smokin'! and hairy! so watch out

Assorted photos ...

Burning car:



Me n Claire


Ditto. Sorry bout the hair ... but you wanted proof that she exists


A peanut and butter jelly party at 2 am the other night.


The result of a drinking game called "Hello Harry" (like my new profile photo). It's quite amusing when everyone else is speaking with a British accent.

I'm a dancing machine! Or, how everybody wants to be Brazilian

I had my first capoeira class yesterday! This guy from my masters is obsessed with the stuff, and convinced me to come along to a Sunday afternoon class. Turns out that it's tons o' fun! I pretty much sucked, but I can do a somewhat controlled cartwheel thing, a few kicky things, and took a few 'steps' walking on my hands. Good times! I'm going back next week for some more, assuming my aching body feels better by then.

Other than that, I'm hardly doing any work these days. Well, school work, that is. I wrote that article last week, and I'm doing another one about microfinance in the developed world. Hopefully this one will get me a three-month internship at the Economist this summer, but even if it doesn't (it's a really long shot) I'll have learned something. The gig would be in London, maybe paid (it's sponsored by a foundation), doing economic and financial writing for the magazine. I know, finance is hardly the most scintillating topic but I figure there are some interesting aspects to be uncovered -- microcredit, for example. And man, if the Economist isn't a resume boost, I don't know what is!

I'm also still looking for internships, and there are some good prospects in Bogota, Columbia, as well as Calcutta. China is officially out -- the language problem is just too much to deal with when I'm supposed to be working AND doing research in that language for my thesis -- not the best time to start the language. I figure my terrible Spanish can improve enough by September to allow me to do something interesting if I go to South America. I'm also doing some copyediting, which brings in cash but takes lotsa time and can be exhausting. I was in a terrible mood all last week because of it, but things have been looking up since this weekend.

So now you know everything. Hope it wasn't too boring.

I'm an idiot, part deux

Read my previous post first. This post will make more sense.

Continuing ...

Later, I was over near the Sorbonne, which students had occupied the weekend before but which now was heavily barricaded. Skating along I all of a sudden saw this black kid start running from the police. Unfortunately there were tons of police, so they got him. No idea what he'd done, but they didn't look happy about it. Then again, they didn't look happy about much, and I'm guessing they were seriously overreacting. Anyway, they grabbed another black kid just a few feet away. When I looked over at him he was just standing there, maybe insulting the three riot policemen in front of him, but not fighting or anything.

All of a sudden, one of the fuckers punched him in the face. He obviously couldn't do anything, but I was shocked. As I skated past I called out 'fascist!', which, I found out a moment later, had apparently sounded like 'sale raciste!' (dirty racist). I was going pretty fast, but there were riot police in front of me and as I flipped off the guy behind me he yelled to the guys in front of me to stop me. Yes, supremely stupid, but I was caught up in the moment.

They caught me, made me take off my skates, checked my bag for throwable items like molotov cocktails, and walked me over to where they were arresting people. I explained that I'd seen the cop hit the guy, and he only said that I didn't know what had happened before, that I was passing judgement. I wasn't going to argue with the fucker because I'd realized by then that if I got arrested I could possibly get kicked out of the country.

I didn't have any ID, which was bad since everyone is supposed to have ID on them at all times, but I had my student card. They called some office somewhere, checked me out (or pretended to), then said, 'you have two choices. You can come to the commisariat for the night while we verify your identity, or you can get the hell out of here.' I left.

I'm guessing that between calling him a fascist and him punching a guy in the face, he'd have probably gotten in more trouble, or at least into more administrative bullshit, than some nice white boy from the US who was just being a pain in the ass and would have stuck to his (as yet undenied) story. I don't care, I was just glad to be out of there.

Of course, I hadn't really learned my lesson, cause I then went up to the Sorbonne where about 500 people were milling about, occaissionally kicking the 8' barricades in front of the university. Water cannons and tear gas were at the ready, but it was pretty chill most of the time, though there was one molotov cocktail quickly extinguished with the water cannon. But the CRS (riot police) started to close ranks, and there was no way out if they didn't let you. Then someone brought out a huge rope and attached it to the barricade, and about 50 people (including yours truly -- I know, I'm a dumbass, but I got caught up in the moment) grabbed on to try to pull it down. It actually worked, but then they let loose with the water and the tear gas, and people tried to get out of there. They wouldn't let us by, and again facing the prospect of arrest, I was slightly worried.

I found out later that some people got into buildings on the street through doors opened by very nice people, but I came across a stairway into an underground parking garage. Someone had busted open the door so I just kept walking down, past the cars, and out via another set of stairs about 100 yards away. Most importantly, this was behind the police lines, so I was all set to get home.

So I left.

I'm an idiot

I got gassed and pepper-sprayed last weekend. In the youth protests against the employment contract I wrote about last week, I wandered into this one section where people were throwing bottles at riot police, violently dismantling bus stops and park benches, and setting the occaisional car on fire. Gas tanks don't explode like they do in the movies, otherwise it could have gotten pretty unpleasant with that many people around. It was more of a muffled 'thump', and a little ball of flame. I guess they learned how to do it right, after those Pinto cars or whatever were blowing up in the 70s or whenever that was.

Anyway, every once in a while a group of the riot police would charge forward about 20 feet, sending everyone into panic, then use some pepper spray, and move back to the lines. Very uncool to be in a panicking crowd when you're on rollerblades. I only got knocked down once though, and then immediately switched to shoes. I stuck around for hours, watching these 'casseurs' (breakers) do their thing, wondering when the police would have their fill. It was a mix of kids from the suburbs, probably having been involved in the riots in November, plus a few anarchists. Not many at all, compared to the 30-80k people around them, but they kept the police on their toes.

Every once in a while someone would throw firecrackers, and once there was a firework like you'd see at a fireworks display on the 4th, but this time it was aimed at the cops. And the guys didn't do anything! They're pretty burly in their bulletproof vests, with their helmets and fancy boots and shields. It was probably more annoying than anything else.

Eventually the police started launching tear gas bombs to clear away the crowds. That shit is not fun! But there was a breeze, so I'd just skate to the other side of Place de la Nation and get some fresh air (I'd put my skates back on so I could get away quickly). The police advanced in groups across the square, looking like soldiers in Saving Private Ryan. Others were in long lines, backed by these trucks with barricades attached where you might expect a bulldozer blade. They spread across the entrance to the Place, and moved in a line down the boulevard, banging their shields with their nightsticks.

I played the dumb tourist at one point, before they started moving, when they told everyone behind the line (mostly journalists, a few scraggly protesters) to move back. They said they didn't speak English, but one guy managed to get out a 'you go there, away', to which I disrespectfully replied in fluent French, 'thank you sirs, it has been a pleasure, have a lovely evening'. I don't know why. It was pretty stupid really, cause if I'd gotten arrested or something maybe I would have gotten thrown out of the country. But it was funny for a moment. When you see that many cops and that much tear gas you sort of get caught up in the moment, even if it's not your cause or your fight.

Aren't you all jealous?

I just scored two tickets to go see Radiohead in May! We're trying to get a group of five or six over to London for a Radiohead-only concert, but I don't know if we got enough tickets. I don't even know if I'll even be able to go. 40.50 pounds comes to about 58 euros or $70, and then there's the train to get over there, plus a place to crash ... it would be quite irresponsible, especially after my planned trip to Scotland in April for Easter break. My extremely tall aunt and uncle are going to be traveling around, so Claire and I are going to meet up with them for a day or two then wander around the country for a few days. It'll also be my uncle's birthday that weekend, and mine as well.

I was sure I wouldn't go to this concert, I was just buying a ticket for a friend, but now that I have an extra ticket, it's hard not to contemplate seeing Radiohead in their own country, pushing my way to the front of the crowd crammed into the pit in front of the stage. I've already seen them a couple of times, but this would be in London!

Why carrots suck now

I just broke off a small bit of tooth as I was eating a carrot with dinner tonight. That's what I get for eating at home instead of going to a restaurant and eating mushy foods!

I'm going to see if I can get that special 'extra' student health insurance to make sure the dentist will be covered whenever I get around to going. Fortunately it's not painful for the moment, so I should be able to hold out until things calm down after next Friday.

Other than that, I had a great class today, but it was four hours long. Then I had Spanish class, which is always exhausting, and also served to highlight just how incredibly shitty my Spanish is. So now I'm tired and cranky.

On the bright side, just the other night a friend of mine gave me the phone number of his dentist, who is supposedly great and, he emphasized, has a very cute assistant. I suppose that can't hurt.

What I did this weekend

My latest oeuvre:

http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/33800

Why French Youth Are Demonstrating -- Again

This time young people are opposing an ill-conceived new employment law that the French government is pushing to boost ratings before elections next year.



Paris is burning, again. Well, not really -- no need to exaggerate like U.S. media did during the riots last year -- it's really just a few smoking cars and piles of garbage here and there, with tear gas and water cannons thrown in for good measure.

But it's not in the suburbs this time -- protests are happening at the Sorbonne, and at Place de la Nation, and in major cities across France. Between 500,000 and 1.5 million people were mobilized Saturday afternoon against a new youth labor contract that would, among other things, allow employees -- that are 18 to 26 years old -- to be fired without cause during the first two years of employment.

In Paris alone, between 80,000 and 350,000 people marched through the streets, with students and labor unions united against what they see as a proposition for substandard labor protections, job insecurity and inequality reminiscent of American labor conditions.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has promoted the contrat premiere embauche (CPE), or First Employment Contract, as allowing employers to take a chance on someone with less education or job skills instead of waiting interminably for the ideal candidate to come along and giving that person a contrat a duree indetermine, or unlimited duration contract. Of course, rolling back hard-won labor protections is not an easy sell, and the potential for abuse has the proposal's numerous critics worried and angry.

While supporters say the CPE is justified as a measure to help poor youth from the suburbs out of poverty, critics say that vindictive or racially motivated firings would be hard to guard against, since they can be officially without cause.

Another worry is that the contract will become a favorite among employers, contributing to unemployment for older, unskilled workers as they are replaced by easy-to-fire young people, who in turn fear losing their jobs to others just before the end of the two-year trial period.

But in the face of dynamic, if brutal and unequal Anglo-American capitalism, flexibilite has become a buzzword in the French political debate. The center-right government in particular argues that the current system, in which firing an employee is difficult compared to at-will employment policies in the United States, is hardly conducive to promoting economic growth and competitiveness in the global economy. Of course, that kind of competitiveness is a priority for unloved bosses, not for employees and their families.

On the other hand, with general unemployment over 9 percent, and 22 percent for nonstudent jobseekers under 25 (between 40 percent and 50 percent in the most distressed areas), the government is trying desperately to get those numbers down before the presidential election next year. Withdrawing the proposal in the face of university shutdowns and intermittent violence would be a major setback for the presidential hopeful and current Prime Minister de Villepin, and government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope suggested that dialog to improve the contract is an option.

Of course, with both sides hardening their positions, including two-thirds of the population in favor of withdrawal and President Jacque Chirac's declaration of unconditional support for de Villepin, a mutually acceptable resolution to this political crisis is increasingly farfetched.

There have been scattered anti-protest rallies favoring reopening universities, some of which have been closed for several weeks, while the major unions are threatening strikes later this week and refusing to negotiate unless the length of the contract and no-cause firings are put back on the table.

The prime minister has reiterated his refusal to withdraw the proposal, but on Monday he met with business leaders and students in Paris.

Robin Kraft is a contributing writer of WireTap studying in Paris.

almost a fake porn star

Walking out of a bar after getting a café with Claire yesterday, this random American girl asked us in some porn parody photos. Apparently she's asking random people in bars if they'll do it, with some success. "Partial nudity, but absolutely no sex!"

The examples she gave to entice us were a girl on a couch watching football, drinking beer and smoking, with a guy going down on her, or a guy leaning demurely over a stool with a girl approaching him with a strap-on. You know, the kind of stuff you could send home on postcards.

I've got nothing against porn parodies, but I just couldn't see myself doing that. It's not something you really want floating around the net or something. Either that or I'm a typical chauvanist not willing to give up a little power for the sake of ridiculing preconceived notions of gender roles. Or something like that. It's up to lit majors to explain this to me. Barbara?

Oh, and Claire said no too.

This is the life

It turns out that for the first two weeks of this semester I get to have the most chill school schedule I've ever had. Today I had one class, at 5pm. It went till 9:15, and then we went out to a jazz bar for drinks and arguments about economic growth maybe isn't always such a great thing once you reach a certain level of development (i.e. Europe vs. the United States). I found myself on the liberal (meaning open markets, free trade, growth is always good) side this time, which was kind of odd. But at 25, I'm old compared to these people. I don't have time to mess around with bullshit ideals! Actually, it was interesting, and pretty funny how it came up in class w/the professor (not worth bothering you with it though, it's only for funny for econ nerds like us).

Yes, I am now a serious econ nerd. At least with these people I sit around drinking beer and cracking jokes about endogeneity and technology frontiers and the like.

But back to my awesome schedule: I don't have class tomorrow! Actually I do, but it's at 8 am and it's in a big lecture hall and they of course don't take attendance. I got there at 9:30 am the first day of class. But now we have a system worked out where one person promises to go each week and they pass their notes to the rest of us. Sweet!

Wednesday is a little lamer, with another 8am class, then another at 7:15pm. Actually, that's seriously lame. I much prefer blocks of classes.

Thursday, another morning and night class, and Friday nothing before noon. I actually didn't plan it this way, it just worked out. And really I'll have more classes later, so I'm not a total slacker. Dunno why they set things up like this so we have a huge load in May and June but a light March. Oh well.

In other news, I may be going to Glasgow to meet my uncle and his wife for his birthday (April 14) and mine (the next day). And then Kristina is going to Latvia for a week or two in May, so I'm definitely going to meet her out there.

But now it's off to bed. And no, I still don't know if I'll be in Latin America next year or not. India is calling to me ...

whiners

Alright, here you go, this is what I've been up to lately. Hopefully it will explain why I've been so bad about emailing, updates, etc. these last few weeks. (warning: this is long!)

Exams!

First off, I had exams until Feb. 24. In addition to just being lame like finals always are, these were new and exciting because I had no idea how anything would work or be graded, so I was slightly stressed out. They were also scary because I and everyone else in my masters had no idea what we'd actually learned this semester. We blame it on the fact that it's a new, highly disorganized program. I'd also say it's partly because I spent about a week trying to study for everything but ended up screwing around most of the time. But ultimately I'm pretty sure I passed all my classes, which is what really counts, right?

Post-exam Fun

After the last exam we went off to Tom the Englishman's apartment for drinks and pasta, the latter generously provided by Antonio the Italian. Magically delicious, especially after a bottle or two of champagne. Tom proceeded to serenade us with Chinese pop songs and to teach me the basics of capoeira, which, just so you know, is a martial art, not a dance (lest you find yourself at a bar with two capoeira ladies and their English friend, all ready to pound your ass for making it sound like an equivalent of a waltz or something). I was pretty pathetic but it was good clean fun. There was also a gumball machine full of peanut m&ms, and we didn't even have to put in a quarter! Claire and a couple of her guy friends joined us later since we were obviously not going to get 10 tipsy econ students out to a club on the other side of Paris.

Lazy days and nights, poker, and how I lost another jacket

Let's see, that Saturday, I don't remember what I did, but it was probably nothing terribly interesting, maybe a bit of cleaning ... in any case, I basically spent the next four days with Claire. We watched movies, played backgammon, drank coffee, ate pain au chocolat, etc. We went over to Ramon's (the Bolivian-American) for a poker night, with James and Amon the Irishmen, a New Yorker friend of Ramon's, and Amon's Swiss girlfriend Emily. Yes, so very cosmopolitan. Not sure why I included those details, but whatever. Lots of beer, raisins, and snowflakes the size of Pringles. I lost that one on the last hand because I folded. Otherwise with a pair of fives I would have had the best hand, which is pathetic. Ending the game because everyone is sleepy is not a good way to get people to bet reasonably on the last hand. Oh yeah, Saturday night I went to a birthday party, and hanging out afterwards at a bar with a bunch of expats I got my winter coat stolen, sometime between 2 and 5am. That's what I get for leaving it upstairs in a pile of coats. I know, I'm a dumbass, but it was after an evening of Champagne and cheese, what do you expect?

New jackets are good

A few days later Claire and I explored the used clothing shops of Paris and actually found some nice stuff. I ended up with a corduroy jacket to replace the one stolen at the beginning of the school year (I've not been having great luck with jackets this year), while Claire gave me fashion advice and tried on some cool hats and ogled these old-school red Addidas sneakers. Then she went off to Strasbourg for the weekend to see her family (god, that's so lame!), and I sulked by myself in Paris.

Bulgarians to the rescue!

Then Ina came along and saved me! My Bulgarian/English brilliant law student friend from down the street happened to be on the same train home, and told me about her last-minute plans to head home to Cambridge for the weekend. Me being the jealous type and really fiending for a trip out of France, I was delighted when she asked me along. A quick search online got me my train ticket, and I was in London 12 hours later (the train isn't slow, I left the next morning).

London Fanboy

The train was super-fast and great, London was cold and expensive, but absolutely lovely and great. Mass transit in England sucks, but it works. I was surprised to find that the subway system, the Tube, is actually a tube, like those pneumatic ones they use at bank drive-thru things. Given the name I guess I could have expected it, but the trains are tiny and round, unlike the Paris metro cars. One trip costs 3 pounds, or roughly $5.25, and the 45-minute train to Cambridge was 25 pounds ($43.75) round trip. There was a bomb scare or something just as we were getting on the train, but apparently it wasn't a big deal as we got back into the station a few minutes later.

Protecting us from terror

Once on the train we were less than pleased to find out the young man across the aisle was on his way to see mum after a year in military prison for beating some guy with an iron. He showed us his house-arrest tag and everything (he had authorization for the trip) and then proceeded to tell us how it could be circumvented, how he was going to get off the train, get piss drunk and get in a fight, etc. The fact that he and the 12-year-old looking navy guy across from him had been stationed in Iraq does not bode well for the occupation there.

A weekend in Cambridge, or how to feel stupid

Once in Cambridge and away from these slightly sketchy guys who were paid to carry very deadly weapons, despite the fact that they shouldn't be allowed anywhere near them, we wandered around and Ina told me about the history of the place, the college system, etc. School trivia and the like. Turns out that if you get the highest grades, you become part owner of Trinity College, the best and richest college at Cambridge. She wasn't bragging, it just sort of came out over the course of the weekend that Ina is one of those part owners. And that she entered the school at 16. And that she's at the top of her class in Cambridge and in Paris (having kicked the ass of all the French students -- her parents asked how she was doing). Cambridge is crawling with people like that, as well as the kids of rich, famous people, so I felt kinda stupid and poor all weekend. But everyone was way cool and nice.

London Calling

I spent Saturday afternoon wandering around London, popping up from the metro every once in a while to explore. Brixton, sort of the Mission District of London, was very lively and cool, and I wanted to spend my rent money on the dozens of great books I found in a nifty second-hand bookshop. It was just kind of a wandering day, so not much to mention here.

Back Sunday night, started school the next morning. A week of vacation is just not enough! But whatever, it was a fantastic week. I even got to read fiction! (see below)

Oh yeah, back to learning

Now back to the grind, and the frustrations of a poorly-organized class. I think the others will be much better, but last night everyone was pissed off by how the professor expected us to remember in excruciating detail everything we'd learned at the very beginning of last semester. He was really rude about it too. Fortunately there are a couple of professors so it won't only be his grumpy self we see for four hours Monday night. After getting out at 9:15pm, some of us went for pizza and argued about Roger and Me and the new labor contract for young people (so you can get fired at will during the first two years of a job), and of course complained about the class. And on the first day of class! Today I missed half of our 8am lecture because I just couldn't get out of bed before 8:30. I'm going to miss that one a lot I think, but we're organizing ourselves so that at least one person from our masters will be there every week and will type up the notes for everyone else. It's quite nice to have 18 people in a masters.

Simpsons

Real update soon. In the meantime:

SimpsonsLive!

Via Sabrina

Nevermind

Was going to update this thing, but now I'm going to Cambridge and London for the weekend. Cheerio!

yeah yeah yeah

Pretty much forgot I had a blog these last weeks. In a word, exams are done and I'm on vacation. Details at 11 ...

(or tomorrow)