First Day of School

Well, I got my first taste of what classes would be like today. Apart from waking up at 4 AM, which I'm hoping won't happen again, the morning routine went fairly well. We took the subway in two forcefully disjointed groups dictated by the closing doors of the subway trains. When these doors close, they close for good. There's no wrestling with them to get them open again. If you're stuck in the middle you have to make a decision, which usually leans towards the majority with which your body is residing. Once we got to the U of C Paris Center, it was clear that this was a very new part of Paris with modern looking buildings and fancy staircases that were too fragile to actually be used.

The facilities of the Paris Center very minimally mirror those of the actual campus. We have a library and computing room (mini reg and mini mac lab) along with several class rooms all built with very modern looking chalkboards and the chairs are actually comfortable enough to not get annoyed with but not so comfortable that you'd fall asleep in. Along with our introduction to the facilities, we were welcomed with a nice brunch and wine tasting. Although the brunch was very good, the wine tasting could have been better (people praised the white, but I didn't get any similar opinions on the red).

The first day of class was in itself very interesting. I feel like a lot of math classes would benefit from this sort of introduction into the subject that they're teaching because it got me into the mindset for the rest of the course. Today all we did was talk about the history of the evolution of mathematical thought over the centuries. Starting out from the early ages everything seemed to be very concrete and hands-on. Basically mathematicians only worried about things that were tangible in the real world... Afterwards people began using a more algorithmic approach to solving difficult problems involving methods of proving existence by the more classical notion of a proof. I.e. A leads to B and B leads to C so everything that applies to C must be true. Then somewhere around the mid 19th century, people realized that the best thing to do was to make everything abstract... i.e. prove things about classes of numbers and sets and other things. It was all really cool and we talked about the developments of non-euclidean geometry and basically all the things that can go wrong if you start thinking outside the box.

Apart from math class, however, French class was another fun experience. I really like my teacher, she's old but full of energy. I feel like she has a strong desire to make us speak good french and not to be able to just get by. The dynamic was significantly different from math since I was one of two guys in a room of 14 which was smaller than the room that housed our math class of 5 awkward math guys. Interestingly enough, we spent a large portion of the class asking each other the same question, to which there was a wide variety of answers. Come to think of it, there's a girl in the Astrophysics program majoring in political science... little weird, but hey, I don't judge.

After class today I went shopping and found a good amount of supplies for a relatively low price. I'll be using a large majority of it with the baguettes that I'll be purchasing in the next couple of days. Baguettes are cheap, delicious, and absolutely great for spreading anything on. Hence, most of the things I bought at the grocery store involved cheese, butter, and jam, which will ultimately be spread on the baguettes that I buy on my way home each day. I was never really a big cheese person before I came here, and honestly, I can see why. I've tried the Bries and the other random stinkies that we call cheese in America, and I'm not ashamed to say that this is one thing where France has us beat. Shocked and awed by not only the price but the quality of cheese here, I can see that it will be one of many things that will undoubtedly accompany many baguettes in the near future. There has not been a cheese yet that I did not like.

Making dinner today with one of my new friends (a cool guy named Sam), we met two lovely girls from Germany who were making some sort of beet & goat cheese appetizer looking thing. It wasn't much to be honest, but it looked like little cakes in the beginning, and since there was also eggplant in the mix (which I noticed right away). Anyway, it turns out that they're studying much more exciting things here than "Math." Some mix of civil planning based on the socio-cultural implications of the decisions in investing and whatnot in the community. It sounded really cool, but unfortunately their beets were done.

My camera ran out of juice this morning as I was leaving, so no pictures... I'm sorry. =(

A bientot.

-Pavel

Jet lag

16 hours of sleep, and the only productive thing I did today was wipe the contact list on my phone trying to get it unlocked.

-Pavel

I am a tourist.

I spent a lot of time today in the city. I think I saw a large majority of the tourist attractions, although I didn't participate in them since they were somewhat expensive (7 € to climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe?).  There was a lot though, and I got to see the outside of the Louvre, the Obelisk at one end of the Champs-Elysées in the middle of La Place de la Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Panthéon, and a large majority of the Musée d'Orsay. I did get to see most (all) of it with Kim, and it was really nice to have some company around the city. Walking around you really get a feel for its enormity. It's significantly larger than the downtown of Chicago, and since none of the buildings are allowed to be built taller than 5 stories, everything which is important is also super spread out. Also walking around, I was able to see a lot of Paris's interesting but not very popular architecture. My favorite was this building which seemed to be built out of dirt whereas this bridge looked like something out of lord of the rings (minus the cars and bitter french people). There were also a few fences that had spikes positioned somewhat peculiarly as to prevent people from climbing the french from any direction.

The Musée d'Orsay was very interesting and it had a lot of 19th century artwork, both painted and sculpted. I really liked a painting whose title and painter I can't remember at the moment (go me) but it had a lot of white paint seemingly just sponged onto a black canvas. It was very simple... enough so that you could probably do it yourself, but it looked very cool. Impressionism is usually very interesting when done with still lifes and not necessarily portraits. It was overall a great experience.

Afterwards, Kim and I decided to hang out with some interesting statues outside the museum before heading back into the Quartier Latin where we found a vietnamese restaurant with an incredibly cheap menu and a great walking area. It was a lot of fun just trying to pronounce all the French names of the different places even though I don't think we got any right. Oh, and hagen-daz (sp?) has some ridiculous fondue dish that involves dunking a dozen scoops of ice cream and a whole variety of fruit into chocolate with walnuts on the side. We didn't have the money/willpower to stop and try it, but it definitely is on my to-do list. I could definitely see myself living in this area and just hanging out at night, it was really awesome just walking around.

Speaking of which, I got tired around 8-9 PM, which according to the time difference should be about mid-afternoon in the states. This doesn't really make a lot of sense in the sense of jet-lag. I think I really screwed myself over with my sleep schedule, but somehow managed to make it work in time for classes on monday. 8 AM is not a fun time to get up... I don't know whose decision that was.

-Pavel

Arrival

So. This is it. I'm facing ten weeks in the very unpredictable but highly entertaining world known as the European Union. I can't say that I'm not nervous, but hey, it's France. What can go wrong? Well for starters my flight here was delayed two and a half hours (two of which were spent on the plane). The plane wasn't full though, so I guess having three seats to myself on an intercontinental flight makes up for my gratuitous delays.

Interestingly enough, when I arrived at the airport, I was picked up at the airport by my mother's cousin. Now, I know he's Macedonia's ambassador to France, but being picked up by a chauffeur was a little unexpected. I was introduced to the ways Paris is laid out and the different ways that you can get around it. All I'll say is that Paris's loop is a lot bigger than Chicago's. Riding with the ambassador was kind of cool too, how he went about answering phone calls and talking in politician. It made me feel important.

Getting to my dorm, the gorgeous Maison Internationale in Paris, was a little underwhelming, until I got into my room. Which is completely awesome considering it's the perfect size and it has a bed, mini fridge, and it's own private bathroom. Not only that, but it was really clean too. I feel like I'm going to enjoy this whole Paris thing after all.