Vive la France!

7/1/13-7/4/13

This was my first week working alone, and I was very nervous as I had no idea what to expect. I was also excited however to take on more responsibility. When I first arrived, I settled in and then got my directrice a coffee. I think she was a little surprised when I asked if she wanted one because Claudia would always do it for Anne rather than myself. This showed however that I wasn’t just sitting there twirling my thumbs, I was in fact paying attention and taking mental notes of how things are done in the office. I wanted it to seem like nothing has changed since Claudia left. I then sat and talked with Anne for quite some time. She was very friendly which made me less nervous. This also made her less intimidating which made me feel much more at ease. She then told me what she wanted me to do and went off to work on it. I was doing “busy work” by doing simple tasks like categorizing and labeling DVD’s of new commercials. I would watch several commercials and write each product for each commercial so that the DVD had an index now. It was easy brainless work, but I still enjoyed it because it was better than sitting there and doing nothing. My directrice asked me to do this because she was busy finishing up this really big project. I felt like she kind of just wanted me out of the way, but again she gave me something to do and was nice about it so I didn’t mind.

One of the benefits of not working with the other intern however is that I can now leave earlier and start later. On Monday I got to leave early which was nice to have some down time and relax. I feel like Paris is always on the go and it has a very rushed atmosphere, which is why I try to take advantage of the down time. For the rest of the work week (Tuesday- Thursday) I didn’t have to start work until 2:30. This gave me time to work out and explore different areas in the morning. Tuesday morning, I tried going to Musee D’orsay but the line was too long so I decided to just walk along Champs Elysee since it was nearby. I went into a few stores because there are huge sales going on right now, but I ended up going to petite palais for the majority of my morning. The petite palais is “small” (not really) palace that has art exhibits. I really enjoyed the art that it had on display. When I got to work, I continued working of the DVD’s of commercials and categorizing them. At the end of the day however, my directrice gave me a little gift she had gotten in Mexico. It was a pastry-candy thing, and while it had “interesting” taste (the kind way to put it I guess) I really appreciated the thought. Wednesday, I started late as well but decided to sleep in so I didn’t accomplish much in the morning. Work was again the same stuff. After work though, I met up with Magdalena at Notre Dame and we did a ghost tour of Paris. It was a cheap tour that we found and we were basically taken around parts of Paris where we learned about mysteries such as phantom of the opera and the whole Sweeney Todd making people pie thing. It was quite interesting and a different perspective of Paris.

Thursday was much more interesting however. I woke up and went to do a little shopping area around the Notre Dame and continued my sales shopping. I then saw the store that was shown in the Disney film ratatouille. It was quite disgusting, but cool to see since they put this store in the film. (Animation version of course) After getting a salad for lunch I went to work but was surprised when my directrice told me I I didn’t have to stay if i didn’t want to because she was still finishing up the final details of the project. I gladly accepted this offer and decided to go check out instute du monde arabe, which is a Arabian museum. I wasn’t necessarily interested in the art, but the exterior of the building was quite exquisite. Nearby this museum was a parc called jardin des planets. This included very pretty gardens along the Seine and also a zoo full of flowers, nature, animals, and fossils. I quickly walked around there and headed home to get ready for my plane ride to Barcelona.