Who says the French aren't nice?

The other day, after returning from India:

I stopped in to the cave à vin (wine cellar, aka "cave") to see my wine guy. We chatted and he was delivered 2 slices of pizza from next door for his dinner. Just making conversation I said I aime'd pizza and he packed up a slice for me along with my bottle of wine.

Across the street I visited with my boulangerie lady and didn't realize a line had formed behind me. I was scrambling to pay with coins for my 90c baguette and was short 10c when the 12-year-old boy behind me said, (essentially) "I have 10c for the lady."

The bus drivers say bonjour and bonsoir.

The Monoprix lady wants so badly to give me a plastic bag for my items that she's slightly insulted when I tell her I have my own bag.

My friends Wilfried and Sarah offer to swing by tomorrow when they're in the neighborhood since I'm sick.

And the other day I went to the Madeleine metro to go to Les Trois Quartiers, picked up the sleeping bag, and went back down to catch the metro home. And you never know what you'll find:




An accident on the line causing the metro to be delayed. A line of several people deep:


Turn around to go back up to catch the bus and



the escalators are broken...


But, in the spirit of unity, a nice woman stopped to help an older lady get up the stairs

Speak cryptically from now on

We interrupt the Paris, India, all things foreign to comment on the USA.


1) Does he sound more Texan than ever? Oh, right, you all in the USA are inundated daily with news about him and what he's said, done. That is, if you're not overwhelmed with election debates and finger wagging.
2) Does he even have any idea what he's saying?
3) How long does it take the speech writer to drill talking points into him before he goes before an audience?
4) Why is he still in office?
5) And what the hell is he trying to convince us of?



Bush pushes Congress to pass Surveillance Law - see it here -


and then continue it here






I remember when the Great Search Engines of the USA gave up private information about users' searching statistics (including IP addresses, I think). And I remember when the Government demanded phone records from the Great Phone Companies. Very few refused. So, now, the Government wants to block citizens from recovering damages for this illegal surveillance? Hm. I'm not shocked, but I'm scared. Remember the story of the frog and the pot of water? Put the froggy in and slowly turn up the heat and he won't realize he's about to become cuisses de grenouille. But try to drop a froggy into a pot of boiling water and he'll jump out. If Americans are repeatedly awash with crisis, fear, worry, threat, killing, war - it starts to feel normal. And while we might think we're doing something so good by participating in a new election ... will 9 months be too long? Will it be too late? Can we undo some of the knots we've gotten tied into?

I went to Feingold for his response. He's the trusted lawyer turned US Senator from Wisconsin. Too bad he couldn't carry the Presidential bid - I'd drop everything to get him elected.




I don't know about this form of government. How big is the machine? How deep does its roots extend? How far is its reach? I can tell you that there's not one of my colleagues in school who doesn't know that the USA's time in the globe is coming to a close. We're all wondering who polices the police. And we're watching the Group of 77 grow stronger and stronger militarily and economically. So, if the big shot can't play on the playground, where else to turn but to the homeland?


Happy to be in Paris today.

the different meanings of life insurance

Walking in downtown Mumbai, India. Life flashing before my eyes with the fast-moving, closely crowded traffic. Viewing the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly, Victoria Terminus). Some kids gravitated to us and were fascinated when I flipped my digicam's viewing window toward them as I flimed. We don't give money to them. It doesn't solve the problem.




I'm still processing the trip to India. On one level I was seeing India for the first time, a truly unique country with the most people on the planet living there. "Don't try to understand India. Experience India." (Lonely Planet quoted by the HR Director of Infosys) Then, on another level we were 35 of us together for 10 days. Social dynamics. Interactions. Conflicts and rejoicing.

But we have already started second semester classes (check my schedule and the Sciences Po website to see what I'm taking if you're interested - so far I love "Scenario Planning" and am auditing the interesting "Interest Groups" course). I heard back from the UNECE about an internship. It's in Geneva and I know very little about Geneva. It's an incredible opportunity since getting in to the UN of anything is near impossible on the internship level. I'd be assisting the Statistics department with educational marketing of their services and assisting in the implementation of some new applications. It's not a highly managerial position or a strictly public policy position. But it's the UN!! And, I'd have the opportunity to attend joint meetings (with UNFPA, OECD - just a couple of this spring's meetings) and network. So with all of this, my processing of the trip goes in spurts when I find time to reflect.

I was most happy to be back in Paris. It smells like roses, the driving is like a river flowing, and I am happy.

I hope everyone in Wisconsin has voted. I know they got mine.

India

January 28:

Is starting to heat up in my mind. We're going in 9 days. We had to pick roommates tonight and I - am - loved! It's nice when you ask someone to be your roommate and they say "I would LOVE to. YAY!" Anne W and I are going to have so much fun. As I reported our roommate status to our class rep "Lauren & Anne with the candlestick in the billiard room. Or maybe with the bathing suits in the pool. Or MAYBE with the booze in the mini fridge."

But really, I hear that the trip is pretty intensely packed with some fascinatingly amazing meetings with some cutting edge agencies, firms, NGOs, and a wide array of issues to push us and test our concepts of the world. For instance, we'll meet with an NGO that focuses on making child labor "better" which is a huge challenge to my own image of things. The US went through it's own industrial revolution and led its own child labor laws. Is it just for us to impose our Western views or what we have accomplished in our own society on other countries? It would be better if other countries could develop without some of the negative drawbacks that we overcame, but sometimes the right answer isn't the best one. I hear that India instituted a ban on child labor under 17 years old and this left thousands of girls ages 15-17 on the streets to do what? Prostitution mostly. Is working in a factory better or worse? Is it better or worse to eliminate these opportunities and how? Or, is it better to improve the situation while taking steps to eliminate it? I don't have these answers yet. We'll see what we learn.

February 5:

India tomorrow. I still haven't had time to really sit and absorb or prepare. My friend BH says "I am especially curious to find out how the Delhi metro turned out. They were working on it while I was there in 2003-2004. I am obsessed with trains esp. subways/metros. I dream about them all of the time. I have a paris metro map that i love dearly. I think that it seems like an almost impossible feat for delhi to actually have a metro. well maybe not impossible but 'surface life' sure is a different cup of tea... i love the friday mosque 'jama masjid' by the red fort. all kinds of folks are collected in front of it and tons of markets and dripping goats heads and that's where i saw the man without eyeballs and the body without limbs... the smells... moments frozen in time. i checked out the ymca to see if i wanted to stay in it, but with the variety of SUPER CHEAP places i chose not to. nice ymca though. i think my rickshaw broke down on the way there. o the hanuman temple is a sight... o and i ate at subway once just to save my life cuz i was never so sick in my life and b/c it reminds me of my high school days but not the delhi version with their chutneys and fake meats - india is the vegetarians paradise and they call it vege (pronounced vej) and right next store the folks dining at pizza hut were five starred out - they pulled out the chair for them and handed them menus and politely asked if they'd like anything to drink... while the cows walked past the seikh drivers for the super upper class suv cell fone talking ladies on their way to somewhere important
i love india"

I have heard "a living hell in heaven on earth." I have heard there is no pinpointing her or generalizing her. I know there are those news stock photos that try to convey the massive population and the immensity in transportation. I'll just try to absorb her as best I can and capture her in my own way.

It's 21h45 here and I'm doing the traditional last-minute packing that has been acquired from either/or/both my parents genes. Trying outfits on and off and thinking of packing enough but not too much - I'd like to leave room for saris and jewelry and jellys and jams - oh, wait, I'm not allowed to import food am I? Or am I? Or will I anyway? Just kidding... I have to be careful what I post here - someday I might want to run for President! Ha!!!! I did buy about 8G of photo cards and a few cheap but summery skirts (thank god some stores are now thinking spring!). Some of my attire is even FROM the places I'll be going to! ... sigh.... and good! Globalization is a complex matrix which I hope to learn more about. Let the market be, control the market - I'm not sure I fall in either camp.

What I do know is that in these summery skirts and 86F weather I will not be wearing tights or 'pantyhose' or stockings and instead, I'll be blindingly white like glue. At least I know I can seek refuge in the group of 30+ other pasty white kids. ... Speaking of refuge. We've all been warned not to give hand-outs to beggars, children or not. I'd like to imaginge I've been prepared a bit better for this shock as back in the day my mum learned a different approach as we cruised the insane streets of Buenos Aires. She'd carry apples in the glove box. I'm not sure if it's condescending to think we know better about giving out money to poor people (the complex gangs with warlords and fake babies-for-a-day schemes, drug or alcohol addiction), but I like to think that some of those kids were happy to have something to put in their bellies and were able to find a way to escape their Fagins to do so. So, of course, I think I'm mentally prepared to see this world (again, but times 100 million), and prepared not to immediately want to give them money, my jewelry, my personal effects and a good scrubbing.

But who knows? I might just crumble under the reality of it all. Or... maybe it's a bit too strong and I'm not entering into the movie "Gandhi." Frankly, my own fault, I've been so damn busy wrapping up school and such that I haven't done the appropriate investigation and research. I've printed a bunch of readings for the long flight so I plan to get in a few good hours of that before medicating myself for sleep. ... but oh the adventure! And it will be good to get out of Paris for a substantial amount of time. I need to re-appreciate her.

Well, this is over and out for now. I've got more packing to do. (The fashion show part is done, now the rolling and stuffing - - thank you, parents, for passing on this extremely useful skill!)

I'm not bringing the laptop but will check emails from the road. I won't be uploading the images as I go unless direly needed and available. But thanks for the well wishes.

See you in a few days!

neige

Snow is predicted for this evening, mixing with rain. And full-on showers before noon tomorrow. I wonder what they mean. I'll take a camera.

I'm sure they don't mean this












my parents' house in Wisconsin - dad's got the snowblower out.


We shall see!