Soiree, oh soiree

Yesterday night was quite an *interesting* night, shall I say?

Monalisa and Frederique, who are the interns at CUPA, organized a lovely soiree in the program office. Monalisa, who is quite sweet and funny, whispered to me beforehand that there would be "several boys from the very good schools" as she has unofficially appointed herself my matchmaker...go figure : )

Insert note on French university system: After you graduate from lycee (equivalent of high school), you either directly matriculate into the University of Paris system after taking a test, or you do two years of preparatory courses to prepare you to take the test to enter the Grandes Ecoles, which are the most elite institutions in France. Very very few people pass the entrance test, the rate is in the low single digits, about 3% for Ecole Polytechnique, the most prestigious and selective school. And keep in mind this is 3% of people who have gone thru prepa, and are already very talented.

I met this third year student from Ecole Normale Superieur who apparently was a TF at Harvard last year, and knows my French TFs.

I also met this very sweet, very nice and terribly good looking boy from Ecole Polytechnique, and I actually managed to speak French to him for almost two hours. I cannot believe I sustained a conversation with my questionable French for that long. It was such an enjoyable evening, and I really really enjoyed meeting the students, who were mostly very nice (although there were some who were dreadful!). I would really like to meet more French students...It's funny because former study abroad students said that it's hard to make French student friends, but a few French students told me they felt like it was easier to make French student friends than American student friends. Although I will now definitely stay in touch with the students I met, they are all quite friendly.

Afterwards, I went to this rather famous bar, called Buddha bar near les Invalides (Madonna likes to frequent it), with some students from Yale, who knew JiaJia Liu, who is a Harvard grad, who also happens to be DJ Lee's special other. I think this was the first and perhaps last time I will pay 10 Euros for a glass of juice. The ambience was quite something though--artistically sombre, dark, with flickering, amber lights. In the middle of the tastefully vaguely eastern decor was a gigantic buddha (hence the name) who sat beatifically overlooking the rather crowded bar/restaurant, bathed in a very soft, burnished glow. Very shrine-like. I wonder how they managed to move the buddha in.

Anywho, I went to the Sorbonne today and looked up my class times. Here is my probable schedule:

La France de Louis XIV

Histoire de l'art XIX-XXe siecles--La Peinture en France de David a Courbet

Choose 2 of:
Histoire de l'art du monde occidental contemporain: Initiation a l'art contemporain de l'impressionisme a l'expressionisme

Histoire de la Construction Europeene

Histoire sociale et culturelle

Histoire de la Revolution et de l'Empire de l'Europe a 'lepoque napoleonienne 1799-1815


Yes, I am taking all history and art history courses. I am incredibly excited for my history courses, because I adore French history, well history in general, but really French history (aside from Chinese history and English history, my other favorites!). I've never taken an art history class, and am much looking forward to that as well! I am SO happy to be taking non Core non Psych classes!

Bien, I have to do my homework (Write an intro, detailed outline and conclusion, French dissertation style).

Bisous!