..all i want for christmas is you..
:: Christmas has officially begun ::
And to think, I still have class tomorrow. But I don’t think it has ever felt so much like Christmas without actually being Christmas. A brief synopsis of the past week, which quite frankly, has been about 10% school and 90% waste of life, but a fun one.
Dîner(s) de conf >>
So one really cool thing about Sciences Po is that for each class (or conférence, as precepts are called here), you get together once a semester outside of the classroom for dinner/fun. This week, I went out to Indian food with my Pays Émergents class and, besides enjoying some delicious Indian food in le quartier indien, got to converse with the professor and other students informally in French. It was really fun. Then, on Thursday, I had a makeup class which then turned into a dinner for my English class on Minorities. We all went over to one of our professor’s homes and shared in some delicious food. Again, it was just really fun to see everyone outside of class and to find out more about these people you see every week.
X-mas is here! >>
With our very successful Christmas soirée yesterday evening, I think I can safely say Christmas has officially begun. As Devon and I went shopping for supplies earlier in the day, it was literally like seeing Christmas all around us. Before the actual party, we organized a little Secret Santa dinner. And when I say we, I mean I, because a Christmas is not a Christmas without lots of tacky, fake decorations and a cheesy Secret Santa. In a throwback to Freshman year, I got my person X-mas boxers, and the lovely Devon got me a Chinese-style fan and earrings, both in the wonderful shade of orange. In the spirit of Christmas, I also picked up a few (French) gifts for myself, including black skinny jeans and flat grey boots. Yay Christmas!
For the party itself, we went a little overboard and got “mistletoe” (aka cut up wrapping paper and wrote mistletoe on it), a huge green tablecloth, and made a giant vat of eggnog. And well, the outfits speak for themselves, though apparently mine turned out semi-classy, even with my 20 euro shiny red heels. Apparently I miss singing a lot, so of course, we broke into sing-a-longs to Mariah Carey, Umbrella, and even Hallelujah (depressing?). Just a tip to future party throwers – while plastic champagne flutes may be a little classier than red solo cups, they are much much less practical. Evidence? Our red wine-stained white chairs, walls, floor… even my underwear drawer. Yeah. But hey, all in a good night’s work, right?
Break is nearing >>
You know what really makes it feel like break is coming up? The non-stop going out. Wednesday was my friend’s 21st birthday, and let’s just say it was an evening to (not) remember. Kind of embarrassing? Sure. Still really fun? Definitely. And I even managed to make it to my 10am class the next morning. Can’t even begin to fathom what SciPo’s official Christmas party is going to be like… let’s just say they rented out all of Planet Hollywood on the Champs Elysées and everyone gets a free shot of tequila.
After the epic night that Monday is sure to be, I will have a few days to catch up with life. This includes work, job applications and finalizing everything for the big Eurotrip! Speaking of job applications, today is the later deadline for banking jobs in Asia, and obviously I am not working on those. I think I’ve just realized how much I’m not interested in the banking industry and how much more I’d rather do public service work or even just something like marketing. Princeton has this new branch of international internships called Princeton Summer in China which places undergrads at firms in China and looks amazing, but will probably be hard to get. I also wish the State Dept. would just let me know the bad news already.
But for the time being, I can’t think of anything else but the upcoming Eurotrip! As sad as it will be to not be home for Christmas, this is definitely a rare opportunity and I am so grateful to have it! It will be tiring, and at times stressful, oh and not to mention really expensive, but it will be totally worth it. Barcelona, Milan, Venice, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, and a few days later, London – here I come! And now, Kevin’s joining us for the middle leg of the tour, yay! (Took him long enough, haha.)
//
But wow, I can’t believe how fast this has all gone by. It’s weird, because September feels like so long ago, but then I can’t believe it’s already December! And thinking ahead, after winter break is over, I’ll come back for four days of class, go to London and then it’ll be mid-January. It’s sad because I’m starting to realize I don’t have to time to do all the things I still have left to do, like see so many more museums, go to a concert, go to other parts of France, etc. Even though it would’ve been nice to go home soon and not have to take finals during class in February, it is definitely nice to have January in Paris. Let’s be serious, Princeton gets boring pretty quickly. That’s not to say I’m not excited to return – friends, feeling like I’m getting the most out of my education, activities, etc. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m pretty content with my life right now. And how often do you get to say that?
