A Plaid Fall

  
A quick picture of what I actually wore the other night. Let me remind everyone that it is getting cold in Paris and bare legs are no longer possible unless you plan on spending the day and night indoors in a well-heated building. Shame.
I went out for a quiet night of conversation and drinks whilst cafe hopping and discovering more of Bastille than I knew. I wish the weather weren’t so disagreeable. I’m less inclined to go outside, but I feel like I must. I’m one of those people who probably suffer from winter depression. I live for hot summers, for the sun warming my skin. I need shorts and dresses without needing to rummage around for tights. I don’t like bulky coats. I’m a sweater girl. And I only like sweaters because I hate feeling cold, so even if the wind is blowing on a hot summer day, I probably am wearing a sweater (with shorts). Anyways…what I would like to have worn:

See how much saucier the outfit becomes sans opaque black tights? I mean, look at those poses! Fierceness at every angle! Okay, I’m going to stop that. But these two different versions on the outfit represent my current struggle with the American University of Paris. (I’m only writing out the full name so that when prospective students search for the school, they will happen upon this blog post and perhaps take my perspective seriously.)

  
So many of the students don’t take their education here seriously. I guess if the parents are fronting the bill in its entirety and also your play money to go partying, shopping, etc…you don’t have to concentrate on graduating with excellent scores. You don’t have to think about job offers when your parents will be offering you a job or paying for you the rest of your life. Whatever. (And this is not a generalization. There are a lot of kids who stay focused even if they don't have to think about money. It's just depressing how many kids are in that position and seem to see this whole experience as a vacation.) There’s a wall of student mailboxes in the main building. They’re like cubbies, so it’s all public for the most part. You don’t need keys or anything like that, just grab your mail. The most wondrous thing happened last week. The students were given letters of warning, informing them that they were making a C- or lower in a (few) courses. Many, if not the majority, of those mailboxes had a warning letter. Flabbergasted sadness (yes, I went there). These classes are not back-breakingly difficult. If you’re present in the class and actually go over your notes, you should be passing. But it’s surprising how many people don’t show up for class, or sleep through it if they are present. You’d think I would be rewarded for being a motivated student. No. This is not the case.

I want to take a graduate course. Comparative Law. It’s a core graduate course, and apparently is also a course preceded by a Public International Law course currently being taught this semester by the same professor who is teaching my International Law course. The head of the International Politics department informed me that I could not take this course for the above reasons. I made it clear to her that I would work very hard in this course and that I am very familiar with international and EU law based on the courses that I have a taken in the past. Of course, she ignores this. I emailed her again to further explain myself, but I’m guessing that she’s on vacation where there is no access to her AUP email account (sarcasm). I have a genuine interest in this course, and yet, this woman wants to give me problems when I ask to take it? I don’t get it. Many of the students at your school don’t give two shits about their education. But this woman wants to give me a rough time because I care about mine? The alternative she gives me? International Criminal Law. Unfortunately, that’s not what I am interested in. I want to take a course comparing civil and common law systems because I want to know where I would like to practice law if I don’t want to study both. I mean….I’ve got 99 problems. And this is one of them.



This is just one of the reasons why AUP probably cannot get a ton of money from alumni. How can I feel loyal to a school that is giving me such a hard time? How am I supposed to love this school when each time I talk about it, I find myself saying that the location is why AUP is so great. The school itself? I don’t know. I want to say I need more time to think about it, but even if I do get to take this course, I don’t think my feelings for the university will change. I love Paris, and I love some of the students, but the school…it needs some work.

 

Yes, I think these pictures reflect how my situation currently is, and what I want it to be. It’s just disappointing to be somewhere that you absolutely love, only to keep encountering these frustrating obstacles.

  

And because I feel like I’ve written too much about my school situation, I’ll do a separate post on the actual clothes, because I did some “creative” styling that I want to share! That’s the one thing that I love about my style. Even though I may have the same dinky clothes from year to year, I force myself to try and make them look different. Oh, and new shoes, scarf! I want to share them too :-)

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