Un peu de calendrier

Alright, so here is a little time-line of my summer for those interested.

End April: Back home (SVK) from Paris.
May-July: Intern at the Slovak Atlantic Commission in Bratislava. Holler at me if you're anywhere near Prague, Vienna or Budapest. Gotta love Central Europe and its miniature distances :)
Mid-June: My first business trip (ever!) to Belgrade and Nis in Serbia where we're organizing a Serbian-Slovak business forum, a security seminar and visiting the Cepotina military base.
Beg. July - beg. August: Angola. More info to follow.
August 16: The U.S. of A. after a year. NYC first, then down to good ol' North Carolina.
August 20: End of the summer- start of the senior year. Back to (joyful) reality!

Some Parisian peculiarities.

Here is a random little assortment of some strange/interesting/bizarre things I got to snap while roaming around town. They are not the best quality, for which I apologize, but they serve to me as reminders of that particular look/sound/smell I can only find in Paris.

 

My friend Patricia babysits for one rich family in the 17th arrondissement near l'Arc de Triomphe. This is the room of their 4-year-old son. (Up on the wall hangs the boy's great-great-grand uncle)

 

"The first site of extra-marital encounters designed by the women. 1st in France, 1st in Europe, 1s in the world." These posters have been advertising the website for a few months now. It never ceases to amaze me how creative the human perversion can get. As a child of parents who divorced because of an "extra-marital encounter", I am definitely not flattered by this ground-breaking website.

The dogs form an inseparable part of the Paris' aura. They even have their own traffic signs.

You can buy a bottle of pure French perfume extract for a mere 3000 euros at Galleries Lafayette. Paris has definitely introduced me to a new concept of price tags.

A faithful companion of every metro musician. A stereo and a collection cup attached to an adapted shopping "caddie". An efficient way to accompany your musical instrument while on board.

This is a common sight in the quarters around Paris, and especially on the suburbs where there is a large African immigrant/heritage community. Kids like these attend French schools in "French" clothes, and walk around with their moms on weekends in their wrappers. Of course, this doesn't go for all Africans living in Paris, and people from other parts of the world wear their ethnic clothes as well. I just love the ease with which people of different origins wear what represents their culture.

Library mode Mali style

I'm sitting in the Sciences Po library, working on a resume of Aoua Keita's autobiography Femme d'Afrique. Since most of the book takes place in the French Sudan (what is now Mali), to have it a bit more fun I am listening to this YouTube mix of the music of Mali:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7DXT4wubX4&list=RD02WnjcHNnPLeo

Gotta love interactive work ;)