29.1.12

Happy Chinese New Year! :)

My first week of class in Paris has been both terrifying, and at times, fun :P

Classes are intense - I’ve already been assigned 3 oral presentations and 5 dissertations, and I still have one class to go to for the first time tomorrow, so I might have even more work! :( I’m finding this semester to be a lot harder to understand already. The first semester, I was just typing everything that the professors said like the rest of the French students, but since the professors knew that that was the case, they spoke much more slowly. But here in Paris, the classes are not complete dictation, but rather lectures, and so, they speak much more quickly :S And I’m not looking forward to my oral presentations since they will all be in French, and that means I’m going to have to learn to speak about topics I don’t know about, all in French for 10-15 minutes at a time!! AH!

So needless to say, I’m feeling a bit stressed out! Especially since I wanted to travel more this semester, but I’m not sure how likely that will be anymore :(

But on a happier note, Happy Chinese New Year! :) This week, I celebrated the actual day with a few other students from Sciences Po, and we ended up going to the big parade that started in front of the City Hall on Saturday together - that was a ton of fun! We ended up spontaneously joining the parade, and even though at times, we probably stood out as not supposed to being there, it was a ton of fun :P

Now, it’s off to preparing for my classes this week! Wish me luck and enjoy the pictures :)

just a glimpse of my daily bus ride to class :)
blurry picture from my ipod - but part of an event earlier in the day by Karl Lagerfield (very famous fashion designer). you can see it in one of the pictures on this website! :) 

event/debate/lecture/thing at sciences po with many important people, including the director of 'le monde' and the director of bnp paribas 
lotsss of old people here for the debate 
there was a protest kind of thing by these women whose organisation is called 'the beard' - protesting the fact that there are mostly men in government and important positions 
inside a church by my university :) 
chinese new year parade going by the centre pompidou - museum of modern art 
so many people out to watch it! 

bubble tea!!! first time having it since leaving seattle!! 
not as good as seattle, but it'll do :) 
beginning of the parade, in front of the city hall 

why are there no asians in the crowd, you ask?! probably cause they're all in the parade... hence the need to join the parade :P 



success! now integrated into the parade :P 

our rogue group of paraders :)

we got a lot of those looks..  
i'm in a parade! 





truck of girls throwing confetti and hongbao/red envelopes to the crowd :) (too bad there was only 20 euro cents in each) 


firecrackers everywhere! :D my first time seeing them! 

22.1.12

a mélange of a post :P

Tomorrow, I go back to class eekkk! Definitely scared about that, but hopefully it'll be okay... 

In the meantime, I've been moving into my new apartment! My roommate and I brought my two huge suitcases from my friend's place just outside of Paris to our apartment inside the city. 

Usually we could take the metro, but because we had my huge suitcases with us, and the metro stations don't have elevators and only sometimes have escalators, we decided to just take the buses. So, we looked up the trip, which seemed really easy with just two buses. But unfortunately, it definitely wasn't easy because of the strikes... So, our well-planned trip became quite a lot of walking, dragging of the suitcases, and consulting maps for buses we could take.

But now all my stuff is here, and I'm excited to get all settled in! Here are more pictures, of my move to Paris, random pictures on my excursions in Paris, some last few pictures of my trip to Stockholm, and some pictures from my Parisien apartment! :D

lizzie, mambwe, marcus, and jenny (not pictured) came to see me off at the train station!


here they are pretending to run after my train :P

look how high the seine rose!! 

love the bookstalls by the river :) my kinda city  


american church of paris

little fountain area in the jardin de luxembourg


yummmm - croque madame!
new school!
class schedule for the semester!
another croque madame :P too good to resist
animals outside of the musée d'orsay 
musée d'orsay
the mosque 

they have reallyyy good mint tea here! 

musée d'orsay from a bridge :) 

musée d'orsay and the tour eiffel in the background!
arc de triomphe du carrousel 
shopping mall under the louvre 
apple is so lucky.. prime spot! :D

some pretty church

my aunt molly visiting me :) 
point zero at notre dame 
the famous gargoyle! :)
sushi across the bridge from the notre dame! :) 





love this bookstore, i'd love it even more if there weren't always so many tourists crowding it


waffles with gelato! yumm
mojitos at sir winston - the best!!
my aunt and her friend, daphene :)
all you can eat hot pot AND grilled stuffs... yummm i've missed stuff like this! 

what else is there to do when you're stuck in the tiniest elevator ever... 
a cute little girl waving bye to planes at the airport in amsterdam :) 
breakfast chez downeys :) 
anddd the other half of my breakfast P:
the mall in täby, sweden


trying headband hats out at accessorize
what animal lane did you park in?
<3 
<3
wasa crackers from sweden on the left, and from france on the right! :O soooo exciting :D
new apartment - vegetable/fruit bags :P