anyway, only three big things have taken place in the week or so that i haven't written:
1) i started my internship at Ni Putes Ni Soumises.
2) i took a trip to normandy (to which i will devote an entire post in the near future. for now, let's just say it was incredible)
3) i saw a couple familiar faces, if only for a few hours.
ok. so my internship. it's awesome. i explained in an earlier post that NPNS is an activist group that works to counter violence against women and inequality between the sexes. they host a lot of conferences, organize marches, launch ad campaigns, etc. to get their message out. the organization is made up of two networks: one within france, the other international. i'm working for Mar Merita in the international network. mainly because i'm an international intern who happens to speak english.
after watching a short video and being introduced to the NPNS staff on my first day, i got my first assignment. Mar told me about a new network that NPNS is in the process of organizing for women throughout the mediterranean basin (i.e. north africa, the middle east, and parts of southern europe). because of the civil rights issues and sexual inequality throughout the region, NPNS is really serious about creating a strong organization to ameliorate the situation. Mar was contacted by a group in portugal that wanted more information on this new network. this is where i come in: my job was to translate the pamphlet of info about the network from french to english, so the portuguese group would be able to read it. which is a pretty difficult task. but i was up to it, so i took it head on. i spent the remainder of my first day, and about half of my second day finishing up the translation. in the end, i was really proud of it. i mean, my work is going to help create an organization to fight for women's rights on an international level. how cool is that? for the rest of my second day, i scoured the internets for cheap flights from islamabad to paris (not for me -- for a couple people coming to a NPNS conference next month), and started assembling some fiches d'état for Mar. i have to gather political and societal information on several mediterranean countries, so she can stay up to date on the status of women around the region. pretty interesting stuff, non?
as for those "familiar faces" i mentioned earlier, i was visited by a couple friends from the states this weekend, after i returned from normandy. brianna (who's studying in belgium this fall) and dustin (who's studying in austria) spent a romantic weekend together in paris. i wasn't able to meet up with them until sunday night, when we planned to have a picnic dinner in the luxembourg gardens. but alas: the supermarkets and the gardens themselves were closed, as it was a sunday night. while they dined on chinese take-out, and i on a baguette, we strolled around the montparnasse district, close to my school. we stopped for some amazing gelato, then headed back to our respective sleeping quarters. it was a short visit, but much-needed. it was really nice talking to people i really know, and who i feel close to. it was refreshing. which makes me really excited to see my other friends throughout europe this year. and i'm especially excited for spring semester, when even more depaul kids will be studying with me at IES. woot.
i think that's all for now. i've got to get to my homework... bof. like i said, look out for my normandy post coming up very soon.
Reason to Love It : living so close to amazing places like normandy. seriously awesome. traveling in europe is incredible.
Reason to Leave It : my crappy european phone.
Happy Travels
-- Cody
No comments:
Post a Comment