Sciences Po - First impressions

So I have arrived in Paris and yesterday was the first day of the Welcome Programme for international students. It's so nice to be in Paris because I had forgotten how completely beautiful it is. This is the view from the apartment that mum and I have rented on Airbnb for a week:

... Just in case you weren't quite sure you were in Paris! 

The apartment is great, really spacious, with stunning views, and only a 15 minute walk from Sciences Po, so it's a perfect location while I do the welcome week and hunt for somewhere more permanent to live. However it is ridiculously hot in Paris at the moment and finding somewhere to live is proving rather difficult so that's not so perfect.

Anyway, yesterday was the first day of the welcome programme. I arrived in the morning and there was coffee and croissants and then we had talks by the director of Sciences Po, the dean, and various other student societies. The 'directeur', Frédéric Mion, was so suave and cool and charming in his speech, and he is apparently very popular with students which I can completely understand! He just seemed so much more 'with-it' than the Vice Chancellor of Warwick, our dear old Nige Thrifty, the contrast was ridiculous. So that first introduction to Sciences Po impressed me because if its run by someone who seems so cool it must be a cool place to study. 

The rest of the day we spent in our groups having a campus tour, because there are several different buildings in the similar area which make up Sciences Po. It's hard to explain quite how in the middle of the city it is, but as an example, there is literally a Paul Smith shop on the corner of the Sciences Po main 27 rue Saint-Guillaume building, and a Louboutin just round the corner in the next road. It's right off of the boulevard Saint-Germain and so it is completely in the heart of Paris which is amazing. It does make me wander if i'm going to ever switch out of travel mode and into study mode but we will see. The buildings are the same beautiful old architecture that just characterises Paris and is such a stark contrast to the ugly concrete 1960s buildings that make up most of Warwick. Sciences Po doesn't have its on sports facilities like Warwick, there's way less student societies (and no cheerleading squads) but it has working wifi which is about the only similarity to Warwick. I think it will be interesting to see how the academics differ/are the same once I start my lectures on Monday 31st August. 

Below shows the 'campus' map and also the entrance to their main building: 

  

Before the welcome programme started I didn't really know what to expect, I knew there would obviously be lots of international students and so I wasn't really surprised when everyone was speaking to each other in English. Everyone is so friendly though and it's amazing how far people have come compared to my 2 hour train journey from London. There are lots of australians/americans here on exchange and although we're all native english speakers we have all come to Paris with the same goal of learning french, we're all going to be studying in french, it's just difficult to enforce french amongst ourselves. Hopefully as we start lectures we will meet some actual french people but so far the only new word I have learnt is "arvo" which is Australian for afternoon!

I don't have anymore activities as part of the welcome programme this week so i'm going to continue searching for an apartment with mum and we did a bit of exploring the Montparnasse area this morning which I'll blog about in the next post. This evening I'm going to meet up with some of the girls I met yesterday and I think our plan is to sit somewhere along the Seine and drink wine. We're basically already Parisian. 

P.S. IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WITH A SPARE ROOM TO RENT IN PARIS N'HESITEZ PAS A ME CONTACER. SVP. 

Beautiful Birmingham

At the weekend I visited Birmingham, less than half an hour by train from Coventry and less than £3 return ticket. Birmingham is the second biggest city in the UK and whilst this wasn't the first time I had been, the last time was for the National Student Apprentice and I didn't have that much time to explore. 

The city, on a sunny blue sky day, is actually quite beautiful (even if the locals of Birmingham are not so beautiful). 

Here are the gorgeous regal buildings that I was in for the Apprentice Challenge, they look even better with the blue sky back drop: 

I believe they are the Town hall (first photo) and the Council House (second photo). When we were looking up things we could do in Birmingham one of the options google found us was a 'Council House Tour'. I was confused as to why anyone would want a tour of council housing, but now I realise it meant this beautiful building and it makes a lot more sense! 

Contrast these old buildings with those more new and architecturally interesting like this one below and Birmingham makes for a visually really exciting city. 

Here's my OOTD for this hot and sunny day, something of a rarity here in England, as you can tell by my lack of tan...

Top: Hollister 

Shorts: Forever 21

Shoes: Converse

Bag: Marc by Marc Jacobs

Sunglasses: Stella McCartney 

Spectacular sunset

This evening I decided to go for a run, which was a complete disaster because I can't run and after about 5 minutes I was sweaty and walking. But I  did get some absolutely beautiful photos of the sunset, all taken on my humble iphone 4s. 

I think they pretty much speak for themselves, and while being on a campus in the middle of nowhere is often really boring when you get to see stunning sunsets like this it is completely worth it. 

Healthy breakfast, healthy mind

Last night I had toast for dinner because I didn't have any other food. It was wholemeal bread, and whilst I enjoy the healthiness of wholemeal bread it is not the most enjoyable as toast. So last night at about 11pm, with the prospect of having that same bland wholemeal toast for breakfast weighing on my shoulders, I decided to walk to Tesco and buy myself a healthy, tasty breakfast. 

It's amazing how peaceful the world is at that time. I saw a few sleeping ducks, a wide awake fox, a couple of munching bunnies. Warwick is so wonderfully in the middle of nowhere and although it's often very boring I also often feel a lot like Snow White surrounded by all my animal friends. 

Campus actually looks pretty cool at night, lights in the darkness, all the studious people studying away in the library until the early hours. Quite surreal almost, the calmness of the dark, the distant lights... 

Tesco, might I add, is even more surreal at 11pm. My local superstore is open 24 hours and as it approaches midnight they turn up the radio over the store speakers and it kind of turns into a party. Except that the shoppers, of which there are few, are half asleep, and the workers wide awake. There is food everywhere too, boxes stacked in the asiles ready to be unpacked. I was kind of amazed that all this happens every night whilst i'm fast asleep- madness. 

Anyway so I went to Tesco and below you can see the fruits of my labour (literally) that I enjoyed for breakfast this morning. Berries and pancakes and maple syrup and more berries in a smoothie.

Berries make such great pictures for instagraming but my flatmate (who has the skinniest hands for a guy) was determined to ruin my photo but as it is my most liked recent photo on instagram I think I win.

What can I say, my breakfast brings all the boys to the yard.

New style of revision

Decided to try out a new 'style' of revision and note making before my exam today (see below). 

I thought by combining my notes with some little sketches it might help me remember things. Not really sure if that was the best idea I've ever had or really more a new form of procrastination. 

However my exam this afternoon for my management, organisation and society module wasn't too bad and i'm pretty confident (hopefully) that this won't be a retake. 

Thank you fashion. 

If anyone would like further information on either ethics or power in a business context, theories and case studies relating to these I am at your service. 

Chill time

So I had an exam today and it went surprisingly OK. I won't have got 100% but I am pretty confident that I won't have to retake it either (phew!).
As a reward to myself and a way to chill out post-exam I have taken to net-a-porter and dreamed up a gorgeous floral-y, pastel-y summer outfit to lust after.

This Jonathon Saunders emroidered satin bomber jacket is literally the bomb and is so great it's sold out online.

I had an english teacher at school called Mrs Saunders, I wonder if she was related to Jonathon... maybe she can get me a discount?

Oh to be rich enough to shop on Net-a-porter *sighs*
























http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/399166/See_by_Chloe/tiered-cotton-faille-mini-skirt

http://www.net-a-porter.com/product/432552/Jonathan_Saunders/cecily-embroidered-satin-bomber-jacket

Me again...

I am well aware that it has been several months since I last blogged and for that I am very sorry. I hope that you can forgive me and that we can move on as friends. New year, new start and all that.

So anyway, a lot has changed for me since I was sunning myself in the South of France back in August and I am now definitely not sunning myself in the very grey and un-sunny West Midlands. I am uncertain why I have decided to start blogging again now but it may have something to do with an essay I am trying desperately to avoid and my hangover.

I pledge, from now, to continue to blog on a regular basis and to keep you updated with all the fun and games that I get up to at university, as well as the not so fun but no less interesting work.

Here is are some pictures of yesterday's WOW sunset:

And here is a picture taken today:

Thank you british weather for being so bipolar.