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
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