easyjet alike.  Though most of my savings are now pocket lint, if there's anything left over I might hop over to Casablanca for a weekend.  All of which is to say that if you have any tips or recommendations for any or all upcoming destinations, please send them my way.

Things I owe you, now that I fixed Movable Type (it's been broken for about two weeks, making it impossible to update until I found time to reinstall everything):

1. Notes on Italy
2. Photos from Melinda's visit and our trip to Fontainbleau and Victor Hugo's house
3. Photos/stories from the north of France, a weekend excursion I recently took with my program
4. Istanbul (maybe it's been so long that you've forgotten)
5. My life, the future, and everything
6. Current expos and photography showing in Paris, and what I think about all that, including but not limited to: David Lachapelle, Marc Riboud, François Rousseau
7. Other trips, travels, and things I wish I could do before I return to the US -- a bit of flickr magic and web research on cool places to see in the future
8. French culture via Sixty-Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong.
   

Cast your vote in the comments for which should come first.

5:29 PM          Tags: class, Paris, travel           filed under: daily

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