New Pictures

A typical image from our neighborhood..this is around where we live


Me and Matt chillin


MQ and me


We are cute, n'est pas?

Exam Day

It is exam week. This is a week filled with tons of coffee and study sleepovers. I made soup last night to get us through the week.

Taryn and Melissa LOVE exams- yipee!

I am confused by a word I do not know!

"Our place" at school. This is where we study.

Ponette is afraid of exams...she hides!

Poster Thieves

We had a lovely weekend with all of our friends! Here are some pictures to “tell” you about it!
I just love "my girls." Really they are Matt's girls as well. This is a picture of them (Andi, Taryn, Melissa) having fun on our couch. I still need to get a picture of Mary Quinn to show you all who she is as she is part of our family here as well. Taryn and Melissa slept over last night for a "study night." We all had dinner and fun talking and forgot to actually read anything!

Me and Matt in the "womb" chair.

Poster Matt likes because we never could find the smallest museum in the world, and this is sort of the idea...

Mark and I "stole" this poster for Matt off of the side of a building.

More Pictures of Kat and Mark's Visit

Matt and the two Kellys


Me and Kat


Friends over for drinks


Taryn, Me and Melissa...my family here!


Yummmmmmmmmmmm


Strikers...just kidding, these are Mark and Kat's dogs!



Friends!


Paris even makes its ice cream cones into flowers!


The bus is so much fun when the Metro is on strike...


Me and Ponette in the morning


Ponette

Pictures of our Apartment

Ponette in the morning

Views we see from our windows


Parc below us

The church behind us...in Engligh is it the church of the White Robe


Kitchen

Living Room

Our First Strike

Today is a big day for us…it is our first “greve”! This is a strike. If you did not know, France loves strikes. All of the trains are closed today while the workers protest for better retirement plans. This should be interesting because Kat and Mark return this evening from Brussels to spend the last two days of their trip in Paris- or I should say- they will not be returning? It is difficult to say. Last night class let out early so students could make the last Metro (subway) at 8 PM, or as we like to say here in Paris, 20:00. I still struggle with military time. I walked home (about 40 minutes) with 2 of my friends from school. It was actually nice to have the time to chat about “normal” stuff like boys and hopes and dreams and all that because usually we talk about theory and articles because now that we are academics, that is how we roll.

So anyway, the greve: Not all hope is lost if you own a bike or scooter. Paris instituted a free bike system this summer called Velib. How Velib works: you rent a bike (these bikes all look the same and are very unique looking.) The bike is FREE for the first ½ hour you have it. The purpose of the bike is to quickly get you to your destination, i.e., it is not meant for sight seeing. There are Velib stands all over the place in Paris. They are a great “green” solution to getting around the city. I woke early this morning (7 AM) and looked out at the Velib stand below our kitchen window…it was already empty!



Today I do not have class. Luckily my plan for the day only includes writing for my midterms and attending a lecture that is only bout a 30-minute walk from our house. The lecture is really more a debate about an anthology my favorite professor Raj has put together. The debate is titled, “Cultures et Mondialisation: conflicts e tensions.” That is right, that title is French. There will be some debates in English, but this is France after all, and they speak French! The department head for my Masters is presenting on “Belief between Religion and Media: A Key Factor in Globalized Cultural Conflict.”

Ma and Kat on front of the Bastille Opera House

Kat and I looking cool in Paris!

Kat & Mark

So it is midterm week, and what am I doing? I am finally updating my blog because I do not feel like writing about the research methodologies associated with contemporary media analysis right now.

Our friends Katherine and Mark are in town this week and we are having the best time with them. They are in Amsterdam today, and they inspired us to get on the band wagon and make some travel plans. Coming up is London, Barcelona, Carceson in southern France, and maybe Stockholm.

Last night I heard Michael Ware speak (the CNN war correspondent for Baghdad) to a small group of us. It was UNBELIEVABLE! It helped restore my faith in the media. He was there with a very young senior producer (who was gorgeous by the way) and they basically have given their lives to sharing the Iraqi experience with the world. I spoke with him for a bit after the talk and had to hold myself back from grabbing his leg and asking him to take me with him. I realized how much love the world needs. Of course, when I went home and took a nice long, hot bath, I realized I could never live in a cement bunker.

Well I am off to school. I will try to update this blog more consistently!

Classes

Last night (Tuesday) I spent the afternoon with Kelly Rogan. We chatted over coffee, which is one of my favorite things to do with my girlfriends. Afterwards we walked to my favorite “secret meeting’ in the 6th arrondisement. On our way we stopped by Notre Dame, translation, Our Lady. We heard singing so we went inside and listened to an amazing song celebrating God’s love sung by a chorus of women with the clearest voices. We lit a candle for Mary and said a prayer for women everywhere. I experienced a sense of serenity that has carried me through this morning.

So a look at my classes, because I am sure you are all dying to know what I am studying:

I do not like:

Communication and the Global Public Sphere
Research Methods in Communications Studies
These classes are both very theoretical and honestly, I do not love them. I consider them push-ups for my brain.

The two classes I just love are:

Cultural Diversity and the Globalization: Goods and Actors
The professor Raj Isar used to head the culture division of UNESCO. I actually met with him this morning to discuss what I can do with my degree in terms of a career.
Design Hub Project
This is a super cool experience. Below is a brief description of what we are doing (4 of us and a professor.)
Educational objectives






• Research on eco-design and the broader topic of economic, social and ecological sustainability.




• Research on the impact of sustainability in the fields of design, communications and education.




• Participation in the creation of "The Design Hub", a non-profit association dedicated to the promotion of sustainable design through real-world projects in developing countries.


• Hands-on professional training in web design and online social networking applied to NGO communications.




• Mission description, brand creation, advertising and marketing as applied to non-profit organizations.





Specific tasks




• The student will be expected to satisfactorily accomplish the following:




• Write a report on the general issues of sustainable design, with examples of a variety of concrete applications in the developing world.




• Help prepare the organization of an Internet based project: a international forum/conference devoted to "Collaborative, cross-disciplinary, sustainable design".




• Create a website which, with other Internet-based resources, will serve as a platform for the forum.

That is right sukaaaas, I am going to learn how to design a website!

Kelly Comes to Visit

Last night Matt and I had Kelly ( my mentor in life) and her niece Carly, an undergrad at AUP, over for a lovely dinner. It was so wonderful to hang out with one of my favorite people in PARIS! I cannot believe this is my life sometimes. I wake up with a smile every day. This morning I went to my French class and then my Design Hub meeting. After class I took the Metro to our “office,” the café Trois Chinon, where I found Kelly and Matt enjoying a café allonge. I then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the Marais with Kelly.

I also FINALLY took some pictures of school. This is what I see on my way to class.







Here are some of my friends at school.






This is my first post and that is why it is lame. When I get on a roll they will improve, maybe...