An Afternoon in Paris (01-08-11)

Ben and I decided to venture out on our own to try and learn how to navigate the RER and Metro system. It was pretty easy but we went to the wrong track I think twice. Anyway, we went from Rueil into Paris right near the Eiffel Tower. We walked up to the tower, under it, etc. It was very pretty at night since they light it up. Can't say I liked all the street merchants trying to peddle their useless crap to me, but oh well. Next we stopped in a small cafe/bar to have a beer. We had some type of wheat beer that was really good and fruity tasting at a pretty reasonable price considering we were downtown and right near the largest tourist sight in the city.

After our "touristy" visit into the city, we decided to head back to Le' Defense and stop at the giant shopping mall there. I have never seen a mall like this in my life. It was utterly insane in size and scope. They had a three story store inside which was the equivalent of a Wal-Mart only about twice as big. One floor was nothing but food, the bottom floor was all beverages, and the top floor had appliances and household items. I needed to pick up an electric buzzer to keep my hair in check. Ben got two pillows for 9 euro and a blanket for even cheaper. Europeans always complain about Wal-Mart and American consumerism, but I can't say without a doubt that this was the busiest mall and largest store I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, Wal-Mart is a joke in comparison to the massive size of Auchan.

Anway, here are some pretty pictures of the Eiffel Tower to tide you over. Sorry, they were taken on my camera phone and aren't that great of a quality. I'll have to buy a digital camera or something while I'm here.

Song of the Day: The Omen by The Prodigy

First Night Out in Paris (Proper) UPDATED!!!

1-7-11 (RM, France; Paris, France)

The class is having a meet'n'greet event tonight at "Le Cafe Oz," and Australian pub. I will post more on this later, including pictures. Wish me luck!

Ok, so I couldn't really get my cell phone pictures to come out but let's just say the bar was amazing. We started out kind of chill about 6:30/7:00pm and then the night got progressively more crazy from there. The drinking culture is different here because I think people are more secure with themselves. I tried to follow along and not drink too much, but still maintain a little buzz for extra courage. The bar got insanely crowded so it was really fun dancing all around with different girls and not giving two shits about it. I was mainly just dancing because it was fun to bounce around to the music and just let loose.

But of course there were girls, oh yes, the girls. I guess over here there is a very macho culture of taking what you want when you are interested. The girls will dance with whoever has enough balls to grab them by the hands and pull them out to dance. I had to learn this over the course of the evening because I though French people were more polite than this. NOPE! Next weekend, I see a pretty girl, I take her. That's about the long and short of getting women to go dance and have fun with you. I was close to dancing with this amazing girl but then her two friends pulled an international cock-block on me and told their friend, Claire I think, that they were going to the other side of the bar. Lame. I didn't really want to put up with much bullshit so I pretty much just blew them off to go hang out with my friends from IFP.

I feel very lucky that everyone from class is so easygoing and fun to go out and drink with. People like to talk about their respective countries and cultures and they aren't really afraid to get into tough economic or social issues. Nobody is disrespectful and very open-minded. Of course people have strong opinions, but it is much more fun to discuss rather than argue with people like it is in the States.

As far as the dancing goes, Europeans are... well... pretty funny I guess. They play alot of American music like hiphop, rock mix, etc but they are so mechanical in their dancing. People jerk around really fast like they have to keep up with every beat. Me, I just go out my own pace every other beat or so. I think dancing on the 1/3 beats kind of threw some people off but I got some respect for it. Maybe people look to American dancing styles because that is where the music as well as the music videos come from. Booyah.

Mad props go out to my friend Geraldine for her awesome Latin dancing. Same can be said for the two girls from Spain. Damn son, they can move. Geraldine was nice enough to put up with failed attempt to Latin dance with her, but she helped by showing me different spin style moves and such. We danced in the middle of all our friends at IFP so it was definitely a good show. Hopefully there will be many more weekends filled with long nights of drinking, dancing, and fun.

I decided to call it a night about 1:30am because I was under the impression that the mertro closed around 2am. I think they remain closed until about 5 or 6am. A few people were going to stay out until morning and take the train home then. I probably should have stayed out later since I'm sure it gets really interesting as the night goes on and people move from bars to the disco clubs. I didn't feel the need to rush everything all at once so, so I'll probably save the late, late night for next weekend.

Good times, good times.


Song of the Day: I Come From a Land Down Under by Men at Work

US Education is a Giant Rip-Off

So I looked over my tuition bill today and this is what I have found: A giant rip-off! First of all, look at all the repetitive charges of "academic excellence fees." These alone add up to well over $300. Next, notice all the fees that have to do with actually BEING PHYSICALLY PRESENT AT OU! When am I going to enjoy the library, the wellness programs, special events, or use the bus in Norman? NEVER, that's when. I can't believe that charge students who are studying abroad all this shit that we won't derive any benefit from. What a complete rip-off and a crock of bull.

Spring 2011
Description	Charge	Payment	Balance
Exchange Program Crse Chrg	$60.00		$60.00 <-- Really?
Crse Chrg Business	$50.00		$50.00
Resident Tui Grad	$973.20		$973.20
NR Tui Grad	$2,568.60		$2,568.60
Acad Fac_Life Safety fee	$105.00		$105.00
Academic Excell fee	$80.70		$80.70 <-- notice here
Addtl Acad Excell fee	$60.00		$60.00 <-- notice here it repeats
Addtl Acad Excell fee	$60.00		$60.00 <-- notice here it repeats again
Addtl Acad Excell fee	$66.00		$66.00 <-- notice here another repeat
Security Services fee	$21.90		$21.90 <-- I'll need all that security?
Academic Records fee	$15.00		$15.00
Special Event fee	$12.00		$12.00 <-- I'll see all those events?
Library Excell fee	$66.00		$66.00 <-- I'll use the OU library?
Student Assess fee	$7.50		$7.50
Transit fee	$12.00		$12.00 <-- I'll use OU transit?
Health_Wellness fee	$74.00		$74.00 <-- I'll use the OU doctor?
Cultural_Rec Serv fee	$12.50		$12.50
Facility fee	$78.00		$78.00 <-- I'll use those OU facilities?
Activity fee	$35.70		$35.70 <-- I'll go to OU activities?
Connectivity fee	$88.80		$88.80 <-- I'll connect at OU?
Graduate Advising fee	$25.00		$25.00
IAS Tech fee	$30.00		$30.00
Addtl Academic Excell fee	$72.00		$72.00 <-- final repetition of this fee
IAS Enrichment fee	$57.00		$57.00
Term Charges:	$4,630.90
Term Credits and Payments:	$0.00
Term Balance:	$4,630.90

First Day of Classes

 1-4-11 (RM, France)

I'm definitely glad classes have started as it will help me to get on a more permanent wake/sleep schedule. Today was our first official day of "classes" but really it was more introductions, paperwork, tours, and getting-to-know-you activities. We had a brief lecture on current issues in energy which centered around sustainability economics. There are 19 nationalities represented among 30 students.

There was one guy from Angola that had a bad ass royal blue jacket with golden buttons (think half pea coat half military jacket.) He definitely stood out among the sea of black and gray clothes. His background was in economics so we got along pretty well. I'm sure we'll have some interesting discussions. Other nationalities include: Nigeria, Romania, Azerbaijan, UK, Japan, Peru, Mexico, France, Spain, and some others I can't name off the top of my head.

I stopped at a store called Picard for obvious reasons (Captain Picard of the USS Enterprise for all you non-nerds out there) and picked up a few frozen meals. The entire store is frozen foods like soups, veggies, entrees, ice cream, appetizers, etc. It is really sweet actually. I wish they had stores like that in the US. I picked up two frozen soups and one thing of mint chocolate ice cream. Tonight I dine on Mulligatawny soup and bread.

I've actually been surprised by the number of ethnic foods I have been able to find around the area. There are Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish, Moroccan, Spanish, and French restaurants. Most are out of my price range but they have a heck of a deal on sushi at Planetsushi. Three maki rolls for ten euro! That's 18 pieces of sushi!

The girl that works at the front desk at IFP is incredibly cute and I'll probably use some of my American swagger to flirt with her over the coming days. I know that she speaks at least some English so hopefully I come off as cute and not moronic when I'm talking to her. It would be fun just to get to know people who live around the area so hopefully I'll get to go and see more places, eat more foods, etc. Can't hurt to have a pretty girl as your guide either.

All in all a pretty good day, but the time zone changes continues to give me problems with sleep, eating, and digestion. You know that feeling you have when you get off a boat back onto land? That is how I feel when I close my eyes. I just feel kind of like swaying back and forth and collapsing into bed. Ha! I'm going to try my best to stay up as late as I can tonight so that I'll be able to sleep through the night without issues. I still haven't been able to resolve the issue with the bed being too hard but hopefully I'll find a memory foam pad or other type of mattress pad later this week. That's all for now, wish me luck!

Update: My neighbor and classmate, Ben, offered me an extra mattress for my bed. I'm so happy I could pass out and sleep!

Apartment Pictures

In order: Front Entrance; Bathroom; Desk Area; Kitchen Area; Bed and Table; Views from Window

A Shitty Experience (Literally)

1-3-11 (RM, France)
Huzzah! I finally have access to the internet, let all of nerddom rejoice in my glorious return to the interwebs. This is pretty much the only piece of good news I have to report so far. However, another piece of good news is that my OU classmate, Ben, moved in next door to me today. At least there is another English speaker around to hang out with.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW

I don't think I was drinking enough water yesterday or eating enough food. Whatever it was, I was really sick to my stomach last night. I had a pounding headache from about midnight to 6am and was barely able to get any sleep. I spent half the night on the toilet and the other half on my hard, unforgiving slab they call a "bed." Worst of all, all the markets were closed the past few days and the one corner store that has stayed open doesn't sell toilet paper. Essentially, going to the bathroom last night was an ordeal of using the toilet then using the shower to wash off. I had to suffer through this process at least 5 times during the night. Talk about a shitty was to start off the week.

END GRAPHIC CONTENT

Carrefour (the neighborhood market) was finally open today so I stocked up on some basics like bread, cured meats, cheese, tuna, fruit, crackers, 7-up, and TOILET PAPER! I don't know what I was happier about, getting some much needed food or getting the much, much needed toilet paper. I spent the rest of the day drinking 7-up, trying to stay hydrated, and listening to my mp3 book.

My hope is that things will start to get better as I get more used to the time zone difference. Also, I think being on a more regular schedule with classes will definitely help me feel more comfortable, like I have a purpose other than just trying to survive. My advice to anyone is don't move or visit another country without having a definite purpose or goal in mind. My goal for the week is to get on a better sleeping/eating schedule so that I can try to make it into Paris this weekend for some touristy activities. Maybe I'll hit up some of the indoor museums.

Song (mp3) of the day: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand part 10/31

Off to a Rough Start

 1-1-11 ("RM",France)

Hello everyone! I apologize for not being in contact more today but I have no yet figured out a way to get permanent internet access. Right now I am sitting in the hotel I stayed at a couple of nights ago and using their free wi-fi. It will probably be at least 2-3 more days until I figure out how to get my own internet at the apartment.

I was able to move into my apartment yesterday around 10am. The owner helped me inspect the room and had me sign some documents. I have no idea what I was signing but I'm pretty sure the bill is going to be paid through IFP. I haven't really been able to figure out how to pay rent so I'm going to assume it is paid through the school.

Last night I went to my first restaurant and ordered a kebab sandwich with fries and a soda. There were some language barriers when it came to ordering what vegetables I wanted on the sandwich but I tried to signal to the cashier that I wanted everything (lettuce, tomato, and onions) on it. The chicken kebab was actually really good. The meat was extremely tender and juicy and had a lot of flavor. The coke zero tasted better than I would have though it would. Last time I had foreign coke (in Britain), it tasted really bad.

Craving internet access, I made my down to McDonalds for dinner. I had le Big Mac, pomme-frite, and le Coca zero. Ordering fast food was easy and I think the cashier spoke a little English. The whole point of this trip was to gain internet access but I wasn't able to connect to the network. Maybe I was doing it wrong. Oh well.

Anyway, I'm doing ok but not great. I haven't met any other IFP students yet as my apartments are about 25 minutes walk from campus and the other residence. I might try to make my way over there tonight to see if other IFP guys from OU are around. I'll be in contact only sparingly until I get internet access in my apartment.

Song of the Day: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand Part 1/32