La Fête Nationale et L'arrivée de Taylor

The night before Bastille day, the remaining members of the ESSEC crew had our last hurrah at a final Tuileries picnic.

Afterword, we made our way to a nearby fire station for the Bastille Day Firemen's ball.  On Bastille Day, all the fire stations in Paris open up to the public for parties, with dancing and bars filled with firemen serving the drinks :)

On the morning of Bastille Day, July 15th, Taylor arrived! While I was waiting for her at my corner cafe, I witnessed remnants of the military parade and the air show.

In the evening Taylor and I made our way to the Champ de Mars to picnic and watch the fireworks in front of the Eiffel tower.  The crowd there was huge!

The sun stays up forever in Paris in the summer, and the fireworks finally began around 11pm.  It was a fantastic show set to music - one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen.

Taylor took this video towards the end:

Looking forward to another week of Paris exploration with Taylor!!

La Fin de L'Ecole

Today was the last day of the ESSEC summer program.  For our final afternoon together we had a long traditional French lunch in Auvers-sur-Oise, 20 minutes from Cergy where our classes were held. We had a really nice time and all agreed it was a great way to end the program.  It was such a wonderfully diverse group of people and an experience I'll never forget! 

Bruxelles

On Friday we had a field trip to the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium.  When we arrived we faced a major disappointment because we were not actually able to visit the Parliament building as it is under renovation.  But we shook it off, took a picture in front of the flags, and set off to enjoy the rest of the afternoon in Brussels :)

Brussels is a small business oriented city, and we had heard there is not much to there for toursits. But we found that it does have beautiful main square, and plenty of delicious chocolate and pastry shops!

We spent much of the afternoon hanging out at Delirium Cafe, home of Delirium Tremens, a famous Belgian beer that even we Chicagoans are familiar with. 

The absolute best part about Brussels would have to be the Belgian waffles! They are sold both at restaurants and from street vendors, and they were one of the most delicious foods I've ever tasted.

The girls on the left and right of me in the picture above are Ingrid and Katia, the two Parisians in our class. They have been super helpful with helping us with our French and giving us suggestions of places to go around the city.  We've had some really funny conversations about the differences between French and American culture :)

Jardins du Luxembourg

Last night we had another picnic, this time at the Luxembourg Gardens.  The ambiance was much more calm and classy than the Tuileries (i.e. more families and older people, fewer people smoking weed and lying on top of each other making out :) Not better or worse, but just another new experience.

Melissa splurged on a bottle of Veuve (like Andrew said, we were picnicking in Luxembourg after all) and brought her adorable little cordial glasses as a classy substitute for the dixie cups we drank our wine out of at the Tuileries.

We were surprised by the shrill sound of police whistles promptly at 9:15pm, shooing the lingerers from the gardens at closing time.  But it was fun while it lasted :)

Jardin des Tuileries

On Sunday evening we decided to have a picnic at the Tuileries Gardens.  These gardens next to the Louvre are a popular spot for Parisians to picnic and hang out when the weather is nice.  It was the nicest weather we've had so far - 78 degrees and sunny. (26 degrees Celsius, which I am adjusting to since all of my classmates use Celsius :)

After the picnic we made our way over to the carnival for some churros and a ride on the ferris wheel. The ferris wheel exceeded our expectations with wonderful views of the city. 

Frenchie

Last Friday after class my friend Violet suggested we check out a highly rated restaurant nearby called Frenchie.  It is nearly impossible to get a reservation, but the bar is first come first serve so we decided to just go and see if we could get a drink and an appetizer.  We showed up to the very small restaurant and squeezed into a spot at the bar.  We had just ordered a few glasses of wine when we were approached by a hostess who told us that they had a reservation cancellation at the restaurant if we'd like a table for dinner. We were thrilled! What followed was a truly amazing meal.

We looked at the wine menu for a bit and when we realized we weren't familiar with any of the wines we decided to wing it as usual. We ordered an inexpensive bottle of Côtes du Jura from the list of whites, and it turned out to be fantastic just like every French wine we've ordered. 

As is customary at French restaurants, we were handed a prix fixe menu with a limited choice of appetizers (entrees), main courses (plats) and desserts.  As we were struggling over the options our server asked, in perfect english, "can I help explain it to you?".  It turned out that she was French Canadian, from Montreal, and a fluent English speaker. Our second strike of luck for the evening!

Our first course was fresh crab wrapped with apples and topped with cherries. yum!

Our main course was perfectly cooked cod over a delicious bean salad.

We each ordered a different dessert and shared both. One was cherries over vanilla ice cream, and the other was strawberries and peas on vanilla ice cream. I have no idea how the chef dreamed up peas on ice cream, but it was actually an unusually tasty combination.

After dinner we walked down an alley and into the Experimental Cocktail Club, where we had some delicious cocktails and met up with our classmates.

Différentes Cultures

I have now completed my first week of the summer program at ESSEC.  We have a new professor every day, and lecture topics this week included culture, diversity, ethics, and negotiations.  The most interesting parts of the classes have been group discussions about the differences in our cultures.  Here are a few interesting facts my classmates told us about their workplace cultures:

• In South Korea, adults are spending so much time working and having so few babies that there is a growing concern about the low birth rate in the country. So much so, in fact, that the government has instituted a mandatory "family day" each month in which workers are required to go home early, in hopes that this gives them time to make bigger families.  Apparently the only way to force South Koreans to go home from their jobs is to literally turn off the lights in all of the office buildings. 
• In Japan, it is very different to get a full time job after college. And if you are not able to get a job at that time, it is not likely you will ever find one, so you end up working part time for the rest of your life. However, if you are one of the lucky ones to get a job, you will have that job for life, and can not be fired for poor performance or even sleeping at work!
• In France, it is common to put your age, marital status, and number of children on your resume. There are age limits on some jobs, and the number of children is code for showing that you are bourgeois Catholic, which designates that you are part of the upper middle class.