Quick update

The end is near! I know this because I have too much work that I am currently not doing. Blast!

Here is a quick update on the happenings. I believe I last wrote on Saturday…

Sunday I spent in a bistro, reading the book I had to review for my health systems class. It was actually very good. It’s called La Maternité: progrès et promesses by Emile Papiernik, and I learned a lot about the state of maternal health in both France and many other parts of the world. A big takeaway point: the US needs to step it up in the case of protecting its pregnant women. Premature births are a huge burden to the health system and they can be prevented with better prenatal care and employee protection.

Monday I didn’t have class but I had to write my essay, so I hung out in La Rotonde La Muette and tried to be productive. Tuesday I had lots of class and then came back home to do things. Farah and I met up for a drink after dinner at Wine and Bubbles in the first, which was a cute little place. The wine we got was very good, but we were the youngest people there by about 10 years. Wednesday I went to the Centre Pompidou library to do research before Estelle’s class at Musée d’Orsay.

After learning about Degas, I went back home and napped and then went running. My host family kindly prepared dinner early for me, since I was going to Mark’s jazz concert at the American Cathedral. It was an event put on by the Stanford Alumni Club of Paris and the American Club of Paris. It was a great time! The music was good and Mark included commentary and background information about jazz and blues improvisation, and his dad was there so they played some four hands. The cocktail dinner was well catered which I took advantage of in my usual manner, and several of us had some good conversations with some of the older attendees. We met some characters. This one woman, Jody, may or may not have been a pathological liar, but she showed us a picture of her shaking Bill Clinton’s hand, said she was a model, she ran three marathons, was on the cover of Vogue, etc. Another woman, Semner, was a friendly Texan who was curious about what all us young folk were doing. Then outside as we were preparing to leave, two women were clearly a bit tipsy and telling us the good bars to go out. They were probably about 60. Afterwards, Heimunn, Farah, and Farah’s friend from Jordan, Seriah, went to a club called Duplex with Farah’s language partner and his cousin. It was a really good time, even though Kevin (language partner) was a little overzealous, and cousin Marvin's dancing was just ridiculous.

That sums up the week thus far! I have to plan more spring break details and somehow get through all of this work!