On the whole, the weather is starting to get better around here. So that means that I’m starting to get into Paris a little more often. I still don’t feel like I know it all that well, but I know it well enough to have a few local haunts. For instance, the people at the Crêperie Josselin now know our little group. We went there just last week, and we were greeted very warmly, and they gave us a lot of items on the house.
In France, on the first of May, there are vendors selling lilies of the valley all over the place. My friend Sarah wanted to get one, so Mandira bought her a bouquet in the Massy Palaiseau train station. And that resulted in the following photo:
Also, there was an event held on campus called the MBAT, or MBA Tournament. In this event, HEC invited other business schools to come participate in different sporting events, and then there was a party every night. The first night, the HEC cheerleaders (including Ayoola!) opened the event, and it was followed by the salsa competition. I couldn’t really see anything anyway, so I ended up spending the majority of the evening outside with Emilie sitting on the grass watching a lightning storm in the distance.
The next day Anna, Sarah, and I worked in the information booth for a few hours. We managed to help people get what they needed while we were there, and apparently it was one of the good things that people commented about that there were three people working. You see, there had been only one person working all day that day, and he was also the only person for afterwards and all day the next day. It sounded like the students that help organize this event just don’t get any sleep all weekend! They had three live bands playing that evening, and it didn’t seem like people were really that into it until the last band started playing covers of a lot of different songs. They played 3 songs originally by The Killers, which seemed a bit obsessive but I’m not complaining since I love that band!
The last day I just watched soccer for the majority of the time. It was raining, and somehow I ended up holding a borrowed umbrella, so I just went with it and used it until it stopped raining. That evening there was an event held in a club called Duplex, which coincidentally was the same club I went to my first week here. It turns out that there is a bowling alley in this club, so I spent a lot of the evening in there. It was rather crazy at the beginning, so after we finished our first game we wandered around a bit and danced, but I made it back to bowling eventually. Then we stayed until they closed up for the evening and we were forced to go back to the dance floor. The club had opened to the general public, and this guy that goes to HEC ended up joining us for a while. He was saying that I corrected his CV for him one time, which is entirely possible. We then got a shuttle back to campus, and we were told that it would be a private shuttle. Well… a group from Cambridge got on, too, and they were taken back to their hotel in Vélizy first. One of the guys was extremely chatty and kept hitting his head on the roof while sitting backwards in his seat. Every time the bus hit a bump, he would hit his head and yell out something like ‘Crikey!’ It was all rather entertaining. Then, he started trying to get us to go back to his hotel’s piano bar for a drink, to which I always responded ‘no,’ all the while looking back at my friends for support in that decision, but they just seemed to think it was funny and kept their mouths shut. I was the closest one sitting by this guy, and he started going on about what beautiful eyes I have. And after complimenting me, he would again ask about the piano bar, and saying what a shame it was that I wouldn’t come back. He was also talking about how one of his friends (who was more or less passed out a few rows in front of us) was a wonderful piano player, and he never knew it until this trip, and we should come back just to hear him play. At these moments I’m glad I stay sober so that I can fully recount how absurd it is. Anyways, after they got off the bus, Anna was talking about how he was such a sleaze because he was married – apparently he was wearing a ring. Wow. Why is it always the creepy ones that pursue me? Well, we finally got back to campus – arriving just behind the big bus full of HEC students that left quite a while after us.
So that was a lot of excitement for a few days, then it was back to the normal routine of working and just living. Another event was held on campus pretty soon afterwards called Jump HEC. It was a horse jumping competition that included some of the best horses from around Europe. It was just amazing to watch. As with anything of this sort there were a few mishaps of riders falling off of their horses, but no one was hurt and on the whole everything went smoothly. It is also fun to watch the interactions between the riders and their horses. Some of them got so mad whenever their horse spooked and didn’t want to go any further, and others just remained calm and let their horse get over the fear with kind encouragement. The first evening after leaving the competition, some friends and I decided to try to play Frisbee. My Frisbee was not very good, and it turned into a game of ‘chase the rolling disk.’ Becca went to go get a couple of her mini-rugby balls, and after throwing around the three items together we somehow ended up playing quick cricket, using the Frisbee as the bat and a rugby stress ball as the ball. Needless to say, it was ridiculous.
Sarah and I also went to a math festival in Paris. It was more of a math games festival, but it was really cool. We went to a talk about planetary rotation, and It seemed like there were no groundbreaking finds in it, but maybe I just missed it because it was in French… Anyways, there were a lot of cool games. It also reminded me of this strategic game that I really enjoy playing, so I looked it up online and found it. It’s now in my room, and I have played it a couple of times. The only thing it has shown me so far is that I need to work on my pattern recognition!
A couple of weekends ago there was Roland Garros, or the French Open for tennis. I didn’t go to the actual competition, but I spent a bit of time at the Hôtel de Ville watching it. The first time I went it seemed really nice, just people relaxing and watching the game on the giant screen. They also had a tennis court set up, and a ‘test your stroke speed’ booth set up, and other tennis-related things for kids. The second time I went it was for the last game. I was there with Mandira and Anna, and I made the stupid mistake of not bring ing a jacket or an umbrella. I say it was stupid because it cooled off a ton outside, and then the clouds started pouring down rain. At one point, before the heavy rain started, I went on a walk to stretch my legs, and then I ducked into a McDonald’s when it started raining. When it was over, I went back and stood under the tree cover on the side of the viewing area because as soon as I got back over there it had started raining again. Eventually I went and hid under a sleeping bag with Mandira and Anna, and while that helped with the wet, I was still freezing. But we stuck it out until the end, and rewarded our heroic efforts with coffee and pancakes at Breakfast in America.
More recently it came to the attention of the housing department on campus that they would be painting and doing other work in the building I lived in. They gave us one-week’s notice to move, and originally Anna and I would have had to move twice in order to get another apartment. And wouldn’t you know it, a couple of days after I sent an email noting how ridiculous it was, the same day I started moving stuff, the housing director comes up to Anna and I at lunch and says that an apartment has become available. So, ignoring the couple of bags I had already moved, I only had to move once in the end. After I was done with work on that Thursday I practically moved all of my belongings over to my new room. The layout is a bit different, but the basic idea remains the same – kitchen, bedroom, bedroom, bathroom.
There are downsides and perks to the new room. The major (hopefully only once a week) downside is that I am now directly across from the piano bar where the MBAs throw their bashes, and the music can get quite loud and stay that way for a while. The upside is that there is a swing right outside of the building along with a picnic table (where I’m writing right now, by the way), and I had been wanting to rearrange my furniture in my old room but it was a bit too small with the large desks to do it in a way that would be convenient, so I was given the opportunity to change things up a bit. And one of the original upsides was that Frank Junior Jr. lives right outside the adjacent building. However, after nearly all of the students moved off campus he disappeared, causing me to think that maybe someone took him home. I even bought him some cat food! But now I suppose it’ll go to the cats that hang out around the dumpsters, or last night there was another cat that let me pet her, so if I see her again hopefully the food won’t go to waste. Also, yes, nearly all of the students are gone from campus now. It seems that the only ones remaining are those who just graduated and are looking for jobs, MBA students, or us lowly interns. It feels so empty!
And this past weekend I spent some time in Paris at the Fête de la Musique. It is a yearly tradition that brings out tons of performers and the streets were just filled with every kind of music that you can imagine, as well as street vendors. I spent the majority of my time in the Marais walking around, and I saw things ranging from rock music, karaoke, reggae-ish, sing along, all the way to techno. At the techno, it was basically a dj set up and his friends dancing, and this little boy started dancing along with them. They picked him up and set him on top of one of the larger speakers, and when the music got to a climax he jumped up. After a couple of songs, his father came and took his hand and told him it was time to go, and he just started saying “Au revoir” to everyone. The karaoke also drew quite a crowd – the woman was singing from the apartment above an ice cream shop. A bit ridiculous, but what can you say?
Everything is definitely winding to a close here. Work is slow – there is no one coming to the CV clinics anymore, but we’re still required to be there in case anyone wants to come. And while the CRL work is still there, not many staff are coming in anymore. Today was actually the busiest I’ve been in a while there, but it was still empty for half of the time. Students are gone, and our little stagiaire group will be losing its first member Wednesday – Becca already finished working last week, and Mandira finished working today, although she’ll be sticking around for a while longer. When we moved buildings it really felt like we should be packing up to leave for good instead of just sticking around for another month. But I’m trying to travel more, and being a bit spontaneous at times. For example, I found really cheap tickets to Rouen last week, and just decided to go the next day. Sometimes traveling can be so expensive, but whenever you find those cheap tickets it makes you realize that as long as you are flexible about where you want to go, you can find cheap deals anywhere ☺.
Oh, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here yet, but I was accepted into a Masters program at the Universidad de Alcalá. So, after going home for a little under two months I’ll be popping back over to Europe for another 10-month stay. I’m also glad to say that I have friends on this side of the pond now since I can visit them or they can visit me, whichever works for me. And some of the trips I haven’t been on yet I’m not worried about rushing through them in the next four weeks. While I know I’ll be studying, I also know I’ll have a bit of time to do a little bit of traveling next year as well.
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