Procrastination...
I'm stuck inside studying tonight while the rest of Paris goes ballistic...
It's the third Thursday of November, which means it's time for the French to celebrate what I guess is their version of Thanksgiving, called Beaujolais Nouveau time. Tonight, the entire country consumes mass quantities of the newest harvest of Beaujolais wine, which is sold for practically nothing all over France because, according to my French classmates, "eet ees sheet, Briahn." Unfortunately, I have a nasty 2 1/2-hour Strategic Management exam tomorrow about Dell Computers that I can't blow off, so I'm trapped inside trying to prepare.
Not much has happened in the last couple of weeks, just a lot of school work, as usual. The rioting situation this month has stayed in the suburbs and never boiled over into central Paris, so I've lucked out so far with that. From what I read and hear on the news, it seems like guerrilla-style violence and vandalism, rather than massive groups of people taking over towns. I saw that 9000 cars have been burned and 3000 arrests have been made in total, and it's all still going on, despite the lack of coverage in the press.
The Saturday class last week was horrible; school on Saturday is generally bad enough, but swimming in financial statements all day long with a South African professor with a mathematics background is just unreasonable. He was a nice guy, but his test in two weeks is going to be disgusting. I didn't end up doing very much this past weekend, just hung around Paris with Sarah and Liz, and we had a going-away party for Liz on Monday night at the Tennessee bar. We watched "History of Violence" with Viggo Mortensen (I'm not sure if it ever came out in the States, but it was really good) and "Lost in Translation," which I absolutely loved. After seeing it, I have a feeling that the Japanese leg of the trip is going to be about 10 times as blog-worthy as the Parisian leg, so please stay tuned this summer. The karaoke bar stories alone will be enough to write a book...
My work group at school this week consists of an American guy, two Frenchmen, and a guy from Singapore, so it's been another interesting mix of accents, misunderstandings and annoyance, but I'm still really enjoying the program. The few grades I've received so far have been very good, so I'm hoping to keep them up, despite my absolute idiocy when it comes to anything number-related. I'm still working on job stuff, and the search is now starting to lead me down all kinds of paths I'd never even heard of before I came here, such as corporate sustainability management and the outsourcing of legal work to India, which may require American managers and is apparently becoming important these days for American law firms. As always, I'm still open for suggestions!
And that is about all I have until next time - on Sunday my Mom, Dad and sister Claire are coming over for a week, which I'm really excited about, and my old FSU buddy Josh McCormill will be visiting a couple of days later. Based on past experience, I'm confident that I'll absolutely regret inviting him to Paris, because we tend to act like a couple of real geniuses when we get together...
It's the third Thursday of November, which means it's time for the French to celebrate what I guess is their version of Thanksgiving, called Beaujolais Nouveau time. Tonight, the entire country consumes mass quantities of the newest harvest of Beaujolais wine, which is sold for practically nothing all over France because, according to my French classmates, "eet ees sheet, Briahn." Unfortunately, I have a nasty 2 1/2-hour Strategic Management exam tomorrow about Dell Computers that I can't blow off, so I'm trapped inside trying to prepare.
Not much has happened in the last couple of weeks, just a lot of school work, as usual. The rioting situation this month has stayed in the suburbs and never boiled over into central Paris, so I've lucked out so far with that. From what I read and hear on the news, it seems like guerrilla-style violence and vandalism, rather than massive groups of people taking over towns. I saw that 9000 cars have been burned and 3000 arrests have been made in total, and it's all still going on, despite the lack of coverage in the press.
The Saturday class last week was horrible; school on Saturday is generally bad enough, but swimming in financial statements all day long with a South African professor with a mathematics background is just unreasonable. He was a nice guy, but his test in two weeks is going to be disgusting. I didn't end up doing very much this past weekend, just hung around Paris with Sarah and Liz, and we had a going-away party for Liz on Monday night at the Tennessee bar. We watched "History of Violence" with Viggo Mortensen (I'm not sure if it ever came out in the States, but it was really good) and "Lost in Translation," which I absolutely loved. After seeing it, I have a feeling that the Japanese leg of the trip is going to be about 10 times as blog-worthy as the Parisian leg, so please stay tuned this summer. The karaoke bar stories alone will be enough to write a book...
My work group at school this week consists of an American guy, two Frenchmen, and a guy from Singapore, so it's been another interesting mix of accents, misunderstandings and annoyance, but I'm still really enjoying the program. The few grades I've received so far have been very good, so I'm hoping to keep them up, despite my absolute idiocy when it comes to anything number-related. I'm still working on job stuff, and the search is now starting to lead me down all kinds of paths I'd never even heard of before I came here, such as corporate sustainability management and the outsourcing of legal work to India, which may require American managers and is apparently becoming important these days for American law firms. As always, I'm still open for suggestions!
And that is about all I have until next time - on Sunday my Mom, Dad and sister Claire are coming over for a week, which I'm really excited about, and my old FSU buddy Josh McCormill will be visiting a couple of days later. Based on past experience, I'm confident that I'll absolutely regret inviting him to Paris, because we tend to act like a couple of real geniuses when we get together...
posted by corbinski at 11:20 PM
