The lazy bubble

I remember my first year of undergrad at University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. There were many factors in why I decided to drop-out after freshman year, but one of them occurred to me as I took a bus from campus (a city within a city really) to south Minneapolis to hang out with friends I'd met at the Riverside Cafe (a co-op, hippie/punk restaurant - Mat invited me to the Scooby Don't house). I got on the bus and noticed so many people that didn't look like me or my compatriots I'd see on campus. Campus seemed to me a bubble filled with privileged, trying hard to look laid back, Caucasian kids who were all protected from reality and the real city. So many ingredients were already brewing inside me leading to my sabbatical, but this one seemed to ice the cake. I had to get out of the bubble.

Living in Buenos Aires as a teenager threw me out of any bubble of protection and into the raw reality of child beggars, poverty, inequality, and instability. Back in the States, in my final 2-1/2 years of high school, I felt the bubble again. Not that I regret it. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to grow up with all my needs met (albeit challenged), safe, loved, clothed, fed. But at some point one needs to challenge those things to recognize how those key, basic elements should be appreciated.

Visiting south Minneapolis on the bus, near the 'hood, drug dealers, marginalized peoples, crack houses, decrepitude abundant, forgotten people - these things changed me and pushed me and popped me out of the university globe. And, actually, right into that 3-story Scooby Don't house where we now tell stories of gunshots, tvs tossed out of windows, angry children with eyes that harden by 10 years old, a coldness developed not from the weather. And maybe we just continue to form bubbles wherever we are. Scooby Don't house could be considered its own bubble, although we kept its exterior rather porous to the neighborhood (to our detriment at times), to the punk rock community (oh, those basement shows!), to travellers (train hopping, couch crashers), to family, to elements outside the cozy blankets inside.

And again, here I am in another bubble. Yes, I see reality here in Paris - class separations, homelessness (incredibly less prevalent here though), inequalities between sexes and races, etc.. But I am still insulated. My apartment with the beautiful view (the skies are the most amazing in this city: pollution? longitude/latitude? particles?), the bus dropping down by the Louvre and over the Seine, the MPA courses up on the 3rd floor behind two big heavy doors within the trendy 7th arrondissmont (Armani Casa across the street), the metro buried below the dirt and grass and litter.

I had no idea. I have no TV. When I can, I catch the local radio or stream in Radio K, The Current, or KEXP. I grab the front pages of International Herald Tribune when they're laying around the school. I had no idea that Paris was burning up in the suburbs. We just got over complaining and focusing on the greve. I wasn't anticipating a new revolt. But it is. The youth, the immigrants, the disenfranchised, the marginalized, the 'others' have been rioting against the police state. The divide between state and people has grown in the northern suburbs. Life is still grim.

I am fine. I am safe. I am in a protected bubble called Paris. "Suburbs" are not what we call "suburbs" in the USA. There are no gated communities with competition between lawn trimmings. Honestly though, I can't tell you what it looks like as I've never been there. I can't tell you what's going on really because I can't understand. I can only imagine. I know facts, but I am protected from facing them. Days go on here, further south where the sun is in the sky and it's in the 40F, where I'm consumed with agonizing over my policy paper. (I'm leaning toward comparing legalization/decriminalization/regulation of prostitution in Netherlands versus Sweden and its effects on the economy of the state and the health of the people.) If I thought I had time and it would do any good for the world, I'd go up there and take some photos. But I don't think that would help me or them or the world. It's not what I'm here to do, my mission. But it is a reminder to get more in tune with my surroundings. I'm not here just to learn about China, India, Europe or the globe, but to become acquainted with France and Paris and my neighborhood.

So, thank you for your concern and for thinking of me. I'm better than what you see on tv. Way, much better, and very safe.

We'll see if it does become like the 2005 riots and if it will catch on like wildfire across the country. Let's hope instead that it creates some kind of real, honest, healthy changes for the communities and dialogue between them and the police state.

Interesting reminder / take on the French and history and maybe why they are the way they are: Spaghetti Westerner.

free time mania

A lot more of the Berlin photos are uploaded on flickr (ok, a total of 417 now) and a few digifilms over at youtube including a nice break on Pont des Arts with the sun and leaves and water. Enjoy!

More to come...

2 Things... or more

1. I take myself for granted too much.



2. I am thankful for too many things. My incredibly supportive family, with whom I have almost consistently celebrated Thanksgiving. This is the third T'giving that I haven't spent with them in 10 years. The first because I was in Spain studying. The second because I felt I needed space. This time I feel a bit homesick.

We spent all day in class, or out of class (Me: Stats 10-1, Innovation 2-5). During our first career navigation course tonight from 5:30-7:30pm, I realized most of the North Americans were all seated around each other. I leaned over and tapped Peter, "Hey, Happy Thanksgiving." and it caught on.

I miss mashed potatoes. Yams. My mum's awesome, unique salad. My aunts who make vegetarian stuffing with me in mind. My grandma and - before - grandpa at the head of the table. The Norweigen prayer that I still don't know by heart but recognize by sound.

A bunch of the North Americans and a few South Americans (yes, there's the debate - is there north and south...) went out after the career class for some wine. We ended up in some great discussions and a few reconcilliations from misunderstandings and then a French girl had her birthday. Only, the birthday party was Jewish so there was a lot of Hava Nagila and dancing and festivities. What a way to be thankful and celebrate!!!

And Josh. Oh, darlin. Thanks so much for calling me on my cell. We both know I'm not a phone girl, but it was so so so important and so touching to hear your voice and talk to you. It meant so much to me. I think you could hear it in my voice at the end, but thank you.


I'm thankful to be able to be here, studying, learning, living in a strange place where I am an outsider by language. I'm thankful to feel things like happiness, sadness, longing, and wonder if I'm bipolar with the rate of fluctuation of those feelings. I'm happy to have means to feed myself, clothe myself, be able to meet essential needs and still dream. I'm thankful to have short hair and get to experience a very Latin, macho country as such - it's truly humbling. I'm thankful to be able to dance and love music. I'm thankful to be able to read and highlight with my yellow highlighter. I'm thankful to see the Eiffel Tower on my bus ride home and see L'Opera on my bus ride to school. I'm thankful to hear French and understand it when I allow my brain to float into it instead of processing things all the time. I'm so thankful for my health - even if I cough and sneeze right now, I am in one piece. I'm thankful for all the people who have come into and out of my life. Without each and every one of you - of them - I would not be who I am today.

Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.

Peace.

More than just "Hello Bonjour"

It's a good day for school. While I did have to skip my 8am French and the 10am Situating Ourselves courses so I could start to figure out how to get a doctor's appointment, it was still a good day for class. (Don't worry mom, it's just a normal ol' sinus infection or something. I hear the French have great health care so I should be good to go at a cheap rate in no time.)

I do love my Le Gales "State Restructuring and Policy Change: Government and Governance" course. (you can read the PDF at the bottom of this website if you're so inclined.) Today, he gave a few minutes away from the (ahem, boring) readings on State Regulation Within the State to discuss our final policy papers (4,000 words our choice of topics) and then talked for about an hour with us on the state of France and the strike and Sarkozy. I guess it was the first time I really spoke up in class - since I was the one who emailed the request to discuss. Finally, I guess we all decided that it's definitely time for France to reform and catch up to the globalization playing field, but we're not sure if Sarkozy will do (or has been doing) it in the best manner possible. The French don't necessarily support the strikes this time around, but they're not all out counter-protesting (although some are) since they recognize that sometime in the future it might be their retirement plan Sarkozy comes after.

I caught my #68 bus this morning just as I was about to duck down into the metro to give it a try. I got the #68 back home - totally jammed crowded and crawling slowly through traffic jams. I'm sure the air pollution is doing wonders for my skin and lungs. Regardless, I totally support those folks on strike and I sympathize (especially since I have no idea what it's like to be a train operator), but I do agree that




The Times They ARE A'Changing
(c/o micoolcho in Singapore)

..............

Yeah, so I'm struggling with which policy I'll pick. He's recommended we do a comparative analysis of a policy in 2 countries/areas. We're also not supposed to do something we're familiar with - there goes CCRV. And, of course, we can't do overlapping projects either, ie turn this paper into my "Regulation, Adjudication and Dispute Settlement Beyond the State" class. (I'm thinking about looking at the recent cybercrimes in different countries and analyzing how they're being handled legally and with which international orgs.) In my "Managing Innovation in the Globalising Learning Economy" we're working in groups. I've been spending about 4-6 hours a week with these guys, one from Berlin and the other from Seoul - very cool. We're conducting a survey of future policy makers and current decision-makers, analyzing the impact of pop culture on Seoul and the cultural growth in Berlin after Reunification. It's called "Investment in Social Capital and Cultural Industry - An Argument for Advancing Policy to Enhance Economies of Metropoles." (I invented the title while looking over the application process to UNESCO - they ask for projects, papers, thesis in the CVs of potential interns.)

Whew. And then there's group work in Econ and some paper we're supposed to write in Stats, too. Thankfully our "Situating Ourselves in Complex Settings" class (Organizational Theory) is over tomorrow and it was more of a workshop than a class. We did group work (ugh) to analyze a colleague's previous work dilemma. We're all sworn to secrecy not to reveal any details as it could compromise the person and the institution. But basically it had to do with a large institution not following its own HR policies versus possible corruption with some folks pocketing money skimmed from around the edges. I'm not sure we resolved this one. But it was nothing compared to some dude who talked about the levels of corruption and outright illegal activity he witnessed in an unnamed South American country. Not so much 'org theory' as down-right f'd up ness.

I do like the way this program is really hands-on, not just theoretical, philosophical but we're digging in and doing. This Saturday we'll start four (voluntary) courses on Econometrics and really see how to analyze policy with statistics etc.. or something like that. Then, since there weren't enough 2nd year students signed up for one of the concentrations, "Political Economy of Welfare Reform" will be a lecture series open to all. I'm definitely doing both of these voluntary classes. I figure it's the only chance I'll get so why not. I'll see Paris soon.

Oh, and if you can't keep up - it's all updated on the Mac calendar. Including the Paris Photo exhibition that I did squeeze in for 4 hours on Thursday. I skipped out after my 2-min presentation to the presentation skills course (pass/fail, "taught" by a consultant, really lame). Lisa, I'll have you know I got my "grades" back today and all the students and the consultant chick gave me scores of good to very good. Thanks to you it's old hat, I guess. The calendar also includes the Interpol concert I hope to make on Wednesday night - metros and my health willing.

Dude, Nicole, were you around when I was obsessed with trying to win the KEXP giveaway for tickets to see them in Paris? I sent like a postcard a day - and even had to run over to the capitol to buy lame capitol postcards so I wouldn't miss a day. And then I found out they only wanted 1 postcard per person for the drawing. I was crushed. Well... It's Paris. It's Interpol. I hope I get some good drugs from the doctor. Mannnn...

PS. A short, funny description of the difference between strikes in Paris and the USA. I love the description of a manifestation - the one I witnessed on Wednesday near school, I'm almost 100% positive the striker guys were drunk.

Hello Bonjour!

I'm super sick right now. Everyone at school has been sick and it's finally my turn - after fighting gallantly for about 1 month now. Add to it, the air pollution from the strikes and everyone driving, scootering, etc. The greve continues with metros and buses at maybe 50% operational. I've asked our "Government and Governance" professor Le Gales to let us talk about this current strike, the unions, retirement, Sarkozy, etc since the class has been so divided. I'll miss French tomorrow (8am) to get a bit more rest but will make it for everything else - god willing.

So all of this, and stuck inside all weekend napping and feverish had put me into a funk about why I'm here, what I'm doing, etc. It's been seeping out through the blog and my mind, but it kind of hit a head today. But about 5 minutes ago I heard the song that played throughout my application process last fall. I had THE deciding moment (to go to school in Paris as opposed to Pittsburgh, NYC, London, Chicago, or Berlin). I had THE deciding song that kept me going through the application process. It kept popping up when I had doubts about grad school, doubts about my goals, doubts about applying, doubts about deciding. THe song reminded me of my fight for freedom, an end to injustice, and an overwhelming love for the world and mankind. Yes, yes, lovey dovey and hippie crap. But it's one of the reasons I am who I am and why I'm doing what I'm doing. (Not hippie crap, silly. Peace, freedom, justice.)

Thank you KEXP for playing "Hello Bonjour" by Michael Franti and Spearhead. It reminded me that I'm still on the right path, no matter the challenges or questions or insecurities or doubts. I know I'm here for a purpose - I just forget sometimes.

Greve can tear people apart or bring them together

I'm not sure how I feel about La Greve. I haven't had enough time to process it really - which sounds utterly pathetic. I think I've found myself in a vicious circle - school is overwhelming which makes me feel overwhelmed by school which makes school overwhelming. I'm not sure what I lack (or have) that the other students have (don't have) in this capacity. They seem to have a lot more time to party and hang out and drink ans socialize and I feel like I'm constantly tiring my eyeballs out to read as much as possible. I'm starving for this information but now it's been heaped so high on my plate I can't even conceive of seconds or thirds or a whole 'nuther year and a half of dishing it out!

Anyway... Anne and I had a tense moment yesterday during the Greve. She said she didn't support the unions organizing to keep their retirement benefits and age and actually said she wanted to help Sarkozy because this lowered retirement age is affecting France's power to be competitive, etc. Since my days at PP I've been in favor of unions and I think if they don't stand up to Sarkozy now it's really downhill for their culture and interests. Anne comes from a private industry background, I'm from a non-profit background. Debate is good.

It took me 1-1/2 hours to walk to school on Wednesday morning (left at 8am). I was going to meet Magdalena and her girlfriend at l'Opera at 9am but I got there at 8:30am so I grabbed a bathroom stop via getting a coffee - Starbucks yuck, but convenient. We met up and walked - a lot more leisurely pace than I had carried down the hill - through the Louvre Tuileries, over the Seine as the sun was really starting to show its glow behind the buildings, and down through the city to Blvd Saint Germain.

A few buses were running but mostly it was a speedy parade of bikes, cars, scooters, motorcycles, rollerbladers, rollerskaters, and walkers. We got to school a bit early and ran into a portion of the Greve unions.



Global Governance class was all about cybersquatting: Judicial Globalization
1. World Intellectual Property Organization, Arbitration and Mediation Center, UDRP – Domain Name Dispute Resolution
2. Administrative Panel Decision, Excelentisimo Ayuntamiento de Barcelona v. Barcelona.com Inc., Case no. D2000-0505
3. United States Court Of Appeals for The Fourth Circuit, Barcelona.com Inc. v. Excelentisimo Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, no. 02-1396
4. ICANN-Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy

It hurts my brain, invigorates my thinking, and astounds me - as I'm sitting there - that I'm learning about this stuff. Which starts that vicious cycle again. But, oh no, woe is me... poor me... walking 2.25 miles to school IN PARIS, feeling insecure about global law IN PARIS. It's still very surreal and still a gigantic rollercoaster. One day total self-assurance, the next complete insecurity.

I walked back after classes. My ipod wasn't working properly so I did without which is such a good thing. (No, no, I don't walk around the whole time with my ipod but it is good for the walk/run work-out to and from places sometimes.) There was so much noise and sound and discussion - so much LIFE in this city walking home in the dark.

Today, I tried the metro as RATP said they'd started running more frequently. But, of course, running metros means crowds and crowds. I watched a guy hold the doors open to the car for like 4 minutes while he really tried to shove himself in. The second metro and I tried to shove myself in - making a fool of myself no doubt. The third metro came empty! I got a seat which was fantastic and good viewing for the sardine action. It's comical but annoying, dangerous and community all at once. It took me 1-1/2 hours to get to school. HA!

On the way to the metro this morning, I walked from M: Blanche to M: Barbes. I must have looked too serious or pinched-face because all of a sudden I had this silly teenage boy's face in mine, fingers spread out from his head and tongue out. It definitely had the right effect. I started laughing and laughing while walking totally caught off guard! Perfect!

It is indeed the little things.

......

Tomorrow I'm off to the doctor visit and tax payment for the official carte de sejour - long-stay visa. I hear there's an x-ray, blood pressure check, tax payment of 55E, and then done deal.
3.07 miles to the doctor.
2.20 miles to school.
2.17 miles back home.

Between school and home, I think I might treat myself to a leisurely stroll through the Carrousel du Louvre for the Paris Photo exhibition.

I often wonder if there's some part of photography and writing that is playing itself out loudly within this grad school plan. Perhaps some of my struggle is in integrating all the pieces and right now only a few aspects are receiving the most attention in the 'grad school plan.' I've heard of many students attending Global Public Policy or Public Affairs programs to augment careers in journalism. I need to investigate that more.

greve

some photos

ABCnews.com

BBC.com

there was some protesting at the corner of my school, Rue du Bac and Blvd Saint Germain. I'll post those later this weekend.

Hey, Ben & Kat - I put all our summer galavanting pics into one folder. I'm starting to go through the older pics and put 'em up. So, Em & Mike, yours will be up soon I hope!

xoxo

The policy of fear aka for your own protection

Thank god I'm in France....


Intelligence deputy to America: Rethink privacy


WASHINGTON (AP) -- As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States change their definition of privacy.

Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information.

Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S.

The original law required a court order for any surveillance conducted on U.S. soil in order to protect Americans' privacy. The White House argued that the law was obstructing intelligence gathering because, as technology has changed, a growing amount of foreign communications passes through U.S.-based channels.

The most contentious issue in the new legislation is whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly giving the government access to people's private e-mails and phone calls without a FISA court order between 2001 and 2007.

Some lawmakers, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appear reluctant to grant immunity. Suits might be the only way to determine how far the government has burrowed into people's privacy without court permission.

The committee is expected to decide this week whether its version of the bill will protect telecommunications companies. About 40 wiretapping suits are pending.

The central witness in a California lawsuit against AT&T says the government is vacuuming up billions of e-mails and phone calls as they pass through an AT&T switching station in San Francisco, California.

Mark Klein, a retired AT&T technician, helped connect a device in 2003 that he says diverted and copied onto a government supercomputer every call, e-mail, and Internet site access on AT&T lines.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the class-action suit, claims there are as many as 20 such sites in the U.S.

The White House has promised to veto any bill that does not grant immunity from suits such as this one.

Congressional leaders hope to finish the bill by Thanksgiving. It would replace the FISA update enacted in August that privacy groups and civil libertarians say allows the government to read Americans' e-mails and listen to their phone calls without court oversight.

Kerr said at an October intelligence conference in San Antonio, Texas, that he finds it odd that some would be concerned that the government may be listening in when people are "perfectly willing for a green-card holder at an [Internet service provider] who may or may have not have been an illegal entrant to the United States to handle their data."

He noted that government employees face up to five years in prison and $100,000 in fines if convicted of misusing private information.

Millions of people in this country -- particularly young people -- already have surrendered anonymity to social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, and to Internet commerce. These sites reveal to the public, government and corporations what was once closely guarded information, like personal statistics and credit card numbers.

"Those two generations younger than we are have a very different idea of what is essential privacy, what they would wish to protect about their lives and affairs. And so, it's not for us to inflict one size fits all," said Kerr, 68. "Protecting anonymity isn't a fight that can be won. Anyone that's typed in their name on Google understands that."

"Our job now is to engage in a productive debate, which focuses on privacy as a component of appropriate levels of security and public safety," Kerr said. "I think all of us have to really take stock of what we already are willing to give up, in terms of anonymity, but [also] what safeguards we want in place to be sure that giving that doesn't empty our bank account or do something equally bad elsewhere."

Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that defends online free speech, privacy and intellectual property rights, said Kerr's argument ignores both privacy laws and American history.

"Anonymity has been important since the Federalist Papers were written under pseudonyms," Opsahl said. "The government has tremendous power: the police power, the ability to arrest, to detain, to take away rights. Tying together that someone has spoken out on an issue with their identity is a far more dangerous thing if it is the government that is trying to tie it together."

Opsahl also said Kerr ignores the distinction between sacrificing protection from an intrusive government and voluntarily disclosing information in exchange for a service.

"There is something fundamentally different from the government having information about you than private parties," he said. "We shouldn't have to give people the choice between taking advantage of modern communication tools and sacrificing their privacy."

"It's just another 'trust us, we're the government,"' he said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

Berlin on my mind, Paris in my heart

I just finished uploading 125 photos to the Berlin folder on Flickr. It's only Day 2 of the stay there of 6 so please be patient. Most of it is my walk from the wonderful apartment on Kanzowstraße to the Hertie School of Governance, my flatmates, the school, and a bit leading into our first real night there (girls on bikes). The hostess for our flat was actually at the "big kids" Global Public Policy Network conference in Singapore (along with 2 of our Sciences Po students) where they focused mainly on learning new pedagogic techniques and standards for accreditation. Our "little kids" student conference was the one in Berlin, the 2nd of its kind as London School of Economics hosted the first one this past March.

So, while the hostess was gone, we got to crash at her place. So very kind of her to offer it up. I ended up seeing a few interiors of flats while in Berlin. There's definitely a cookie-cutter aspect to some. Two of the ones I saw were identical - I mean identical - on the inside and about 10 blocks apart from each other. Shanaz was my flatmate and bedmate - suprising to the both of us. She's from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and this was her first sight of autumn - I could only imagine the shock to her body and senses. In the guest room stayed Lu, also from the same school but originally from China so the seasonal change wasn't so foreign. Man, let me tell you the amazing discussions we had and how utterly patient they were with me. I mean, I was there for the conference primarily but also to socialize. And there was only one key for the whole flat. So imagine. I still think, embarrassingly, back on the lunch I had with colleagues in the US when my dad treated us and explained the biological effect of living in Buenos Aires on my constitution: I'm perpetually late to things and definitely a night owl. The truth can turn cheeks red!

The three of us ended up leaving the flat together every morning for 4 days, grabbing breakfast (coffee and a strudel treat for me, water and sandwiches for them) at the corner bakery (semi-chain sort of bakery/shop), waiting a bit for the tram (aka street car), and taking the 25 minute ride to Alexanderplatz and then walking to Schloßplatz in Mitte (map here for you map-philes). Yu and I had some very interesting discussions about the one-child policy of China and my family planning organizing background.

Once there, every day was nicely packed with speakers, panels, coffee breaks (proven to be the best starter for networking and ultimately power-brokering with the next Secretariats of the World), lunch in their totally Aramark-catered fantastic lunch room (the building is shared with ESMT - it's no wonder).

After a while I started to seriously consider applying to the dual-degree program and doing my 2nd year there. The academic program seemed spot-on, the facilities were futuristic compared to Sciences Po, the people seemed intelligent and warm, the weather familiar, the shopping so so so cheap, the food various and vegetarian, the beer wonderfully tall, the men more easy on the eyes, the night life more cutting edge, the English flowing in any situation, the horizon and time for Berlin very cutting edge and about to explode. All of these wonderful aspects and I looked at Sciences Po and Paris in my mind's eye and felt like I was attending an orphanage while visiting a palace. I felt a little like I should be defending my school and trying to remember why I loved it. But frankly, I've only been living here for 2 months and 1 day and attending actual classes for a month and half. I don't feel school spirit yet and at the price I'm paying (no help with the depreciation of the dollar, thank you) I feel like I need some serious vitamin shot of love!

But then I started seeing a bit of the reality. Sure, I was in a palace, but a palace with rigid, boxy structures and timeliness that hurt my soul. The cleanliness was too much (expect that I'd like to argue that the Germans let their dogs poo more on the sidewalks than the French do, thank you). The aim of the academics seemed wonderful (it was one of the programs I applied to but I had made my decision on Paris before I heard confirmation or rejection), but not quite as roomy as my program.

I realized I missed the stink of Paris. The chaos. The strikes (more coming this week). The overwhelming density of the city. I feel empowered here to fight for mine - a feeling I'm not so used to having been raised Scandinavian, Lutheran, and passive-aggressive Minnesotan to a degree. It's almost as if the lyrics "if I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere" apply more to Paris than NYC. The city of lights. The city of love. The city of distrust. The city of old ladies peering through the slats of their shutters down at the street, down at you. The city of two-hour walks to work. The city of perfected wine, perfect nose snubs, perfectly earthy cheese, perfectly unique skies. Things in disarray appeal to me and while I love the disjointed, free struggle of Berlin I'm much more in love with the wild, half-drunk off a bottle of wine, riotous and rambling, slurring and sexy, frightful and fenced off Paris.

Man, this is gonna totally hurt me financially. And I might very well change my mind in a month when the application procedure opens to dual-degree programs. But for now I'm not ready to give up on this city or the program or myself. I know in time I'll feel stronger and more proud.

Anyway. Go check out how Berlin is changing and meet some of my wonderful colleagues and new friends.

[PS. Oh, and I somehow ended up as the co-chair of the 2008 GPPN Student Conference in Paris. Don't ask, please. No really. Please.]


highlights:

on the train, during the Berlin strike










autumn out the apartment window









flatmates in Berlin








Henry addresses the conference, Hertie











Television Tower in stereo

Power up the people!

More strikes now and ahead. I've got French class at 8am on Wednesday morning. On the bus or metro it's about 25 minutes to the school and then 5 min walk. Walking to school will be about a 2 hour affair. Here's to becoming a super duper morning person!

Fastest Update in the EU

I'm working on editing the Berlin photos right now. I tossed up a bunch of the Greve ones without labelling them because there were over 100+ and I just didn't have the time. There's day 1 of Berlin up but it's us kids in the airport - not interesting at all. Unless you dig Schoenefeld.

I'm off to go do groceries which requires planning and lists because, unlike the French, I like efficiency.

I'm definitely sure I made the right decision for school and for school in Paris. It's hard and wonderful at the same time, every day, all the time. Some days I feel like I've been thrown back into high school and feel drastically insecure about myself when I shouldn't since I'm a wonderfully mature and successful woman. Some days I feel frustrated by my lack of prior knowledge but I'm getting the big picture and seeing it all add up. Events outside of school are reinforcing the language I'm learning and the concepts and I feel like by the time I leave I will be on the cutting edge of leadership and policy, world change. That's exciting and comforting. Meanwhile, personally, I have some challenges. It's harder to get along with the younger students and it's harder to get along with French friends due to lack of time. I'm proud of myself that I've really taken to the bus routes (dude, RATP rules - on the upper left hand side is an interactive map of all bus lines, their timetables open in PDF and their routes are clearly outlined, same with metro, RER, and everything else). It's a great way to see Paris outside of my apartment and the school -- which end up seeing me most.

I loved visiting Berlin to see its dramatic changes between my last visit in 2002 and now. Thanks to Paul for the recommendation of Globetrotter Hostel!

So, we went to the World Bank the other day. You can see us here and watch the 2 hour lecture on "Research to Policy" here (opens into a Real Player video which I can't seem to save - must be locked).

Weather's turning colder here but no snow yet which makes me tremendously happy. There are anticipated strikes next week but I can't confirm things yet. I finally got a Navigo card (like 50E/month for all transport - it's a steal since I ride the bus/metro at least 2/day @ 1.50E/ea = 84E/month). I don't get the student discount because I'm old. Age discrimination is incredible in Europe. They don't comprehend why anyone would return to school for some reason. .. well, I know the reason, I just don't have time to expand on it here.

I promise more lengthly reports this weekend between reading reading reading and living.

Don't forget - plan your Europe vacation now and get free accommodations with me! I've already got my pals, the Lunds, visiting in January. Sooo excited to see them here and catch up -- J. Lund was 1 of the main recommenders for all my grad school apps, super cool guy/professor.

Ok, over n out.
BisouBisou

I got fat in Berlin

Well, I put the pounds back on that Paris made me lose. We ate so well in Berlin!

But I have to run off to a group work meeting (during vacation no less! blasphemy!) and then I have to use this vacation / reading week to actually catch up on reading so the blog post will have to wait.

In the meantime, there are a ton of new Paris photos - trying to catch up with those before loading up the Berlin ones.

Here's the link to the sets. What's new?

La Fete des Vendanges de Montmartre
dinners (yes, mom, I'm eating)
#74 bus ride
Sciences Po events (INSEAD RESPONSE conference - highlight was seeing the President of Microsoft International, low point was realizing they all do the corporate social responsibility for the money)
Day in the 1eme and Marais
Nuit Blanche (added and grouped)
Montmartre 18eme
Marais - 3eme and 4eme (post-Soiree Blanche, walking around the day after)
Saint Germain / rue du Bac (I was focusing on capturing some fashion on the streets and coats I'm interested in)
Pigalle / Clichy (like maybe 4 photos here)
Paris Metro (starting a collection of metro pics I think)

Here are some for persual now: