[30 Sep 19] We had French language assessment exam today and I’m laughing now at how I did my essay. The topic was the protection of children in armed conflict–and I’m like how am I gonna write this in French?? I just French-ed a lot of English words — société! éducation! service médicale!
[01 Oct 19] In the morning, I attended the foreign students introduction with university officials at Université Paris 2 (Assas). I’m struggling with my French. All speeches were in French. Sink or swim, and swim I will.
[02 Oct 19] Backed out from an 11pm-5am college party coz I was like, what? It just starts at 11pm (on a Wednesday night at that)? I didn’t have class today so I had the whole day to do errands, walk around the neighborhood in Surenes, and take a stroll at La Défense two tram stations away. I took some photos while I was at the Place de la Défense at sunset.
[03 Oct 19] There was a recruitment fair at the university today, and I was contemplating on signing up for something. But I hesitated, and kind of regret it now. Also, apparently Thursday night-outs are a thing among many university students. (And I was like, wasn’t there a party the night before?) I ended up going out with some new friends–fellow Filipino scholars in France who were visiting Paris. We had dinner and some drinks at a bar near Montparnasse.
[05 Oct 19] Despite it being a Saturday, I spent the entire afternoon at the Cujas library to do some school work. I really love staying in the library because I can feast my eyes on so many wonderful… books and readings in one big chamber. Ugh. Lord, am I in heaven.
Later that evening, I joined my Filipino housemates along Rue de Rivoli to watch the one of the weirdest parades I’ve seen. It’s the Blanche Nuit parade in Paris. There were Scottish men with bagpipes, a floating snake, mariachi bands, an Illuminati hand, a float w naked tattooed men and women, robots, then–a parade float spewing out fresh cotton candy?! Di ko nagets yung theme.
Later on that evening we had good authentic pizza nearby.
[06 Oct 19] It was the day of the Philippine Food Festival in Paris. It was such a hit, you’d wonder why there’s barely any Filipino restaurants in the city. The venue was packed to the brim and the lines extended for half a kilometer, I think? Kare-kare was gone by the first hour. Since it was the first event of its kind, the organizers and volunteers seemed to have been extremely overwhelmed and was severely understaffed. I invited some LLM classmates who came and enjoyed some food, but I was a bit embarrassed because of the inconveniences of queuing up for so long and then there weren’t a lot of food choices left once we got in.
September 29, 2019. It’s the last leg of my nine (9) hour bus travel from Amsterdam to Paris, in an almost empty tram to Suresnes back to the apartment where I’m bed spacing. This was such a gloomy and draining day. I came to certain realizations about my stay here in Europe after another encounter with a rude French-speaking person, this time an impolite ground crew at the bus stop who was really rude with my request for assistance. Certainly not the best day.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m having the time of my life here, it’s just that I have to deal with the stereotype attitude that can really feel offensive, impolite and arrogant. That’s just how some of them are I guess, ikaw ang maga-adjust talaga.
September 27 – 28, 2019. For all its hedonistic and liberal stereotypes, Amsterdam remains to be (in the short period I’ve experienced it) a laid-back and charming (and safe!) city. Perhaps proof to the truth that the pursuit of worldly pleasure is and should be no different from other ways of pursuing one’s happiness.
I just continued walking around the center of Amsterdam the rest of the day. I love walkable cities with efficient and convenient public transport where I don’t need to ride a car to get me anywhere.
September 26, 2019. This was a spontaneous trip after a professor announced that he would be compressing two classes into one day, leaving us an extra day together with the weekend. As a first-timer in Europe, I was just too excited to take the opportunity to see other cities. I found cheap bus tickets to Amsterdam online and thought, why not? No plans, just hopped on the bus the next day.
I arrived in Amsterdam exhausted and hungry as hell, after almost nine (9) hours by bus on the road from Paris. The entire trip was only paused for around thirty (30) minutes during a very brief stop-over in Brussels. I now do not wonder why few people take the bus despite the cheap 15 euro fare one-way. Upon arriving in the outskirts of Amsterdam where the bus ended its trip, I figured my way through the metro system and went straight to the hostel I had just booked. Fortunately, even if I booked just one bed in a dormitory room, I had it all to myself as there were no other guests.
September 27, 2019. Since I had no definite plans, the next day I just decided to walk all around the main districts of the city. I took a short canal boat tour in the morning, which meandered for around an hour around the canals that interweaved historical parts of the city. I then hopped off and decided to just rely on Google Maps to guide me as I moved along the rest of the day.
September 23 – 25, 2019. This was an interesting week, the first half of which was spent going to class, going out with my classmates, and going on my first date in the city. As I am publishing this post-facto, I shall rely on the almost real time tweets that I had posted.
[23 Sep 19] Had my first class report/presentation today. Then headed to Montparnasse for the rest of the night. Ok fine, it was a Tinder date. My first in Paris. Ended up sleeping over and going home the next morning.
[24 Sep 19] The closest I could get to kanin and ulam near the apartment is a neighborhood ‘turo-turo’ which serves decent Chinese food by the gram. Every morsel of umami counts (and in this case, costs).
[25 Sep 19] Our professor moving two sessions to one day meant a whole day in the classroom but also a long weekend–starting now! Booked the (one of the) cheapest bus rides out of France for tomorrow.
After class, my classmates and I went out for beers in one of the bars near school. Since it was after class at around 6 in the evening, we were the first customers. We ended up staying a few hours before heading out for dinner–at a Japanese restaurant for ramen, upon the suggestion of who else but out Japanese classmate.
The rest of the week I spent in Amsterdam, for which I shall dedicate separate blog entries for.
September 16 – 22, 2019. The second week of LLM classes was spent familiarizing myself further with Panthéon and its surroundings, as this is where the school library is located, hanging out with my classmates, going out with them to my first live concert in the city, and enjoying the last days of summer in this part of the world. I recall these events through the series of tweets I had posted.
[16 Sep 19] It was an unusually warm day, just when we all thought summer was about to end. The thing is, air-conditioning is rare in this part of the world. The bank was non-AC, the trains and buses were non-AC, our classroom was non-AC. Torture during hot summer days.
[17 Sep 19] Library orientation at Cujas Library in Sorbonne. Spent the rest of the afternoon in group study with some classmates, which was an excuse to while away time until happy hour really.
[18 Sep 19] I had a two-hour break in between classes so I decided to go to La Défense, the main financial district of Paris during lunch break, to run essential errands as I begin my life here–open a bank account and sign up for the gym! Here at the steps of La Grande Arche (a gigantic modern building that mimics the Arc de Triomphe) hundreds of office workers take their lunch.
[19 Sep 19] First time to catch the Metro on peak rush hour on one of its busiest and older routes. No lines, just walk and push yourself through as politely as you can. We were elbow to elbow I couldn’t even wipe the sweat off my face–the train was non-AC.
[20 Sep 19] Spent the first of many library days studying at the Cujas library, with two of my German classmates. Had take out lunch at the main Panthéon plaza where most of Sorbonne hang out for lunch break.
[21 Sep 19] My LLM classmates and I went to see Amber Run. It’s my first live concert in Paris! We went out for drinks afterwards.
[22 Sep 19] Last Sunday the Catholic church near the Arc de Triomphe that holds English-language mass held a food festival of the countries represented by its parishioners. The Filipinos had the largest table. It was comforting to have tasted palabok again.
