Retour a la vie quotidienne

This is going to be another one of those "catch up" entries -- you have been warned!

The past week and a half have been somewhat uneventful, but only in the sense that I have not left the country, nor have I had any visitors from faraway lands. I feel as though I am now firmly settled back into "normal" life in Paris...which, surprisingly enough, includes quite a bit of schoolwork. I think this is Sciences Po's version of the "end of the year rush". Not much compared to the Georgetown equivalent, but still pretty significant considering the amount of work I've had thus far. A quick summary:

On Tuesday, I had to prepare a skit with a partner for Arabic. My partner (a Dutch grad student) was really nervous for some reason, which made it kind of hard once we were in front of the class, but we made it through alright in the end.

I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday in bed with some kind of stomach bug. Yuck. And yes, I will admit that when I woke up at 3am on Wednesday, my feverish brain did panic that I had the swine flu...or H1N1, or whatever name is currently considered politically correct. (Sidenote: They call it Mexican flu here. Somehow I don't think that would go over so well back in the other hemisphere.) Thankfully, I manage to avoid procrastinating for once because on Friday...

...I had two major assignments due. The first was a 10 page analysis of the official portraits of the presidents of the 5th Republic for my political sociology class. The second, and more nerve-wracking, was an expose on whether or not the French model of public services is soluble in the European Union (answer: no, and in fact it's not technically legal...but the EU has developed it's own version of public services, so it's okay.) I think the presentation went well, so that was a pretty big relief.

Coming up next, I have an Arabic test on Tuesday. It's a little ridiculous -- this is the first test we've had all semester, and it's only covering the 2 most recent lessons. My prof realized that he needed to give us a test at some point in order to have enough grades in his gradebook, and he had forgotten until just now. Somehow this no longer surprise me; it just makes me shake my head and laugh a little.

Other random bits of news:

Last Saturday, I took a day trip to Amiens with a friend. We picnicked next to the river and saw the Gothic cathedral, which is even taller than Notre Dame.

This coming Thursday, we're going to Amboise in the Loire Valley. Chateaux, da Vinci (more on that later), and glass blowers -- a perfect birthday treat.

Oh, and last but not least, I found out yesterday that I passed at least one of my midterms! In fact, I actually did pretty well, so needless to say I am relieved and proud of myself. :-)

I'll try to provide a more interesting (or at least more coherent) update next time. Until then...