2 Days in Paris

Marie-Eve and I went to see this movie yesterday, which is basically a movie about our lives. If anyone wants to know how it feels to be dating or married to a French woman, go out and see this movie. While my experiences weren't centered in Paris, the experience in the countryside wasn't much different, although it has its own few quirks.

Not counting the parts that struck home for me, it is a delightful funny movie that I highly recommend.

14 Strikes and you're out

Well, since my last post, I've gotten a letter of rejection from Galway and I've gotten an email back from HPU saying that my rejection letter is in the mail. So, the search for 2007-2008 is over and it was a losing season. My batting average was 0 for 14.......

Cal State Northridge (my alma mater) - Rejection letter
Cal State Channel Islands - Rejection email
Cal State Dominguez Hills - Rejection letter
Cal Poly - Rejection Letter
Vermont - Rejection Letter
Oklahoma - Never heard back
Ventura College - Search canceled for budgetary reasons
Franklin College, Switzerland - Never heard back
Command & General Staff College - Position already filled
Dublin - Rejection letter
University South Florida - Never heard back
UC Riverside - Never heard back
Galway - Rejection letter
Hawaii Pacific - Rejection letter in the mail.

So, should I try the 2008-2009 draft or should I just take the hint and find another career.................

PFC

I saw this place near our apartment, not far from Canal St. Martin. I had to try it out! Look out KFC, here comes PFC!!!

All KFC has is some wannabe Kentucky colonel. For those who don't know, that is an honorary title - it has no military distinction. PFC meanwhile could have the petit colonel. (That as a nickname given to Napoleon by his adoring troops.) They have a freaking emperor.

Well PFC actually doesn't, but if this little family-run Pakistani restaurant hired me as a consultant, we'd turn this into an international food chain. Oh well.

Well, I tried it out this Saturday for the Berlitz picnic that we held at the nearby Buttes-Chaumont park. Not bad, the breaded-skin has a little flavor of Indian spices.

Next on the list of places to try - King Kosher, a new eatery where you can get Koscher Paninis, Pizza and Sushi!

What the hell?

When I first decided to study history, my undergraduate adviser, Stephan Bourque, asked me what subjects I was interested in. I said "Roman Empire, WWII, and Napoleonic Period." He told me that if I wanted to study the Roman Empire, I'd have to learn a bunch of dead languages and WWII was so overcrowded, so I chose the Napoleonic Period.

In the course of my research, I've had to read a bunch of handwritten letters. While it has taken me years of practice to get fairly good at it, every once and a while I come across someone's writing which is just, well illegible. Here is an example of a letter from the Balli de Suffren, the French naval commander who gave the British so much trouble in the Indian Ocean during the American Revolution.

This crap is like freaking Linear B. It was so bad that most of the letters had to be transcribed/deciphered by his contemporaries. Thankfully, these copies are attached just behind the originals. However, there is the occasional one that isn't already transcribed and I have to try and decipher it. What do you think this letter says?

The Search Continues

Well the search continues.

As you can tell by the attached images, nothing so far......

So now updated status:
Cal State Dominguez Hills - Rejection letter - no interview
Dublin - Rejection letter - no interview
University South Florida - Haven't heard for several weeks, assumed application rejected
UC Riverside - Haven't heard for several weeks, assumed application rejected or budget not approved


All that is left then:
Galway
Hawaii Pacific

Application for Hawaii Pacific is out, so keeping the fingers crossed. (There is the possibility that the CSGS might open up more positions, but haven't seen the announcement yet)

Fun in Paris

After my depressing post regarding the job search, I thought I'd share will you some photos of the photos I've posted up on Facebook for those of you who don't use Facebook. Last Sunday, I invited several friends from work and my friend Katherine from FSU to a picnic at the Buttes Chaumont Park, then to a little concert near the Canal St. Martin.

Here is the mascot of the party - the lovable, the adorable Mr. Big!

All the bitches love him. ;) :D Here he is with Melanie.








Mr. Big partying down.











Redneck Parisian











Alex and Anna taking in the rays and sleeping off their hangovers.









Katherine deep in thought as she listens to the music










Jerry sternly contemplating his near empty beer.











Marie-Eve and Katherine having fun.

Just a fun picture of us in the cafe.

The Search

Well, since last fall, I've been searching for various teaching jobs across the United States and Europe. Going into the search, I knew the odds were not in my favor. However, it is still depressing to get the rejection letter in the mail. Even worse are those that you never hear from, which leave you with a lingering bit of hope of some surprise call. As the months drag on, however, without any word, this lingering hope slowly converts to bitter disappointment.

So far here is the list:

Cal State Northridge (my alma mater) - Rejection letter (see photo to the left)
Cal State Channel Islands - Rejection email
Cal State Dominguez Hills - Never heard back
Cal Poly - Rejection Letter
Vermont - Rejection Letter
Oklahoma - Never heard back
Ventura College - Search canceled for budgetary reasons
Franklin College, Switzerland - Never heard back
Command & General Staff College - Position already filled

Applications still out:
Dublin
Galway
Hawaii Pacific
University South Florida
UC Riverside

The depressing search continues..........

Best part of France

Unfortunately, most American tourists only get to see Paris, thereby missing IMO some of the most beautiful parts of France. A few weeks ago, Marie-Eve and I were able to go back down to Avignon for the weekend to see her mom and our friends Aziz and Audrey, who are living nearby Aix-en-Provence.
Ah, there is so much green, it hurts my city eyes!!

Nothing this pretty in the big urban jungle.

View from the new apartment

Well, our stay in Vincennes, the bourgeois suburb of Paris, is over. The owner of the apartment was planning on coming back in the summer so we had to look for a new apartment. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a sweet deal through the H-France network (a French historian's network) like we did with our Vincennes apartment. So we had to deal with the traditional French system, which is just horribly unbearable. In fact, I think we had to furnish more papers and documents to rent a tiny ass 26m2 apartment then we did to buy our townhome in Florida. Well, after a bunch of visitations and pain-in-the-ass dealings with sharks who wanted 1 fucking year of security deposit, we found a nice apartment in the 19th arrondissement, near the Buttes-Chaumont park. (Pictures of the park will come in the next entry.)

The apartment is well-decorated and in a very calm area, while still closer to central Paris. Unfortunately, it is a bit expensive, but nothing in Paris is cheap. The 820 euro/month rent is roughly $1,100 with today's horrible exchange rate!!!!

One additional plus is that we have a wonderful view of Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on Montmarte.

Spring is here!

Well, Spring is here! After a mild winter, the spring season seems almost like summer as we've been having 25-25C weather. Many people are wondering what summer will look like, especially since most housing in France lacks air-conditioning.

Well, Marie-Eve and I took advantage of the wonderful weather and went out for an early morning jog around the Floral Park in the Vincennes Woods. To our delight, the vast planters were filled with blooming tulips!

Bad Moon on the Rise!

I see the bad moon arising.
I see trouble on the way.
I see earthquakes and lightnin'.
I see bad times today.

Don't go around tonight,
Well, its bound to take your life,
Theres a bad moon on the rise.

I hear hurricanes ablowing.
I know the end is coming soon.
I fear rivers over flowing.
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.

All right!

Hope you got your things together.
Hope you are quite prepared to die.
Looks like we're in for nasty weather.
One eye is taken for an eye.






As some of you may have seen on the news, there was trouble in the Gare de Nord in Paris on Monday. While nowhere near the 'action', Marie-Eve and I had the 'pleasure' of taking the 7-line metro which passed through the station as we made our way home from visiting friends who live near Stalingrad. As the metro pulled into the station, we saw a number of people on the platform with the fronts of their shirts pulled over part of their faces.

Luckily they did not turn out to be those who were causing the trouble but unfortunate bystanders trying to escape the chaos. As the train doors opened, the guy waiting to get in started to warn people not to go out as there was some sort of gas in the station. Soon everyone throughout the train car began to react to the tear gas. Although it was only less than a minute, it seemed like the train remained at the platform for an eternity. Even after we left, people still continued to hack and cough, with their eyes tearing up. Bienvenue to the real France. The tension is on the rise as France heads into a very important election.

Another Day at the Office.

Compared to the window-less hole in the wall of the Bellamy Building, my new “office” is a palace. While not an actual palace, it is a castle – Chateau de Vincennes! Initially the site of a royal hunting lodge, like Versailles, the castle was built in the 13^th/14^th century and served as a royal residence until Louis XIV built the illustrious palace at Having served as a prison, weapons factory and even a boulangerie, the Castle had been used as a barracks since Napoleon. At the beginning of World War II, the castle was used as Gamelin’s headquarters. Unfortunately must of the castle was damaged when Waffen-SS exploded stores of explosives as the Germans retreated from Normandy. (See images here)

You can find me in the Service Historique de la Defense, Département de la Marine, which is located in the Queen’s House. The reading ream is a paradise compared to those of the Archives Nationales or the nearby Départemenet de l’Armée de Terre. With nice padded chairs, ample space to spread out documents and a friendly staff, this is researchers’ heaven.

For those who wish to stop by and see me, my office hours are M, T, W, F 9am-4pm.

Quaint little village in the middle of Paris.

What is interesting about Paris is that in the middle of this huge urban jungle, there are little quaint areas like this that are nestled away far from the typical touristy locations. This little neighborhood, known as the Square des Peupliers, is located south of Place d'Italie in the southern 13th Arrondissement. These little houses are currently owned by a people who are "intellectuals and other liberal professions" and are very proud of their vegetation. The locals are known to refer to this area as the countryside. And with the relative calm, it is not hard to imagine oneself in the countryside.

What kind of opera is that?

I came across this sign a few months back after I picked up my lunch at the nearby Monoprix and was walking back to work at Berlitz Opera. Upon first glance, the name of this restaurant/cafe made me do a double take. What kind of things did they serve there? The "Bend Over" croissant? The "Squeal-Like-A-Pig" Special? The "Don't Drop the Soap" candy bars? I was too afraid to find out, so I quickly snapped the picture and ran.

The Beginning

Well, I've always thought about starting up a blog since we've moved to France. It is an easy way to let everyone know what's going on in one's life without overloading everyone's email box with long emails. Then I met Jerry, who uses his blog to display his artwork. So after much hesitation, I finally decided to bite the bullet and set up a blog. I can't promise that I'll update it that regularly. Many of my weekdays are boringly spent working in the archives by day and teaching English in the evening. However, on the weekends, Marie-Eve and I are beginning to explore Paris. Not the boring touristy parts that are on everyone's "Must See" list, but rather those places off the beaten path. Those small quint areas that can be quite surprising to find in the vastly crowded Paris landscape.