La vie de la nuit

I'm not sure if that's how you really say "nightlife" in French, but we had a little taste of it hier soir... and it was pretty fun. A group of us étudiants accompanied Delphine, our "Social Coordinator," to a private party at 'Feeling Tropical,' a discothèque on the outskirts of town. (Yeah, the name is actually in English, young French people love our language... it's trendy or something.) The evening was a celebration for a group of DJs or mixmasters or... not really sure what to call them... their name was C2C, and they just won the DMX award in London for a 6 minute mix they put together. They played it three times... but it was pretty good... Sadly, French people don't dance much. I heard they do so pretty poorly so maybe they've just decided, as a culture, not to do that. :)

I know I couldn't listen to music like that and not move, but that's me. Drinks are expensive at bars in France because they're so heavily taxed. Well, good, I won't be tempted to waste my budget on them! Anyway, it was a fun evening. I think my host mom was worried about my social life, or lack thereof, because when I told her I'd be out late she said, "Oh, that's wonderful" (or the French equivalent). I thought that was kind of funny.

Before that, IES went as a group to the regional capitol building, the equivalent I guess of a state capitol back home. We got to sit where the élu, or elected, sit in this big chamber and hear about regional politics. Plus the président of the region (sort of like a governor, I guess) gave a speech about September 11 and Franco-American relations, which was interesting, and then we got asperatifs and petitfours, that is, drinks and hors d'oeuvres. They were REALLY good, champagne and wine to drink and scrumptious finger food - tiny chicken legs, little blue cheese sandwiches, shrimp and brie in little pie crusts, bite-size sausage in crêpes, and more. Then desserts - minute pies with kiwi and banana or cherry filling, chocolate eclaires, peanut butter cream puffs (surprisingly good)... okay, I could go on and on. Let's just say the French government knows how to throw a welcome party for foreign students!

The best part is, M. de Berrenger, director of IES, is trying to get me an internship there. I know, I know, French politics are not exactly compatible with my conservative viewpoint, but there's something to the idea of learning how the other side thinks. Plus France is in the middle of a trend of privatization, de-bureaucratization, etc. The French people are fed up with many aspects of their system. So it would be interesting to watch those changes in action... But I'm not getting my hopes up too high because M. de B. said it will be difficult to find me a post there. On the other hand, he said he can practically guarantee that he can find me a law internship if this doesn't work out. So I'm really excited about all that.

Who knows how I'm going to entertain myself this weekend. Classes haven't started, so no homework. The whole of Europe stretches before me like a blank canvas... A little intimidating, but so many possibilities!