Acquiring a Parisian Lifestyle

The Parisian culture is to enjoy life first, then worry about the complications. During my time here, in Paris, I have grown to appreciate the little things that make life so pleasurable. I have also acquired a greater appreciation for some of the things we have in the United States. My host mother, Nadia, embodies the perfect Parisian women. She sings to the music while she cooks fantastic French cuisine, but occasionally makes us stop and listen to the birds chirping outside the window. The boulangerie across the street provides a fresh baguette for dinner, which is always accompanied by a cheese platter. Especially our first week because we were offered a new cheese every night to taste! Comical dinner conversations with interesting translations and a curiosity to learn about different cultures are proceeded by yogurt for dessert and the option for tea. In the morning we munch on toasted baguette with delectable raspberry jam and some yogurt. Nadia, known for only wearing high heels, would sip on her tea in her comfortable clothes and her lamby slippers amusing us in breakfast conversation. Feeding "switchy" (their pet fish, named for replacing the last one) and applying a full face of makeup is always in Nadia's daily regime.  As we would leave, "Passez une bonne journée" would follow us out the door. Our daily adventures included conquering the métro and the bus while traversing across Paris.  Whether it was a day of tourism, shopping, or science Nadia constantly debriefed our days.  

When our internships began, the immediate realization that we would have to wake up earlier was not so pleasant. Upon my arrival at the Curie Institute I was greeted with warm smiles and lots of french. My head was spinning by the end of the first day from the immense amount of information. It was learning another language in another language! After day one things started to progress. It became easier to comprehend, and Pascal (the woman I worked with) discovered how much drawings and hand motions helped my comprehension. Although I was a little flustered that my internship in the lab would be only in French, I have truly come to appreciate the extra challenge and the opportunity to truly advance in the language. The other day, Anne Houdusse, the head of the lab, scheduled a meeting for Reed and me to attend with Phong Tran, a professor at UPenn and scientist at the Curie. He was a fountain of information, providing guidance and advice on how to proceed if we wish to pursue a successful career in science. The most poignant piece of advice that he offered was to gain as much experience as possible by volunteering in labs. It will add to one's personal value. After our conversation, I returned to the lab with a different perspective. It became more then just a great opportunity, it was a launching board for my future. Although I have spent a fair amount of time waiting and simply observing, I have also been able to complete some of my own experiments. Being able to have hands on experience is priceless, and extremely fascinating. Anne Houdusse's lab is trying to gain a greater understanding of how proteins work. The way it was explained to me is that we know what proteins do, but how they do it is magic. Through structural analysis and the usage of crystallography Anne Houdusse's team is looking for the answers.  

During the two weeks of work scheduled rendez-vous with the GCIP group provided time to have a tea and converse about our most recent adventures. During this time, most of us would scope out the stores in the surrounding areas anticipating the great sales. Shopping has spurred fun times, weekend entertainment, hurting wallets, and fabulous new french wardrobes! Personally, this is where I applied the French philosophy of life the most. I decided to enjoy the clothing and worry about the complications later... which is why I have a job when I get home. My overall experience has been exquisite, the food has been divine and I have learned a lot. This was a trip to remember, and I could not be more appreciative for the amazing opportunity. 

The first day, and our first Amorino Gelato flower 

Sitting in the sun after devouring the delectable gelato 

Piers lighting a candle in the Notre Dame

The first rendez-vous  at the Notre Dame

Anni posing in front of Sacre Coeur 

Approaching the final stairs at Sacre Coeur 

After visiting La Maison de Victor Hugo, we stopped in a garden.

Our picnic in the park from Le Bon Marché

Walking in the gardens of Versailles

Biking in the Gardens of Versailles 

The furthest point of the Grand Canal in the Gardens of Versailles

A constant problem for many of us: figuring out where to go!

On the first Saturday, Emma and I chose to visit the Musée d'Orsay

In the Musée d'Orsay

After starting work, Piers, Caroline and I returned to the pâtisserie on the Luxembourg Circle with amazing macarons - Dalloyau

La Fête du Musique, walking around the Marais in the third arrondissent 

A group selfie while on the boat tour, during the Fête de la  Musique

A culinary moment for all

Resting in the shade at the Museum before meeting with former Ambassador Howard Leach 

La Croque-Madame, a classic French dish that many of us indulged in

Rendez-vous avec les Westermann/Kellers (otherwise known as the Kellermann's)

After our last dinner as a group we climbed the Eiffel Tower 

Our final gathering at the Ladurée on Champs Élysées for tea and pastries 

France has been absolutely amazing!

- Laura Edson

Bobbi's Chocolates - Photos

Laura working with Pascal in the Structural Motility Lab at the CurieInstitute

Connecting with SG Global Travelers : Jake Westerman and Susie Keller

GCIP-Paris got to spend some quality café time with Jake Westerman and Susie Keller on Saturday.   We met at the Café du Marché on rue Cler, a charming street full of outdoor markets and cafés not far from the Tour EIffel.  Jake and Susie have been traveling in Turkey and Romania in preparation for the Global Studies course Jake will be teaching - 2014:  Romania and in the works for 2015:  Turkey.  There was much to share on both sides!

Chloé, Emma and Annabel au travail !

 Chloé works hard to prepare VIP bags for the Nuxe product launch at the Hôtel Shangri-la

Emma and her colleague, Zofia on the cafeteria terrace at Fromageries Bel

Annabel prepares badges for a breakfast for Human Resources Directors organized by NLB Conseil.  A guest speaker discussed diversity in the workplace.

Bonjour!

As we begin the end of GCIP Paris 2014, we are beginning to look back on our past two weeks in Paris.

Annabel is working at NLB Conseil, an executive search and talent management company. This internship roughly involves translating documents from French to English for the company's website, organizing and stapling, and researching and documenting recruits into NLB's data-base. I had to overcome many struggles not only involving the language barrier, but also typing on a french key-board. All my colleagues in the office have been extremely welcoming and patient with all my questions. I am learning a lot already from being in a working environment and hope to continue learning more as I conclude my remaining days at NLB Conseil.

Emma is working at Fromageries Bel, a company that manages many different cheese brands across the globe. They are most well known in the United States for their brand Babybel. I've had an amazing time working at Bel! I was incredibly nervous my first day, as I am the first St. George's student to ever work there, but from the moment I entered the office, everyone was so kind. They all seemed so genuinely excited to see and welcome me. From the first day, I found myself doing various tasks for the Human Resources department. They first introduced me to the company; I found out a lot about their international brands. From just one week there, I already know so much about production, marketing, finances, and human resources at Bel. The head of Talent Management, Laurence Hollobon, has been especially welcoming. On the first day, she called me from London to tell me how excited she was to have me at Bel. Bel has never had an international intern before, so it was exciting for them to have me! Essentially, I've been helping Bel France connect with English-speaking Bel. Through translations of emails, powerpoints, packets, and press releases, I've helped make Bel a more international company. It's been an amazing experience getting to know everyone in the office and learning all about Bel!

We think we can say on behalf of the whole group, one of the best parts of this past week has been the spring sales. Everything, across the city, gets marked down up to 70% off. Everyone scored some deals at boutiques and larger stores like Au Printemps and Le Bon Marché. We experienced our first rain this weekend, but we stayed inside the stores, mostly.

Saturday morning, we saw Mr. Westermann and Ms. Keller for brunch. They are on a European tour through Turkey, Romania, France, and the UK. It was so nice seeing them and speaking some English!

One of the most amusing parts of our stay in Paris has been our stay with our host family. Joining a family of four boys almost guarantees excitement, especially during the World Cup. Our favorite is 11 year old Timothe, who is our go to for conversation. The two older boys have been busy with exams and graduation, so we haven't seen too much of them. Pierre, the 14 year old, has been away on a school trip for the past week. We have been adjusting to one toilet for 8 people and minimal WeeFee, but every night we end up laughing about our mishaps. Day by day, we become more confident walking down Rue Brunel, the side street we take walking home.

We've also learned a lot about living in Paris.
1. PDA is very acceptable. Especially on escalators.
2. Razor scooters are acceptable at any age. (think: middle aged).
3. Secondhand smoke is unavoidable.
4. Breakfast does not include more than a starch and a coffee. No eggs, no bacon.
5. If France wins a match in the World Cup, you can guarantee no sleep.
6. Always order dessert.
7. You will not ever get a huge glass of water. Nor will it be cold.
8. Bedtime for 4 year olds is about midnight.

Bon soir!

Emma and Annabel

One week down, one to go!

I'm currently one week into my internship at the Curie Institute and I have already gotten to experience a true research lab setting. The lab I work in is led by Dr. Silvia Fre and is studying Notch signaling in stem cells as a method to research the cause of cancerous development in cells. Each of the six members of the lab have their own experiments and also collaborate on approaches to prove hypotheses involving notch signaling. The majority of the concepts and techniques utilized in the lab are far too complicated for my understanding (one year of biology freshman year). However, everyone in the lab could not be more helpful in breaking everything down into more simple terms and helping me to understand the experiments I am observing and assisting on. Already I have observed experiments and dissections involving the intestine, mammary gland, and prostate of mice. The most exciting and nerve racking part of this week was helping Dr. Fre with the DNA extraction and genotyping of mice samples to decide which mice have the desired mutant genes for experiments. Although I made a pipetting error on the first day that set us back, Dr. Fre took the time to go through every step with me the next day to correct the mistake and finally get the results we needed. I am excited to see what is in store for next week!

My final PCR genotyping strip! (2nd time was the charm)

Bobbi's Chocolates

Whether it’s making copies, getting coffee, or my task of sticking addresses on envelopes to be sent out, Interns are notorious for doing the monotonous little jobs that someone has to do. Nevertheless, at Tg Communications, even the most repetitive tasks have proved interesting. The work environment itself is constantly bubbling with energy as the phones do not cease from ringing, packages are constantly being delivered and someone is always walking in heels down the small hallway connecting each office. In the middle of all of this business-chic chaos is my desk (literally in the middle, there are five desks around mine aka very intimidating). This morning I attended a breakfast at the most beautiful hotel I have ever seen, the Shangri-la. The breakfast was hosted by Tg Communications for journalists to sample Nuxe products. There were also presentations by the Nuxe directors. Later this afternoon, Hannah gave me Bobbi Brown advertisements to translate as well as an interview with Bobbi. Although I had to look up a few words such as age spots, eye shadow, etc. the translations proved to be familiar for the most part. It was also interesting to notice Tg Communication's touch on each advertisement. For example, I translated a few ads with the theme of "Bobbi's Chocolates", and an idea that Tg communications actually influenced as a campaign for Bobbi Brown products to be compared to and packaged as chocolates. TG chooses the sayings, which quotes, and what colors to make the products look the most chic in store presentations, and with specific advertising messages. Assigning addresses to envelopes for 300 of Nuxe’s most valuable costumers was also a task of mine. Nuxe products were being sent to Katya Pellegrino, Joanna Coles (the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan), Sophie Lacoste, Editor in Chief of the Figaro, and many many more people that I recognized. Representing Tg Communications, each address had to be stuck on each envelope in the utmost perfect condition, and doing so reminded me of what we are all representing. TG was representing Nuxe, Bobbi Brown, L’Oréal, OPI, Estée Lauder and a few other high end labels that I would love to get samples of. Therefore everytime someone got an envelope from Tg they would associate that work with all of those labels. Such representation brought me to recall our lunch with Former United States Ambassador Howard Leach, and how he stressed the importance of representing the US even as a stagiare or intern. Although my tried-to-be-perfect placement of address labels on each envelope will go  most likely go unnoticed, thoughts of positively representing the US remind me to continue to listen even as many of the girls speak a million miles per hour. 

Chloe

Post-First Day De-briefing

We gathered as a group after the first day for a quick de-briefing before everyone went home for dinner.  Everyone remarked at how nice their "colleagues" are and overall, it was an excellent day for all.  They'll post more specifics about their experiences, but there was talk of zebra fish, tumored mice, an urgent translation for the CEO of Fromagerie Bel and more ...

  Chloe, Annabel, Piers and Emma :  can you spot one of the iconic monuments of Paris in this photo?

Annika, Laura and Caroline plus another favorite Parisian landmark in the distance.

Working with Nemo...

After completing two whole days at the Curie Institute dealing with zebrafish, neuronal circuit developed, and a lots of other scientific practices, I think I can be treated as a flourishing scientist. Just joking, for in reality,  I am far from understanding to the full extent of what is being studied and learned. Luckily, the men and women I work with despite their various backgrounds (French, Italian, German) are very good at speaking English and teaching me what they are working on at a more basic level. Our studies at the Curie focus mainly on using the zebrafish as a model to study because despite its looks, it is quite similar and useful for understanding how the proteins affect development in the brain. In short, I have been enjoying my time at the Curie very much especially after having been able to work with fish that are such fun creatures, microscopes that use high intensity lasers to show on a computer specific layers of the fish without having to kill the fish, going to seminars about scientific discoveries that are far too advanced for me to even comprehend, and so much more. I am very happy to be working at the Curie Institute for the next two weeks and I look forward to learning much more about neuronal circuit development. As for tomorrow, we are planning on genotyping some fish through certain methods such as polymerase chain reactions as well as with the help of high tech machines. Ciao for now…

              Piers

First two days of work!!

I had my first two days of work today and yesterday, and it went well! It is pretty challenging to completely understand the tasks I must do because it is ALL in french. However, it is getting easier to understand and I am getting more comfortable with speaking. Yesterday I helped the manager of the hotel with her work including money transactions and helped the receptionist with verifying documents.  Today I helped out with the rooms and making sure they are ready for the guests to come. I had to buy chocolates and flowers for a special guest and make a heart of rose petals on the bed. I also had to translate informative papers for the guests about the hotel, the breakfast it offers, and the surrounding neighborhood. Everyone I work with is very welcoming and patient with my french. I am excited to see what the next week of work brings!

-Annika Hedlund

Week 1 - Acclimation accomplished!

As our first week comes to a close, all the students are well acclimated to the city, have been tuning up their French skills and are ready to start at their respective internships tomorrow morning!  The French is flowing and new vocabulary is added each day (i.e., échafaudage) as they make new discoveries and interact with their host families and all the French people they encounter as they go about their days.  The students have all remarked at one time or another that they have a good sense of the city and how to navigate the métro, and that they are feeling more "at home."  We have walked til all our feet hurt (a sign that we are taking full advantage of the city!)  and they now have a sense of the lay of the city and the different quartiers.  

Yesterday we had a late rendez-vous.  The students all met up and had omelettes for brunch and then some went shopping while others went to the Musée d'Orsay.  We met up to go to an exhibit on 1900 Paris at the Petit Palais, but the line was too long so we decided to return to that another day and executed Plan B.  We walked across the Pont Alexandre III - a magnificent bridge that is stunning with its gold-leaf sculptures on each of the four corners of the bridge.  From there we took the bus to St. Germain des Près, walked through the Marché St. Germain and then through the Jardin du Luxembourg.  As a reward for all the walking, we tested macarons from Dallayou -- they did not disappoint !  

Last night was the annual Fête de la Musique - a celebration of music all across France.  Music is everywhere and it ranges from seasoned musicians in some very well-staged venues to anyone who wants to set up on the street and start playing.  Chloe, Annika and Piers' host father was taking his piano down to the street to play and sing himself!  Unfortunately we were in another part of the city for dinner and the Seine River cruise and couldn't see him.  It was a fun night as we strolled through the Latin Quarter to the Marais.  We had dinner at a GCIP favorite restaurant - Chez Hanna on the famous rue des Rosiers - a Middle Eastern Restaurant that serves excellent fallafels, hummous, etc.  From there we strolled back along the Seine, crossing bridges and hearing every type of music from traditional French songs to Jazz to drums to techno.  After our picturesque cruise along the Seine, we walked into the heart of St. Germain des Près where everyone enjoyed an Amorino ice cream.  We were on the rue de Buci where there were throngs of people and the atmosphere was festive!  A huge techno dance party was in the street, so I held bags, got myself a tea and sat and enjoyed as the group joined in and danced for a while before we all headed home, fully satisfied and a bit exhausted, from another wonderful day in Paris!  

It's another glorious day in Paris!  We have a rendez-vous at métro La Muette and will go to the Musée Marmottan, a small museum in the 16th arrondissement that has one the most impressive collections of Impressionistic and Post-Impressionistic works.  In fact, it houses the largest collection of Monet's works in the world.  Post-visit I'm sure there will be some pâtisseries involved so that we can discuss what's ahead as the students transition into "work mode" tomorrow.

Le Pont Neuf

Ready for the Cruise on the Seine !

Versailles

Today we met at the Charles De Gaulle métro stop on the Champs-Élysées to start our "petit" voyage to Versailles. As we continued on the métro we encountered an issue due to a recent strike and had to get off of our train before departing. Madame deHorsey reacted quickly and formed a new plan to reach our destination. We walked to the edge of the city and took a cab to Versailles. Once we arrived, we first explored the vast and beautiful gardens surrounding the Château. We stopped for a quick lunch at La Flottille café before renting bicycles. We rode through the gardens and took in the magnificent views. After completing a full tour of the gardens around the Grand Canal on our bikes, we visited the Petit Trianon, a private residence used as a getaway from the chaos of the Château. A short walk brought us to the estate of Marie Antoinette which was very picturesque and showed her appreciation for nature. After returning our bikes, we stopped for a much deserved ice cream break before heading over the main Château. We started with a brief history of the palace and then proceeded to the king and queen's quarters and the Hall of Mirrors (where the treaty of Versailles was signed). After a long day we headed back to the city, returning to our host families for a parisian dinner and rest for another day of adventure à Paris!