Endings (Part 2)

It was my last day at work today. After 9 months, my internship is finally over. I've been really lucky to have done this internship as I've had a view of a large, international company, from its headquarters, that I wouldn't have got anywhere else. I've worked on a lot of different topics and gained a hell of a lot of experience which I'll be able to take with me and hopefully apply to other positions.
As it was my last day, there was a "Pot de Départ" with a some champagne and nibbles. My boss made a little speech and I was actually quite touched, both by what he said and comments other people made. He went over the fact that I'd worked on a lot of different things - including taking minutes in meetings which he admitted to having never validated (a bit of a running joke between me and my replacement) - and mentioned how people had been impressed that I always spoke French (the official company language is English). Other comments people made were that I have always been cheerful and always given time and been willing to help. I think that one of my biggest faults is that I don't tend to say "no" to people if they ask for help with something, but it was really nice that people had noticed that I made time for them.
I thanked them all for having welcomed me into the group and for having put up with me for 9 months and said how much I'd enjoyed working on so many different topics.
An envelope had been passed round and my boss's secretary, who I've worked with quite a lot and helped with her English, had been out to get a few presents. I got a couple of company souvenirs (note block and laptop travel kit: mouse, cable adapters,...), quite a lot of FNAC (similar to Virgin Megastores) vouchers, and a hamper full of paté, fois gras, jam, a half bottle of wine, and some sweet bits.
I ended up not leaving until about 6:30. Despite it being my last day, and although I didn't really have any reason to stay that long, it took quite a while for me to compose a goodbye email to people and say final goodbyes etc. Perhaps subconsciously I didn't want to leave; I've spent the best part of a year there and got to know the people. It feel's strange in a way that I probably won't see them again, and I'm dissappointed that I didn't get a chance to get a photo of the team, but I'll send them updates every so often to let them know how I'm doing.

So, that's it, the end of an era. I am officially a tourist now. I'll leave Paris for good in about 15 days and that really will be the end. This is a slightly odd moment in life in some ways. This year has been a chapter of my life that hasn't really had to much to do with the rest of it. I've made completely new friends, spoken a different language, worked rather than studied and attempted to find my place in a different culture.
When I go back to uni that will be a beginning of an end. I'm going to have to start again with fresher's week and making new friends (most of mine will have left when I return) yet at the same time it will be the final year of my degree. Well, I think I've over used the whole "beginnings and endings" thing a bit now.

Next week, from Sunday (I'll be sleeping tomorrow), I've got to try and visit all of Paris. Despite being here for so long I've done neither the Arc de Triomphe nor the Eiffel Tower. There's a new museum I might go and see on Sunday if it's not packed. If not then I'll go to the Grand or Petit Palais. At some point I've also got to go to the Palais de Versailles, the Cité des Sciences et Industrie and visit the quarters of Paris I've hardly stepped foot in.

@+

Endings (Part 1)

So, this is my last week at work, my friends (English ones) have pretty much all left and from next week I am officially a tourist.
It's quite sad and hasn't really hit me that everyone's gone yet. I've made some really great friends here who I am going to make sure I stay in touch with. I know this is something that everyone says but this time I will. Really.
The last few days crept up very quickly so we didn't have one big goodbye with everyone there, but instead we had a few smaller ones. I ended up going out every night except Friday last week and, with the Fête de la Musique on Wednesday night I was pretty tired.
La Fête de la Musique is a national festival on 21st June for which concerts are held all over the country. Most concerts are free and the artists range from big names to unknowns and the music ranges from Jazz to Classical to Indie Rock. Despite the fact that there was a big concert at La Defense (French Pop music) I went to Bibliothèque François Mitterand to an Indie/Rock concert on the recommendation/invitation of a friend. I only heard 2 sets but the 2nd of them was Razorlight! Despite the rain and the fact that we had to walk from Pont de Neuilly to La Defense (the station had been closed due to the number of people) it was an excellent evening.

Sunday saw the start of the Fête du Cinema. This lasts until Tuesday evening and, once you've purchased one full price ticket, all further tickets at any cinema are just €2.
On Sunday I met up with the stagiaire who used to work with me. We had brunch at Breakfast in America, a very popular American style diner, before going to the new cinema at La Defense to watch "Paris, Je t'aime". Neither of us knew what this film was about but had seen plenty of photos about. It turned out to be a series of short films/clips about people in Paris. They were mainly romantically themed but it was good and the short films were well integrated together.
Tonight I went to see "Dans le Peau de Jacques Chirac". This was also very good and also quite unusual. It was made entirely from Archive footage of Jacques Chirac and is a satirical comedy of his life. There is an impersonator doing a voice-over to tell the story and tie it all together. It was very well made and had the whole audience laughing at times.

Well, it's late but I've still got quite a lot more to say so I'll stop this for the moment and pick it up again tomorrow.

La Mentalité Française

My replacement told me the other day that the French work at 100% during the week.....
20% Monday, 20% Tuesday, 20% Wednesday,........

Another quote, which doesn't translate too well:

Le poésie, c'est comme la merde. Ca ne s'explique pas, ça se sent.

Le Quart d'Heure Francais

So, there was another strike today. It was an RATP (Paris transport network) strike over the fact that the RATP want to extend the running time of the metro and RER (suburban lines) at night by 15 minutes. As usual, the strike wasn't as bad as everyone thought, it was just more crowded as people panicked about whether there would be any trains.
This seems to be a pretty petty reason to strike in my view, but it's not the most stupid. Apart from the homeless man going on hunger strike to raise awareness for the fact that homeless people are forgotten about once winter is over, and the politician going on hunger strike because a Chinese company wanted to close a factory near him (or at least that's the gist of the story that I caught), I think a strong competitor for "Most Stupid Reason To Strike" were the staff at a municipal swimming pool who went on strike over working conditions (fair enough) and THE FACT THAT CHLORINE IS USED IN THE WATER (what??!?!?!!).
Ah well, this is France.

Normally I aim to leave my apartment at 8:15 am. I wasn't too pleased to wake up this morning at 8:18 am. Thankfully, my replacement has taught me about the "quart d'heure francais". In other words, as long as you arrive within 15 minutes of the time arranged, you're on time.

Apart from no longer being able to remember major parts of the English Language, I think the "quart d'heure francais" is going to be one of my main problems on returning to the UK.

A Big Surprise

The weekend of the 24th-28th May I went back home. We had planned to have a barbeque for my Birthday on the Saturday as I wasn't home on the actual day. I flew home with Air France as the...wait a minute...."weekend"...."24th-28th"...."Surely that's not right" you're thinking.
Yes, I can confirm, the French are impressively lazy. Not only do they have more Bank Holidays than we do in the UK but they also have "ponts" (bridges). This means that when a Bank Holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday they take the Monday or Friday off too. I've been told that if it falls on a Wednesday they don't just take the week off but to be honest it wouldn't surprise me.
So, as I was saying, I took the plane back as the Eurostar would've cost over 300€ just for the return ticket. It was good flying and we even got a free sandwhich and drink which surprised me (you can tell I'm used to flying low-cost).

When I got home I had an even bigger surprise. For my birthday my (wonderful) parents bought me...well...pictures speak louder than words:


It's bright Orange ("a proper Beetle colour" as a friend said) and, for 1970, is in great condition. I've put some more photos on my flickr page here.
The "barbeque" was great although, due to the weather it wasn't a barbeque. Still it was nice to see everyone and I owe a(nother) thankyou to Mum and Dad for organising, cooking, inviting etc.

So, I'm back in Paris now on the final stint until I finish on June 30th. Work is going quite well and it's definitely more fun working with someone (my replacement has arrived and apparently I'm training him although sometimes I just feel like I'm pointing out all the problems he's going to have). To be honest I'm looking forward to the end though. I've had a great time here in Paris but I want to be getting back now. I know I haven't visited as many things as I should have, and I'll do that in the fortnight I'm here once I've finished working, but I'm not sure Paris is everything people expect of it. I think I've been here so long that it's just become "home".
I have enjoyed working, and I've learnt a lot about many different things. I've learnt more about people, communication and "work" than I have about IT but it's definitely been a valuable experience. Although my French has improved tenfold, unfortunately my English has deteriorated and I often find I can't remember a word or can't think how to put a sentence together. So, if I talk gibberish to you when I get back, just give me time to work out which language I should be using.
I think the thing I'll miss most about my time here are the friends I've made. Admittedly they're nearly all English and it's probably related to the fact that we're all "in the same boat" but I feel closer to them than I have to many people I've known. I am a little dissappointed not to have made that many French friends but I feel pretty sure that I'll stay in touch with those I do know. After all, it's an easy way to get free accommodation ;-)

Ok, well I'll finish for now as I may have a meeting at 8:00am tomorrow (I'll be glad when they're over with!).

21

It was my 21st Birthday yesterday. I'm officially old!

To celebrate I went out with 7 friends to a French restuarant near Place Monge, the student quarter. I had a great time and had a lovely meal.
I figured I'd better try the "escargots" for starters - I'd chosen a French restaurant for the cuisine after all. They were quite nice but to be honest there isn't really anything to them. They are quite small and you only really taste the sauce. The worst part was trying to eat them. I was given something resembling a dentist's tool to hold them (kind of a big, sprung pair of tweezers) and a little fork. The snails were followed up with roast lamb and then a "Mariage de chocolat". Delicious!

So, what's been happening the past month? Well, recently I've been (attempting) to write my work placement report. I've finally got it finished and sent off - it's quite a relief to have it out the way.
In other news my replacement has arrived. I don't actually finish until the end of June so it was a bit of a surprise to find that someone would be arriving so soon. 4 interviews were scheduled and so I had to explain what the new intern would be doing. Only 2 interviews were actually held, the first candidate phoned up saying that he had several other positions but really wanted this one and asked to have a response that day. He got the response - a Yes. Sounds like a good tactic to get a job. He's a nice guy and its good to be working with someone rather than just on my own. It's quite funny to watch his reaction when I tell him about how somethings gone wrong or how its not unusual to have to remind CIOs to send documents you asked for weeks ago.

Good weather, weekends and Dinosaurs

Well, I'm really beginning to enjoy my weekends. Work may not be thrilling but I've done a bit more sight seeing and taken plenty of photos.
Recently I've been to Invalides (Napolean's tomb, a hospital for war injured, war museum,...) Notre Dame (up the towers, I'd already been inside), the Louvre and a Country house but that turned out to be closed.
I've put photos up on my flickr page www.flickr.com/photos/aross and I've also bought a subscription so I can upload more.

The view from Notre Dame towers is excellent. I've even got a photo of an anti-CPE protest as it went past. The weather has been excellent most weekends (although it's bucketed it down this afternoon).

I've also been to the cinema a few times. I went to see "Firewall" with a friend from work a couple of weeks ago. It was quite good but I was amazed at how old Harrison Ford looks. But then I guess we tend to immortalize actors in the characters they play so when I think of Harrison Ford I expect to see Indiana Jones.
I'm not just watching American films though. I've seen more French films here than American ones. The latest film I've seen is called Jean-Philippe. It's about a man (Fabrice) who is a massive fan of Johnny Hallyday (French rock superstar). One night he is walking home drunk from a bar and starts singing Johnny Hallyday songs. He wakes someone up who shouts at Fabrice from his window and tells him to shut up. When he doesn't stop singing, the man comes outside and knocks him out. Fabrice then wakes up in hospital. Things all seem normal until he gets home and goes to the room in his house in which he had his collection of Johnny Hallyday memorabilia and finds.....it is full of a collection of beer memorabilia. It turns out that Fabrice has woken up in a different reality - one in which Johnny Hallyday never became a superstar. Fabrice then sets out to find Jean-Philippe Smet (Johnny Hallyday's real name) and turn him into a superstar.
It was quite a good film. A bit cheesy at times but the dinosaur moment didn't come until late into the film and they weren't too big.

Ah, yes, I should probably explain what I mean by "the dinosaur moment". After I'd seen "Combien tu m'aimes?" and "Angel-A" i noticed that towards the end of French films they tend to go a bit strange. There's a moment when things turn and become a bit odd. In Angel-A for example it was when the lead female character (I've forgotten her name) grew Angel wings and flew off towards heaven with the lead male clinging onto her legs. Since then I've always asked myself at what moment the dinosaurs will arrive in the film. The dinosaur moment is therefore the moment when things go a bit strange. I have a theory as to why this happens - it all comes down to money. Obviously all films have a budget, however I reckon with french films the producers are quite conservative with it at the start of the film. As they near the end they suddenly realise "Wow, look at all this money we've got left. Ok, I've got a great idea. I know this is a romantic comedy but how about we have some 50ft tall robots rampage through the city?!?" and they end up spending the leftover budget on stupid effects or twists in the story.

I'm going to see another film tonight called "La Doublure" - Hopefully there won't be too many dinosaurs!

The National Tantrum

Whoops! It's almost a month since I updated this. Unfortunately that means I will have forgotten plenty of details and that I'm going to have to write several posts as I try and recount what I've been up to and in order not to bore you in one go.

Well, where do I start? First thing, the riots are over. The government eventually backed down and has withdrawn the CPE (contrat premier embauche - first employment contract) following the national tantrum led by the students. This is good news for my English friends over here as this means the universities are finally open again (although there's been the Easter holday for the past 2 weeks) so they can get back to studying for their degrees. Unfortunately due to the university closure, they will now have to have lectures on Saturdays to catch up on all the lectures they've missed.
Although the CPE has still been withdrawn, there are still a few die-hard commuists.... *ahem* protestors who are still trying to get the entire loi des égailités des chances (the law which the CPE was a part of) withdrawn. There are also a couple of people protesting about the CNE (which seemed to be forgotten about). The CNE is basically the same as the CPE but only for companies with 20 or fewer employees.
I am quite amazed at the protests here. The students went on strike over the CPE, some journalists have gone on strike, I think because their paper was being taken over (or something like that), and there's also a homeless man who has gone on hunger strike to raise awareness of how everyone forgets about the homeless after winter. Now, this just seems stupid to me as students, journalists and the homeless are all people who do no work anyway so I'm not sure how they can strike.
Speaking of hunger strikes there is also a politician who has gone on hunger strike. From what I gather, a factory owned by a chinese company was due to close in his reagion. Obviously this would be bad as many jobs would disappear - so, he went on hunger strike and now the chinese company has decided that it probably wouldn't be good if he died and they'd better keep it open.
I'm going to check up about that last point as I may not have the complete story. If I'm wrong I'll update this.

The stikes/manifestations against the CPE have been quite interesting to watch. It's difficult for me to decide if it's "democracy in action" or a national tantrum. I've seen Jacques Chirac support the Prime Minister one week, and then seen the government back down and remove the law. In short, Dominique de Villepin has lost all hope he may have had of becoming the next President.

Perhaps we just put up with too much in the UK but it has seemed very week of the French government to have backed down on this issue. In my view, a firm hand was needed to do something to encourage emplyers to create jobs. To me, the 2 year period in which you could be fired for no reason seemed a bit too long but it would've allowed employers greater flexibility to employ people for short periods.
I'm expecting more protests in September when the students protesting this Spring have finished uni, been on their month long holiday (France basically closes for August) and then find they can't get jobs in September.

I can't say I'd be proud to live in a country where the government will roll over if you have a tantrum because you don't like a law which has been introduced in your best interests.

I predict a riot

Mardi Noir - Black Tuesday - The End of Days

So there's been a bit of trouble surrounding the CPE recently. Ok, so perhaps it's a bit more than "a bit of trouble". For those of you that don't know, the CPE is a new contract that the French government has introduced to try and reduce the ridiculously high youth unemployment rate.
The main issue with the contract is that for up to 2 years there is pretty much no job security. There is what is effectively a really long trial period in which time the employer can fire you at will. The idea being that employers will be more willing to create positions if they are not fearful of firing people when they are no longer necessary. Labour laws are particularly difficult in France and may people who get fired take legal action against their ex-employer.
The situation has been made worse by the fact that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin did not negotiate the terms of the law with social partners and the law was passed in the evening during the holidays (when everyone was skiing and subsequently not there to protest).

So, people have been up in arms trying to get the law withdrawn and for the past few weeks there are been several "manifestations". Universities have been closed and blockaded - most of the people protesting against the law are students (but not just from universities, some are from colleges). In fact, most of my friends have been off uni for over 3 weeks and are, understandably, getting a bit worried about their work and the summer exams.

Today there was a general strike. From the newspapers (well, Metro) and people I know it seemd like this would be really big. This time it wouldn't just be students, but the Post Office, the RATP and SNCF public transport workers, and anyone else.
To be on the safe side, so I wouldn't miss the meeting I was meant to have at 8am (which didn't happen in the morning) I went to work by bike this morning. I was a little annoyed to read www.lemonde.fr at lunch to find that 70% of the public transport system, including my bus route, was running.
Anyhow, the world didn't come to a stop. I don't know if anything happened during the day on the March from Place d'Italie but by the time I got home (after running from my apartment to La Defense to pick up my dry cleaning having just cycled home) there was some good rioting on TV. The manifestations have attracted unemployed youths from the banlieues (suburbs) and they, along with the Paris youths were making a bit of trouble at Place de la Republique. I wasn't there but, thanks to Sky News I do have some interesting pictures to show you.
After a few hours and a fair bit of tear gas and use of the water cannon, the CRS (French Riot Police who are notoriously violent) managed to disperse the crowds.

So, as you can see, it's all fun in Paris!

The week

I was really tired for most of the week. Going to bed late on Sunday didn't help and things just built from there.
On Tuesday we had another of our big monthly meetings. This time it wasn't held at the office where I work but was on another site to the north of La Defense. It's a big site in 4 parts and is easier to get to than where I work.
I left work at about 17:30 and went home, picked up my camera, and went out again to try and get some pictures of Paris as the sun was setting. By the time I got to Place de la Concorde it had already set but I managed to get a couple of the obelisk and the Eiffel Tower lit up.


Whilst I was there about 8 police vans went past. They were off to see off some more people protesting about the CPE (I'll write about this soon - probably this weekend as there may be a general strike next Tuesday).
Afterwards I went to a place called "The 5th". It was quite a good place - beer was €3.50 a pint which is the cheapest I've seen it.
The next day I was so tired at work. So I did the obvious thing and went to a French friend's place for pasta. A few of us got together as one of the girls from work has left (she's finished her internship).

Despite being tiring, the week went pretty quickly and Thursday evening was spent packing ready to go back to England.

It neither rains nor pours

It's amazing how much we take things for granted. You never realise it until you're made to go without something. When I first arrived in Paris I bought bottled water. Not because the water's not safe to drink or anything but it just kind of became a habit. Anyhow, not too long ago I stopped buying bottles. Big mistake! ..........

Friday night I went to "Night Fever". It was at Elysee Montmartre again (like the rock night was) but this was a disco night. Lots of 80's music. I'm not sure I'd have chosen to go but the guy down the corridor was trying to convince us all to go and I thought it might be a laugh.
Anyhow, in the end only me and the guy on my corridor went. It wasn't bad but it would have been better if more people had come. The music was pretty good and the DJ was as good as at the rock night.

Saturday fairly uneventful - sleep, shopping, haricut - until the evening that is....
So, back to the water. I went to get a drink Saturday evening and found that I had no water. Not a drop. Not from the kitchen taps, the shower or even the toilet. I went down to ask what was up and it turned out that a pipe had broken in the underground car park. Although the whole residence wasn't affected, a column of apartments - mine included - had no water.
I guess it was too much to expect something to be done quickly, in France, on a Sunday. I ended up filling up some bowls at a friends' and on Sunday I attempted to have a shower in one of the apartments they'd set aside for drought ridden people. I say "attempted" as, although they were kind enough to provide apartments with water, hot water was a bit too much to ask for.

Sunday I watched the Grand Prix with the guy from down the corridor and then we went to our friend upstairs' apartment to watch the appaling England v. France rugby match over some beers and crepes.

Almost cultural

Well, I was almost cultural this weekend. The guy on my corridor had told us all about a free classical music concert being put on at the Maison de Radio France last night so we arranged to meet outside an hour before the start in the hope of getting tickets. 2 of the 6 of us who were going got there a bit earlier and managed to get in just before we joined the queue and, unfortunately they ran out of tickets so we didn't get to go in. So, we did the next best thing and headed for a bar!
This one was at Grandes Boulevards not too far from Galeries Lafayettes (a big department store; on the same scale as Harrods and with similar prices) and it was happy hour when we arrived so we had a couple of drinks before heading for a crepe.
One of the girls that the guy on my corridor goes to uni with joined us while we were at the bar and invited us to come and meet her Dad. He was staying at the Hôtel de Crillon so we didn't pass up the chance to say Hi. The Hôtel de Crillon is one of the most luxurious hotels there is and is just off the Place de la Concorde at the end of the Champs Elysee.
So, that's about it for now. Time to iron my shirts and head to bed ready for the week ahead. Yay, work. Fun :-/

Rockin'

Ok, second post of the night. But I know a friend of mine won't stop nagging me if I don't write more!
So, I've got a lot of work to do at the moment, it's not exactly thrilling, and getting asked to re-write an analysis of a survey because "partially satisfied" users don't actually count as satisfied is a bit annoying.
I was looking forward to the weekend and going out. I didn't really have much planned but knew some people were going to Culture Bière on the Champs Elysee. I got asked if I wanted to go for a Chinese with some friends from my building but I was already half-way through cooking so ended up going straight to the pub. Anyhow, I had a good time there and, just as we were leaving, one of the girls said she was going to a rock night at a club/venue tonight and asked if I wanted to come along with her and her friend. I figured "why not", I hadn't been to a club since I'd been here and thought it would be good. I'm not usually a clubbing person but as this was rock music I'm not sure it counts as "clubbing". Anyhow, it was fantastic. The venue, Elysee Monmartre, is at Pigalle which you may have heard of as it's the red light district. The venue isn't in the red light end but it's close enough. They played some great music (everything from Franz Ferdinand to The Killers to Blur to The Darkness and then some 80's (the French seem to be obsessed with 80's music) and Elvis) and the hall was pretty big. There's another night next month so I'll try and go again and see if I can get some more people to come.
We left at about 3:30am having got there at about 12-12:30 and caught the night bus back. That was a bit of an adventure as, after my friends got off, I carried on to Pont de Neuilly which was the end of the line. Pont de Neuilly is on the way to La Defense before the road crosses the Seine. So, I got off and crossed the road to wait for the other bus which would take me to La Defense....only to find that the wait was going to be 86 minutes! Standing in the cold at 4:00 in the morning on my own wasn't too appealing so I caught a taxi the rest of the way.

Anyhow, it was a great night and I'll try and go to the next one. Otherwise there's "Night Fever" which I think some of my friends are going to this Friday but I'm not sure about that one yet.

Puck Off!

A couple of weeks ago (Saturday 25th February) I went with some friends to watch the ice hockey. The local team Club Olymique Courbevoie was playing Dunkirk at home and as it was free we thought we'd go along. None of us had ever seen Ice Hockey before and we didn't really know the rules so it was interesting trying to work it out.
It was fantastic! I'd never seen it before and knew it was meant to be quite violent. It was incredible the speed they went at. I am thankful for the toughened glass screens they put in front of the stands though. They weren't right up against the rink so you didn't get people faces being squashed against it as they got rammed into the side (which would've been funny) but considering the speed that the puck goes.... In fact, being in the audience isn't completely safe. The puck did come over the barrier twice and landed in our row both times. Once it hit some kid on the foot/ankle so the team doctor/coach came along and sprayed something on it (to numb/cool it I guess).
Anyhow, after a bit of a warm up, and after someone had driven around on a little tractor thing to melt/smooth the ice the match started. Courbevoie seemed to be doing pretty well and were leading 2-0 by the end of the first third. It was interesting trying to work out what some of the penalties were. The woman on the tannoy seemed to be saying things like "Incorrect Charge", although, having read the wikipedia page it seems there are legitimate times when you can hit/barge/ram people. It was a little difficult to follow at times as the teams are allowed to substitute players at any time, and every so often the whole team would swap. When players beat each other incorrectly they have to go in a sort of penalty area for 2 minutes (or 4 minutes if they do something really bad) and, I must admit, it did seem like Courbevoie were in there far more than Dunkirk.
Anyhow, it kind of went downhill after the first third and Dunkirk went on to win 7-2. I thought Courbevoie played pretty well though and will probably go to see them again.
If you want to see the "COC's" you can visit their website at www.cochockey.org (no joke!).

I've got a page at Flickr now so you can see some more photos I've taken while I'm here. If you want to see the ones of me with my friends you'll need to sign up and let me know your user name so I can add you as a "friend". There are plenty of photos you don't need to log in to see though so take a look at www.flickr.com/photos/aross .

Catching up

Well, I haven't updated this in a while. (Thought I'd start by stating the obvious).
Things have been a little slow recently so I've not really had much to write about. Nearly all of my English friends have had exams recently so they've either been revising, taking the exams or at home recovering from the exams. I'm not sure which I'd prefer; work or exams and then some time off.
So, what have I been up to....?

I've been to see Angel-A. Before I went, I looked it up on the IMDb. The comment there said that it was a "Romantic Comedy". There didn't seem to be much in the way of French films to choose from and, between this and whichever other option there was, my friend and I figured we'd go for Angal-A. Now, when I think of something that's described as "romantic comedy", I tend to imagine a film with Hugh Grant in it. Angel-A is not a romantic comedy by any standard. The film is shot in black and white and tells the story of a guy (a swindler/wheeler-dealer) who is at the end of his rope. He owes lots of money to lots of people who are likely to kill him/beat him up. Whilst walking on a bridge, he sees a police van approach and thinks the police are after him so he climbs over the barrier to hide from them. Once there he figures that his life is pretty much going down the pan so he may as well jump. Just as he's about to, he looks to his right and sees "Angela" - who is also about to jump. Anyhow, she jumps, he follows her and drags her out of the Seine (and into his life). From then on Angela takes it upon herself to help André (the guy) sort out his life/problems.
I didn't think it was a bad film - the French was a little hard to follow at times because it's quite and the characters speak quite quickly - but it did the usual French thing of going a bit weird at the end (there's a clue in the name). Whenever I see a French film now I keep expecting to see a dinosaur arrive near the end and eat the main character.
We went to see the film at George V on the Champs Elysee. You'd imagine it to be posh and a nice cinema. Unfortunately it felt like we were sitting in a corridor and wasn't particularly clean.

I've also been to a party on a boat. My friend from work (the one who has now left) invited me to a party her university was having to celebrate everyone getting their degrees/masters. It was held on a boat called the Charlestone which is moored to the bank of the Seine. I arrived a bit early and subsequently felt a bit awkward being on a boat, not knowing anyone there, not even being from the university, and speaking another language. I got chatting to some people as more arrived though (it was pretty empty when I got there) and felt a bit "British" wondering why no-one was at the bar yet when the prices were so cheap (the uni's seem to subsidise events far more than in the UK (or at least at my uni)). I had a good time though and it was a good night ......... apart from the disco. French music doesn't exactly have the best reputation but even the people there thought it was bad when the DJ started playing TLC - No Scrubs remixed and sung by some Indian guy.

I've also been doing a bit of sight-seeing. I went to Ile de la Cité a couple of weekends ago. I looked round Notre Dame and then visited some remains from Roman Paris. Notre Dame is pretty spectacular (both inside and out) but it was rubbish weather so I didn't go up the tower this time. The main reason I went to the Ile was to see the bird market. There's normally a flower market but every Sunday it's a bird market. Unfortunately it's been cancelled due to the bird flu scares. :-/
To the left is a picture of a point just outside Notre Dame. All distances in France are apperently measured from this point. Despite this fact, it's pretty unremarkable and most people just seem to walk over it without noticing it.
I really like the gothic architecture of Notre Dame. I'll go back again soon to take some more photos but here are a couple:



I've started putting some more pictures up on Flickr. You can see them at www.flickr.com/photos/aross but if you want to see ones of me and my friends then you'll have to let me know your flickr login.

That's about it for now. I'll try and get back into posting on here so I won't need to write such long posts again.

Before I do go, I was given a chocolate bar by someone at work.......

Boy, I love Mondays

So after the comments at the IS Convention I figured it would be a good idea to show how close we are to communicating something (6 things to validate (well, a little bit more on a couple of them)).
I printed them all out and left them for my boss. The rest of the day was spent doing some things on the intranet and, oh yes, trying to sort out the application that everyone needs to enter the details of projects into.

Originally some modifications were meant to be made and a new version released in the last week (of work) in December. This didn't happen and the developer told me it would be ready the first week of January. I received no phone call but I was at the IS Convention too. Today I phoned the developer to find out what was happening. Apparently his laptop is broken and he lost all of the development work he did. Seems a bit stupid of a professional developer not to make a backup but...
Anyhow, the new version won't be ready until January 30th and, although he can make a modification for Wednesday so that people can enter their data, I don't think it'll all be ready in time for the meetings next week.

Anyhow, that's work out the way, here are some photos:



Until this weekend, catching AIDS from the washing machines had never been something I'd worried about before.






Here in Paris there are quite a lot of dogs. They're all very small as it's not very practical having a large dog in a city. Plus, you wouldn't be able to take it on the bus.
Yes, that's right; you can take your dog on the bus if it's small and in a bag!




Here's a nice photo of La Defense to finish with:

Strange Foods

The French are obsessed with coffee. They rely on it, they can't function without it it would seem. If you were ever fighting a war with France you could forget about knocking out the electricity supply or the phone network. Simply stop the productions of coffee.
To highlight this obsession, (and probably to make it worse), Pepsi has introduced a new drink which as far as I know is being trialled in France:

Yes, that's right, it's Cappuccino Pepsi!

I can't say I'd buy it again. It tastes like they got a load of coffee flavoured boiled sweets and dissolved them in regular Pepsi.

Anyhow, at Auchan yesterday there was a 1€ section so, as well as the above bottle of Pepsi I also picked up some noodles. I know this doesn't relate to French tastes but I'm still a little uncertain about the instructions on the back...



I have to ask: WHO EATS DRY NOODLES???

Smoke and mirrors

Phew! The 2006 IS Convention is finally over! All in all it went pretty well.
The first day was probably the better organised of the two. In the morning there was a visit to a hosting centre. I wasn't sure if I was going to go on it as I may have been needed to help on the Campus (where the convention was held). In the end I did go. It was really interesting and probably a good thing that I did go as no-one else from the Campus was going so it was useful to have someone to tell people where to go (not that I knew either)!
We had lunch back at the Campus once we got back and then the convention started at about 14:00. There was a video at the beginning which was good (and a little amusing from my perspective) followed by some presentations including some outside speakers from Michelin and Gartner. Next came the demonstrations.
There were 2 demonstrations given in the main hall and then the demo tour started. This consisted of 5 demonstrations repeated every 20 minutes. All 200 people had a different colour corresponding to the group they were in and then each group had a leader to take them round the demonstrations. Despite one of the demostrators turning up from the Netherlands with a his lorry full of servers later than we'd hoped, it all went quite smoothly.
We had run a bit late with some of the presentations but somehow this delay disappeared and we went for dinner on time.
During dinner there were some magicians who came round to do some close up tricks at the tables. This was followed by a short show at the end of dinner. They were really good, especially considering how close we were to the tricks.
After dinner the bar opened. Now the Dutch and the English have a reputation for, well, lets just say they make the most of the bar. I've been told that one year the bar was emptied. I should stress that it's not a proper bar. The beer isn't on tap (it was in those small 5-6 litre kegs) and the other drinks (If there are many) are just kept in cupboards below. This year there was enough beer (they ran out last year) and in the end only one French guy stayed with the Brits and the Dutch. I stayed with them until they all left as I find those sort of moments interesting. People loosen up a lot and say a lot of things they might not otherwise say. You often see people's true opinions come out. We left the bar at about 1:30am.

I woke up at 6:45 the next day (same as the day before) to get ready for the final day. The day started with another external speaker, this time from Renault. Unfortunately I couldn't listen to this presentation as I was helping with some last minute changes to the workshops which came straight after. There were 8 workshops and everyone had been put into a workshop based on their 1st or 2nd choice which they made (or should of) when they enrolled. The problem was that, with 200 people there would inevitably be some people who didn't turn up. We didn't want to end up with one workshop half empty so the final organisation of who was in which workshop had been done the previous day (once we'd found out who had turned up). Due to some duplicated names I ended up running round sticking up names of who was in some workshops. I also found the materials for the workshops hadn't been loaded onto the laptops.
After the presentation, the people left the hall and found their workshop from the board outside or from the printed lists we'd photocopied. I joined in on one of the workshops and then spent most of lunch gathering up the presentations that had been made.
After lunch someone from each of the workshops gave a presentation on what they'd found. This was followed by a presentation on things to come in 2006 and then a Question and Answer session.

During the workshop presentations there were several comments saying they'd like more communication on projects and the general status of things. This means work for me. Part of my job involves writing newsletters after each of the monthly meetings we have and also producing reports on the status of projects. Despite having written the letters for September, October and half of November, having 2 reports ready and a third needing about 5 minutes more work, none of them have yet been published. This is because they are all waiting to be validated. The newsletter for September is waiting for an article from my boss. I'm a little concerned that on Monday I'm going to be asked why this hasn't been published. I'm not quite sure how to say politely, "Because I'm waiting for you to do your bit and validate them/write your article. I have emailed them to you and handed them all to you several times.".

There could be another problem next week too. The week after next are several meetings looking at projects and deciding whether or not to go ahead with them. For the meetings, each Division is supposed to have entered some financial data into a program (which I am meant to look after despite only breifly being shown what it does). This data must be entered by Jan 13th however.... Before Christmas a new revision was to be developed and put into pre-production for me to test before they replaced the old version. I phoned the developer the week before Christmas to find out what was going on as he still hadn't sent me the pre-production version. He told me that he was delayed and would call me the first week back in the New Year. He didn't (plus there was the Convention to finish organising anyway).
Basically, as the data for this year can't be entered into the program until the new version is out, the new version needs to be tested and then released, it is unlikely that the Divisions are going to be able to meet their Jan 13th deadline. This may not be too bad as apparently, since this program has been available, the data has never been entered in time for the meetings. It is only used twice a year, nobody likes it and I don't think it's very well designed.

So, the convention went well, but despite me thinking that there would be a bit of a break now that it's over, it seems like I'm going to be pretty busy.
I have learnt a lot from what I've been doing though. I've got a lot of admiration for the people at the Campus who organise these events all year. There are so many small details you need to take into account. I've also realised how much can be going on which no-one notices. Despite doing a couple of things at the last minute, people still get the impression that everythings ready and working as it should.
Another thing I've learnt, and it's probably the most important thing, is just how much you have to hassle people to get things done. I'm amazed at the number of emails and phone calls it takes just to get a response.

Right, it's the start of the month so that means I need to make the dreaded trip to AUCHAN!!!

Here we go...

Well, things are finally coming together for the convention.
I've received most of the presentations, the people doing the workshops have been sent all the details and materials and the demonstrations will be tested tomorrow.
I'm going to go to the Université Campus (which is where all the conferences, conventions and courses are held) tomorrow afternoon and stay the night so that I won't have any trouble getting there in the morning on Thursday. The Campus is outside of Paris, not too far from Versailles. As I should also be able to go on the visit which should be good. It is a visit to another site where a lot of the IT systems are controlled (I think. I haven't had much to do with the visit).
On Thursday I'll also be staying at the Campus. There's going to be a dinner in the evening with a magic show which should be interesting. I'm also looking forward to the presentations and workshops of course ;-)
I'll post on Friday (or Saturday as I may be celebrating that it's all over) to let you know how it all went.
Here's a picture of La Grande Arche de la Defense.

Tasty food???

I'm a little dubious about this place. It's just up the road from me. I've never eaten there.