Trip to Disneyland Paris

I spent the day at Disneyland Paris with Zuzanna, who is leaving for Poland on Sunday. Many of the ERASMUS people that I had the pleasure of meeting this semester are leaving around this period, one goodbye party at a time.

Today was a fun day with awesome weather - couldn't ask for any better! I am now painfully exhausted. In so...much...pain........

Below are some photo highlights of the day. Hope you enjoy the "happiest place on Earth". No wonder a place like that doesn't exist, you'd die from exhaustion way too quickly.

Losing face at the Panthéon and soirée at pont des Arts

Here is, just for fun, two pictures of the Panthéon that I took before I broke my camera. That contemporain artpiece you see in the first picture isn't there anymore... someone probably realized that it will not stand the test of a line of people sitting and slowly picking it apart all day long. I have been walking by this monument twice almost daily, going to and fro between campus and residence, but only today did I finally go in. However, I embarassed myself pretty severely at the ticket counter.

See, a new regulation in France abolished the cost of museums and monuments for anyone with an EU citizenship under the age of 25. Although I have no real EU citizenship, I have been successfully sneaking in plenty of places with only my student card and then pretending that I forgot my citizenship card if anyone ever asked. But today, the woman at the ticket counter actually asked for me to give her my card, and asked me if I was a French citizen. Since she already had the card in her hands, I was afraid she would turn it over and see the words "international exchange student" written clearly on the back. I said "no" (I really surprised myself with that one too). She asked from which country I was from, and after stuttering for a couple of seconds and still not being able to think of ONE SINGLE country in the EU, I said "Italy". Awkward! I can't speak a single word in Italian so I would have looked real smart right there if she wanted to test it out. I got lucky this time, but it was obvious that she knew I was lying. Next time, I better stick with countries from which I know the language, like Belgium!

At night, my friend Zuzanna and I joined Vincent's group of friends at the Pont des Arts for a late-night picnic before he goes back to the Réunion (a French island in the Indian Ocean, near Madagascar) for the summer. Alors Vincent, si tu arrives sur cette page, juste pour te dire que je sais où se trouve la Réunion! =P

Le pont des Arts bridges over the Seine and is where young people gather, very strategically I have to add, to chill with friends and meet new people! It's such a great concept, and beautiful too! I also got to see Jeanne and Chen (my friends/neighbours from residence) and her lovely girlfriends, Maro, Maya, Céline and Xiaole. Although a couple of us had to leave before midnight, it was a good evening with a very awesome group of people! Okay, enough ass-sucking for today =P

Bonne nuit les amis!

In between Paris and Germany

It's so hot and humid in Paris these past couple of days that it is become impossible to study. I'm still very lucky because the window in my room faces the East and I only feel like roast pork in the afternoon. My friends in the residence whose rooms face the West says that they are forced to wake up by 7:30am because the sun and heat makes it impossible to sleep!

I am training to become more organized. For example, my first two exams are Wednesday and Thursday and I feel OK because I've been studying little by little over the past two weeks. When I'll be back at McGill in September, I've decided to take out 1-hour to review class notes everynight to keep the stress level low during exam time and human level high. This is something I should have done long ago and of course, I had to make the decision at the end of my years as an undergrad. Time's been going way too fast. I recently found out that two friends from my grade are the president and co-president of CUSS (Chemistry Undergraduate Society) next year and I had to pinch myself to realize that it isn't too early and that this IS our last year! We are the top dogs now. Joking.

On another note, I will be blogging for the DAAD's RISE program during my three months stay in Aachen, Germany! I received an email from them saying that they were looking for someone from Canada who'd like to blog about their experiences so I thought it would be a good idea to apply! I don't know what they're looking for though. I would still like to be really honest with how I feel and stuff but from what I have seen so far with the current bloggers, the posts seem pretty mechanical. Maybe DAAD forced them to be neutral? If you have time to spare: http://www.daad.de/blog

I was asked to send them a picture of myself and this is the one I chose (from a trip to Belgium in March):

It's the only decent front shot of myself that I have, the others are just too weird and/or random. But I'm wondering if the guy peeing on top (it's the Manneken Pis in Napoleon's costume!) could be considered censorable by a reputable institution? He is peeing on my head. Ya I'm worrying too much. Good night.

Louvre night

I went back to the Louvre today. I can't keep count of the number of times I've gone back there. Now, everything is familiar enough so that I can take it all in, relax, and enjoy the overbearing details. I must have walked back and forth in the French Romanticism areas for over an hour, consistently coming back to basically two paintings: La Balsa de la Medusa and Liberty Leading the People. They're "les crèmes de la crème" - MASTERPIECES and it's almost impossible to compliment/critique them, because words are just not enough. You can just stare at them in awe. Especially La Balsa de la Medusa. It helps that the painting is huge.

I remember the first time I went to the Louvre, I felt so self-conscious and angsty and generally uncomfortable, being one among the hundreds of tourists. But now, I'm finally cured of that disease. I don't care about going to the Louvre alone, I actually enjoy it a lot. This is one of those things that an exchange does to you. Mine de rien, you turn fully confident in front of strangers. And you know that it's OK even if you don't feel like that. I hope I won't regress.

Afterwards, I went to rue St-Anne next to the Louvre with Zuza and her boyfriend Robert who came to visit from Poland to get Japanese food (lol this sentence sounds funny!). For those who are not from Paris, rue St-Anne is Japan heaven. There must be about 20 Japanese restaurants placed door-to-door from each other. Just great. And they stay open very late, since the French have the habit of eating later in the evening. Sorry, no pictures because I broke my camera! But I'll go get myself one tomorrow. Don't get me wrong, I'm not rich - I just think that memories are important to preserve!

I became suddenly depressed this afternoon (while working at the lab, what a coincidence) at the thought of my life being too routine-like. I wake up at 8:00am. Eat breakfast, do whatever I need to do before heading out. Rush through the morning crowd in the Quartier Latin, I don't see anyone, I don't look, don't care. I've walked these streets too often. I get to the lab at 9:00, return home at 7:00pm. From then onwards, there's barely any time left to do anything. Seeing a friend quickly costs more than one hour. It is never enough. How many people live like this? Where is the human side of it all? This kind of life is absurd! I need people tweaking and messing around with my life and changing my destiny. I want my life to be a mess, period.

I went to the bakery after work and the baker-lady was having a hilarious but extremely rude conversation with a customer...
Lady : Allez vous en, je veux plus vous voir.
Customer : Oh madame, comme vous êtes gentille avec moi! À demain!
Lady: Mais non, vous pouvez seulement venir une fois par semaine. Voyez, vous avez déjà trois baguettes. Ça fait lundi, mardi, mercredi. Vous pouvez seulement revenir jeudi.

........

Sad story: I was checking myself out with my new earrings last night and decided to take pictures of myself. I grabbed my camera and due to the severity of my butterfingers, the camera slipped out of my hands and dropped to its death. This is the second time I break a digital camera within 6 months, and it was in a similar situation last time too! Coincidentally, a few months ago, I broke a friend's camera who was staying over in my flat, proposed to pay but refused in the end because I figured it wasn't my fault. So this is either a sign that narcissism is a sin or it is karma payback time.

It's back to the lab tomorrow morning. It feels terrible to get back to work after a uber relaxing 4-day weekend. Classes are officially finishing this week and I can't believe how soon I will be leaving. Although I know that it's time to get the hell out of here and turn a new page! I think one thing I will definitely take away from this exchange semester in Paris to how to defend myself and get what I want. Turns out you can have anything you wish in this world if you're firm enough. It hasn't worked in my favor yet but I think I know the basic principles...

Here's a picture of me under a Université du Québec sign! French people here consider me québécoise heehee

Just came back from the cinema after watching "Coco avant Chanel" with a friend from residence. Watch French movie in France, check. The viewing was at 10 pm and since I did not stick my nose out the door all day, it really felt like this is when my day started. The movie featured Audrey Tatou as Coco Chanel. She did a good job playing the role of the ambitious career woman type, but the storyline was pretty boring. It put too much emphasis on her love life instead of her career, which was not much of a love life at all (but who am I to talk lol).

I haven't had classes for two days already and it feels just great!!! I'm so glad I still have two more days to laze around in boredom. Since I don't have much time in Paris, I try to find ways to make time pass slowly. The best way to do that is to be bored! Only joking of course. There are still so many places that I need to visit in the mere 3 weeks that's left. I might go to Orsay Museum tomorrow.

Oh yes, and I should mention that I went to a Canadian Bar yesterday night to taste the only poutine menu I've seen in town. But they don't get it! Grated emmental and parsley can't make poutine happen!

Finally, a new post!

Back to normal. I think I conquered my two weeks all-time low! Time really does heal everything. Still at some points during the day, I would terribly want to talk with mom but by the time I wait until she comes home from work, I wouldn't be too bothered to call. Instead, I'd feel the urge to watch an episode of How I Met Your Mother! Who else loves that show? Tomorrow, I'll be visiting Versailles gardens with Carolyn, who recently got here from Montreal and then going to a Canadian pub at night with a couple of friends from rez! I've checked out the menu and I'll be getting myself a 8.50 euro poutine, thank you very much. Missing you, Canada!

It's been a week I've started my internship in the Condensed Materials lab, at Collège de France, a few blocks away from Luxembourg. Since I was only able to take 4 courses this semester, I need to work in a lab to make up for the credits. I'm getting better at working in sync with karma, I can feel it. But GOD if I ever ever get a lab job again after Germany, someone please come and poke me in the eye. The work itself is not that boring but it's not what I aspire to do and I refuse to live the dream of a ghost.

There's one month left to my exchange. It really does feel like the end ever since I went to gare Montparnasse and bought my train ticket for Aachen. I'll try to make the most of it but I don't know Paris at all.