Note: This is a re-composed version of a series of tweets posted on the same date. It garnered quite some controversy after it was republished in a website without consent. But I’m nevertheless posting it here for posterity.
This year I have the choice to either enter the Philippine foreign service or start an application for French naturalization, since I technically become eligible this June. Divergent and significant life choices ahead, and the temptation is strong. The election results might play a significant role in my decision.
If you’re wondering how I am eligible so soon–the five (5) year residency requirement for an application for French citizenship is shortened to two (2) years after obtaining a masters degree from a French university. Well, that aside from other conditions of course, but at least I get to tick one major requirement this year. I can theoretically start the application this June because that would have been two years since I graduated from my first masters degree in Paris.
September 21-27, 2020. This is the first week that I didn’t have to rush every morning to get to Alliance Française for my daily four-hour language classes. I had intentionally not enrolled in the last week of the B1-level program because I wanted at least a week for some rest before my LL.M. (Master of Laws) international arbitration program commenced.
To make most of the free time, I had previously decided to take a leisure trip. The original destination I had in mind was Hamburg, to visit a good friend. But a month or so ago, Germany introduced stricter measures for all persons entering from France, which meant it was too cumbersome to make a visit. I would have had to isolate myself for two weeks upon arriving and that would have been too much trouble. Also, of course, if I only had a week to spare, there wouldn’t have been enough time to complete the two-week quarantine.
August 10-16, 2020. Weather has been cooler, which is a relief from the scorching temperatures we’ve been having.
This week I started going to the gym upon realizing that my membership was still active and that the club had credited the months of covid confinement in France to the months when the gyms were allowed to open. In other words, I had a little more than a month to use. I might as well take advantage of the months I had paid for, I thought. Alas, nanggigil ako, I think I overdid some weights after such a long time of not doing any gym/fitness activity.
On Thursday, I had dinner with Thomas, our Filipino friends and his other friends for his birthday, at a nice Italian place in Saint-Cloud, across the Seine from Bois de Boulogne. I just walked all the way from my place, and it turned out to be an hour’s walk along unusual paths. It was my first time to cross the Seine through the Pasarelle de L’Avre, with a nice view of La Défense.
Nothing spectacular the rest of the week. I attended all my classes at Alliance Française. I did a short visit at Ikea near metro Madeleine last Friday. Then on Sunday, bid farewell to my Japanese friend Keishi before he returned for good to Japan.
August 3-9, 2020. This week I started my intensive French classes at Alliance Française Paris. One of the reasons I came back to Paris two months ahead of the start of my LL.M. classes, aside from the primary reason being that I needed to re-enter France before my visa expired and apply for an extension from within continental France, was that I wanted to study French intensively get past my current level of proficiency. The intensive classes are held for four hours every day (except weekends) for two months. Hopefully, I will be able to advance in my proficiency. It would be a shame not to be able to speak, read and write French proficiently after more than a year living in Paris. It took me a while to get used to the first few sessions, it really was intensive, and the primary rule was that we couldn’t communicate in English–at all, so at first I was having a hard time communicating what I didn’t know how to express in French. It felt a lot like drowning, trying to grasp and express words I didn’t know in French like gasping for air. It quickly got better.
This week was also marked by the canicule or heat wave. Day time temperatures have been breaching past 35 degrees celcius daily since Tuesday. The evenings do not bring any relief either, aside from the fact that the sun sets way past 9 in the evening, the heat stays above 30, and worse–there is no wind whatsoever to stimulate the cooling effect of sweat. I often woke up in the middle of the night dripping in perspiration and end up having a bed sheet damp with sweat by morning.
July 27 – August 2, 2020. Most days of the past week was spent reconnecting with classmates from the LL.M. program and Filipino friends who had stayed in Paris during the period of confinement.
I had written and posted about the trip to Compiègne and Amiens I took last Tuesday with my Japanese and Russian friends in blog entries here and here, if you want to check it out.
The Monday prior was spent just doing some errands, like returning the keys of my old apartment to the real estate agent near Champs Elysée, and doing some bank errands at La Défense. It was too hot to do anything else outdoors, damn. But being indoors is no relief either as there is no electric fan in the house I am staying in, nor is air-conditioning a normal thing anywhere in the city! I never realized how summer temperatures and conditions can be worse in Paris than if I were in my room in Metro Manila.
On Thursday, I decided to go for a walk around Bois de Boulogne, which is the woods at the western part of Paris, and is just two blocks from where I now live. Parisiens know what this place is known for, but I guess there is room for everyone from the hookers to families with children wishing to enjoy the outdoors. That afternoon, I met up with my friend and ex-flatmate Patricia for lunch near her place in the 17th arrondissement.
That weekend, I met up again with my LLM friends Keishi and Dmitry, this time with Judith, one of our German classmates, flying over for a visit from Dusseldorf! On Saturday, we had apéro drinks along the Seine near Pont Neuf, then walked towards Île de la Cite for dinner at a restaurant in Place Dauphine. We continued walking up until our old stomping grounds near school around Saint Germain, where we ended up at a bar where the beer cost 9 euros a pint!
We met up again on Sunday and had apéro again along the Seine (this time near Pont Alexandre) then walked towards Champ de Mars for pizza at an Italian restaurant.
July 28, 2020. In less than an hour from Compiègne by train, we arrive in Amiens, an affluent mid-size city north of Paris. Upon arriving at the train station, we wasted no time and immediately walked to Musée de Picardie, which was quite a distance from the terminal. We passed through the pedestrian promenades in the center of the city along the way. At that hour, which was around 4 in the afternoon, the sun was still scorching hot so there were few people walking the streets. Many were under the shades of trees in the parks or in the shaded terraces of cafes.