Dossier Écrit

Two things which are incomprehensibly huge: the Bibliothèque François Mitterand and my 10-15 page dossier écrit (paper) for my Social Entrepreneurship class.
Ok, so maybe the library is a bit larger - it does, after all, contain a veritable forest within its courtyard. But my 10 page paper, written all in French (!), is also looking pretty darn big right about now. Luckily I'm working with a partner, a French student who studies at Sciences Po. It was so cool meeting up with a real French student and working and speaking all in French for the entire afternoon! I felt especially French (which really means I'm not at all...) when we did "la bise" as we said goodbye in the métro.
But back to school, let's now all collectively bemoan how much work I have to do. No more cavorting through museums or frolicking into darling little boutiques. No, no, I'll be in library. With the rest of the students at Sciences Po. Apparently we're infamous for never going out and constantly studying. I really do hope, however, that eventually I'll get a handle on the situation and get a chance to explore the city.
Example Gratis: cafè Kooka Boora in the 9th near Pigalle. I went exploring with a friend last weekend and we finally managed to find a cafè which serves really good coffee in France. I tried to be super French and order just an espresso a few times, but I can't do it anymore!!!

Ahhh, much better. And prettier!

ANGER

I think the Sciences Po administration has it in for me. They are trying to vet out the weak with their twisted sense of humor and sick manipulation of course registration so only the strong and brave of heart remain. Case in point, the minute they add one course I very badly need to my schedule, they drop another, very very important, one. asdgalksjdglask;abfs;
I will make it through. I will go to my marché and buy lots of cheese and eat it all. I will stock up on calories and show up on Monday and defeat them with my willpower to get back into International Macroeconomics and Finance!!!!!

Queuing Up

In the past few days I have spent at least an hour each day in a "queue" of some sort. Whether it's to pay for classes or register for certain events or even to ask a simple question, you must first establish yourself in the long snake of a line which often wraps around itself several, several times. I've never experienced anything quite like French bureaucracy, and I don't think anyone does it quite as well as the French. That being said, you do tend to make friends while in queues! It's become quite the social event here...
And of course classes! They started this week and I couldn't be happier. Classes only meet once a week for two hours, so it leaves a lot of time to discover Paris/do coursework. My drawing class was this morning and, given my stunning wealth of artistic talent, the first thing we were asked to do was to draw a portrait of a person sitting next to us. My prof said my drawing was very "stylized and actually quite funny!" :/ But! I did speak in French to my partner and the kids sitting next to us. I've found so far that French students are much nicer (or willing to make new friends?) than their American counterparts - e.g. as people walked into our drawing class this morning, almost everyone said "Bonjour" to the people already in the class and everyone else responded with a polite "Bonjour" back. And as we split into groups and started drawing, people just started talking to each other as if they were good friends already. C'était vraiment très genial.

P.S. Today I had the most delicious lunch (tartine au jambon) at a cafè called "Au Chai de L'abbaye." Google provides the following pictures as I forgot my camera:

Cafè!

One type of "Tartine au Jambon."