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By bevvy2212

Since my roommate left me for the weekend to go travel with her mom, I was feeling quite lonely all by myself in Paris. Hard to imagine, right? Paris is great and everything, but sometimes it gets a little bit routine-ish. I think I’ve gotten quite lazy recently as the hype of being in Paris finally dissipated. Sure, it’s cool to visit Musée D’Orsay or the Louvre on a casual afternoon but they get old eventually. So on Friday night, I was on the phone with a friend and he suggested that we should go to Le Havre at 8am the next morning. It sounded crazy to me at the time, and super exciting.

So we took the train from Paris Saint-Lazzare station to Le Havre. Round trip was around 34 euros with my carte de jeune. It’s funny because the trains don’t have a physical barrier that bar passengers from entering the platform unless they have the tickets so it seemed totally possible for someone to just sneak on the train and not buy the ticket. As I was commenting about this loophole in the transportation system (because the previous times I have taken trains, no one checked my ticket), the conductor came around to do the ticket inspection. The guy sitting behind us actually didn’t have his ticket and he was fined.

It took approximately three hours to go from Paris to Le Havre. Le Havre used to be one of the biggest sea ports in France before tradings increased in the Mediterranean and Marseilles over took Le Havre’s importance.

After living in Paris for a while, Le Havre was a nice change because it was such a quiet, cute, little town. Sciences Po actually has a regional campus in Le Havre. I wondered if I made the right choice of going to the Paris campus as I was sitting on the beach, watching the sun set, because it was just so peaceful and the people there were so nice and genuine. But I think, at least for me, who grew up in the city, I’d be really bored in Le Havre if I’m actually studying here so, I guess we can’t always get what we wanted.

Most tourists come to Le Havre to visit étretat. They are a set of cliffs that are shaped like elephant trunks because of wind and sea erosions. Because we got to Le Havre around 12pm, we missed the bus that goes from Le Havre to Etretat at 10 in the morning. Make sure to check the bus schedule because buses to Etretat are rare during off-seasons (after summer). So we decided to go to Etretat on Sunday morning and go to Honfleur, a really small town nearby, instead.

To be honest Honfleur is the cutest French town I’ve seen by far. It felt like a typical European town with its old buildings and hanging flowers from the balcony. Honfleur used to be a sea port as well and it has the largest wooden church in France as well. It was my first time being inside a wooden church and I liked it a lot more than the usual stone churches because it was very quaint and also quite warm inside. (stone churches are usually colder because of the texture)

Another thing about Le Havre is that it’s in the Normandie Region and it’s known to be really rainy out there. Make sure to bring your umbrella and footgear that’s somewhat water proof because the rain and the cold does not make a good combination for traveling. We were lucky enough that Sunday was a sunny day, the only sunny day in fact, for the following week. I highly recommend going to Etretat because you can hike up the cliff and have an incredible view of the area, kinda like the Scottish highlands actually. After being cooped up in the city scene for a while, the cliffs, the sea shores, and the horizon were very liberating.

Also, AMAZING sea food! Especially the oysters (“huitres” in french) and whelks (“boulots”)!

By bevvy2212

On Saturday, I took the SNCF (the French national railway) to Rouen so this week I’m going to talk about how to take the public transports here in Paris.

Paris has an extensive web of metros and railways to take and it is super easy once you get it all figured out. The intertwined web of lines might appear daunting at first but I found this app called “Paris Metro” in the iphone app store and it’s like, God’s gift to those who are lost in Paris. Basically you just need to enter the start and end stations and the app will give you a detailed itinerary, including where you should change lines and how much time approximately it will take for you to get to your destination.

A lot of people buy the “Navigo” pass for the metro. They are kinda like smart trip cards except that you pay it monthly. It’s around 68 euros per month I think but you can take the metro however you want; there is no limit on how many times you can enter the metro. Since I live very close to campus, I don’t have a Navigo because it is just cheaper to purchase tickets at the machine. There are ticket-vending machines at the entrance of every metro station. Unlike DC metro where the price of the fare depends on where you go, there is a set price of 1.7 euro for a one-way ticket in Paris. I usually buy the “carnet”. It’s a set of ten tickets and the price is 13.70 euros, a bit cheaper if you do the math. You can also use the same type of ticket to take the bus, but usually people opt for the metro because it’s easier and faster.

Like DC, there are public bikes to rent here in Paris. Apparently it’s easier to ride than in DC and a lot of people use them to go to school/work. The only problem is that usually during rush hours, either there are no bikes at the bike stands around you because people have taken them out already or you can’t find a place to return your bike once you’re at your destination.

I went to Rouen by SNCF this saturday. SNCF is the French national railway system and it basically operates all the trains within France, including the TGV (the high speed rail). The SNCF station in Paris is at the metro station Saint-Lazarre. You go up the escalators once you’re out of the metro and there’s the SNCF station. There are ticket vending machines around the station so you can just pay at the machines. HOWEVER! They only take cards that have a sim chip. I don’t even know how to explain it because I’ve never seen it before, but apparently here in France, the credit/debit cards here have a visible sim chip on the card, whereas in the US or in China, most cards (at least the ones I have) only have the magnetic slide thingy on the back. So I was unable to purchase my ticket via the machine and had to go in-line at the counter. I got a “carte de jeune”. It’s a discount card for people between 12 to 26 and a lot of the times it cuts the price of the ticket in half. The card itself costs 50 euros and is effective for one year. But if you are planning on traveling around France then it’s definitely a good way to save money because my trip to Rouen was originally gonna cost around 46 euros round trip. With the “carte de jeune”, I paid 23. So that’s 23 euros I made up with the cost of the carte de jeune already. You will need your passport and an ID photo of yourself when you go purchase the the carte de jeune.

I was shocked by the amount of people that were on the train… Life lesson here: so I was walking and I saw various seats on the train through the window and I was like hmm… maybe there are better seats ahead so I kept on walking but I ended up sitting on the stairs because the doors were about to close and I had to jump in a random coach. I had a seat on the train in India… INDIA!! So if you see something in life that you like, take it, don’t wait around to see if anything better comes up. (so philosophical these days.)

By bevvy2212

It’s been a month since I’ve been in France and three weeks since classes have started. I can’t believe time has gone by so fast and I’ll only have about three months left before the semester ends.

Even though it’s already been three weeks, I still feel rusty in terms of grasping what I have learned so far. Because I was on a plane the day class registration opened, I did not get the chance to be enrolled in my preferred courses and I was a little bit bummed in the beginning. Currently I am enrolled in four normal classes taught in English and a French language class, which isn’t bad at all in comparison to the French students who actually go to Sciences Po.

I was a little bit concerned at first because I am not at all familiar with the topics of my classes: 1) Foundations of moral and political thought. 2) Social policies in Europe. 3)International Law. 4) What is social democracy. For someone who is an international affairs major with a security policy concentration, I have no idea what went on with the welfare states in Northern Europe nor about the foundations of western philosophy.

The first two weeks were hard, mainly because it was a little bit difficult to bring up my interests for these classes that I didn’t intend to sign up for. Back at GW, I always had the perfect schedule with the perfect professors all planned out, so these uncertain classes made me a bit nervous. But it turned out that I was being overly worrisome. The professors are Sciences Po are… awesome. It didn’t matter that I have no previous knowledge about the subject, they made the class so interesting that I now have this unknown energy and motivation to finish all my readings and take diligent notes in class. (I mean, I did all that back in GW of course, *cough cough*)The one thing that I don’t like about the professors here is that they don’t offer office hours, nor do they respond promptly to my emails. We were warned before we got to Sciences Po that professors here are usually adjunct professors and they all have busy lives outside of the academic life. I guess I’m just used to being able to discuss the topic more in depth during office hours instead of seeing the professors fled the scene as soon as class is over.

We also went on a GW-organized trip to Giverny this Saturday. It was my first GW trip and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the trip. Giverny is the place where French Impressionist Claude Monet lived. He created his famous Water Lilies there and it was very fun to see all the places where he painted.

Monet's house. It was very interesting because there weren't any corridors so in order to go from one end of the house to the other, we had to walk through every room. Talk about no privacy huh.
Monet's house. It was very interesting because there weren't any corridors so in order to go from one end of the house to the other, we had to walk through every room. Talk about no privacy huh.
The bridge in Giverny, Monet's water gardens. He was greatly influenced by Japanese culture so his garden consisted of various bridges and a lot of bamboos.
The bridge in Giverny, Monet's water gardens. He was greatly influenced by Japanese culture so his garden consisted of various bridges and a lot of bamboos.
he famous pond where he painted his water lilies.
The famous pond where he painted his water lilies.

It’s funny because I did not consider myself an “artsy” person before I came to Paris. I do like art but I usually just breezed past them due to lack of time. But because we are technically “French” students, we can get into all the museums and galleries for free, so I ‘ve enjoyed strolling inside the Louvre every Wednesday (because it opens till 9:30pm on Wednesdays and Fridays). I intend to make it a routine thing. It’s very nice to take my time instead of rushing through the gallery like other tourists.

Hotel de VilleOn a side note, the weekend of September 20 and 21 is the French National Heritage weekend. A lot of the offices that are usually closed to public are open on these two days. I was going to go visit the Palace Elysée (aka the White House of France) but the line was insane and I didn’t feel like waiting. So I waundered into Hotel de Ville (the City Hall) instead. Typical French to have golden chandeliers and oil paintings everywhere.Inside City Hall

By bevvy2212

Ok, hold your scream mom, I know you’re discretely reading this via google translate, but what I’m about to talk about has nothing to do with the topic, at least not in the way that you expected it to be.

What I learned this week about the French and their confusing culture is their way of handling personal spaces and their “petites bisous”—kiss on the cheeks.

For someone like me who has little regard of people’s personal bubbles and always enjoy popping them to test their boundaries, the French might not like me very much. It is weird because I remember vividly back in high school when my French teacher told the class that the French are way more intimate than Americans, which has not been the case for me, or maybe it’s a Paris thing. I kept on forgetting that Paris does not represent the entire France. In fact, most people have told me that Paris is one of the few exceptions of France and only the Parisians are mean. (Not that I’m complaining about living in Paris or anything).

I was having coffee with a couple of French girls one day and their comments about personal boundaries really threw me off. First of all, no hugs. Don’t go around hugging people you have just met five minutes ago. (Oops, guess I’ve been doing Paris wrong for about three weeks now?) A wave or a hand-shake like “Good day, sir”, should suffice. Um ok? I don’t know how it is for other people but I am a very hug-ish person so I have been very self-conscious since that conversation. I would flail my arms in excitement when I see my friends yet have to forcefully retract above mentioned flailing arms in order not to hug them. Yes, it has been a struggle.

The French like to kiss each other on the cheeks, at least they do it to their fellow Frenchmen, and these little kisses are very confusing and super awkwardness-prone if you don’t do it right. Back in Peru, kiss on the cheek is a must. Even if you are just meeting a friend of a friend with whom you have never met, you kiss them first, then you introduce yourself. But I guess the French are more selective in this process. Since I want to get submerged in the culture so everytime I meet a new French friend, I look excitedly at them like a puppy staring at a piece of meat, hoping against hope that they would smack their precious cheek against mine, only to be disappointedly rejected by a handshake. Yesterday, I was meeting up with a French friend for dinner and she brought another friend with her. We both looked at each other, eyes full of uncertainties. “Are we doing this?” Our eyes read. Then her head leaned forward for an inch. “Oh? Oh! We’re doing this!” I thought. I handled the whole situation smoothly, the kiss didn’t feel out of place or anything. Brush dust off the shoulder. *Pat pat*.

So yeah, I guess in conclusion, don’t touch them, unless they initiate it or if you are specifically interested in them. Vice versa, apparently if a guy touches you surreptitiously, (yes, I sound like I’m writing a romance novel for six graders, surreptitiously) then that means they are interested. Guess I’ll have to be careful not to send out all sorts of mixed signals…

By bevvy2212

Three things I miss about the U.S/ GW

 

I never thought I would say this, but I actually miss Gelman… Sciences Po is kind of like GW. It does not have an actual campus; instead it has several academic buildings randomly scattered around in the 6eme arrondissement of Paris. That being said, space is quite scarce. Therefore, finding a desk to sit down and do some work is quite the challenge. For once in my life, I am actually motivated to do work and here I am, unable to even set a foot in the library because it’s so packed. Why Sciences Po, whyyyy. I also miss being able to physically go into the aisles and find books that I want because most of the books in Sciences Po are being stored underground that stretches miles and miles under Paris, so it requires some time to get the requested book transferred above ground.

 

  • Big Portions

Maybe I have been spoiled, but I am constantly starving in Paris because food is so expensive and the portions are tiny in comparison. 3 euros for a bottle of coke? What is this, capitalism! No refills? Blasphemous! I’m not a big fan of bread, wine, or cheese. So I honestly don’t know what I’m doing here in Paris.

 

  • The way I dressed.

The weather drops down to the 50s in the mornings here… while it’s been in the 80s in DC. It’s the first week of September. It’s barely fall yet. I should not be breaking out my llama sweater when I wake up for my 8am class. Also, I’m a pretty casual-dress person, so all the posh clothing and Louis Vuitton make me feel a little under-dressed at times. What I don’t understand is the Parisians’ need to dress up for badminton. Badminton! I went to my badminton class on Tuesday, dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, I considered myself as dressed appropriately. But I was confused by the group of students in khakis, loafers, skirts, and flats when I reached the gym. I double-checked the address and came into realization that these poshly dressed people are, indeed, my fellow badminton players.

The teacher later cancelled class which was when I realized that my fellow posh badminton players immediately blended in with the Parisians on the street because of their way of dressing and I was left looking like I was going to the Olympics in my sports attire. Not to mention the amount of stares I have received again because of my shorts, God forbid that a girl should not show some skin when it is 82 degrees out!

By bevvy2212

I have been in Paris for a week now and even though France and the U.S. are both modernized, developed countries, I definitely did not mistake myself for being in the U.S.

 

  1. College—French Style.

GW automatically enrolled us in the Welcome Program that is offered by Sciences Po, which I am truly grateful for. Even though going to classes is a bit of a bummer in comparison to those who aren't participating in the Welcome Program, I have benefited greatly from the classes. The French, they are a classy bunch, and they like to think their education is a superb and exquisite pursuit to true knowledge. Hence, their expectation of us had quite hit the roof. They like to question everything, just like Descartes had put it, “I think, therefore I am.” For the full week, we learned how to dissect question prompts to pieces. For example, we were given an essay prompt, which was “Should we live in a world without borders.” From first glance, this seemed like a pretty easy topic to go at and I would have probably attacked it from all the wrong angles according to the French standards. Our professors walked us through the process, dissecting each important word and gave those words boundaries. For example, we had to narrow down the word, “borders”. Does it include political borders, or national ones, or geographical ones etc. Then we would have to derive a paradox from the question, like, border has a negative connotation to it yet humans need borders in order to establish their individuality. So towards the end of the week, I was really paranoid and started to question everything… It is as if I am in Inception or something. Where am I? Am I REALLY in Paris? Is this real? Am I real?

The French also put a lot of emphasis on exposés, which means oral presentations. I personally really dislike speaking publicly. Don’t get me wrong, I usually can be a chatter box and go on and on for days. But once you put me on a podium, I’m like a deer in the head light. We had to each do a five-minute oral presentation for our classes and mine was on the U.S. policy in the Middle East. It went fairly well, which was surprising. My professor thought I was quite composed and relaxed, which again, was blasphemous. But after it was all over, the exposé doesn't seem nearly as bad. So I guess at least I’ll come back from France, fully able to take charge and give public speeches. *I hope*.

 

  1. Cat calling.

Another aspect of the French culture, or maybe the European culture in general which I find quite appalling, is the amount of cat callings I have received. I admit that maybe I should have swapped dresses for pants, seeing as how most Parisians think winter has descended upon them already, but it’s been 60 to 70 degrees, like, come on. I have felt very uncomfortable walking down the streets in my dresses simply because of the amount of vulgarity and explicit sexual content that was directed toward me. For heaven’s sake I’m in France! I never expected for this to happen. I never considered myself to be a true feminist but after a week in Paris, I feel the strong need to advocate the fact that the way men view women as if they are some fresh meat need to be changed. Like, I felt safer when I was in Peru. PERU! (Not like I’m discriminating against Peru or anything, I love the country.) Way to go, Paris.

 

  1. Pick pocketing

I think I should consider myself lucky that I have yet to be pick pocketed, in the U.S., or in France. But I feel like sometimes, things such as theft seem very far to you unless they actually happen to you. We have been so used to the safe environment in GW that when we are outside of the cocoon of campus, we don’t realize that we obviously don’t blend in with the locals and are easy targets for thieves. My friend actually got her wallet stolen in the Paris Metro. The thieves were two girls, and their moves were unbelievably fast. Luckily for my friend, she was able to hold onto one of the thieves and a nice Parisian rang the alarm in the Metro for her. The thieves freaked and gave her back her stuff. Nonetheless  I know for sure now that I am going to be extra careful with carrying my bags. (Though I can barely find my wallet most of the time, I’d like to see them thieves try.)

photo 1 (1)
Playing chess by the Seine

It still feels unreal, but I am solidly, on Parisian ground.

My visa came two days later than what was expected so I booked the next available flight and hopped on the plane. Talk about reckless, eh? I am staying with a friend at the moment while trying to find housing for myself, which made me kind of regret not taking GW's offer on housing. (A little advice reference for future GW students)

It feels very weird to be in Paris again. I have never expected myself to be living in a European country for a period of time that requires a long-stay visa. I walk on the streets and wonder how just two days ago, I was at home in China. And how 46 days ago, I was in Peru. And three months ago, I was in DC. I don't know why but the way waiters first address me in French and then switching to English after seeing me struggling with my order really annoys me. I think I was more frustrated at myself that two years of not speaking French had made me felt less confident. But the discomfort quickly faded away after I conversed in French with someone and he complimented my french. (Maybe to him, me speaking French is like the equivalent of a monkey speaking English, simply astounding and unexpected that he felt the need to "wow" in encouragement.)

My friend and I explored the center of Paris in the past two days. I tried to get my bank account and phone set up but since I arrived on saturday, nothing was open. Sciences Po mentioned how there are some banks that have partnerships with them that will give you 80 euros or something. I'll blog about it next week when I have everything set up.

photo 2 (1)
Badminton on the Seine

Today we were walking on Quai d'Orsay along the Seine and we had a lot of fun. Along the riverbank, there was this street that was full of entertainment including photo galleries and chalk wall and tepees to chill in. We settled down for a game of chess, which was for free. There were games like backgammon and uno and other board games around us as well, which we thought was a very nice idea for a family outing. Next to the free board games there was free badminton playing. It was the weirdest sport I have ever played haha. We used a squash racket to hit a shuttlecock that had a bottom similar to a tennis ball. I thought, me with my Asian heritage plus being the president for club badminton, I'd be able to show off my crazy badminton skills but no. Low and behold, it was windy and I almost smashed a Russian girl in the face and her dad did not look to pleased. We quickly slithered away after that.

We walked along Champs-Elysee after that and saw this impressive golden gate. We stopped and realized it was the entrance to Abercrombie and Fitch. Fanciest place I've been in Paris yet. For a moment I thought I was walking in the gardens of Versailles, if not for the strong cologne that always infuses the air around Abercrombie and Fitch within a five mile radius.

 

photo 3
Already smelling the cologne...
photo 4
Abercrombie & Fitch, Parisian style

 

The welcome program starts tomorrow. Apparently the French has a really different system than the States and the welcome program is mainly about teaching the methodologies that are going to be used for French studies. I’m excited, yet a bit scared, because I heard it’s quite hard, the French wanting to be precise and elegant and everything, but we will see. This time next week, I’d be able to tell you more about the educational difference between France and the United States. Until then!

 

 

 

By bevvy2212

The Angst. The Angst.

I’m supposed to be flying to Paris in two days. I still have yet to receive my visa. Hence, the angst.

Traveling angst probably is common for a lot of people, but it is a pretty new feeling to me. I first went abroad by myself when I was ten. My parents found me a home stay family in New Zealand during winter break and popped me on a plane down to the southern hemisphere. It might look terrifying now, but back then, I was happy as a bird. Things like the language barrier and how on earth would I be able to manage the bus system in Auckland did not even cross my mind. Indeed, I was a fearless, brainless, ten-year-old. I did not over think things, like I do now.

I realized that as I grew older, the feeling of traveling angst becomes more pronounce each time. I think I’m loosing my sense of “winging-it” as I am growing up. I need to have everything planned, but as we all know, traveling rarely goes according to plan, at least in my case. There are only so many things that are under human control, the rest is left to fate, as my mom would proclaim. Like that plane that got shot down flying over Ukraine? Can’t really plan around that.

I have heard mixed reviews on the safety of Paris. My friend just told me yesterday how a friend of his got robbed in the metro under broad daylight.

--My god, I thought to myself, do I need pepper spray?

--I’m really loosing my marbles, how is pepper spray going to help me in the case of robbery? “Stop! Or I’ll blind you?!”

--Should I take up karate lessons then?

--Really Bev, you’re gonna kung-fu fight someone in the Paris metro?

I have to admit that after I have thought it through, it seems quite silly. Paris is just going to be like any big city in the world. It has its problems, and we will just have to deal with it. I mean, we get emails from GW warning about robberies  all the time. Why would Paris be any different? (Who knows, Parisian robbers might be classier because they are French. “Mademoiselle, please let me grab your bag or I will jab this knife into your appendix.”) Traveling angst, it happens. As sad as I would like to admit, my life isn’t nearly as exciting as the movies and I will probably have to save my kung-fu fighting skills for some talent shows instead of fighting criminals in the metro.

Hopefully by this time next week, I’ll be in Paris already, safe and sound. (Visa, please hurry along.)

By bevvy2212

You know how there are places that you don’t expect yourself to re-visit in the near future? Well, Paris is the exception. I first visited Paris when I was 15, too young to really appreciate its beauty, now looking back. I was like any eager tourist, snapping selfies with the Eiffel tower. (Were selfies even a thing back then?) My second visit to Paris was during my junior year of high school. I did not expect my return to Paris to be so soon but I wasn’t complaining. It gave me a really odd feeling of “coming home”, like when I was visiting Versailles with my friends, I knew the rooms and the stories to them. But still, it didn’t feel like I got the gist of Paris.

Part of the reason why I love traveling so much is because cities are like people too. I have to spend quality time wandering around their meandering streets in order to form deeper bonds with them. The touristy places, feel almost insincere at times. Here is a brief digression. I have just returned from a six-week-volunteering program from Peru. One of the main reasons why I wanted to go in the first place was because of Machu Picchu. I mean, who cares about educating the future generation of a country that has a 35% poverty rate? (Jokes, for those who couldn’t tell.) I was stationed in Trujillo, the third largest city in Peru, totally Peruvian. It was nothing like Lima or Machu Picchu where foreigners swarmed the streets and almost gave me the illusion that I was still in America, except the bathrooms were without toilet paper (A phenomenon that’s pretty much everywhere except in the US). In Trujillo, I taught English to kids from kindergarten up to sixth grade and they had touched my heart in a way that I never expected it to be touched. It was a very sad day for me to leave, and Peru forever holds a special place in my heart.

That’s the kind of relationship I want to form with a country, let people into my life and leave my tracks behind as well. I don’t expect my 6-week-English-lessons to change my kids’ lives, but to know that I have made impact on their lives is one of the greatest feelings I have ever experienced. So I hope that by spending a semester in Paris, I’d be able to get to know it personally. Who knows, the future is bright, maybe third time’s the charm!


Side note: for future references, those who wish to apply for a French visa should try to get it done in the United States. I did mine in China and it was the most painful experience ever. I couldn’t even get on the CampusFrance website without a proper proxy. (Thanks communism.)