Tidbits

Hey folks!

This post is made up of little tidbits from the past week of my life in Paris.

Refund:

We're off the meal plan! So many people complained about the food at St. John's that our program director had to step in. She ended the food contract with St. John's and is providing all of us with reimbursements in cash (to cover rest of our time here) to be delivered via Sciences-Po. The St. John's kids still have to eat the food. It's such a relief to be able to plan when, where, and what I'll be eating.

Fashion Week:

Paris Fashion Week began on Tuesday! Yesterday (Wednesday) I walked around trying to find the supposed TopShop pop-up store in a store called "Colette." (TopShop is a British clothing store that is affordable and very cute). The article I'd read about it online said that there was a special pop-up TopShop being hosted at Colette. I found Colette.. which appeared to be a hip hop music/ guys clothing/ guys shoe store with an Urban Outfitters book section on the first floor, with Hermès scarves and jewelry upstairs, and a restaurant downstairs. I found nothing TopShop related. There were however, a ton of American and Italian tourists with lots of fancy shopping bags. As I walked back across the Louvre Gardens back to my side of the Seine, I passed an incredibly long tent being constructed that read; "Accessory Designers Trade Show." Other than that I haven't seen much Fashion Week activity. The online show schedule has different events happening all over the place, spread throughout the entire city. It doesn't seem to be centralized. I have heard that it's nearly impossible to get in to see a show during the Paris Fashion Week because it is so popular. You have to either know someone, be famous, or be in the industry. Even just being rich isn't always enough to cut it. Seats are in high demand. All I wanted to do was to sit outside and watch all the cool people walking around, but I haven't seen much so far.

Bon Marché:

Yesterday morning before class I ran into Bon Marché (fancy department store with a large fancy grocery store on the bottom á la Harrods) to buy a couple of apples before class. As I was checking out, the cashier-lady laughed and mumbled something in French to me. Instead of saying I didn't understand her, I just smiled and nodded saying "mhmm.." She must've understood that I was foreign because when I left she said "Bonjourno!" So far in my travels I've been mistaken for being Brazilian, Dutch, and Italian. I take it all in pride.

Library Tour:

Yesterday morning we had a "mandatory" library tour from 8am to 9am. I put "mandatory" in quotes because a lot of people stayed in bed and no one took roll. The "tour" took place in a room 4 blocks from the library and was a Power Point presentation on how to check out books and reserve books online. Afterwards I was planning to go back to bed but she said we could follow her to the library and get some free croissants and coffee..so of course most of us followed her. There was a guy there with a camera filming because it turns out this was a grand opening of the new addition to the older library which is across the street. We were the first ones in there, and that place was SO COOL. I literally felt like I was in an Apple store on every floor. There were floating conference rooms and tons of brand new Mac desktops. The floors, walls, and ceilings were all white and the floating conference rooms were stone. There were futuristic looking swivel chairs with little table tops attached, and on one level these chairs were sitting on top of a see-through floor that looked down on the first level. Thank goodness for free food, or I wouldn't have seen it!

Wall Street:

I saw the "Wall Street" Paris premier Tuesday night! Instead of a midnight release (which I'm not sure they do in France) it was an 8:15pm showtime the day before the national release date. We saw it in a gigantic theater with an enormous white screen that felt like something you would see at Universal Studios. There weren't any previews, it felt like we were seeing a sneak peek showing. I loved the movie! It was fresh, by that I mean the director incorporated some new filmmaking styles that I haven't really seen before. It doesn't hurt that I have a huge crush on all of Shia LaBeouf's characters (except in Eagle Eye...ok and not in Even Stevens either).

I plan on relaxing for the rest of the day and then hopefully going to get dinner later with some friends. This Saturday is La Nuit Blanche. I don't entirely get what it's for, but it's free, is geared towards younger people, and is centered around dining, museums, and music. It lasts from 7pm to 7am Sunday morning. I guess lots of places stay open and a few of the metro lines stay open all night as well. We shall see!

Talk to you soon!

Love,

Hillary