It's been a very long while since I last wrote, but that's just because work has been keeping me busy. The job isn't always the most exciting, but my co-workers are a dream, and I occasionally get some interesting projects to work on.
For example: A month or so ago, my boss asked me to work on a position paper regarding the implementation of IFRS for SMEs (a set of international accounting standards for small and medium sized companies) in the US. The paper is against the implementation, whereas I personally would be pro, but it's been really interesting to research and write.
The rest of the internship so far has been a testament to how welcoming the French can be. My officemate, Emilie, as well as two of the other women in the near vicinity, Aude and Melanie, included me right away in their girls' gym outings and coffee breaks. Every Monday and Friday (and Wednesday this week!) we complain for an hour before going to an hour long aerobics class. We complain the whole time we're there about how hard it is, take a shower, and go to the sandwich place across the street for soup and salad (which are always delicious!) and complain the next day about how badly we're feeling the effects of the gym.
While there's definitely some interoffice gossip, in general people get along and prefer to be in the company of others than alone, which is really different for me. Even in my amazing group at Horizon for my last co-op, the camaradery wasn't quite as pronounced. For example, Nathalie, the secretary to the #2 to the CFO who works in our department, invited me to lunch a few weeks ago. We went to a place where she knows the owner and had delicious pumpkin risotto with foie gras (sounds weird, but delicious) and finished with espressos. Over lunch we talked about her love of football (soccer), her upcoming vacations, notably to the World Cup in South Africa, and her amazing wedding to her husband that took place last November. Her dress was basically custom-made by Lanvin. Afterwards, we strolled around the area and visited the Marc Jacobs boutique (don't worry Mom and Dad, I didn't buy anything) For her birthday, she invited a bunch of the ladies from the area to a little conference room and we shared a bottle of champagne and some little cookies. Emilie, Aude and I bought her these precious bracelets online that completely fit her fun personality and we joke everyday about when they're going to arrive. Nathalie also took me across the street to see the Orangerie, the building where all of BNP Paribas' chief officers work and where Napoleon and Josephine were married. Next month she's organized a lunch with one of my bosses as well as a trip to the trading room. She literally knows everyone in the company and is just too precious when it comes to introducing me to them.
Whenever I don't have something else to do after work, Emilie and I leave together, and sometimes with one of the group secretaries who lives near me. Last week we walked home 3 times after work, instead of taking the metro. It's so amazing to me how much people want to be social here- and such a contrast to my usual preference to sit and read a book by myself! I'm just trying to go with the flow and accept 99% of the invitations offered to me.
I'm finally cooking a lot more, which is a joy. My roommate likes to cook/bake as well, so there're a lot of apparati in the house for me to play with. My favorite is definitely the stick blender, and I've taken to making a soup on Sunday night so that I don't have to make dinner Monday, Tuesday, and sometimes Wednesday depending on if Agathe shares with me. Past renditions have included carrot soup with cumin and crème fraiche, lentil soup with tomatoes and cayenne pepper, and split pea soup with ham and topped with emmental (similar to swiss). Today is going to be cauliflower soup since it looked good at the market.
Baking is also up since I have several excuses to do it. For birthdays, and just because, people at work are always bringing in treats (cookies, croissants, chocolates from vacation...). It's great for me because I get to try French things (like financiers and madeleines), and they love the muffins and such that I bring in.
I joined a choir about a month ago, too. I missed singing so much that it was getting unbearable. My boss knew someone who sang, and I went to their winter concert and auditioned a few days later. We're singing opera choruses, which always make me smile, and most of them are familiar, which (don't tell) means I don't have to practice too much. We always have about a half hour-45 minute break during which we drink (wine! and lots of it!) and eat, taking turns among the sections to bring refreshments. Tomorrow is my section's second turn (last time was carrot muffins), and I bought amazing looking rhubarb at the market, so I'm making a tart with it.
In other news, passed all my exams with reasonably good grades (18/20 in accounting-passing is 10 and normal is 13-14, the rest were less exciting), which meant that I didn't have to go back to the hell-hole that was Reims to retake anything, nor did I have to study. Phew! Also found out within the last couple of months that I get to spend fall semester as both a Research Assistant and a Teacher's assistant for some really great professors. I think the one that I asked about the positions put my name in for a scholarship, because I recently found out that I got it, but I'd never applied because I didn't know it existed. I got into all the classes that I need for the fall, so I'm on track to graduate a semester early. My fabulous friend Meg, and her two friends, just found us an apartment for the fall, so I'm really excited that everything's coming together so well.
In performing a fake job search, I found my absolute post-grad dream job in San Francisco. It's a Budget and Financial Analyst position for a non-profit called Room to Read that works toward child literacy in developing countries. Short of the 3 years of Budgeting experience, which I consider a minor detail ;-), the job fits perfectly to my qualifications, especially the idea of being "open" to international travel.
In every aspect of my life, I'm about 10,000 times happier in Paris than I was in Reims, and I'm really happy to be in France, even if I miss home and will definitely be ready for the familiar when I move back to Boston in August.
Peter is coming to visit on Thursday (!!!), so I'm excited to drag him around my city. We're going down to Montpellier/Millau for Ascension day weekend- we're staying with a family the first night in Montpellier, and then in a converted Chateau (read: Castle!) in Millau. Can't wait!
Also coming up: a trip to Barcelona the weekend after Peter leaves and to Agadir, Morocco in June.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Exams and the start of my internship
So glad to finally be finished with exams! Literally all of January and the first week of February was spent stressing constantly about them. In the middle of January, however, RMS decided it would be a really good idea to require two weeks of seminars- 1 on team management and 1 on marketing. These would not ordinarily have been too bad, and in a normal context would have provided a welcome break from classes. However, the fact that they took place in the middle of our study time (with required papers and projects for some, and thus little time to study outside of class) was obnoxious. The marketing seminar was a simulation in which we were assigned, in small groups, a company producing miscellaneous "communication devices" (it was hinted they were something like cell phones) with given characteristics, specialities, resources, etc. Each day we had to spend time allocating our resources in order to improve products through R&D or promote them in order to convince consumers to purchase them. Doing this in an international group was extremely difficult due to a pretty even divide in similar cultures. We had 2 girls of a nationality I won't name, who didn't seem to understand much of what was going on. Then we had 3 other girls who are all perfectionists and what a Westerner would consider "efficient" workers. However, we had maybe an hour and a half each time to do all the work leading up to a decision, a short deadline that made it pretty impossible to slow down and explain everything to the girls who didn't understand. So it ended up that the other 3 did all the work. Add to that the fact that one of the girls decided to leave 2-3 hours early on the first day because "she had a meeting," and she didn't even show up the 2nd day without telling anyone. The third day she apologized and said she'd do extra work, but by that time most decisions had been made and she didn't make an effort to ask questions about what had happened in her absence and just sat there staring at us. Lessons learned: when working in an international team, start as early as possible in order to explain the task, delegate tasks with a VERY specific quality standard, and check on status updates often.
The second week was a team management seminar, although it was a bit odd to learn about how to manage/work in teams when we'd been involved in at least 6-8 group projects for 4 months already... Again, lots of theory, a personality test to see what kind of leaders we are (MBTI test for anyone who's interested, I'm all the way to the left on everything, basically meaning that I like cold hard facts and efficiency, or at least that's my interpretation...), and team simulations. This seminar wasn't nearly as bad as the first one. It was nice to see that despite difficulties in expressing myself perfectly in French (which I would consider to be the biggest obstacle in leading a team, especially if they're all native speakers), I was able to set objectives and obtain them when it was my turn to lead a group.
Skip forward a couple of weeks to exams. I have never been so exhausted in all my life. I would wake up and take an exam starting at 9, then come home and study, with a short break for a most likely un-cooked dinner such as bread and jam, until midnight or later. Except on Tuesday night. Wednesday's tests were on Communal Policy (extremely detailed class on the EU that would've been difficult for any non-European to fully comprehend) and European Law. The law one was pretty easy, although I don't want to get ahead of myself and say I'm sure I did well. Communal Policy was mostly humorous. I was so exhausted from studying for other exams and moving half my things to Paris over the weekend that I just didn't have it in me to study for a class that doesn't count for me at Northeastern, and is full of information that I won't need to know in the amount of detail it was presented. For example, one of the classes was spent on the budget of the EU and we were expected to know the percentages of what is spent on each item... Yeah right. Other than that one, I'm reasonably sure that I at least passed the exams. I know for sure (from talking to my professor in passing) that I got a 14 on my French exam, which will have participation and some minor homework grades added to it. 14/20 would be such an awful grade in the States, but since almost no one ever gets above a 16 (which leads one to wonder why there are numbers like 20...), I'm not depressed.
After cleaning our apartment from top to bottom and throwing out most of the things we'd accumulated (including sneaking our futon out of the apartment in the middle of the night in order to put it near the trash of another complex...), Maggie and I decided we deserved something nice. We went to see "Le Concert" with French friend Diane and British friend Emilie. It is one of the best movies I"ve seen in a long time- and has been in theaters almost since we arrived! It's about a janitor who works at the Bolshoi symphony hall in Moscow. We find out that he used to be the conductor of said symphony before WWII, but was fired and driven to alcoholism when he refused to turn out the Jewish members of the orchestra. He intercepts a fax invitation from Paris to bring the Bolshoi orchestra to the City of Lights for a concert at the St Germain theater and must then go about rousing his old orchestra members to play a Tchaikovsky concerto that has special meaning for him. The performance at the end was so amazing that I cried. Can't wait to buy the DVD when it comes out in April. Next, Maggie and I went to one of the nice restaurants in town and had a 4 course tasting meal! Champagne to start with the first course of 3 preps of foie gras (Seared, plain, and with chocolate). Then our Loire valley red was popped open and we had a fabulous cut of beef with baby carrots and asparagus, a red wine sauce, and a potato gratin type thing. Cheese course followed, although it wasn't especially good. Dessert was absolutely fantastic- appropriately called a "symphony of dessert." Crème brulée, amazing strawberry ice cream, a molten chocolate cake, and a cheesecake with an extremely tart raspberry sauce. Lovely! And of course, coffee to finish. We arrived just after 7 and were the first table to sit down, but we didn't leave until almost 10 when the other parties were starting to finish their own dinners (the restaurant closes at 11), so I felt quite French :-)
Moved to Paris over the weekend, which was a long journey. The strap on one of my bags broke, and I got dirty looks from a lady on the metro, but I was helped several times by sympathetic people and got to my new apartment fairly close to my forecasted TOA. Went out with Jason and Dan for a cocktail at the Iguana bar, which had fun mixed drinks and a nice atmosphere. Sunday, explored the neighborhood and found a market (which makes me feel right at home) and then went into the center of town for a nice long walk and a pillow purchase (had to toss mine in Reims since there wasn't any room in my suitcase).
First day of my internship went well. We met my boss, Peter (the NEU alum who recruted us all), in the morning and chatted about working in a French company, completed some HR formalities, went to lunch with my team, and split up into our various teams after lunch to work. So far the job's not too demanding. I'm in charge of scouring the news for articles on accounting standards (but please don't send me any because Peter's criteria are very particular), translating accounting documents, and eventually completing a benchmarking project starting March 1st when annual reports start to come out. The people I work with are extremely nice and very inclusive. They'll let me practice my French, and they'll practice English with me. We don't always talk about work, either. I've learned ski vocabulary since the Olympics started on Sunday (which I haven't had time to follow), as well as old French for stepmother (marâtre, which is generally used in a negative context in stories like Snow White) and the name of "Taming of the Shrew" (Mégère Apprivoisée). I'm really lucky to have such nice people working with me, and they're all ridiculously smart as well. Just hope I can live up to their obviously high standards!
The second week was a team management seminar, although it was a bit odd to learn about how to manage/work in teams when we'd been involved in at least 6-8 group projects for 4 months already... Again, lots of theory, a personality test to see what kind of leaders we are (MBTI test for anyone who's interested, I'm all the way to the left on everything, basically meaning that I like cold hard facts and efficiency, or at least that's my interpretation...), and team simulations. This seminar wasn't nearly as bad as the first one. It was nice to see that despite difficulties in expressing myself perfectly in French (which I would consider to be the biggest obstacle in leading a team, especially if they're all native speakers), I was able to set objectives and obtain them when it was my turn to lead a group.
Skip forward a couple of weeks to exams. I have never been so exhausted in all my life. I would wake up and take an exam starting at 9, then come home and study, with a short break for a most likely un-cooked dinner such as bread and jam, until midnight or later. Except on Tuesday night. Wednesday's tests were on Communal Policy (extremely detailed class on the EU that would've been difficult for any non-European to fully comprehend) and European Law. The law one was pretty easy, although I don't want to get ahead of myself and say I'm sure I did well. Communal Policy was mostly humorous. I was so exhausted from studying for other exams and moving half my things to Paris over the weekend that I just didn't have it in me to study for a class that doesn't count for me at Northeastern, and is full of information that I won't need to know in the amount of detail it was presented. For example, one of the classes was spent on the budget of the EU and we were expected to know the percentages of what is spent on each item... Yeah right. Other than that one, I'm reasonably sure that I at least passed the exams. I know for sure (from talking to my professor in passing) that I got a 14 on my French exam, which will have participation and some minor homework grades added to it. 14/20 would be such an awful grade in the States, but since almost no one ever gets above a 16 (which leads one to wonder why there are numbers like 20...), I'm not depressed.
After cleaning our apartment from top to bottom and throwing out most of the things we'd accumulated (including sneaking our futon out of the apartment in the middle of the night in order to put it near the trash of another complex...), Maggie and I decided we deserved something nice. We went to see "Le Concert" with French friend Diane and British friend Emilie. It is one of the best movies I"ve seen in a long time- and has been in theaters almost since we arrived! It's about a janitor who works at the Bolshoi symphony hall in Moscow. We find out that he used to be the conductor of said symphony before WWII, but was fired and driven to alcoholism when he refused to turn out the Jewish members of the orchestra. He intercepts a fax invitation from Paris to bring the Bolshoi orchestra to the City of Lights for a concert at the St Germain theater and must then go about rousing his old orchestra members to play a Tchaikovsky concerto that has special meaning for him. The performance at the end was so amazing that I cried. Can't wait to buy the DVD when it comes out in April. Next, Maggie and I went to one of the nice restaurants in town and had a 4 course tasting meal! Champagne to start with the first course of 3 preps of foie gras (Seared, plain, and with chocolate). Then our Loire valley red was popped open and we had a fabulous cut of beef with baby carrots and asparagus, a red wine sauce, and a potato gratin type thing. Cheese course followed, although it wasn't especially good. Dessert was absolutely fantastic- appropriately called a "symphony of dessert." Crème brulée, amazing strawberry ice cream, a molten chocolate cake, and a cheesecake with an extremely tart raspberry sauce. Lovely! And of course, coffee to finish. We arrived just after 7 and were the first table to sit down, but we didn't leave until almost 10 when the other parties were starting to finish their own dinners (the restaurant closes at 11), so I felt quite French :-)
Moved to Paris over the weekend, which was a long journey. The strap on one of my bags broke, and I got dirty looks from a lady on the metro, but I was helped several times by sympathetic people and got to my new apartment fairly close to my forecasted TOA. Went out with Jason and Dan for a cocktail at the Iguana bar, which had fun mixed drinks and a nice atmosphere. Sunday, explored the neighborhood and found a market (which makes me feel right at home) and then went into the center of town for a nice long walk and a pillow purchase (had to toss mine in Reims since there wasn't any room in my suitcase).
First day of my internship went well. We met my boss, Peter (the NEU alum who recruted us all), in the morning and chatted about working in a French company, completed some HR formalities, went to lunch with my team, and split up into our various teams after lunch to work. So far the job's not too demanding. I'm in charge of scouring the news for articles on accounting standards (but please don't send me any because Peter's criteria are very particular), translating accounting documents, and eventually completing a benchmarking project starting March 1st when annual reports start to come out. The people I work with are extremely nice and very inclusive. They'll let me practice my French, and they'll practice English with me. We don't always talk about work, either. I've learned ski vocabulary since the Olympics started on Sunday (which I haven't had time to follow), as well as old French for stepmother (marâtre, which is generally used in a negative context in stories like Snow White) and the name of "Taming of the Shrew" (Mégère Apprivoisée). I'm really lucky to have such nice people working with me, and they're all ridiculously smart as well. Just hope I can live up to their obviously high standards!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Chez moi :-)
After the stress of 4 months of French, it felt so good to be back with the English-speaking people I love. Arrived (early! Thanks to a dear, sweet airline employee who put me on an earlier flight) Saturday (the 20th) night in time for burgers with the family. Spent Sunday relaxing and starting Christmas preparations.
Next two days were spent in San Francisco with Peter. He met me at the airport with tulips, because he knows I love them and we went back to his house for a relaxing evening with wine and cheese and grapes. He had to work for a few hours in the morning, so I toodled around Market St. and had TWO lattes from Peet's. How I missed the American sizes and that delicious foam that only Peet's can make. Went to lunch with his co-workers at a Middle Eastern place. They're all extremely nice and dumbed down their tech talk to traveling talk so that I could participate. Tuesday evening was the San Francisco Girls' Chorus concert, which I'd been looking forward to for months. It was such a perfect date- dinner at an Italian place, and then a concert where I got to hear Peter sing! The lady in front of us kept turning around and admiring his manly bass voice :-) Even the flight back to San Diego was fun- I'd brought a book to amuse myself, but we ended up reading an article in his magazine and playing cards together.
Christmas Eve we went to our old church for the 11 pm service, but it's changed a LOT since we used to go there and seemed commercialized. They didn't even sing very many carols, so I had to wait for that, too. Christmas was wonderful- got the camera I'd asked for and, among other things, a CD from Peter of his choir's Christmas concert with a note to me in the program!
Day after Christmas was a shopping trip with my mom and a nice lunch at Cheesecake factory while the boys went hiking. The rest of the trip gets kind of fuzzy in terms of the order of things. We went to Palm Springs and took the gondola up to the (almost) summit of Mt. San Jacinto, which was absolutely gorgeous! Peter and I drove out to Rancho Bernardo and did a wine tasting with a fabulous server whose son has also taken years of French and wants to study abroad (while I absolutely hate RMS and the school system here, I tried to stay positive). The place was fantastic (Bernardo Winery) and pretty good wine and a lovely area to stroll with a glass. Went for a short hike afterwards to eat a picnic lunch. Also saw "Invictus" with my Grandma and Aunt and had a fabulous early dinner at my favorite Jewish deli. On New Year's Eve, Peter and I got the Go San Diego pass, so we went to the Midway with my family and saw all the cool planes on board, and then went to Legoland by ourselves. Both visits were so fun- neither would've been my first choice on the list of 55, but just being with my family and Peter made them fun. New Year's Eve p.m. was relaxed. Made boeuf bourguignon with Mom's help for dinner, had champagne and raspberry cookies (made in Reims to serve with champagne) at midnight and got my first New Year's kiss from Peter! :-)
Leaving was really hard- I think most of the students here are really unhappy with school and the intense amount of stress put upon us, especially in this last month and a half. After being so happy with everyone over Christmas, all I really want to do is be done with school, have a real job, and be near the people I love.
Have to keep telling myself it's only another 8 months till I'm back in the States, and another year until I'm done!
Next two days were spent in San Francisco with Peter. He met me at the airport with tulips, because he knows I love them and we went back to his house for a relaxing evening with wine and cheese and grapes. He had to work for a few hours in the morning, so I toodled around Market St. and had TWO lattes from Peet's. How I missed the American sizes and that delicious foam that only Peet's can make. Went to lunch with his co-workers at a Middle Eastern place. They're all extremely nice and dumbed down their tech talk to traveling talk so that I could participate. Tuesday evening was the San Francisco Girls' Chorus concert, which I'd been looking forward to for months. It was such a perfect date- dinner at an Italian place, and then a concert where I got to hear Peter sing! The lady in front of us kept turning around and admiring his manly bass voice :-) Even the flight back to San Diego was fun- I'd brought a book to amuse myself, but we ended up reading an article in his magazine and playing cards together.
Christmas Eve we went to our old church for the 11 pm service, but it's changed a LOT since we used to go there and seemed commercialized. They didn't even sing very many carols, so I had to wait for that, too. Christmas was wonderful- got the camera I'd asked for and, among other things, a CD from Peter of his choir's Christmas concert with a note to me in the program!
Day after Christmas was a shopping trip with my mom and a nice lunch at Cheesecake factory while the boys went hiking. The rest of the trip gets kind of fuzzy in terms of the order of things. We went to Palm Springs and took the gondola up to the (almost) summit of Mt. San Jacinto, which was absolutely gorgeous! Peter and I drove out to Rancho Bernardo and did a wine tasting with a fabulous server whose son has also taken years of French and wants to study abroad (while I absolutely hate RMS and the school system here, I tried to stay positive). The place was fantastic (Bernardo Winery) and pretty good wine and a lovely area to stroll with a glass. Went for a short hike afterwards to eat a picnic lunch. Also saw "Invictus" with my Grandma and Aunt and had a fabulous early dinner at my favorite Jewish deli. On New Year's Eve, Peter and I got the Go San Diego pass, so we went to the Midway with my family and saw all the cool planes on board, and then went to Legoland by ourselves. Both visits were so fun- neither would've been my first choice on the list of 55, but just being with my family and Peter made them fun. New Year's Eve p.m. was relaxed. Made boeuf bourguignon with Mom's help for dinner, had champagne and raspberry cookies (made in Reims to serve with champagne) at midnight and got my first New Year's kiss from Peter! :-)
Leaving was really hard- I think most of the students here are really unhappy with school and the intense amount of stress put upon us, especially in this last month and a half. After being so happy with everyone over Christmas, all I really want to do is be done with school, have a real job, and be near the people I love.
Have to keep telling myself it's only another 8 months till I'm back in the States, and another year until I'm done!
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