Three weeks notice

I arrived here in Jouy en Josas just three weeks ago. At times it has felt like the time has flown, and at others it just seems to drag by.


Campus is spacious, and there are a lot of trees. It is located at the top of a hill, and it is a bit of a hike to make it back down into the village. I think it might get a bit dangerous to go down the hill when ice arrives as it can be quite slick at times. The majority of the buildings on campus are dorm rooms. They are small, seventies-style buildings. The rooms are fairly large. I share an apartment with another lectrice, Anna. We each have our own bedroom, but if I want to go to the bathroom I have to go through her room, and if she wants to go to the kitchen or leave the apartment she has to come through my room. It’s a shotgun setup, but it is working out well right now. My mom also sent me a better quilt than the one that was provided, so now I am starting to feel like this place is more like home. Not to mention my new Halloween decorations :-).


There is really not much in Jouy, but there is more than there is on campus. There are two grocery stores, two boulangeries, a tabac, a librarie/papeterie, a post office, train station, and several restaurants. I've only tried the pizza place, but it was fairly good. I'd say it takes 15-25 minutes to make it all the way down to the train station, and then climbing back up the hill is not very fun. Luckily there are several busses that go up to the campus, but they are few and far between.

My job is going well so far. I'm really not working many hours per week, but it is a bit difficult to be around all of the time. Since it is the beginning of the semester, there are a lot of last-minute things that need to be done, so if I originally have an afternoon off I might find out that morning that I need to help give a TOEIC exam or something else of that nature. But, my job basically consists of correcting English CVs, helping with the language resource center, and being generally on call to help with classes (if a teacher is sick or if they want us to do a presentation about American universities or other things).

I've been to Versailles a few times. A couple of times for the carte de sejour with Anna, a couple of times for fun. The carte de sejour visit was not too difficult, they just refused to give it to us the first time we went because the school was meant to do the paperwork for us. However, since I am not a real student (and not a real employee) the school will not do any of the paperwork. So, I had to go back the next day with a letter from the school basically saying that I was not a student and they would not prepare the carte de sejour for me. After that, it literally took the person working at the desk 2 minutes to fill out the paperwork. Now I need to return in December to continue the process.


During both of those trips, I made a trip to Monoprix as well. I was able to buy a lot of the household items I needed. Monoprix is really just a great place, a bit like Wal-Mart, but a little more pricey. But they seem to have nearly everything a person might need. Too bad there's not one in Jouy :-).

I also recently had my first late night out experience in Paris. I went with a group of people, and we walked down the Champs Élysées and window-shopped. It was a nice leisurely pace, and the streets were still crowded with people.


My second trip into Paris was even better. We started out by grabbing lunch and taking it down to the river and eating by the Seine. Since Saturdays are mainly the day for weddings in France, we saw 3 different couples go by. Where we were seemed to be a popular place for wedding photos.


It was also the weekend of the Patrimoine (where people are able to go into government buildings for free), and so we went to the Palais d'Élysée, or the home of Sarcozy. I guess it is the equivalent of going on a tour of the White House, but in this case security seemed pretty minimal and anyone was allowed inside. We waited in line for 4 hours, but it is definitely worth saying I was there. And it was also so much larger than the White House! I was impressed :-).


Last Saturday I also went into Paris for the day. We went to Les Halles metro, and walked down a street until we found a boulangerie called ‘Paul.’ Apparently everyone loves that chain here. We ate lunch there and it was pretty good.

And, since we were in the area, I decided to check out the yarn store that is supposedly the place to go for yarn in Paris. It is called La Droguerie, and it does have quite a fine selection of yarn. I bought enough to make 2 scarves since I didn’t bring many with me. I plan on going back in the next week so that I can buy enough to make an afghan and have a blanket to curl up under.

After La Droguerie, I went to Montmartre with Anna, Sarah (the British lectrice) and Sarah’s friend Rebecca. I had never been to that area before, and it was quite interesting. We went to Sacré Coeur, which was beautiful. You climb this hill all the way to the top, and there are people everywhere. There were some guys break dancing right outside of the entrance to Sacré Coeur, and it just felt sort of surreal. The funniest part was after you walk through the church, and everything is so quiet and peaceful and then you get to the exit and the people right outside are break dancing to very loud music.

That evening, Anna and I continued on to meet with another American working at HEC, Mandira. Together, we all went to watch the first presidential debates at this place called CineAqua. It is located right next to the Seine, across from the Eiffel Tower, and the entrance looks like there is nothing there. However, once you go underground, the place is massive. It is a huge aquarium, but it also has a lot of movie props and movie information. There are at least two movie theaters inside this building, and they show movies throughout the month. For example, in October they are showing movies like Dracula and The Addams Family. But, for some reason, they decided to show the first presidential debates free of charge. Pretty cool, huh? And did I mention the view of the Eiffel Tower? It was gorgeous! And after nightfall, the Tower is lit up with blue lights. I have been told that this is because it is supposed to be a representation of the European Union flag since Sarcozy is the EU president right now.

I’ve also had a nasty cold the past week. It has been quite a roller coaster ride – felling like I am getting better then going way downhill again. I was way downhill yesterday, so I didn’t end up going out to Paris like I had originally planned. Last night was ‘La Nuit Blanche’ in Paris, and everything stayed open all night long and it was just supposed to be a an interesting experience. Although I missed out on it, I’m sure there will be more events in the future.

A bientôt!

The backlog

So, this is what I wrote while I was waiting for the plane to leave DC on August 9th...

As I sit here waiting to leave my ‘home’ of the past two months I am reflecting on what I have done this summer. I did not keep this travel journal going during my time here, which I may regret in the future, but every time I thought about writing my experiences down I just shied away from them. But now I am going to summarize my summer (with pictures, of course!).
My first night in DC I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I found where I would be living, and attempted to unpack my bags. My home for the summer was in a building known as Grosvenor Tower, and I shared a two-bed, two-bath apartment with three other people: Chloe, Kate and Coral. We co-existed well and on occasion went out together. I went to a couple of movies and sight-seeing with Coral, ate out with Kate, and went to a play (The Visit) with Chloe.


The first full day here The Washington Center had everyone go on a scavenger hunt with other people from their group. I’m pretty sure I walked myself to death that day, and you can still see the damage it did to my feet. Luckily, my group was among the winners so we were received gift certificates for pizza. Lesson for the day – you exercise, and you will be rewarded with junk food.

After that, I did a bit of sightseeing on my own and a few days later I began my internship at the Department of Commerce. It was a wonderful work environment. The majority of my time was spent cataloguing documents that had been accumulating for the past 30 years. It got a little mundane at times, but it was something that had to be done; they had no idea what kind of documents were there, or how many they even had. I also had other side projects occasionally, but those normally only lasted for a day or so.


My first full weekend after I moved in, I went to see Hillary Clinton give her “I am not running for president anymore” speech. From the talk immediately after her speech I realized my primary reaction was accurate, even though I do not really get into politics very often. The tone of her speech was much different from anything she had ever done before, and she spoke more about how her success so far was a great leap forward for women’s rights. I also found it particularly funny when she would mention how her supporters could continue supporting her by voting for Obama, and then there were boos in the crowd. But it was definitely worth going to see her speak.


Another event I went to was the Campus Progress National Conference. To be honest, I really only went to hear John Edwards and Ryan Gosling speak, but I also got a lot more out of it. I went to a few panel discussions: one about the future of America in the global world (which I guess I’m going global anyway) and the other about intellectual property. Overall, this was a very interesting day. John Edwards was a very good speaker, and the panel discussion about genocide was very informative. And, since I am in DC and cannot escape politics, I guess it was appropriate that a lot of the questions for Edwards were about the upcoming election. People at the conference were very pro-Obama, and a lot of people would phrase questions starting with “When Obama is president…” rather than if. There were very few conservatives in the crowd, and only one person who, in a panel discussion, openly discussed it. It really seemed like she shot herself in the foot, though, when the Great Wall of Mexico issue was brought up. Her reasoning for supporting the border barrier was this: “If you have a pool in your back yard, and you don’t want your child to drown in it, what do you do? You put a fence around it.” There were several outraged responses in the crowd, and the matter did not get better when she continued to defend it. Gotta love politics, right?


Apart from any special events, I also found my sanctuary where I could escape to after work if I did not want to go home and did not want to walk around. It was the courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum/Portrait Gallery. It was made to look like an open courtyard, but there was a glass ceiling and it was climate controlled. There were trees that grew in the courtyard, and there were fountains that ran probably less than a centimeter of water across the ground for several feet. The kids really loved splashing around in this. One night when I went there, there was a band playing music. It was just a place I could go to relax and escape from the world.


With the Washington Center I had the opportunity to go to several different places. I went to the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, and the Pentagon. Each tour was very brief, but it was worth going to say I went and to know what these places are.

One weekend I went to the Arlington National Cemetery. Call me morbid, but I found it both awe-inspiring and peaceful. There are so many people buried there and you get to see the true cost of war. Also, I was able to see the final resting place of JFK, which I found quite moving, especially since I was standing next to a group of nuns. Later, watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was also interesting. As the ceremony begins, the military officer comes out and explains the rules to the crowd sitting on the stairs: turn off cell phones, no talking, be respectful, and stand up. The officer seemed to get a bit of satisfaction when he asked the crowd that had been nearly entirely seated that they had to stand for the ceremony.

My last full weekend on the East Coast I took a trip to New York. I did a hop-on/hop-off bus around the city and got to see where several places where that I had not been to before. Riding around in that city made me feel like I might live there someday. While there, I went to the Breaking Dawn Concert series, which I must say was a madhouse. Not as bad as I anticipated, for the most part, but in some ways worse. The actual concert was really enjoyable, and it is amazing how worked up some people are about this fictional series. It was fun to watch everyone and have people get into the Edward vs. Jacob argument. The bad part came when Stephenie Meyer started her autograph signing. There was no real system for us to get into a line peaceably, so we were all feeling like we were being herded like sheep. I think it took an hour and a half to two hours for me to get through the line, and I probably wasn’t even at the half-way point. So, thank you Ms. Meyer, and I hope you hand doesn’t cramp for too long. The next night I went to see the musical ‘Wicked.’ It was a very good show; I recommend it. It has a different outcome from the book and is made family friendly, but in a way I think the musical might be better than the book.

At the beginning of this, I was sitting in my apartment. Now I am at the airport waiting for my flight. I’ve said my good-byes and moved on from this place. While DC is a wonderful place, I do not see myself returning here permanently in the future. Now, after I get home, I will be preparing for my next great adventure in France. Wish me luck!