Voyage to Normandy- Part 1, Conquering the French Bureaucracy

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the place where so many gave their lives, not just to secure our freedom.

It all started with a snap decision made by my roommate and I. We’d had a full week at school, and dealt with a fair amount of French bureaucracy, so we decided we needed a little break from our beautiful city. We settled on Normandy. I had always wanted to visit, and as it’s not too far from Paris we thought “why not?” In typical fashion, we ended up leaving a little later than planned, and when we arrived at the train station the automated ticket machine was broken. So I’m thinking, “great here we go again, just another fight waiting to happen.” We trudge to the ticket counter, waiting for the news that our train was actually on strike or some other small tragedy, when to our surprise, they lady was incredibly nice and helpful. She was even able to get us a discount and our tickets in the 10 minutes we had until our train left. Now this could be just be because of the not so great experiences I’d had that week when it came to state agencies, but I’m still wondering if I was just dreaming. Thanks for sticking with me while I share my little wins, now for the actual trip part….

So we’re feeling pretty great by this point, train worked out, weather is phenomenal, found our hotel right away, and we get a break from the fast pace of the city. We chose to base our Normandy adventure in the city of Caen. This was one of the first major cities liberated by the allies, and took a massive beating during the second world war, a few years before it was also where William the Conqueror set up shop.

Off we go!

Conquered that castle

View of Caen

Goodbye William...

We walked around the ancient castle, and took in the city views. We had enough daylight left to visit the Abbaye aux Hommes, which served as a hospital and shelter during WWII and the Abbaye aux Dammes. Both are impressive examples of gothic architecture, but I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Abbaye aux Hommes

Abbaye aux Dammes

We then had an awesome meal in the historic part of the city. That was also somewhat of an adventure, because while I feel pretty confident in the majority of my French, my knowledge of particular types of fish and their respective dishes is realatively limited. So I just went with the house special, hoping I hadn’t ordered some form of anchovies. I was happily surprised with a regional mix of different types of fishes. It was just the right end to what had turned out to be an exceptional day.      

Paris- City of sparkle and amazing hot chocolate

After my last novel about the wonders of school at Dauphine, I'll try to keep it short on the school updates. Finance is still, well finance, and other than that I'm really starting to enjoy my classes. And as an added bonus to having to fight for a seat, I feel like a have an extra drive to succeed in these courses. Maybe that's their logic behind the whole ordeal?

Anyway, back to much more exciting things like… Sparkle. This city is pretty well known for having it's fair share, and I got to experience a bit of it the other day. 

The Grand Palais, which I learned was never actually a royal palace. It was built for the Universal Exposition of 1900, along with a few other well known places around the city. Today, it functions as a museum, with rotating exhibits. The current exhibit is all about the creation and works of Cartier. Basically, rooms and rooms of tiaras and jewels. It was amazing to see, they had the tiara from the Kate and William's royal wedding, some of Elizabeth Taylor's and Grace Kelly's collection to name a few. 

Le Grand Palais

I'll take this one please...

Cartier a.k.a the Tierra company

The famous Cartier panther

Later that week, after a full day of classes, my roommate, some other exchange students, and I went to the famous Angelina.  Now I need to preface this with the fact that after a year in the land of chocolate, I have had the chance to taste some amazing coco combinations, but the hot chocolate at Angelina definitely lives up to the hype, and the desserts are pretty awesome too. Afterwards, we took a little walk around the city (this is becoming a nightly habit), and got to see another one of Paris' sparkly treasures. 

Starting at dusk, the Eiffel Tower sparkles each hour, on the hour for about ten minutes. Even though I've seen it light up many times, it's one of those things that you never tire of seeing. Kind of like the fireworks over the castle in Disneyland. Anyway, chocolate, jewels, and sparkle, what more could you want? Maybe just a little less finance, but for now enjoy a little Paris sparkle.

"I miss Ozone" and other things I never thought I'd say

Well it's the end of week 2, and time to remember the real reason I came here, school. This semester I'll be studying at the Université Paris-Dauphine, which is a well known business school in France. I had been warned about the "process" of enrolling in classes before I arrived by another student I know who had just completed the same program I'm in. Nothing, however, could quite prepare me for enrolling in school French-style. But before I get into that, I'll give you an idea about the school itself.

Dauphine is located in what was the NATO building. Which, as you can see from the picture below, is basically four connected(ish) buildings that form a square around a courtyard. I say "connected-ish" because whomever designed this thing, must have wanted you to have top secret clearance to be able to get from point A to point B. Some stars lead to some of the first floor rooms, while you have to take "special stairs" to get to the rest of that floor, and some rooms are accessible from inside, while others can only be entered from the courtyard. So needless to say, you have to plan a few extra minutes (more like 15) to make sure you can find your class. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it, but we'll see.

On our first day, Dauphine organized an orientation for all of the exchange students. It was a nice way to get to meet everyone else, and we even got a free t-shirt and breakfast, so always a plus! The next day we had to take a French language placement exam in order to enroll in classes, which was a little nerve wracking, but I ended up exactly where I wanted to be, so I was thankful for that.

Then, day 1 of real classes….. First of all, classes here are one day a week for 3 hours. Three HOURS.  But, lucky me, my finance class is actually 5 HOURS. Now, if you're a huge fan of numbers, and stocks, and bonds, and value, etc. then five hours might not be so bad, but personally, all of those things make me want to rip my eyeballs out, so this is going to be a real discipline test. Also, not only is it finance, the rise half of the class is dedicated to French accounting, which let me tell you, is in no way related to how we do things in the US. Fortunately, my roommate is also in this class so we can suffer through together. 

Now for the part about missing ozone. At OU we have this handy little thing called "ozone" which allows you to view a class, see what time it's at, who the professor is, and enroll in it. Amazing, I know. That little piece of modern technology, has apparently, not quite made it over here. They do have an online system, but it only allows you to see the course description. That's it. So you enroll in a bunch of classes, you don't know when they are or if they're full, you just know the name of the course. So, amazingly these classes sometimes occur at the same time. You find out a few weeks before whether or not your schedule will work, and then you find out on the first day of class if there is enough space for you. Almost every class (except for the lovely finance) was overenrolled. So what do you do when your class is over enrolled by say 40 students? Make them give a presentation about why they should be allowed to take that class of course! Fortunately, I was able to get into all of the classes I needed to take, and I think after the stress of this first week it should be much easier.

Okay, so enough of my whining about the organization (or lack thereof) of classes. After that first week, I really have enjoyed them. I'm getting to learn about the development and mechanics of the EU, the economics of trade, the history of art and architecture in Paris, and cross-cultural consumer behaviors. These are all classes (except finance) which I actually really enjoy going to, and they're courses that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to take at OU. And as a plus to having to spend 7-8 hours a day in class, I only have school Tuesday-Thursday, so I can go enjoy Paris- I mean do homework, the rest of the week.

And at the end of the day, I can take a walk by the Seine, and remember how lucky I am to get to live in such a beautiful city, school systems and all.

First week as an honorary Parisian

Well I've survived my first week in Paris without getting permanently lost….

Highlights of week one:

My first week was a blur of orientations, baguettes, and getting lost around the city. Rather than trying to write in detail about all that's happened, here are some of the highlights from my first week abroad.

Day 1:

After a solid 10 hour flight from Dallas, I arrived in Paris to find that everyone was proceeding with business as usual, so of course there was a strike in progress. But, fortunately I was able to make it (eventually) to my French home-away-from-home, pictures and more on that later.

After hauling our bags up five-flights of windy stairs, we decided, once we regained consciousness, to explore our new city. My new roommate, Danielle, and I spent the rest of the day wondering, and getting a little (a lot) lost, around our new neighborhood. The Louvre, and all the quintessential sidewalk cafés you could want are only a few minutes from our front door. Even though we probably walked the same three blocks for two hours in a circle, we did find our way back home. And personally, Paris is one city I don't mind getting lost in. Now matter how many narrow cobblestone streets I see, I still want to take a picture of each one I turn down.

First night in Paris! At Pont Neuf

The rest of the week was dedicated to getting used to the time difference and pinching myself in disbelief (I still do this pretty much everyday), that I'm actually living here.

On Sunday, Danielle and I met up with the three other girls from OU who are also studying at Dauphine. We went to Ladurée  for tea and macaroons. Our table overlooked the Champs Elysées, we couldn't have asked for a better view. Afterwards, we walked along the Seine all the way to Notre Dame, just enjoying the city. It was a great end to my first week abroad.  

Tea Time!

Roomies

My new backyard 

  

The Journey Begins!

I'm sitting in the airport, trying to hide the fact that my "personal item" could carry a small child, still trying to process that fact that I'm about to spend the semester studying in one of the greatest cities in Europe.
 I'm excited to see what challenges and adventures await in the City of Lights, au revoir Oklahoma!

Goodbye, I will miss you all so much!