C'est La Vie.

By: Sydney

Dec 11 2009

Tags: holidays, Life, Paris, School

Category: Uncategorized

1 Comment

What’s up everybody.

I would apologize for my previous post (I know y’all weren’t expecting me to come at you with something that personal) but then I remember that’s what I transitioned for.  I’m not going to shy away from any topic because it’s too personal/controversial; I made this blog for that purpose.  To be able to vent about everything.  That particular day, I was ruminating over my relationship with my father and it was getting to me.  So, I wrote him one of those letters you never intend on sending (maybe I shouldn’t have published it either?).  It was cathartic. Got a good cry out of it.  It doesn’t change anything, but it helps to acknowledge the feelings I have deep down instead of pretending they’re not there.

Anyyyyway. I just had to post today because I know I’ve been MIA for the past couple of weeks.  I’m sure you guys can guess why.  Only one week of school left. Because I’m in mostly upper-level courses, I don’t really have any final exams.  Just final projects/papers and one non-cumulative tests.  I kind of wish that I did have all exams because all you have to do is study and be done with it.  For my papers, I have to commit to hours of research and writing, which gets incredibly exhausting after awhile.  But all of my papers/projects are due between Monday & Tuesday, so I’ll be done soon enough.  It’s been a grueling semester (never again will I take 6 classes and work at the same time), but it’s going to pay off.  If finals go well, which they should, I’m looking at a 4.0 for the first time in my life. 🙂

It struck me today that I have yet to post about my trip to Paris, which is in a little less than three weeks! So, I wanted to give a little background on what the trip is about and what I’ll be doing.  This is the description from the course website:

Come to appreciate Paris’ multiculturalism through the eyes and stories of immigrants from African, Asian, and Arab cultures. Explore global themes on human existence from the immigrants’ perspective. Debate and explore issues such as feminism, racisim, colonialism, independence, post-independence, polygamy, the veil, religious tolerance, the Algerian revolution, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Lebanese war, Islamism, today’s Algerian situation, the Palenstinian question, and other aspects of a multi-cultural society. Supplement reading of novels and articles with interviews with the authors themselves, visits to artistic and cultural centers, French secondary schools and classes preparatoire to discuss firsthand the views of France’s youth on multiculturalism and other pertinent issues during a round table formate designed specifically for that purpose.

I am so excited!  I love that the trip doesn’t have the typical tourist-y itinerary.  Of course I’ll see the famous monuments, museums, and shopping destinations, but I can do all that in my free time.  This trip is giving me the opportunity to see a whole other side of Paris.  The more intimate, multicultural side.  I honestly can’t speak much on it right now because I’ve only had a couple of pre-departure meetings with the professor.  We’ve been assigned to read a couple of books and do some assignments before landing so that we’ll be able to spend every moment absorbing the culture, and not staying in the hostile writing papers.  I haven’t really had time to think about it, or prepare myself mentally, because I’ve been so occupied with school.  But once the semester ends, I’ll have one week home (I leave Dec. 27th), so I’ll be using that time to pack, shop, and teach myself some single-serving French lol.  I’m going to take mucho pictures, and I’m trying to get my hands on a video camera as well.  Because I’m still crunched for time right now (taking a break from working on a paper), I plan on making another post before I leave.

For now, I leave you guys. I’ll hopefully be posting next Tuesday after I submit my last paper. Until then, maybe you all can post a French word or two for me.  I speaky NO Frenchy.  Seriously, I don’t even think I know how to say ‘hello’…Help.