my brush with celebrity

So let me tell you about how I met Carla Bruni and Eve Ensler...

Monday afternoon I got a call from my Italian coworker, Ginevra, asking if I would be available tuesday evening after work. There was apparently going to be some sort of meeting about the work NPNS does with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and all the interns were invited. And there would probably be stuff to eat. Eager for free food, I said I'd be there.

So yesterday I go into work. All is cool. I spend the day working on the grant proposal for a women's rights project in Guinea. In the afternoon one of the other interns mentions that they think Carla Bruni, the first lady of France, will be at the event. I get excited. I'm also invited by my boss, Mar, to another meeting about the Congo that will be happening at the NPNS office wednesday evening. Ever polite and eager for new experiences, I oblige. Anyway, the evening draws closer, and our official time at the office ends. Pauline, Ginevra and I grab a quick dinner and head to the museum where the event is being held. As we get closer, I find out the Rama Yade, the French secretary of state for human rights, will be acting as host for the event, and that Eve Ensler would be there. As many of my friends know quite well, Eve Ensler is the author of the Vagina Monologues. So I'm thinking this is freaking sweet and I'm loving my job right about now.

Well, we get to the museum, walk past Rama Yade on our way into the building, then slip past Eve Ensler on our way up the staircase (whispering to each other, "Was that...?" "Yeah! I think so!") and into the theatre where the presentation is happening. After a quick introduction by Rama, Eve comes on stage with Carla Bruni. The three proceed to discuss the situation in the Congo -- war, mass raping of women, unspeakable horrors -- and then Eve talks about the project that her organization, V-Day, is working on to help the Congolese women.  Next, they screen the brand new V-Day movie about the Congo. And finally, several other important people in charge of human rights organizations (including Sihem Habchi, présidente of NPNS) take the stage for a round-table discussion on the topic. This is all very interesting stuff, and really eye-opening.

After the presentation, the audience is invited to go back out into the art gallery to enjoy a "cocktail dînatoire" (just a fancy way of saying "cocktail buffet" -- but with French wine and real hors d'oeuvres). This would be an appropriate place to mention that I felt entirely out of place during this whole event. Apparently it was a kind of private event, only meant for leaders of NGOs, business people, and members of the press. Everyone was wearing nice suits and sensible dresses. I was wearing jeans and a checkered shirt. I was obviously only there because of my NPNS connections.

Anyway, the whole reason NPNS was at the event is because we're joining up with V-Day's campaign in the Congo to raise awareness and help the women suffering over there. Which is why the second meeting -- this evening -- took place. Eve Ensler, along with her V-Day team, and other representatives from several Congo-based NGOs came to the NPNS office for a planning meeting. Again, all us interns were there, and we got to sit at the big table with everyone else. So I was literally across the table from Eve the whole time. The meeting itself was interesting, but it was really just logistical mumbo-jumbo. But it was still an awesome experience. Afterwards, we had our own small NPNS-style refreshment buffet: Coke, orange soda, chips and assorted nuts. Classy classy.

(That's Eve on the far left)

Soooo... yeah. I just thought that was pretty dang cool. These past two evenings have made me realize how connected and truly influential Ni Putes Ni Soumises really is. And how lucky I am that I get to work with them while I'm here. On a side-note: I'm pretty sure my French accent is way better than Eve Ensler's... just saying.

So click here if you want to learn more about the V-Day campaign, and here for some background on the atrocities they're fighting against in the DRC. Please. And then tell your friends about it.

Oh, and I almost forgot : I'm heading down to Bordeaux bright and early tomorrow morning to visit my friends Elizabeth and Colin (who both used to go to DePaul with me) for a few days. They've been studying down there in wine country this school year, and I've been wanting to visit them for a long time now. It will be nice to see some old familiar faces. I'll be back sunday afternoon, so let you know how the trip goes.

Happy Travels

-- Cody

"Laser"

So, remember that "laser-light show" from Chantilly I mentioned in my last post? Were you intrigued? Well, you're in luck. I remembered today that I took a video of it.

Prepare to be amazed...

spring has sprung

[19 mars 2009]

Things I have learned so far this spring :

1. Sun-soaked parisian boulevards may rival Kansas prairies in beauty.

2. Un pez no es una persona. Un pez es un animal.

3. Nothing ruins a deliciously plump clementine faster than biting into it and finding out it has seeds.

4. Nothing ruins a sweet, rose-colored Fuji apple faster than slicing it open and finding out it is completely rotten. [Insert philosophical meanderings about the shallowness of beauty here.]

5. Un sombrero no es un alimento. No es un tipo de comida.

6. The French absolutely despise jello. Their hatred for the jiggly stuff will not be swayed.

7. The boulangerie down the street from my apartment makes the best pain au chocolat in the history of France.

8. It doesn't matter how long I stay in Paris -- I will always love winding my way through the museums and strolling through the city's parks.

[Side note: The vast majority of that list is in some way related to food. I may have to loosen my belt if the spring continues in this way...]

Anyway... it's been a while, my darling internet. How have you been? I've missed you dearly. I hope you're not too sore about my apparent neglect for your interest in my life. Not that my life is all that interesting. Honestly, this semester has been nothing but class, work, and long stretches of free time. I have gone on one trip with IES to see a castle, but that's about it.

Ok, now I'm making it sound like my life is boring here. Which it isn't. My internship has continued to be fun and varied, and I'm starting to become good friends with the fellow interns at the office. It's funny: I don't really remember a single day last semester when I was truly excited to go to work. It was all pretty monotonous. But this spring has been so much better. The projects I've worked on seem like they'll actually be useful for me in the future, such as writing grant proposals (in English and French), working on press releases, (successfully) interpreting for victims of violence who don't speak any French, and talking talking talking to random strangers to invite them to NPNS events. It actually seems like I'm making a difference for the association, and not just taking up space. This is the kind of work I was hoping to do when I started in the fall. The kind of work that just might translate into a real job when I graduate and decide what I want to do with my life. I'm starting to feel really lucky to have this opportunity.

Speaking of things I've been starting to feel lately: It's totally dawned on me that my time is tick tick ticking away. As I'm writing this, I only have two months left in Paris, give or take a couple days. TWO MONTHS... that's nothing. I feel like I've been here for so long, and I'm ready to go home in so many ways, but I know I'm going to miss it like crazy. I'm going to miss the bakeries and crêpe stands. I'm going to miss being so close to so many world-famous landmarks. I'm going to miss the seemingly thousands of museums spread throughout the city. But knowing that this is all temporary -- and having known that from the start -- has helped me to keep my head on straight and appreciate this adventure. So I'm going to take these last two months and live them for all they're worth...

Before I go, here are some quick highlights from the past month or so:

Chantilly : A few weeks back I went on an IES excursion to the Château in Chantilly, a little town just a couple hours from Paris. Despite what most people said about the trip, I had a great time. The château is quite impressive on the outside, but the inside is really more like an art gallery than what you'd typically expect from a castle of this kind. Seriously, it's right up there with the Louvre. Because of that, though, the tour we got was verrry long, and I think our guide could tell the everyone was spacing out. After the tour, we sat down for lunch in the château's restaurant (delicious), then headed over to a museum that houses all the equipment to pump water to the castle's fountains. This is where it got worse: Half the tour was centered around what used to serve as the laundromat for nobles living in Chantilly. Seriously. An 18th century laundromat. But the tour ended well with a giant water wheel and an awesomely bad laser-light and techno music show. Well done, Chantilly.

Au Musée : I've been making near-weekly visits to art galleries this semester with my History of Modern Art class. It's been awesome. We study different movements of modern art, along with their important artists, then go to museums to look at the works first hand. I definitely couldn't do something like this in Kansas. It's a real treat. My favorite museum so far has been the Musée Gustave Moreau. Moreau was a key figure of the Symbolism movement, and before he died he decided to turn his home and workshop into his very own museum. The museum is jam packed with his paintings, along with cabinets full of sketches and figure studies, and has also preserved his living spaces. So you can see both sides of Moreau -- the man and the artist. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

An International Fiesta : Last weekend I took Ellen to a house-warming party at the apartment of one of my coworkers, Pauline. It was truly an international experience. Pauline is French, but she has a Canadian boyfriend, whom she met while studying abroad in Norway. Canadian boyfriend now lives and studies in Belgium, where he became friends with a guy from Chicago (who happened to do his undergrad studies at DePaul), and who he brought to the party as well. One of Pauline's roommates is also Canadian, but he lives in the apartment with his Chilean girlfriend. There were also two friends from Mexico and one from Colombia (I think...?) at the party, but I don't remember how they're involved. And a slew Pauline's French friends were there as well. It was exhausting keeping this all straight and remembering when I could and could not speak French, but I had a great time.

Georgia Preach : This week is the "Semaine du Marais Chrétien" (the week of Christianity in the Marais district), so there have been lots of free concerts, expositions, and conferences going on. I decided to check out a concert at a nearby church this past Sunday. I saw a choir who sang traditional polyphonic chants and folk songs from Georgia (the eastern European country, not the state). This sacred Georgian music is well-known for its very tight harmonies and generally melancholic tone. It's beautiful, but haunting and sad at the same time -- even if the content of the song is happy. There was one song that is traditionally sung after the birth of a child, but you might mistake it for a funeral ballad if you're not careful. I walked away from the concert with a very cool melody in my head that I wanted to use in a song I've been working on, but it slipped out my ear while I wasn't paying attention...

St. Pat's at the Park : After work on Tuesday my fellow interns, Pauline and Ginevra (an Italian), and I decided to celebrate St. Patrick's day in a nearby park. So we stopped into Monoprix to grab some Guinness, apple-stuffed beignets, and dark chocolate Petit Ecolier cookies. The park we went to, the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, is absolutely beautiful. It's a huge mass of rolling hills, winding paths, and waterfalls -- all man-made, by the way -- on the north side of Paris. I've been wanting to go there for a while, so I was pumped when Pauline suggested it. Once there, we picked a spot on a hillside facing the mountain-top temple and the setting sun. Just before dusk, I looked up at what I though were oddly-shaped birds, but I soon realized they were bats. So with the flock of chauve-souris circling above our heads, we drank to St. Pat and shared stories about home. What an evening.

Happy Travels

-- Cody

{Also: Look up there on the left! It's my new feature, "Quoi de Neuf? the micro-blog". Check it out to follow me on Twitter and get a more regular peek into my life in Paris.}