The End of Part I of My Parisian Semester

Friday afternoon marked the end of the first part of my spring semester in Paris, and I must say there isn’t really much to say about this past week. Each day followed the rhythm of the past weeks since I’ve been here, slowly mounting to the fact that the academic aspect of our programme has come to an end.

All of my exams were completely fair, but nevertheless covered seven intensive weeks of coursework. My Travaux Pratiques (writing, speaking, etc.) final was on Thursday, while my economics and immigration & citizenship finals were on Friday. I think I did fairly well, considering the amount of information that could have possibly been tested. One could also tell that this past week has been on the more or less boring and repetitive side of life because our dinners became less and less complex, and more rushed to try and give us the maximum amount of time to study.

Ah, before I forget, we had two big food accomplishment for the week. First, in my attempt to step things up a notch, I made a pseudo-spicy beef and veg cannoli [ed.'s note: just realised today it was cannelloni] filling, the recipe of which I will include in my supplementary blog soon. Second, Trevor and I winged it and created a slightly better white sauce than our last attempt, eating that with gnocchi (ps/ it was extremely filling).

But aside from all of that, there were three great things about this week, and I’ll save the best for last.

1) About a week or two ago, I found out that France and Lithuania would be playing the first round qualifying match for a spot in the World Cup (ps/ in SOUTH AFRICA) while we would be here in Paris. And guess who’s going… Trevor, myself and 14 other BU folk, although I’m sure many more will join in on the fun. Especially given where we’ll be sitting, I’m wicked excited for this match. I knew it was a good thing I brought my French jerseys with me!

2) For some reason or another, this week was an über-nostalgic one for not only me, but for the majority, if not all, of my SIT: Cape Town classmates from last semester. I noticed pretty evident signs, such as the fact that many of them still have FB profile photos of them in South Africa, and that the conversation back and forth on our walls and photo comments refer to South Africa and our ISPs. Upon reflection, I forgot how tough and overwhelming mid-terms can generally get, let alone the fact that I was stressing over my finals. In any case, the great news is that I’ve been able to call a majority of them and catch up (there are still a few I need to get to). Everyone I spoke with sounded generally happy, but nevertheless nostalgic for SA.

3) Speaking of Safrica (which I don’t really intend to do, but just happen to anyway…), I finally saw ‘Le Roi Lion’!!! …although it was quite an adventure. I went to Théâtre Mogador right after school last Tuesday, getting there rather early. I went up to the ticket counter and asked if there were any student tickets left. The lady said no. I asked her if she knows when the next not-so-booked-night would be and she replied with ‘We are really booked for the next week.’ [N.B. This conversation was in French.] There was also a sign up saying they had no student (under 26 years old) tickets available. I had planned to meet up with Jane at the theatre and as she hadn’t arrived yet, I sent her a text giving her the unfortunate news that there were no tickets available (granted we could have paid the 49 € + / ticket fee, but the student cost was 10 €). However, she was more than halfway to the theatre so I decided to wait for her at the theatre and we’d try and figure where to go from there. It was approaching 19.00 and before Jane got there, I noticed a student line sort of begin to form AND THE SIGN WAS TAKEN DOWN. I was utterly confounded and when Jane arrived we ultimately decided to join the line and figure out if there was still a way to get in. A group of students (nine, I believe) were in front of us. After they PURCHASED THEIR TICKETS (even though the lady had told me earlier there were none available), we asked them if they did get student tickets and they responded with ‘oui,’ but they weren’t sure if they snagged the last ones or not. So, cue a frustrated M.A. Jane and I go up to the window and ask if there are tickets available, to which the lady responded with ‘oui,’ but the seats wouldn’t be next to each other. Fine by us! LOOONG story short… we got in and were about to see ‘Le Roi Lion’!