"This Cheese is definitely dog approved" - Day 4, Paris

So today started gloriously as Christel and I slept in until about 8:45 (although my alarm probably went off every 10 minutes). We inadvertedly matched our outfits, not realizing we had each laid out our clothes the night before. But we both looked super cute, so it was fine.

Christel et moi!! evidamment colocataires 

We took a quick detour to the Maison Internationale to take out some money, and then headed to ISEP. We actually got there right on time despite thinking we were going to be a bit late. Also there was a fire alarm going off. Or at least, I think so. We've noted that all of the french sirens and alarms are pretty mellow compared to the American ones. Like, when an american ambulance rolls down the street, its siren is basically telling you to move the eff out the way, ya know? But the french one, is like 'idk maybe move i'm trying to get through but I could totally try another route if its too uncomfortable for you.'

Anyway, today we learned about Cancer and how it is viewed in France. France has pretty similar statistics to the States in terms of the cancers with the most incidence (Prostate and Breast for men and women respectively), and some variation in the cancers with the highest mortalities. Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate in France. We talked in general about the prevention of cancer, and measures that needed to be in place in order to reduce the mortality rate. These included sedentary lifestyles, dietary factors, obesity, infections, environmental pollution factors, radiation, carcinogens like asbestos. The two factors I found most interesting were the consumption of alcohol and smoking. With the alcohol, it is understandable to see why it might be strange to approach the problem, given the country's tradition of wine. Smoking is still very very common in France, and it is not just with the older generations. People have found that increasing the taxes on cigarettes has been an effective way to reduce smoking (aint nobody wanna pay for dat), but as our friend (I cannot for the life of me remember his name) at Hopital St. Louis told us, there is always a parallel or underground market that sells contraband cigarettes at a reduced price, and other reasons why it hasn't really been as effective. In my mind, I can't help but wonder whether some sort of early intervention/patient education program, starting at an early pediatric level would work to indoctrinate the dangers of smoking and cancer into young french minds.

We then took the bus to the metro and got off at Goncourt to get to the hopital St. Louis. St. Louis started out as an annex of Hotel Dieu to stop the spread of the plaque back in the jour, and was named after an old french king, St. Louis, who I believed died of the plague at Carthage again, loads and loads of years ago. There we met with Pascale, a fast talking french woman who gave us a bit of the history of hopital St. Louis, and   the doctor friend who worked with Canceropole Ile-de-France. He basically explained Canceropole Ile-de-France's mission, elaborating on prevention, early detection, and treatment efforts that Canceropole feels are necessary. We then took a tour of the labs in one part of the hospital, and then went to the hospital museum, where we saw castings of a plethora of dermatological findings. Its just as well we were allowed to take pictures, because some of the things, even as moulds, were hard to stomach. The sadder part was that these were based on real people who probably suffered social and psychological issues along with the dermatological ones. trop triste.

Hotel de Ville, which we walked by on the way to the broken metro

un petit selfie a la miley

The Canal!

After the visite, Nancy and Laurence invited some of us to have some jambon and fromage sandwiches. Since I'd had a variation of one every day that I've been in Paris so far (and I really have no intention of stopping) and I was absolutely starving, I couldn't say no. I tried to order a glass of white wine ('un verre de vin blanc') and ended up with this

Turns out he must have heard 'menthe-a-l'eau' haha. But thank Dieu that he did, because this drink was dank as anything. Suh Good. After chatting with some classmates and Nancy and Laurence, I ventured home to Cite U to unwind a bit and maybe go grocery shopping (Because I was on a mission to get my own green mint syrup so I can make menthe a l'eau's at home). Of course the grocery shopping didnt happen, but I was able to rifle through my stuff and finally put it away properly. Then Sara, another girl from the MICEFA program suggested we go on a little picnic on the lawn in front of the Louvre around 8. I hadn't ventured out to the Louvre yet, so I was totally d to pick up some baguettes and head over. I eventually found them and we settled in a sunny spot on the beautiful grass. Seriously, France's grass game is fantastic, and all countries need to step up their game.

I'm going to have to find something green to eat eventually. But this was not the night

Rachel, Daniel, Sara and I ended up talking and eating for a solid twoish hours. The funniest moment occurred when I went to grab some more cheese to spread on my cracker. All of a sudden two dogs come barreling towards me, and my entire life flashes before my eyes (these are dogs that can fit in handbags, mind you). All of a sudden the dog, not spelling anything else, goes straight for the cheese, and stuffs the whole thing in its mouth. Its owner apologized to us profusely, but we all couldn't help but laugh hysterically. Daniel had just been telling us about all of the things and places that had been recommended to him about Paris, and this cheese had been one of those items. Needless to say, the dog agreed haha.


Daniel and I then ended up walking to Chatelet, the biggest metro stop probably on earth, and getting lost for about 2 minutes. Eventually we made our way back to our respective homes. Its been 3 days and I am pretty obsessed with this place. But I'm also kind of obsessed with the capacity in which I'm here. There is such an interesting and rich medical history (and present) in France, and I feel hashtag blessed to be able to learn about it all while profiter-ing de la vie Parisienne :)

Parisienne sunset on the Seine at 10ish pm

Carousel!

Seine Selfie!

'But like, I would have a baby right now if I could have it here' - Day 3, Paris (First Day of Classes, Visit to the American Hospital)

Christel and I somehow woke up. eventually. This is my face in the morning.

A girl took 25 minutes in the shower, which was un peu annoying, but whatever. After getting dressed I grabbed the second half of my galette jambon fromage for breakfast and we headed to port d'orleans to grab the metro to ISEP, the school of engineering where we would be having our classes. I was basically a walking dead zombie, but Christel guided us in the right direction, and after a switch on the metro, we made it to ISEP about 20 minutes early. A good sign of redemption after coming to the welcome dinner an hour and a half late, although there was no one there to appreciate it. We had a wonderful introduction to the french healthcare system by Laurence, our teacher.

We then set off to the bus for an hour long trip to the American Hospital of Paris (Hopital Americain de Paris) in the super chic suburb of Paris called Neuilly. I tried to take some pictures of the sites as we went but I ended up taking a power nap probably about 20 minutes in, after becoming more tired over the course of the class in the morning. But I woke up to the beautiful buildings of Neuilly. Neuilly is basically the pretty biddy of Parisien suburbs, and looked very high end. The hospital itself was very cool too. An American woman working in the development department took us have our free lunch ( I dont think people realize how excited medical students are for free things, especially lunch. Needless to say, this woman was after my own heart). Here's a sweet pic of our classy lunch.

I actually didn't even end up eating it all (still fachee avec moi-meme about that), but it was so good. Then one of the hospital administrateurs, Dr. Dumonts came in and talked to us a bit about the history of the Hospital, and how it works in France. Interestingly enough, there are 8 posts available to American doctors at the hospital (meaning that they don't have to have the european/french qualifications to work in the hospital), but they can rarely fill them. This is generally because it is hard to find Americans who are completely fluent in french, and can work with the patients at the hospital (although it is an american hospital, only about 3% of the patient base is american). We then went to the different wards and places. We went to the maternity ward where the chief mid wife (sage femme) showed us around. In France, midwifery is way more revered than I feel it is in america. But here, you dont really even need an obstetrician to have a baby, just a midwife. I usually think of the midwives in the Mindy Project, so it was cool to see real ones at the hospital and what they do. Also, the maternity was DANK (in the good way). It was basically like a five star hotel room, with a sweet attached room. It almost made me wanna have a baby, and we all know how i feel about pregnancy.

After the American hospital tour, Christel, Susan and I decided to head direction Champs-Elysees, and eventually end up at the Louvre. We got of at the Grand Palais stop and ended spending some time at the exhibits at the Grand Palais. We eventually started walking down the Champs-Elysees, trying hard to avert our eyes from all the SOLDES (sales) signs everywhere. I also thought that the Arc de Triomphe wouldn't be so far away, so we got pretty close, but my feet started hurting. We stopped in a starbucks to try and skimp some wifi (pronouced weefee), but it didnt really work. But then Christel bought the most heavenly macaroons and I literally forgot all of the problems in the world. THAT good. I then decided that I probably couldn't walk anymore/needed to make some google voice calls to the states at a good hour, so I left the girls and headed to the metro.

Christel and Susan

Me and Susan

Roomies!

Grand Palais! Or Petit Palais....I can't remember now

St. Barbe

Barbe and I have zero time for your nonsense

view from a bridge

being silly

All the signs were there, we really should have known that Suarez would try to bite someone lol

manna from heaven

As close as I got to the Arc de Triomphe. But like, I'll obviously be back. I got time

After a delay getting home (there was an RER train stuck at the Cite U exit. typique), I got home and did my phone calls and emails.  Somehow it rolled around to 9pm, but of course, the sun doesn't go down until its hot and ready at 10, so my body didn't understand it, and was suddenly hungry for dinner (again, typique). Christel had just gotten home, and we raced to the maison internationale (which is gorgeous by the way) because we heard there was a special cafe in there with student prices that closed at 21h30. LIES. It closed at 9. But as a reward, we ended up discovering the grand pelouse, the big lawn on the other side of the maison internationale. It was beautiful, and I felt like I was staring down at a huge version of the Lawn. We got food at the crepe and panini stand near by and went back to the grand pelouse to enjoy our food. It really is such a convivial space. Everyone was just chilling, having picnics, playing guitars and singing, and just being perfect.

Grande pelouse!

We ventured back to our room, and I put on a sweater before going to meet my friend Lin from high school for a drink and hang out sesh. Lin and I went to boarding school together, and we haven't actually seen each other in 5 years, cray! Anyway, she passed a huge exam today for her course because she is a beast! She took me to meet some of her friends in the American House where she lived this past year, who were all very lovely and shared some of their food with us. We then went to this cute bar called Fleurus and just caught up a bit on life and everything. Little did I realize that we had ventured out around midnight and then I ended up back at my room around 1:30 or 2. And then of course, for no reason whatsoever, both Christel and I stayed up until around 3. I'm pretty sure I was looking up cheap flights to Croatia or Venice or something haha. But all in all a really really good day :)

hai Lin!

'Vous etes senegalese? congolese? ivoirienne???'- Day 2, Paris

So I woke up to Tony and Simon leaving at 6am to catch a train to Pamplona to run with some bulls (No one could pay me enough to do something like that), and then went back to bed. Cesar then woke me up about 4 hours later and informed me that the free breakfast being served ended in approximately 10 minutes, so I sprang out of bed and we booked it to the dining area of the hostel. There I met my German friend, who used his map to direct me to the Eiffel Tower. After breakfast, I checked out of the hostel, took my bags to the front for storage until later, grabbed my ukulele, and headed towards Champs de Mars by foot. It probably took me about an hour to get there but it was a nice walk. Rain kept threatening, but I'm pretty sure I willed it away. I dont want to type that much, so here's some pictures.

first peek at the tour Eiffel!

looking unimpressed

looking thoroughly impressed

the big and lil tour Eiffel!

the first of many jambon fromage galettes bigger than my head

just a girl and her galette hanging out at the eiffel tower.

So this last picture has a bit of a story. There's always people selling things around this area because there are loads of tourists. I was just minding my own business, playing my ukulele, and for the most part they left me alone. Then two of the venders approached me. 

"Vous etes senegalese?"

 "non"

"Congolese?"

"non"

"Ivoirienne?"

"non je suis Ghanéenne"

Me telling people that I am Ghanaian in French I guess throws them off because Ghana obviously wasn't a French colony haha. But they then asked me to sing and play for them so I did. One of the vendors said 'Vous chantez tres bien' (you sing very well) and then gifted me two Eiffel tower keychains. The other man proposed that I ditch the imaginery boyfriend I made up in America so that he could show me around Paris and take me dancing. I respectfully declined haha. 

Around 3pm, after finishing my time on Champs de Mars by playing some original songs for some Aussies on holiday, I started heading back, so that I could make it for check in at the Cité Universitaire where I would be staying for the month during the program. Its basically student housing for international students, but I feel like there are some local ones as well. Either way, students live in a bunch of different houses with people at different universities all over Paris. Its a really cool idea I think! After checking in and dropping my bags in my room, I briefly met up with my friend Lin from high school who studies here before heading to Nancy's apartment for our welcome event. With my phone dying and my minor brain fart of how to use the metro/tram/RER system, I got there an hour and a half late. But I got there and hadn't actually missed that much, because a lot of people were running late. There I met Nancy, Laurence (our teacher for the medical french courses and the person who had done my interview), the MICEFA intern Babacar, and the 7 other students that would be doing the program with me. We were also joined by two french general practitioners who gave us an overview of the french health care system and the type of things that we will see during our small internships. Its a completely different beast out here, but its pretty well known that France is considered to have one of the best healthcare systems. I'm super eager to dive into it. After the more formal interactions, we broke for a bit of wine and finger food, because why the hell not, this is France haha. Everyone seems really nice and super intelligent, and I was very impressed by everyone's level of French. Not that I'm super great or anything (on the contrary, I haven't had it as a constant presence in my life like I had during college), but I dont think anyone else was a French major like I was. Interestingly enough, a lot of us have ties of some sort to either Haiti or West Africa, which is pretty legit.  Afterwards, Christel, my roommate, and I headed back to the CitéU to grab a bite to eat and watch the US vs Belgium match. We were dead tired halfway through and ended up leaving and finishing watching the game in our room. Of course we didn't go to bed until past 2 though, for no good reason at all haha. But it was a solid day, and we set alarms to get ready for our first class the next morning at 10.

I think that's it haha.

"Wait...so like, you DONT spend your free time listening to ABBA?" - Day 1, Paris

So really, the adventure began on Sunday evening. Frank, best older brother and gracious host for the week in Ghana, saw me right up to immigration and then we parted ways. I sat and watched some of the Greece vs Costa Rica game with Johnny, one of Frank's friends who was traveling back to England for a holiday/to meet with his PhD director or something of similar importance. When we had finally boarded and settled in, we hear a voice from the ominous sky tell us that there was a bag on the plane that shouldn't have been there (...how tho) so they had to remove all of the bags from the plane. pas bon fromage. We ended up leaving an hour late, which was super convenient for my hour long layover. Stupid. I decided I was going to deal with it later and just enjoy the movies on the plane. First I watched  'That Awkward Moment' which is probably the stupidest title for a movie ever, but despite not being revolutionary in any way, I very much enjoyed it. Michael B. Jordan is easily my one true love, and the interplay between him, Zac Efron and Miles Teller was great. I then watched a strange Irish movie with Andrew Scott, known for playing Moriarty in the Sherlock series. It was also a bit formulaic and wonky, but had some super quirky and bright spots that made it a fun watch.

British Airways did the damn thing and sorted me out on the next flight out to Paris, which was wonderful. Blah blah blah, got to Paris, and that's where all of the swamp-back (copious amounts of sweat) decided to reintroduce itself into my life. I dragged my super heavy suitcase halfway across the airport, searching furiously for a Relay (Its a little store) so that I could buy a new SIM card. After that small success, I decided that there was no way I was taking the train anywhere with my suitcases, and found a nice man to taxi me to my hostel for the night. We carried the whole conversation out in French, and talked about soccer, medicine, and life in general. According to him, my life essentially is going to end at 25 if I haven't snatched up a nice boy who doesn't care that I'm a doctor, so that was super encouraging. I got to the hostel and settled in a bit. I met Cesar, one of the people sharing my room. Cesar was sweet Colombian man who was in Europe for the first time, embarking on an epic Eurotrip. He left two little Colombian chocolates on everyone's bed and said in the most adorable broken english (side note, he spoke no french nor english haha. But I used my working knowledge of Shakira and Juanes songs to figure out the things that he just couldn't translate) that they were a way of welcoming us to France. Had I known we were doing this type of stuff, I would have saved the scraps from my pre-departure Chipotle and given it to him haha, but what can ya do.

First pic in Paris!

went on a walk

A nearby park overlooking the street

3/4 of the roommates for the night! 

a view from my window of the 15th arr

another view from my window

I hadn't even done anything particularly french, but it all still felt a bit surreal. I went to grab a bit of food before the France game that night, and returned about halfway through it, stopping at cafes and staring in at the screens that were broadcasting it like a mad woman. Thankfully I wasn't the only one though haha.

I ended up watching that game and the Germany-Algerie game with my new friends, whose names I now realize I dont know at all (and never will lol). But there was a very nice German, a Brazilian, and an American from Atlanta. The German found two other Germans at the hostel and they obnoxiously (in the best way) cheered their team on to victory. The game probably ended around 12:30am, but there is a weird thing in France where the sun doesn't even set until like, 10pm. So my sleep and eating schedule even for just that day was already all out of sorts. I was tired from the stress of watching Algeria almost win and then sadly not (ya gotta admit, they would have totally deserved it), but not tired enough to go to bed just yet. I got a bottle of water from the front desk, and ended up meeting the two remaining roommates, Tony and Simon from Sweden (I had originally guessed Norway). We chatted for a while and then I went upstairs. I started my usually nightly routine of searching for any and all celebrity gossip, when Simon walked in. We talked for a bit, and I proceeded to grill him about all things Swedish and Scandinavian. Sadly, he wasn't a bit fan of any of the Swedish music that I liked (no Erik Hassle, and more importantly, no Robyn - like...how?), and apparently Swedes not enjoy going to dance clubs that only play ABBA as much as I hoped they did. I dont think it took him very long to figure out my incredibly cheesy taste in music and extreme (non, vraiment extreme) passion for power pop music haha. But he did end up introducing me to some sweet folk-bluesy type Swedish music by a guy named Daniel Norgren.

How cool is that?? I never expected this kind of  sound, but it was a pleasant surprise! He also educated me on funny and a little bit weird Norwegian Kollektivet. I guess they do similar videos to the people that did 'What does the fox say.' Here is an example where they brag about the size of their larger alphabet.

And another where they lament the struggle of being a guy and always having to be the big spoon (I categorically disagree with the idea that little spoon is better, but that's a debate for another day). 

Basically, this had me thinking that my next European adventure should be based in Scandinavia, because the music is surprisingly soulful, and the people are maybe as weird as I am. Parf.

But for now, Paris is my work station and most likely my playground as well!