Death in the Afternoon

This week was methodology class which is less helpful than I thought it would be, mostly because our teacher believes in learning by trial and error. So instead of showing us an example of the various assignments required at Sciences Po and then letting us practice them, she just tells us vaguely about them and has us try to figure it out for ourselves. They are very picky about what is included in each assignment, and even the things that are similar to stuff in America, have different requirements. For example, in a research paper in France, you don’t state your thesis in the introduction. You present the question you are trying to answer, like you would in America, but instead of then saying what answer you are going to prove, you instead just explain how you will examine the question. If you put a thesis statement the professor says you have already reached your conclusion so there is no point for them to read the rest of the paper. And they make you “define the terms” as the first step of basically any assignment. It’s a hard adjustment because you’ve been practicing writing papers the American way for the last ten years, and suddenly you have to change the whole way you go about it. Plus, I’ve always been very good when it comes to writing papers, and now I’m at the bottom of the curve. It’s a little disconcerting. I just hope the professors have a little compassion on the international students, although I’ve heard that usually isn’t the case.

Saturday my internet decided to go out for no apparent reason. Seriously, I had checked my mail and facebook and done a few other things online, I went and washed some dishes, and came back to look something up and...no wireless. The screen of the modem box had lines going around instead of the time, so I knew that meant it was trying to synchronize. It would look like it was fixed for a few minutes and then go out again. I tried rebooting like I had to do the first time. I tried it about 6 times, and no luck. I am so spoiled by having internet access 24/7 that when I have to go without it at home for a bit it seems like the end of the world. In America it would have been annoying and I wouldn’t have been pleased, but here everything is 8 times harder to fix than at home, so I was really not a happy camper. But it did give me a chance to do some stuff I haven’t taken much time for, like writing letters and reading.

I started reading Hemingway’s "A Moveable Feast". Ever since I first heard his quote about Paris many years ago I’ve wanted to read his account of the city, so I bought it before I left to come here. It’s my first Hemingway, and I have to say, so far I’m a fan. He has a very unique writing style and the book is an easy read. I think it’s good I didn’t have any expectations going in, because if you are expecting a story line, or a really cohesive grouping of stories, you’ll probably be disappointed. I’m not sure if I’d like it as much if I didn’t know Paris, but because I know many of the streets and places he mentions and much of the way he describes the city still holds true, I have really enjoyed it. I’ll reserve my final opinion of the book until I finish it.

I don’t feel like I’ve been in Paris at all today. I got up and went to church which is out in the suburbs and is peopled mostly with American expats and other internationals, so being out there you really don’t feel like you’re in Paris, or France for that matter. And then afterwards, Glenn wanted to go to lunch in Chinatown so he could take us to a restaurant there that he likes. It was providential because I had just been thinking during the service that I could really go for some Chinese food. We decided to take the RER (local train system) into the city instead of the bus and the metro because it’s faster. We just missed one train, and so were standing on the platform when they announced on the loud speaker that there was an “interruption of traffic on the line because of a serious incident involving a traveler.” This is a pretty common announcement on the metro, and I guess the RER lines too, and I had never really paid much attention to it. I just always assumed that people were stupid and got hurt or something. I was mentioning how often that happens on the metro, when Bethany explained to me that saying a “serious traveler incident” is their way of saying someone committed suicide without actually saying it. I remembered hearing that many people kill themselves by jumping in front of a metro car or train, but I had just never put two and two together. So that was a pretty disturbing revelation, especially because I’ve heard so many of those announcements. I would hate to be a metro driver because I would always be afraid that someone was going to jump out in front of my train. Anyway, so that was somewhat upsetting, and on the more selfish side, it meant that we ended up waiting for a really long time for a train to come, so it would have been faster to take the bus.

Chinatown in located in the 13th, which is basically on the total opposite side of Paris from where church is. So even once we got into the city it took us a long metro ride to get out there. When we were leaving the metro, Glenn joked “Once you go up those stairs, you will no longer be in Paris.” He really wasn’t kidding. It was like we had taken a bullet train to Asia. That is one area of Paris where I have no hope of blending in. All the signs are in French and Chinese, and I’m suddenly really really tall. I was kind of wishing I hadn’t worn heels. It helped that three of the people in our group were from Singapore and another is an American of Chinese heritage. Ordering at the restaurant was interesting because the waitress was speaking Chinese to those at our table who spoke it, and then she’d switch into French for us, but her French was so heavily accented that I almost couldn’t tell the difference. I ordered some spicy fried chicken and steamed rice which was really good, and pretty cheap. It had taken us so long to get there, and then it took a long time to eat, so it was four in the afternoon before we got done.

Afterwards some went home, but I went with a few others to Tang Freres (Tang Brothers), which is a big Asian supermarket around the corner. Compared to regular grocery stores the prices were pretty good, of course it’s all Asian food which I’m not sure I know enough about to know what to buy. I did get some canned leeche because when Meiwa brought it to Bible study it was really good. I also got some canned mango, sweet rice milk, and bananas. I definitely want to go back and look around more on a day when it is less busy because the place was a zoo, but it’s good to know that basically everything in Chinatown is open on Sundays. It was a pretty cool afternoon, and was certainly a change from the rest of Paris, but I was very grateful for my Asian companions who could explain stuff and make me not feel as much out of place.

It was, however, a long afternoon, and I was quite tired from carrying heavy canned goods all the way across Paris. I had to take 3 metros and then walk home uphill in heels. I need to plan better for all contingencies when I get dressed for church I guess. And when I got home, the internet had not begun to work again, so I read some more Hemingway and took a Sunday evening nap. After which I ran down to the ATM to start withdrawing to pay rent for next month, and stopped by the little market for some essentials, and then made myself a Nutella banana sandwich, which I highly recommend.
Hope you have a blessed day!
Lyndsey