So we're now nearing the end of my 3rd week of uni. It's crazy how fast it seems to be going, and how busy things have got very quickly. I wanted to update you on some of my latest news, on some of my lessons, and my weekend plans. Pompoms Sciences Po I had no idea that cheer existed in Paris or that Sciences Po would have a cheer team and I didn't know what other sport I would be able to do but I wanted to be able to meet people and stay fit, so imagine my excitement on discovering that there is a cheer team! I immediately sent an over-enthusiastic email with an embarrassing selfie of me from a competition last year and then did the tryouts on Friday and I made the team! I'm super excited to carry on with cheer and everyone seems so nice I'm also excited to practise my french. There is a canadian girl on our team who is a proper cheer professional and she coaches teams for Worlds. I can't remember the name of the team she cheers for but this in an example of the kind of standard she coaches/competes at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKJExDfS3_U She is going to teach us how to stunt so hopefully by Christmas I will be at this standard too (lol). Cheer trains twice a week and some Sundays which is a lot more than at Warwick but I think it will be fun. I won't be able to the main competitions which are next term but i'm still excited to be a part of cheer and to get to wear one of these uniforms (not around campus though, this isn't an American teen movie). l'Ivresse This is the Sciences Po fashion society and another reason for me to get excited. I'm going to be involved in the creative production of promotional material for their events, etc. I also want to make them a killer video and some flyers to hand out in order to get the society some great exposure and get more people interested in what we do. They've got some great ideas for coming up as well, we're hoping to have Alber Elbaz of Lanvin come and do a speech (which would be incredible) and apparently they can get some fashion week seats too which is even more exciting! There should be some good opportunities for networking and speaking to some people about internship opportunities so this is also great news. Classes My lectures are going ok. I'm definitely getting more used to hearing the french and its getting a bit easier to make notes in lectures (if I focus really hard) but I haven't done a lot of speaking yet. We're not put on the spot and asked to give opinions/answers really which is kind of good because that would be scary but at the same time it makes it very easy to sit there listening and letting others speak, especially in a bigger, more intimidating class. I've got my first presentation for Management d'Entreprise on Monday which is with a group and so I think should be fine. It's also a kind of factual presentation on Volkswagen so I'm less nervous about that but on Wednesday I have my first individual exposé for Innovation Numérique and that I am nervous about. Although it's on the idea of "design thinking" and I chose the topic because it was one I did a module in last year and find really interesting. I really want to do a good exposé though and I even got some books out of the library for it today which I have never done at Warwick!! I watched a TED talk , by Tim Brown who is founder of IDEO, the design and innovation consulting agency. about the importance of design and the history of where this notion of design thinking came from which relates to my exposé. It's interesting how when we think of design we automatically think about aesthetics, style, but there is so much more to it and its more about creatively and innovatively responding to needs/pains of customers. He also wrote one of the books that I have got out of the library. Anyway, this week I had to write another summary for my Espace Mondiale conférence and again it wasn't selected to be marked (Grrrr!). I seem to be pretty busy with work on the whole though. There is this article to read every week, group presentations, exposés, revue de presses, on-going business project work (although we have not got very far beyond just ideas in both my modules that I have do this for). I have something due in or some presentation to do in all the weeks coming up. I also have Dad coming next weekend and then Tom coming the weekend after so i'm trying to get as much done in these weeks so that I can have the weekends free to explore Paris. Weekend plans This weekend I'm heading to a Paris startup jobs fair which should be interesting and there are some great companies there and some really interesting ones who I'm looking forward to talking to about internship opportunities. This was one of the reasons for moving my blog here to my website. I wanted potential employers or contacts to be able to view my blog, CV, creative work, info about me, all in the same place. I really want to get some little business cards printed with a QR code to my website (e.g. below right) but I don't have time to get this done before Saturday. Also this weekend is "les journées des patrimoines" which means that lots of buildings are open for free which are either normally paid for or sometimes not even normally open to the public. I am planning to go to the Fondation Louis Vuitton which is over in the west of Paris and also probably one of the huge buildings like l'Assemblée Nationale or Invalides. So i'm definitely going to make the most of the weekend and see as much as possible.
Oh, and I have my 9 am Sunday running class.
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So its New York Fashion Week and Kanye West decided "at the last" minute to show his latest 'Yeezy' collection, this time not in collaboration with Adidas. I like Kanye's music, some of it, for partying to, but I am hardly a die-hard Yeezus fan and to be honest his forays in to fashion just wind me up. Yes he knows enough people to put together a hugely star-studded front row - but the clothes just don't say anything interesting to me. Behold his collection (below). This to me looks like a collection of baggy sweatshirts and leggings in a horrible shade of camel that when worn that tightly flatters no one, especially not his huge pregnant wife Kimmy K, who I personally think looks awful in this get up. She looks like she has her thermals on ready to go skiing but hasn't yet put on her ski trousers or jacket! I think what is frustrating is knowing that there is so much good, fresh, young design talent out there who are creating far more interesting, visually exciting and intellectual collections but they just don't have the opportunity for this kind of exposure that they truly deserve. Whereas Kanye is a rapper with more money than sense to know what to do with it. A few weeks ago he was running for president and now he wants to be in charge of fashion - I think he should just stick to what he knows and is good at and leave the fashion to those who know about that. Apparently his models had to sign $10million non-disclosure agreements so that no one would know about the show... When did fashion stop being about actual fashion and become huge PR stunts trying to gain the most press possible and the actual clothes not even mattering?? This collection doesn't evoke any kind of cultural or creative response, it looks like unwashed gym clothing or loungewear that I just no one can really be impressed by or excited about. I dread to think the extortionate prices he's going to be asking for it and the show was apparently 45 minutes late starting too, which to be honest is just unprofessional! I really wish there was more opportunities for exciting design talent to showcase their work, to show what fashion is really about, and that fashion shows weren't just about who's sitting on the front row but actually about the collections and the inspirations and meanings behind them. Here are a few pieces from the Central St Martin's degree show this year: While I understand these are not necessarily the most wearable pieces (but to be honest I wouldn't wear any of Kanye's collection even if I could afford it), they have something to say. I see Japanese influences in the far right, art influences in the far left, the second from right to me looks like some kind of juxtaposition between the growth and life of the coloured flowers and then also the deconstruction of the fabric which perhaps reflects the idea that beauty is finite, the flowers decay? I don't know these are just my random thoughts but this to me is so much more interesting than any collection Kanye has ever turned out. However no one will know the names of these designers (yet) and there certainly wouldn't have been an a-list front row at their degree show. This has to change, and if I am ever head of the British Fashion Council then I am going to sort it out. Ok, rant over. Last night I watched the film Midnight in Paris, an american film about a writer in Paris who every night goes back in time to the 1920s. He is in love with Paris and it's beauty and even more so Paris in the rain. I don't think Paris is that much more beautiful in the rain, at least not when it rains in the day. Everything loses its colour, all the buildings become grey, the Eiffel Tower disappears behind the clouds and you just get soaked. I got caught in the rain on Saturday (after my walk along the Seine) and I had to take refuge in a McDonalds. Maybe at night with all the lights reflecting in the wet streets it could be picturesque? I do love how the bright colours of umbrellas stand out against the grey rain though. Although I would still rather it was sunny. I think everything is better when its sunny. When it rains in Paris it seems to rain all day. Showers don't exist here. But when it eventually does stop raining you get this beautiful golden light coming through the clouds and then suddenly everything has it's magic glow back. Also, how amazing are these gates? I wish I could cover the door to my apartment building in gold. This looks like Versailles. I want to live wherever this. (I think it's probably some kind of government building so not really any option)
On Saturday it rained basically all day. I spent the day inside working on a group presentation that I have next week whilst outside it just poured. By about 16.30 I was bored of work and the rain had pretty much stopped so I decided to head to the Seine and do some exploring. I had wanted to see the new Hermes exhibition pop-up "Dans l'oeil de flaneûr", but it turns out it's in the middle of being built and doesn't open until the 17th, oops! There seems to be a lot going on along the left bank of the Seine between Invalides and the Musée d'Orsay though. There are temporary structures and lots of random things painted onto the pavements, and tipis, etc. I'm not really sure I understand what it's all for but it's very modern and urban VS the back drop of Paris.
I have actually signed myself up for a free beginner's running class with a friend next Sunday at 9am. Not sure how great an idea i'll think it is when my alarm goes off but I did say I wanted to start running and maybe if someone is running a session I will be more motivated! I'll let you know.
So since my week 1 update I have done a few posts about some things that I have done (Eiffel Tower, various bars, ranting, etc.) but I said that I would do a post on my other classes which I hadn't yet had this time last week. Startups et Management de l'Innovation Numérique This module is all about digital innovation, looking at how huge tech startups and apps have become so popular and indispensible as part of modern daily life (for the young anyway). It seems like its going to be a really interesting module and just like in my 'management d'entreprise' we have to come up with a business in small groups of 3 (which is apparently the best number for starting a business). We also have to do an individual exposé, a 10 minute presentation, and my topic is all about Design Thinking. I did a module at Warwick last year on design thinking and its the best essay I have ever written (still not sure how I got 81%) so hopefully the background knowledge will help with this. It was meant to be the week 1 topic but a nice guy agreed to swap with me because I said I was nervous about going first, having never done an exposé. So yeah, this module looks good. It's late though: 7.15 - 9.15pm! Initiation à l'Entrepreneuriat This module is very similar to the one above, but with less of a focus on digital and just a focus on start ups in general. It was a really big class size for an elective, about 100 students I would say, and most of them masters students so 4th/5th year students. The lecturer was really engaging, and he started his career at Disney, before going on to create his own business which is cool. This module is graded on a range of things from individual to group work and class participation. I'm worried how i'm going to get a good grade for participation (40% of my mark) in such a large class with only a 2 hour lecture each week, especially given i'm not the most confident with my french yet but we'll see. Last week, we were put into groups of 8 and given 10€ and literally told to return to the lecture next week with more money (!) My group decided on massages, I never really thought it was going to be the greatest idea, because I personally wouldn't want a massage off a random student in the courtyard of uni, but I don't really have the french vocab to disagree and I was happy to make a poster for the event and go with the flow. (See poster below) So Monday and Tuesday we were giving massages in the garden and it was kind of awkward and we only made 25€ by massaging friends that we had persuaded to come (none of my friends came). We will see how successful that was VS others in the lesson tomorrow! As a "learning" exercise though I guess it was interesting because we can easily address where we went wrong (no one wants massages!!!). I needed my dream-team from the Warwick apprentice with me, we would have smashed it.
So that's the rest of my courses. Already straight in on the workload, presentations coming up, articles to read that never get marked (see previous blog post), group projects to work on etc. Tomorrow night is the big night out planned by the BDE (bureau des élèves, a.k.a the Students Union), at the third biggest club in Paris called Zig Zag just off the Champs Élysées so that's pretty exciting, and then cheer tryouts on Friday afternoon (although after tomorrow night i'm not sure how good I will be feeling!). Dear Paris, |