Raisins and toilets

Poker winnings. Check out all those raisins (purple worth 5, yellow worth 20) and bottle caps (worth 100)!





Just funny:

take that, biatches!

Twas poker night tonight! Matt, before you get any dirty thoughts, this was the card game (Texas hold 'em), between eight guys. After a nice Bolivian-style dinner (grâce à Ramon) we whipped out the peanuts, raisins, and golden raisins (our play money), plus beer, and bought in for 5 euros apiece.

Oh yeah, and Ramon had specified guys and English speakers only, but we still had a pretty good spread: three americans (though Ramon is half Bolivian), a British Belgian, two Irishmen, a Norwegian guy who's been living in Vancouver, and a guy from Quebec.

The Quebecois guy was a serious bluffer, and it worked for a while until he lost everything and had to buy in again. But he made it all back and almost won.

It all came down to the last hand. I was dealt a queen and a four or something like that, so nothing good, and then when the first three cards came up I had nothing, except four spades. So close to a flush! I hung in there, jacked up the bidding, and then when the last card came up, it was a spade!!! So I jacked up the bidding even more, knowing it was our last hand before we took the métro, and it came down to everyone who hadn't folded putting everything they had into the pot. Closest thing to beating me was a full house (which was pretty close), but in the end I came home with 40 euros. Sweet! I'd only had one big hand before that but it wasn't going to be enough against James, but he folded, and everyone else put everything in, so I crushed him. Yeah!

And then, on the way home I ran across two people from my masters in the métro. Who woulda thought?

Anyway, it was tons o' fun, and I can see why they show poker on ESPN.

Who's selling YOU guns

Oh yeah, I also saw Lord of War on Sunday. That movie is amazing in its cynicism. I can't even comment on the quality of it, the subject matter is just so compelling and terrible. Nice dig at the US at the end, of course. Gets the Robin Seal of Approval.

wine therapy -- don't worry, happy ending

I seriously need to get a handle on my nuroses about the future, life in SF, etc. Since Sunday or so I've been in this super-deep funk about everything, avoided people at school, not doing schoolwork, or even enjoying the time off from homework. It's really ridiculous, and seemed a lot like what I was feeling this summer -- not reassuring. Not necessarily unjustified, but I need to be focusing on the extremely positive aspects of my experience here instead of worrying about what I little direct control over (i.e. the future, especially the details). But as I bump up against certain intellectual limits (temporary or otherwise) and can't handle as many projects as I should be working on (e.g. schoolwork plus writing), it can be frustrating.

Among other things, I've been brooding over whether I really gave journalism/publishing/that sort of thing a good enough go at it, and whether I'm being stupid studying something else instead right now and having trouble finding time to work on writing projects that I'd really like to do. Also, this econ stuff is just really hard! I'm not the only one having trouble, but usually schoolwork or research projects or whatever just sort of make sense. But in econ I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around some of this stuff.

So all in all I've been wondering if I shouldn't just go home and work and try to make things happen with journalism/publishing, but at the same time it'd be lame to quit school just because it's gotten hard. It'll be that much more satisfying to finish if it's this hard at the beginning. It's character building, right? Also, I do actually enjoy learning about econ, I just don't know if I'm going to use it. I'm also kind of afraid that I will use it and start working for the man or something, or give up on anything to do with words or publishing. Not that I can hope to accurately predict even a faint outline of the future. And actually, if I'm that into publishing and whatnot when I'm done, I'll obviously find a way to keep doing it, otherwise I'll drop it.

But on a happier note, I just got home from a really nice dinner with most of the people in my masters (12 of us went out for couscous). Turns out that three of the guys (myself included) were in relationships that ended almost simultaneously. There was also a mini-battle between people on the left and the guy who admitted that he was centrist. All in good fun of course, and the right-leaning guy would be a pretty liberal person in the US, so that whole thing was kind of surreal. Then there were a few pitchers of wine, wedding photos on an iPod, correcting my pronunciation of iPod (in real French, it should be pronounced ee-pod, but no one does), and just having a great time hanging out and eating.

It was exactly the kind of evening I needed to get me back into life here. It would be so stupid for me to spend two years moping about, only to 'finally' get back to the US and realize that I'd wasted my time, then mope around San Francisco about that. So, not that any of those people are reading this, but a big thanks goes out to the crew in économie de développement international!

mondays

Ah yes, another Monday, with an 8am stats class. I'm going to get killed by the final for this class if it has anything to do with theory. If it's just messing around with the stats software though, between my natural 'oh I'll just mess around until I figure out how to do it' and the online help system, it should be ok. In any case, I'm consoled by the fact that most of my colleagues are as lost as I am.

It's the end of the semester crunch and I shouldn't be posting. But everyone knows how much I like to procrastinate. Send me email to reply to!

Oh, and this weekend, I finally beat Claire at Abalone! Not that you care, philistines! It's a fun game though.

toxicomane and Chinese cinema

Two firsts in the last 24 hours:

1) I saw my first weird-ass druggie person in Paris. You see punkish sorts of kids lying around with their dogs all over the place, just like in Berkeley or the Haight, but until today I'd never come across one of those people whose mind has been turned to mush after a few too many raves and meth soirées. Not a pretty sight. Fortunately though, still not as bad as this downward spiral or faces of meth.

2) On a lighter side, I saw three movies with Claire last night by the director who did I'm in the Mood for Love and 2046. Claire's in second-year Chinese and has to do a presentation, so she was cramming all the movies into one night. Maybe Jean could tell me that these films are actually some kind of perverse look at Hong Kong life and Chinese culture, along the lines of Amelie for Paris and the French; and the director has some visual tics that he reused in two of the movies; also, the unrequieted love thing got kind of old over the course of the evening, especially since I was technically on a date. Nonetheless, I thought the movies were quirky and great and stunningly filmed, so it was a lovely evening of Chinese cinema.

I particularly liked the one about the policeman and the noodle shop girl. Lydia, if you're reading, she somehow reminds me of you.

As for tonight, supposed to be another night on the town at Favela Chic! Photos and blogging tomorrow.

Good thing I don't know many blonds

omg check out this blond joke!

Brilliant.

photo

To answer the questions about the photo, Matt, I think I look more dastardly than Judah's Austin-Powers-esque 'look at me I'm cute and charming when I do this with my eyebrow' face. Or am I misinterpreting it?

No, this photo is a result of neither cheese nor peyote (there are no deserts here), simply fatigue and being bored with all the photos being taken. Sorry to burst your bubble.

Sorry for the dearth of entries, I've been having one of those weeks. But things are looking up.

jealousy and saxophone concertos

Just got back from a lovely soirée at my friend the diplomat's new apartment. This guy is on a year abroad from the Columbia public policy grad school, has a job with the foreign service as a diplomat, and has a sweet apartment paid for by the government. Oh, and he's 25 too. I wish he weren't a cool guy, cause he's the perfect candidate for someone to hate out of jealousy. Not that I want to work in the foreign service.

You should also know that he's quite handsome, as far as my taste goes. He's also extremely personable, and he's got a flock of Italian girls that always seem to come out with them. The mix at the party tilted heavily towards hot girls. I went with Claire, and she talked for a while with this really cool girl from my masters who has great clothes and plays contrabass, and this classmate says Claire is ok. Just in case any of you were wondering.

Oh man, I can't keep my eyes open. Off to bed now to catch up on some much needed sleep. The saxophone guy had better keep quiet until noon.

First exam: check!

So just got home after the exam, and it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. We had a choice of two questions and four hours to write an essay. I picked, to what extent are we experiencing a return of the state? It makes more sense if you've taken the class, I assure you, but only a little bit more. What's important though is that I filled up the whole exam form and even needed an extra page. My French was probably terrible, and I have no idea how I really did, except that I don't think my answer was too stupid. But I've got nothing to go on except for my failure of an essay from a few weeks ago, so I could easily get an F- or something. Ech. At least it's done!

Crunch time

You can tell it's getting towards the end of the semester when you give a major presentation on Thursday, have an (unstudied-for) exam on Saturday, another presentation on Wednesday, and some other semester project to turn in or present every week for the next month before the actual exams. Yes, those days when I complained about not having enough actual work are over. I'm also supposed to do a couple of interviews for France Today, the magazine I've been writing for (latest article on Parisian roof explorers now available for interested parties), and maybe write something about the riots for Kristina. The interviews, if these bastard will call me back, could include the star of Amelie. And no, I'm not going to ask for autographs. Sorry.

But I'm just happy the presentation on Thursday didn't totallty suck. Kind of the equivalent of an oral semester project, I had to do a ton of research and boil everything down into a ten minute presentation. Not an easy task when the article you have to explain is actually a critique of a marxist critique of the industrial revolution and development of the factory system. But it worked out.

Other than that, this week I have now seen Good Night Good Luck, made dinner for Claire, eaten Tunisian pastries, and done my laundry. What I haven't done is study for the exam that's coming up in four hours. Meh.

So I guess I'll go do that then.

when the teacher just doesn't show up

As much of a pain as it is that our professor didn't show up this afternoon, since we'll have to make up that session later, it was a lot of fun just goofing off in the classroom for a little while while everyone decided where to go. I've got some cool people in my masters!

Didn't get enough sleep last night with class at 11 this morning, so I'm falling asleep as I read. I can see why people sometimes take speed in school. It'd be great to go like 24 hours doing nothing but reading and catching up on everything that I should be doing. I don't know how everything is going to get done.

Forget all that other stuff

Now that I've got out my frustrations and annoyances, I can talk about the fun evening I have. After spending too long online writing ranty blog entries, I managed to get my ass out to a bar in the neighborhood I lived in last year. It's this great hole-in-the-wall where they have record covers covering the wall, and it's all good stuff. The drinks are cheap and the ambiance is super-chill. Sheet-covered couches, a backgammon table in the corner, cool music streaming off the internet, including San Francisco favorite SomaFM from time to time, and cool bartenders that are always ready to chat. It would be my local Cheers if I still lived in the neighborhood and if Magali didn't live 50 feet away. That could be a little weird if she walked in. But it's such a great bar! I wish you could all come grab a drink with me there.

As it was, there was a motley crew of fellow students just chillin'. One of the girls from my class was there 'cause she needed a break from her boyfriend's broken leg hospitalisation. They were going skiing, and as they walked out of the rental place, he slipped. That's almost as bad as when the accelerator cable on my great old Honda Accord broke 30 minutes from the ski slopes at Tahoe. You might think it's a stupid comparison, but Matt said he was snowboarding in a t-shirt! Such a tragedy! Too bad for that guy's leg too. He was out on cruches for a week, but then the bones shifted and he had to get surgery today.

Actually, besides missing a day of skiing, since he's visiting from Mexico he's not covered by the French healthcare system and he'll have a hefty bill waiting for him back home.

Not that you care, you philistines!

une précision

When I say I hate French public services, I don't mean the trains, the healthcare, the cheap universities, the housing subsidy (which I should get if they ever send my the paperwork), the steak and fries for 3.20 euros. I mean the administrative stuff, the stuff you would need to use if you ever (god forbid) had to run a business here. So that covers the postal system, the administration of visas and whatnot (though I doubt the US is much better than that), the banks, the ISPs (I have friends who have waited four months for DSL -- I realize that this too has been a big problem in the states too), etc.

I know, none of this is anything new, and I and other foreigners and French students spend too much time ranting about it, but it's good, it helps us bond. The US has plenty of its own stupid problems (it's not like going to the post office is a pleasure there either), but in regular life over there I know how to deal with them or avoid them for the most part. These complaints are clearly just the rantings of a poor, arrogant American who thinks he knows how the world should be run. OR, par for the course for most expats anywhere in the world, if I'm not mistaken.

no need to go wild

Lest you think that I'm right back in the swing of things after a draining last few days in San Francisco, can I just tell the world how much I hate the French postal system?

I lost my phone somewhere in San Francisco, so I've been without a phone for a few days now. Ok, no problem, buy a new one on eBay. Pay a little extra for the faster shipping option because social life without any phone at all is basically impossible. I'm happy to have a tracking number so I can find out when I'll be able to get the text messages and voicemails that I know are piling up (people tell me they've left messages, I don't just automatically think I'm hugely popular).

But when the package is coming from the Paris region, and you paid for 1-2 day shipping, and when they say they've been preparing the delivery for like two days now, you start to wonder, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING?

I hate French public services (except health care, which I haven't used yet this school year, by the way). I'm also waiting for a letter so I can go get my residence permit, which I should have had weeks ago. I technically shouldn't have been allowed back into the country on Monday.

Newsflash: Insurrection by American students at elite(ist) French institution fails

Ah, what a week! As you may have noticed I haven't been updating this thing very long. I'd say that has something to do with two things: 1) I'm a lazy bastard 2) I hate going back to school after vacation, and it's always hard to catch up again.

Regarding the second one, we only had class Wednesday through Friday, but I feel like I'm totally behind and incompetent in French. It's likely because of fatigue more than anything else, but I had a hell of a time following any of my lectures. Yes, I was falling asleep in some of them but others I just totally zoned out when I realized I couldn't follow sentences more than a few words long. Subordinate clauses and parenthetical statements were totally out!

On the upside, my econometrics professor (who speaks so softly and isn't very good at making me understand what she's teaching) thinks that I'm actually good at the stuff. Of course it was only because I'm not an idiot when it comes to computers and could tell other people what they did wrong as they used the statistical software. Like a dumbass though, I told her that I was just good with computers. Why burst her bubble?

Well, keeping expectations low for the final exams is always good. For most of my classes I have maybe one assignment for the entire semester, plus participation and the exam. I don't even care about grades anymore, just passing, but it's still slightly scary. One prof was handing back papers and when he got to the two American students, whose papers he'd stuck at the bottom, he said he couldn't grade our papers and asked us to come speak with him after class. And I always complained about OTHER students being bad representatives of the US!

It turned out that our essays were fine, but they didn't conform to the Sciences Po 'style' (which of course isn't described anywhere). We had both picked specific aspects of American society in order to answer the question 'Are we experiencing an increase in political passions?' I was all about political participation; the girl did something about women. Instead of writing an somewhat in-depth analysis of our respective subjects, we should have talked about 2-3 aspects and gotten all broad (and vague) on their asses. They call that going deeply into a subject (in 5-10 pages), although I'm skeptical. Then again, this might explain something about their teaching methods.

In any case, the professor was cool about it and offered to grade our essays based on the ideas and coherence of the arguments, but recommended that we add a few pages instead, so we'll have a better idea of what we're supposed to do in the future. With a mid-term next week and finals in a month or so, we could use the practice. But between a presentation a week for the next few weeks, plus articles, plus regular reading, plus just enjoying my time in Paris, I don't see how all of that is going to get done.

But I'll worry about it tomorrow. Now I'm off to a nice little bar in the 20th, right down the street from Mag's apartment. It's playing with fire, I know, but it's a great hole in the wall! Mag never used to go there, but I'll still be nervous all evening.

any one know any good spanish teachers?

After half a semester of Spanish class, as I sit here unsuccessfully trying to understand my basic Spanish homework, I realize that I still totally suck, and that I probably won't get much better with the classes at school. So if I hope to do my research/internship somewhere in Latin America this Fall, I need a crash course in Spanish, ideally an hour a day until July. Anyone know any good Spanish teachers? Sabrina, unless you can come out here for the next couple of months, I'm gonna have to go with someone else.

p.s. after a sleepy morning trying to study, I went back to sleep around 8 am, only to wake up at 2:30 pm. I'm so screwed for sleep tonight!

take note: for xmas 2006 I need a teleporter and a working jetlag cure

It's 5:30 am, and I've been up since 3 am. I tried cleaning my room a little bit, but that's so boring. I'm hungry, and nothing is open. After my christmas cookie madness this last week I don't want to start eating candy from the vending machine. Gotta push back adult onset diabetes by a few more years.

still waiting for teleportation

Ah yes, back in Paris after a long flight after a really fun New Year's celebration chez Gaelle. I'm so glad I stayed that extra day! It's so weird right now though that I left directly from the party, but it's now like a day later. I know, this is normal, time change and everything, but it's still kinda odd.

I really should be going to be now, so all I'm gonna say is that it was great to see everyone, and that I have the best friends in the world. Sorry if I didn't get to see some of you or call, but it was such a quick trip, and I didn't have my own phone.

I hope this is just the fatique talking, but this time I don't feel all that happy to be back in Paris. Maybe it's also 'cause I lost my phone somewhere yesterday (Jean, have you seen it at your place?) and my nice new digital camera isn't in my room, where I expected to find it. The prospect of 400 bucks of replacement costs, between the two of them, is pretty lame. Oh, and I broke a wine glass in my room too.