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Published: November 25th 2008
Wow, it has been a very long time since I have wrote something.
First off, I will talk a little about UNESCO. I am officially an intern. I signed my contract and got my security clearance badge. The organization is interesting and I am really enjoying the experience. Sadly, I am coming to the conclusion that I doubt I will get employment out of it, but I am very thankful to have an insider’s view of an international organizational such as the UN. The way things work entertain me. Some days I go into the office and there is nothing for me to do, so I find articles to research and learn about the topics. Then other days, I am asked to do something and can I have it done yesterday. I am adapting and find the work very interesting, and I am really enjoying learning more about Africa.
I haven’t even written since Halloween! Halloween was good and I was able to celebrate it here. It is a phenomenon that is slowly starting to become more popular here. Actually, my friend Mandy, who has turned out to be a super great friend here, and I went to the Canadian house
at the Cite Universite for a Halloween party. Cite Universite is a large university dorm campus that has different nationality houses for students who want to study in France. For example, there is a German house, a Spain house, a Canadian house…you get the picture. Mandy lives there and I go and visit her and get a taste of dorm life. It is the best for me, because I don’t actually want to live in a dorm, but I like to be able to go in a visit. The party was really fun, and for once, drinks were not uber expensive. (2€ a cocktail) I have posted some pictures for you.
A couple of weekends ago I went out with another friend, Alain, and his friend Russ, who lives in Ottawa. We started out by going to this great little restaurant that served traditional southern French food - basically foie gras and duck. It was really good, but very rich and filling. After that, we went to a pub for a drink. Alain wanted to go home, but Russ and I decided to go clubbing. We got in a cab and asked the cabbie to take us to a happening
club. When he dropped us off, we went to the club, but it was closed for a private party. We saw some lights of something that looked like a club and headed over. After paying 20€ to get in the door, we headed in. Russ, being the gentleman that he is, went to the bar and ordered the drinks. After I asked how much they were, he replied to not worry about it and just enjoy, lol. Oh yes, they were expensive. 15€ for a highball! That works out to about $22 a drink!
The place did have table service. That would be where you can buy a bottle of booze for the table. Of course, I believe that was 200€ for a bottle - either way you drink it was expensive. This may be a good time to mention that we were in the first district of Paris, which is a very posh district. (Having said that, this place may have been a little more pricey than other clubs, but he usual price for a cocktail is often 10€) The place that we were at was located across the Louvre. I also found out later that the place was
called VIP and it is a new club that recently opened up and is frequented by a range of people. The weekend after we were there, apparently Lindsay Lohan was spotted there with her new girlfriend. Of course, if we were there on the same night, we would have never seen her because there is a second level to the place that only special people are allowed to get to. Nevertheless, it was fun times. We did see the French Michael Jackson - ok, so he only danced like him, but it was fun. And the dynamics of the place was interesting too. The ratio of men to women was overwhelmingly men. We did see one girl, but she was so mesmerized with herself and the mirror, there really didn’t need to be anyone else there for her.
As for school, things are good. It is really going by super fast. I found out a couple of weeks ago that because of my past schooling in North Vancouver and the arrangement the two schools have, I only have to take classes until December. So, in fact, I am done in a couple of weeks. It has definitely changed a few
things. I now have no idea when I am coming home. I think that I am going to see if I can do some more work at UNESCO for the experience and see how that goes. If I do get a contract for a job, I will stay longer, but if not, I will likely come home. I want to do a little traveling before that though. Mandy and I have decided to go to Spain in December for the weekend. I am pretty excited, a weekend in Madrid! When I don’t have as many time commitments, I am going to look at a little more traveling, but right now I am pretty focussed on school and UNESCO.
Last weekend was really nice though. On Saturday, my friend Alain (and yes, just a friend) and I drove out to Chantilly and Senlis. Both towns are close together and about an hour car drive north of Paris. Senlis is a little medieval town and really reminded me of when mom and I were in Transylvania, Romania. Chantilly was a really cute town too. I was just nice to get out of the city, breathe fresh air and walk around some cool
cobble stone streets. When we came back to Paris that night we ended up meeting up with some of Alain’s friends and drinking copious amounts of wine.
I have decided that I am going to try and lay off the wine for a bit. But it is really hard when it is so cheap. In the grocery store, wine ranges from 1€ to anywhere. A decent bottle of red wine runs about 4€. Having said that, I had a wine conversation with my friend the other day and we concluded that wine here is different that back home. Different in the sense that you don’t have the same branding of wine like you do in North America. There is such large supply of suppliers, I don’t get the same sense of identification like I do back home. Maybe I am just not paying enough attention, but it is rare for some of the wines to stand out. This may be a different conversation if I branched out to the 8€ bottles, but I am too cheap for that, hehe.
Well, for those of you who are still reading by now, I am happy to have not completely bored you. I
am hoping to write again sooner that the last time. Oh, and I have gone back to the Louvre, and with another 6ish hours of time invested, I think I have seen the whole thing. So, basically, it has taken me 14 hours or so to see it all. My next museum is Museum D’Orsay, which most people have told me is the best. I will keep you posted.
Xoxoxo
Leslie
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