Back in the States

It seems funny to be back already. I was just getting settled in and now it's over. Something about life being gone in a flash seems like an appropriate post but I think that it would be better if I just told you about how the end of my trip was.

I guess that I'll start from Thursday since I left off with Wednesday. My jet-lagged brain needs the order anyway.

So, Thursday, we had sessions in the morning with Waddick Doyle and Cathy Nolan.

Waddick Doyle was a very interesting guy. I really appreciated what he had to say about visual media communications. I wish he would have had less interruptions about Tunisia because I'm sure that what he had to say about France was going to be awesome too but I did learn a lot about restrictions on the media and how things are done in different places.

Cathy Nolan is/was a celebrity journalist for People magazine. She didn't seem to enjoy what she does and called it stalking people which surprised me. She had some interesting words on this side of journalism though and she was certainly interesting as a person so overall it was an enjoyable presentation.

We were supposed to meet with Pietri Publicis Consultants that afternoon but we had to cancel because it would have made us late to dinner at the Huebner's home that night and the presentation by Walter Wells who was formerly the Executive Editor of the International Herald Tribune.

Mr. Wells was a very interesting character and he went back and forth with Lee Huebner who had flown in from Washington D.C. (despite the snowstorm) to be there with us. I liked the idea of a focused newspaper for when you're on vacation. This way you get the most important and relevant news not the crap about everything under the sun that is happening on topics that are more gossip than news

I had planned to go wandering and taking pictures that afternoon but found myself watching the news instead thus finding out about what was going on in the world. For example, the fact that Hugo Chavez died Tuesday while I was having a great time in Paris... Interestingly, the people of Venezuela were coming out in droves to morn their former leader. Could it be that America had it wrong about this guy? I'd like to see both sides of his story.

Dinner was pretty awesome. The bread and cheese alone were to die for. Yes, I had blue cheese and yes, I liked it. But besides that, there was an array of wonderful food and wine to go with it. I was reminded of dinners with my aunt and uncle in Hicksville. We're so classy and yet we're just family hanging out. That was how this dinner felt to me and here I was speaking with people who are inspiring me to try my hand at different things.

After dinner, some of us students decided to walk to the Arc de Triumphe from the house. I unfortunately don't have pictures because it was a little sporadic that we went in the first place, but I won't forget the way it looked all lit up and beautiful. That wasn't the only stop of the night though. My roommate and I decided to split from the group who were headed to a bar again and sat in the park that surrounds the Eiffel Tower to watch it sparkle when it hit the hour. It was spectacular to say the least.

Friday came and we got to sleep in because the Pope's stepping down had forced Jim Bittermann to cancel on us lowly students. It was a disappointment having seen him report for CNN just the day before and getting really interested in what he could possibly have to say to us about the media.

We therefore started our day with Daniel Dozier, founder of Cinq and Co. (a Public Relations firm). I loved his enthusiasm for what he does and I think that his company has a lot of potential. He basically takes firms as clients and gives them a social media platform to work off in French and in English. After his presentation, I got up the courage to go up to him and say something along the lines of "When you're interested in going multilingual, let me know. I'd love to help you get there." It sounded really corny but he smiled and seemed really excited about the prospect of entering new markets.

Maybe I'll get a job offer! I know my fingers are crossed.

Heidi Ellison was next to present to us about her work in the media. Right now her biggest project is a blog called Paris Update. It will tell you everything you need to know about what's trending in Paris right now in English. So if you're planning your next trip or if you just want to keep up one the best bits of the ever evolving Paris Culture, refer to this website and find out everything you need to know.

To round everything off Lee Huebner spoke with us. He told us a little more about writing for Parisian papers and how he decided to stay in Paris after his first visit. Now he teaches there and he seems very happy to be there. He even showed us a couple videos from Jim Bittermann's reporting.

After all the official stuff was done, my roommate and I ventured up to Montmartre to explore. We started on the street where Moulin Rouge is because it was funny to us that the whole street was composed of kebab restaurants and sex shops....  We even made it into the museum of eroticism....

I only took pictures of the Moulin Rouge because I felt that it was the only thing worth the pictures. Though, even that was a slight let down because all the hype around it isn't the truth... It's just a place holder between the buildings really.

On the other end of the spectrum of morality and about four blocks from this red-light district is the Basilica de Sacre Coeur where I met once again with the African men "selling" me gula-gula via a bracelet that they forced upon me. I have a few pictures from here as well...

We all met on the steps of the church here before heading out to dinner.

 This is where we ate.

 This is the plate of snails that I ate. They tasted like garlic with the constancy of octopus.

Beef Burgundy because I wasn't feeling like tilapia.

Saturday I got up and planned a trip with my professor who decided to buy me breakfast before we headed out to the Institut du Monde Arabe. I couldn't argue with that.

 My new camera is so awesome that I took this from the top of the Institute and it turned out awesome!

 The sun is in my eyes in case you can't tell... but Notre Dame is in the background!

This is what the institute looks like from the ground level...

After the institute, we headed off to the nearby mosque, which was super cool to experience.

When I got back I found my roommate and we went to dinner at the Tunisian place down the street because we liked it so much the first time. The owner was thrilled that we came back and got all emotional when we told him that we made a point to come back before we left and that we want to come back because the food was so good. He hugged us both and wished us good travels as we left to get our stuff packed for our 6 am wake-up call.

Our flight left Paris at 10:40 am or somewhere around that time. We seemed to be taxiing for a really long time but everything went fine. We landed about 2:40 pm Detroit time and had to wait for the van that took us back to BG getting us back around 7 pm.

So with my jetlag and a small cold, I made it back and I'm getting back in the groove of school and everything. I'll live once I sleep enough to get rid of this cold. 

I hope I get another opportunity to go abroad and explore the world because it's something I absolutely love discovering. 

Thanks to everyone for following my adventures! I appreciate having readers.

and as always,

Blessed Be!

Disney Paris!

Time really does fly when you're.... well when you're busy. That's not to say that I'm not having fun though!

So, let's recap the past couple days for you. I've been pretty busy but I'm having fun and discovering new things along the way.

Monday

We kicked off the seminar Monday morning with a speech by Harriet Welty Rochefort introducing us to Paris and Parisian culture. She is a journalist and author of two popular books about cultural differences and similarities between the French and Americans. She was a great speaker, very engaging and informative. She told us about life in Paris and about her background of having been in Paris for around 40 years. She has a blog if you're interested, it's new to the press but it's up. harrietweltyrochefort.com

After that we were handed sack lunches like little kids and herded through the metro tunnels almost with the sense that someone would need to hold our hand in case we wandered off alone, until we arrived at a newspaper company (can you call a newspaper a company if it lives off subsidies and makes barely any money at all?) called Liberation. The Senior Editor Francois Sergent, spoke to us after we ate lunch trying not to choke on cigarette smoke in what I can assume is their sort of break room on the top floor. Mr. Sergent was very blunt and you could tell that he didn't want to be there but we made it through and then ran from there building (after we finally formed a group again instead of a sporadic mass) to head off to the next meeting across town.

Our last seminar related stop of the day was a place called Acenture where we had to go through security but were greeted with coffee, tea and water to go with our lovely speakers from the Public Relations and Marketing departments. They were gracious people and answered our many questions happily. They even had us video conference with other members of their team from London and New York, just to demonstrate how they do their business to us. It was a great experience and I think it gave me a few new ideas on how to direct my career, which is why I'm on this trip in the first place.

After our meeting at Acenture, my roommate and I decided to venture to a museum close to the same neighborhood as the company. We went to the Pompidou Center. It is like a modern art museum with some amazing exhibitions and wonderful galleries. We went through everything except the Dali exhibit because it had a wait time of 1 hour and 45 minutes according to the announcement that came over the speakers above us about every hour and the line that stretched down and back up the hallway. Everything else was really interesting though and if my feet didn't hurt so bad from my new shoes and tripping up the stairs, twisting my ankle, I would have loved to stay there and contemplate each work for more time than we did.

On the way back home we got dinner at an Asian restaurant and I was convinced to try sushi, which I did. I didn't like it but I tried it and I was getting the hang of using chopsticks by the time we left the place. My roommate says that it wasn't good sushi anyway so I'll probably be up to trying it again sometime.

I insisted on getting a Nutella-banana crepe on the way back to the hotel as well so we made a stop at the street vendor and got one each. This was like heaven. I think I forget the value of great cheap easy food until I have it again and want to savor every bite but end up devouring it in a few seconds because it's so good.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning we ventured off to the house of the lady running the program from the French side. She not only hosted us in her magnificent home, she hosted two speakers as well.

First was a woman who worked for the Wall Street Journal Europe and the International Herald Tribune. Her name is Kay Rolland and she now does independent advertising. She was a good speaker but I found it hard to connect to what she was saying. It didn't seem to be even the least bit interesting except the part about flying all over the world with other people's money. Yeah, I know that sounds greedy but it happens in the world and if you can do it, why wouldn't you?

Second was a businessman by the name of Adrian Dearnell. He created his own business after coming off many different internships and jobs including those for which he was at Bloomberg News. He really knew what he was talking about and even though there were others in the group who complained about his presentation, I honestly enjoyed it. He was genuine and he knew what he was talking about. He would make a great employer because he would push you to be your best and not let you just hang around. He works with really important business people to make them look good in the media and I was very impressed by him, which is why I gave him one of my business cards.

After lunch in a cafe back near the hotel, we headed out to the home of the American Ambassador to UNESCO. I can't say what we spoke about because the whole thing is off the record but I can tell you that I was super impressed and I think I may even try to pursue something along those lines or working on the ambassador's team. Something like that would just be one of the most amazing jobs ever.

Later that night, we went out to the house of some sponsors of the program to hear some of the stories of some international media students who are studying at The American University of Paris. They come from countries where freedom of speech is not a right and where you can be killed for having a different opinion from the government. Not all of them had super grave situations but a few made me feel super sorry for their situations but glad that they made it out and can continue their studies.

Wednesday

Today, we went out to Euro Disney for the day.

We started off in a meeting with their advertising/media department, behind the scenes getting the story on how they've had to work to get the image of Euro Disney into a positive light. When the park was being built and when it opened in 1992, there was a strong opposition to the whole place. They called it American Imperialism or Americanization and Europeans really did not like anything about it.

The media department told us that it wasn't until 2005 that they finally found a way to get the press into a positive light and out of the dark hole it seemed to be in. They explained that they were still working and that they would have to keep working hard so that every year there is something new that will attract more positive attention to the park. One way they are doing this is through celebrities who come to the park and hold some sort of press conference afterwords.

They ended our morning by saying "I'm sorry, but we have some gifts to give you," and handing us not only the promised free tickets but a notebook and pen each, some of their press release folders for this year, lanyards, and other random bits. I was a little shocked. First of all because we keep being told that Disney never does this (and I mean NEVER) and second because these people were going so much further than they needed to for us and I appreciated it.

So I got my first Disney experience in Paris thanks to these lovely people and came back with way more than I bargained for.

Here's some pictures that I took throughout the day today...

 I thought that it was super adorable to see all the little girls dressed in their princess best so of course I sneakily took a picture of one just to remember them by.

 Euro Disney lunch time... it was as if I had to eat a McDonald's because we couldn't find anything else that wasn't completely packed full of people.

 Instead of it being a poison apple, like the one Snow White took a chunk out of, here they call it "pomme d'amour" or Apple of Love. I thought that was funny.

 Stanley was too cool to dance for the picture but he agreed to take a picture with his dancing friend behind in the background.

 This is a Coke truck in case no one notices.... No, I don't ever think of my dad when I'm 50,000 miles away from him....

 We sort of accidentally stumbled onto parade time while going between parks (we thought we had missed it completely) and caught the tail end of this so I took some pictures.

Is it just me, or is Minnie super chic here? That dress is so not something I've ever seen her in when I was growing up. I would have remembered it better.

Tomorrow we have more presentations in the morning but the afternoon should be free and then we have dinner at the french AUP director's house (she hosted us on Tuesday morning). In which case, I should probably get to bed now.

I'll post again soon!

Blessed Be

Versailles and Wandering

It's Sunday and I'm blogging again.

Are you keeping up or am I going too fast for you?

We went to Versailles today and I must say that it would have been worth the extra time if it hadn't been so crowded. We were pushing our way through and feeling trapped a little while we were inside but the sun was  shining outside so we had a great day for the trip.

Here are a few selected photos for your enjoyment!

front

back

back garden with emphasis on the canal that drawls water from the Seine to power the fountains in spring

bit of ceiling

The Queen's stair

Stanley in the window on the way back to Paris. I forgot he had come along.

This shop is known for it's macaroons and man were they good. I can't say that I'll be going back because of how expensive it was but it was worth the one time affair.

So after a quick recuperation at the hotel, I went wandering by myself and ended up in walking around a place that used to be a military hospital. I would have gone inside but when I got to the front gate and they told me that I couldn't go in because they were closing. I took pictures around the outside though and had a long conversation with some random guy about my stay in Paris. I guess he noticed me trying to take artistic looking photos. I amazed myself with my production of French though and he didn't even guess that I was American, he thought I was Spanish.... probably because of my silly rolled r's.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of that

 So after this guy finished talking to me, I was still walking and found a couple photo opportunities

 Then finally, I met up with some of the group for dinner and we went to this really nice restaurant with one of the professors. I got the Fish of the day and this Salmon on vegetables is what I received... I nearly cried over this wonderful fresh grilled fish it was just that good.

Now, I'm blogging and finishing up my day with a swig of wine from the bottle I bought yesterday and some chocolate which I'm letting melt on my tongue just for the hell of it.

Tomorrow morning starts the presentations and the actual work so I probably won't have a lot of pictures to put up like I do today. I'll keep everything up to date though as best as I can. 

Share the love and Brightest of blessings!