No, I've not gone unconscious

But this semester is big 'n busy.

Paris has suddenly warmed from the 50s to 70s over the past 4 days. I broke out the skirts and shorts and my white skin is blinding people all over town.

I worked 7 hours yesterday with my International Econ group on "Global Imbalances" which scholars have written 100-page analysis on. We've got 35 slides. My section is on the US - I've seen 50-page papers on it; my slides are 7. Essentially, it's a US twin deficit (budget and current account) to a group of world surpluses, especially China. The US needs to stop needing needing wanting wanting, and start saving. China needs to start buying, spending some hard earned cashola. But there are other factors, of course. Interesting though, my group represents China, India, Iran, and the US. There is hope for the world yet, people. I gotta tell you though, with the $ being the world's financial currency and us owing a lot of big boys on the block, the subprime crisis doesn't make anyone feel very secure.

Today, I'm off to the massive student housing area called Cite Universite. Another 6 hour group meeting. This one features the US, Canada, and China wondering what the future of Cuba could be.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Geneva in the afternoon. I'm taking the train and am super excited to see some landscape. The first half of Tuesday I'll be at the UNECE doing the tour, meeting the folks, sitting in on a meeting, getting a feel for the place. This isn't necessary for the internship and I already had dinner with my future boss while he was in town for a conference. And frankly my schedule right now can't really take the quick trip, but I'm interested in seeing Geneva before I head off in June. It might also give me an opportunity to check out housing better. It's hell via the internet so far. Tuesday night I train it back to Paris. Wednesday I give my meager understanding of the US deficit and hope I look confident enough to fool everyone. Thursday is a holiday here, during which I will sleep, and not plan anything else.

I was here a year ago with my sister, checking out a school in London and Paris. I totally made the right decision. When a couple of friends were in town last weekend, we coincidentally had lunch at a cafe over by the Louvre where my sister and I had a coffee. It's funny, through visiting my friends, I ended up in almost every spot where my sister and I had been during our visit a year ago. I think that's fate/gods/karma/good juju letting me know everything's on track. I am doing what I'm supposed to do. This is where I should be.

So, maybe I'm more conscious than ever right now.

My life is not that bad

Even though my taxes are a bit late, the bags under my eyes have unpacked and bought property, I see the inside of 224 Saint German more than I see sunlight, my laptop screen knows more about me than any human being, I'm one more problem to the trade deficit and global imbalance and probably helping to cause more drastic poverty, I miss my family and my friends back home have moved on, I can't find a summer residence, sushi in Paris isn't great, and I can't make world peace....


at least I'm not this guy.

this hurts

owie.

big, big owie.

please please someone stop the madness!!!

All things French

Mais, non, c'est les PIRATES!!


French navy trails yacht seized by pirates
Sun Apr 6

The French navy continued to trail a luxury yacht off the Somali coast on Sunday, two days after pirates stormed the boat and took its 30 crew hostage, French Defense Minister Herve Morin said.

"We are still in this phase of the pirates carrying on sailing with us following them at a distance," Morin told Europe 1 radio, adding that he expected the hijackers would eventually make land somewhere in Somalia.

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On Craigslist:

(PARIS) — Pirates seized control of a French cruise ship Friday off the coast of Somalia, France's Foreign Ministry said. The all-French crew surrendered immediately and evacuated the vessel in keeping with French military tradition. Admiral Pierre LeMiniWee is quoted as saying "The pirates looked so angry..and they shouted a lot. What else could we do?"

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Ikea and Castorama fined for being open Sunday

Ikea was ordered to pay more than $700,000 last week for staying open on Sundays in a Paris suburb. A big French home repair chain was sued for nearly as much — also for violating a 102-year-old requirement to shut up shop on Sunday.

Both cases show that the stakes are mounting in a long-running battle between French unions and retailers over shopping on the seventh day.

The government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, encouraged by major companies, is trying to shed old restrictions as part of broader plans to loosen up the French economy.

Advocates of the 1906 law, determined to prevent its demise, are digging in and demanding ever-higher fines against violators of a rule they say upholds a less spending-obsessed French way of life.

"Working on Sundays calls into question the very foundation of society," said lawyer Vincent Lecourt, who represents the Workers Force union. "It is a day when we try to consume less ... when we try to have values that are a little different."


$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

And I thought France was a staunch supporter of separation of church & state. I can't wait for shopping on Sundays - bring it, capitalist pigs! I need to go grocery shopping!!!

Always been a B student

Well, grades are in. This means that I now feel confident enough to share with you some of my work this past semester.

A bit of translation, which isn't encouraging in my mind.
No one gets an A+
No one should get a B-

A = Outstanding, 4.0
A- = Excellent 3.7
B+ = Very good 3.3
B = Good 3.0
B- = Pass, but with some unsatisfactory elements 2.7
the rest we won't go into, although it does continue to F.

Situating Ourselves in Complex Settings: A-
Stats: A
Governance State Restructring and Policy Change: A
MicroEcon: B+
Global Governance: Regulation, Adjudication, Dispute Settlement: A-
Managing Innovation in the Globalizing Learning Economy: B+
Total: A-

French, well, French is an optional course and of course, I'm treating it a bit as such -- how does a teacher grade my incredible skills in the ordering of "Les Petits Farçis Du Moment Au Coulis De Persil" or the frequent times I'm asked for (and give) directions or my perfect accent when cursing? Anyway, I got a B.

I'd say the above evaluations are pretty accurate to how I felt about the courses and how much I actually gave in effort. Although, Stats and Micro. Totally should have failed those in my opinion, but then again one can't take a test on "how much knowledge has increased from zero to now?" Although that's what exams and papers are supposed to do, they can't really do that very well for such a steep curve. Or, perhaps the grades above reflect that. I don't know.

I'm really not a very verbal person in large, professional groups so I'm sure I was deducted for low class participation. That's changed a little bit this semester. I figure that if the Asians are asking questions (who are known for traditionally not speaking out in class - it's seen as disrespectful to the professor), I should, too.

Had my one-on-one meeting with the professor for State Restructuring. Remember the paper on prostitution policies of the Netherlands and Sweden? (Aside: the Netherlands is called the Pays-Bas in French - literally the County Below : Nether Lands. Very cool.) Well, I was one of the top 3 papers of our class. Woot woot!

Finally! I needed so badly to be graded and critiqued. Hahahah... No. Really. This was the first time writing papers in over 10 years. Two of the classes involved group work, which is impossible to get actual individual analysis. And my paper for Global Governance "The Global Response to Cybercrime: Standards, Negotiation, National Procedures, and Global Security" got a one-liner of feedback along the lines of "Good work but you related it too much to only the Convention." (Secretly, looking back, I was not thrilled with this paper at all. The intro is HORRIBLE!)

But the prostitution paper, which I really got into while researching and writing it, got good marks from the professor and he recommended I publish it in a journal. Hence, you will not be reading it online yet as I'm sure there are some copyright conflicts on that. The 3 of us who were encouraged to publish will be meeting together to see how we can work with the administration to achieve this. Seriously, with the workload I've got right now there's just no way to do it 'on the side.'

My colleague, Gerrit, published our innovation paper. Sadly, this does not incorporate your individual responses to our survey. In the time allotted we were able to focus only on our colleagues at the other schools within our Global Public Policy Network (Columbia U, LSE, Hertie, LKY, Sciences Po). You can check out the final product here (minus the graphs in our survey results, which you don't care about anyway because I wrote the theoretical framework). Alternatively, you can go over to Gerrit's personal website and download the whole thing - and see my fab pal, too!

You can also check out "The Global Response to Cybercrime" paper here

So, on to bigger and better things!