The White Night

Phew! I've been so busy lately I haven't been able to post.

Last weekend was Nuit Blanche (eng. "White Night") in Paris, where all the schools and clubs host parties. All of Paris stays up until the wee hours of the morning partying. I think the museums stay open all night as well. Basically, it's really cool, and ESCP-EAP (my school!) hosts what is supposed to be the biggest party in Paris that night.

Before the party, we had a dinner party that was pretty cool. All different kinds of people that we had met at school or in bars and clubs came over to the girls' house. Me, Amy, Team Texas, Eddy, and Carly all brought or made food for the event. It was a real hit! Everyone got along, and there were some really really different kinds of people there. It was classy too. Jazz in the background, wine, Cointreau (my idea), and all the awesome food that everyone worked so hard on. I made sandwhiches from a baguette. There were like 25 mini sandwhiches. Ham and mayo on one baguette, and Ham and spicy mustard on the other. It was so easy, and also one of the first things to disappear!

After dinner party, we went to the real party. It was at the school itself, and it was pretty awesome. There was a laser and smoke show in the courtyard, a drum squad that did really cool beats, and a couple different places with huge DJ setups. There was even a tower in the courtyard that spit out fire every 30 seconds or so. I saw several people that I know from class or handball. It's cool to start seeing familiar faces, I guess I'm really settling in a bit.

We did our share of dancing, and left when the metro opens at 5:30 or so. All in all it was a good night.

Other than that, on Tuesday night, we went to a party for Dauphine, another business school in the Paris area. We knew about it because of a french girl that Victor and Eddy and I met a couple weeks ago, Chloe. She was helping to organize the party and made sure we were there. It was at an Irish bar, although not "my" Irish bar in Odéon. It was in Châtelet, which is very centrally located. There was a bartender there named Franck from Spain who spoke perfect English, though with an Irish accent. He lived in Ireland for 3 years. The bartenders at Irish bars are always so interesting...

I sent in my first assignment for school this morning, which was to briefly analyze to brands that are "invariants plastiques," meaning that they define themselves in relation to each other. Examples include IBM and Apple, Sony and Microsoft, etc. I did Pepsi and Coke.

We finally have solid plans for fall break!! I'm so excited. We're doing Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. Does that not sound amazing? We fly into Vienna (booked), train to Prague (not yet booked), train from Prague to Berlin (booked), and fly from Berlin back to Paris (booked). This all happens in the span of a week or so, we have 2 days in Berlin and 3 in the other two locations. The travel and hotel expenses combined are going to come out to about 350 Euros. If you don't know, that's a bargain. We did our homework.

The pictures from the dinner party and ESCP party are really cool, especially the pictures we got of the laser show. I'm having trouble posting them right now though, so you'll have to wait on those. Sorry!

There is another ESCP party tonight (DO THEY EVER STOP!?!?!). This one is free though for students. Free entry. Free drinks. I'm there.