(no subject)
Salut, everyone! I'm getting so excited for the summer of Potter. Ever since the trailer came out I've been watching it about five times a day. My flatmates must wonder what that bizarre squealing sound coming from my room is...:) No matter. The movie is going to be SO GOOD. And a certain person who's blog you're reading is going to the London premiere. :-D :-D :-D
This week was stressful. I mostly spent the whole week preparing for my presentation that was on Thursday. Monday I had my internship and then translation class, where we got to translate Nabokov. Then our professor (who's translating languages are English, Russian and French) gave us some Nabokov to translate from English into French and was telling me that it would be fun to translate from the Russian and see how his language differs. That would be awesome. I love Nabokov. That afternoon a bunch of us went to Remor and got fondant...yummy! It was really funny because they were playing the Radio Days soundtrack and it was all very jazzy and made me feel like I was in a cafe in a Woody Allen movie. I was talking with Katie about how we aren't ready to leave yet, but we are ready for the school part of the year to be over. I know I've been working no where near as a hard as I would if I were at Wellesley, but I actually have had much more work this semester and was stressed out.
Tuesday I had Russian and ballet and then I went to the library to get books I needed for my presentation. I have to find more books now because I'm writing a 25 page paper based on the subject for my 10 minute presentation: Indian Migrants to London and the Community the Migrants there have created. I checked out SO many books. It was slightly ridiculous. After that I went back to Katie's house. One of Pascal's friends had written her a love letter and it was super over the top, but Pascal seemed to think it was just right. I guess it's a matter of cultural difference. Maybe for French people it's just a way of expressing yourself to tell someone you don't know that you love them...we were all a bit shocked by the forward-nature of the letter. But it was amusing, nonetheless. It was also raining and cooler Tuesday which was really nice in comparison some of the icky humidity.
Wednesday I had more classes and worked on my presentation. That day, May 9th, was also la Journee de l'Europe and there was a big festival going on in the park with stands from all the EU countries that have Consulates in Geneva. There was also a stage for little cultural presentations of dance and music and such. The stands were really amusing and there was much free food and paraphanelia! They all had everything stereotypical of that specific country. In the Germany tent they were serving beer and bratwurst, in the French tent they had wine, bread and cheese and in the Irish tent they were serving Guiness and playing U2! We know we had gotten to the English tent when we spotted two large men in dresses...oh the English tradition of cross-dressing. It never fails to amuse them, does it? They had scones and such there. I also got a free poster from the EU that says "Unie dans la diversite!" Yay for more posters for my room. After that I went home and stayed up super late stressing and practicing my presentation.
The next day, Thursday, was the day of the presentation. I think it went pretty well! I did get a lot of questions, though, some of them really hard. But I was happy because the Canadians actually asked insightful, thought provoking questions. And the one guy I really can't stand didn't even show up, so it's all good! I was really glad when it was over though! Now all I have to do is write three papers, do one more presentation and take an exam before June 16th-ish, and I'm home free! I went home, passed out really early and slept until about 11 this morning. I justify sleeping so insanely late because I did have sleep to catch up on from last week. That reminds me of Junior/Senior health when we talked about sleep debt and there was that guy that had all those bricks in his backpack. Wow, that was the most pointless class ever. Today I couldn't go to my internship because my boss is leaving for Rwanda and Congo. :( I was sad, because I really like working there! And he'll be gone for a week and a half, which means that the next time I go back it will only be a week before the conference and things will probably be super stressful. Speaking of the conference, we've confirmed several more heads of state! Along with Angela Merkel, there will also be Michelle Bachelet (presidente of Chile), President of Ghana and Prince Phillipe of Spain! I'm really excited for the conference and getting my United Nations security clearance and whatnot. Yeah, so today I did nothing except play around on the internet and reading every bit of news I could find about anything Harry Potter and catching up on listening to all my podcasts. I also finished a book. So it wasn't completely unproductive. Tonight I was also going to watch the Colin "Pride and Prejudice" with Clarice because she loves the book but had never seen that version, but she fell asleep because grad school will apparently do that to you! We're going to try watching it tomorrow. I hope finals are going well for everyone, or that the summer is off to a good start if you're already done. Bonne nuit et bisoux!
This week was stressful. I mostly spent the whole week preparing for my presentation that was on Thursday. Monday I had my internship and then translation class, where we got to translate Nabokov. Then our professor (who's translating languages are English, Russian and French) gave us some Nabokov to translate from English into French and was telling me that it would be fun to translate from the Russian and see how his language differs. That would be awesome. I love Nabokov. That afternoon a bunch of us went to Remor and got fondant...yummy! It was really funny because they were playing the Radio Days soundtrack and it was all very jazzy and made me feel like I was in a cafe in a Woody Allen movie. I was talking with Katie about how we aren't ready to leave yet, but we are ready for the school part of the year to be over. I know I've been working no where near as a hard as I would if I were at Wellesley, but I actually have had much more work this semester and was stressed out.
Tuesday I had Russian and ballet and then I went to the library to get books I needed for my presentation. I have to find more books now because I'm writing a 25 page paper based on the subject for my 10 minute presentation: Indian Migrants to London and the Community the Migrants there have created. I checked out SO many books. It was slightly ridiculous. After that I went back to Katie's house. One of Pascal's friends had written her a love letter and it was super over the top, but Pascal seemed to think it was just right. I guess it's a matter of cultural difference. Maybe for French people it's just a way of expressing yourself to tell someone you don't know that you love them...we were all a bit shocked by the forward-nature of the letter. But it was amusing, nonetheless. It was also raining and cooler Tuesday which was really nice in comparison some of the icky humidity.
Wednesday I had more classes and worked on my presentation. That day, May 9th, was also la Journee de l'Europe and there was a big festival going on in the park with stands from all the EU countries that have Consulates in Geneva. There was also a stage for little cultural presentations of dance and music and such. The stands were really amusing and there was much free food and paraphanelia! They all had everything stereotypical of that specific country. In the Germany tent they were serving beer and bratwurst, in the French tent they had wine, bread and cheese and in the Irish tent they were serving Guiness and playing U2! We know we had gotten to the English tent when we spotted two large men in dresses...oh the English tradition of cross-dressing. It never fails to amuse them, does it? They had scones and such there. I also got a free poster from the EU that says "Unie dans la diversite!" Yay for more posters for my room. After that I went home and stayed up super late stressing and practicing my presentation.
The next day, Thursday, was the day of the presentation. I think it went pretty well! I did get a lot of questions, though, some of them really hard. But I was happy because the Canadians actually asked insightful, thought provoking questions. And the one guy I really can't stand didn't even show up, so it's all good! I was really glad when it was over though! Now all I have to do is write three papers, do one more presentation and take an exam before June 16th-ish, and I'm home free! I went home, passed out really early and slept until about 11 this morning. I justify sleeping so insanely late because I did have sleep to catch up on from last week. That reminds me of Junior/Senior health when we talked about sleep debt and there was that guy that had all those bricks in his backpack. Wow, that was the most pointless class ever. Today I couldn't go to my internship because my boss is leaving for Rwanda and Congo. :( I was sad, because I really like working there! And he'll be gone for a week and a half, which means that the next time I go back it will only be a week before the conference and things will probably be super stressful. Speaking of the conference, we've confirmed several more heads of state! Along with Angela Merkel, there will also be Michelle Bachelet (presidente of Chile), President of Ghana and Prince Phillipe of Spain! I'm really excited for the conference and getting my United Nations security clearance and whatnot. Yeah, so today I did nothing except play around on the internet and reading every bit of news I could find about anything Harry Potter and catching up on listening to all my podcasts. I also finished a book. So it wasn't completely unproductive. Tonight I was also going to watch the Colin "Pride and Prejudice" with Clarice because she loves the book but had never seen that version, but she fell asleep because grad school will apparently do that to you! We're going to try watching it tomorrow. I hope finals are going well for everyone, or that the summer is off to a good start if you're already done. Bonne nuit et bisoux!