Belle Catastrophe

This Blog has moved!

Hey all! It’s been a great adventure BelleCatastrophe. But recently I’ve felt a little out of sorts with wordpress.  Also I got a free TypePad account :)

From now on I will be blogging from  www.mahface.com.

I’m really excited about this new blogging adventure as it is a joint project between my youngest sister, Chelsey  and I.

So happy reading and see you over at MahFace :)

Bikes in Reims

We really want to get bikes for next.  As three of us are toying with the idea to spend our second year in Reims, France the idea of settling down and in seems to be going around in all our heads.

When we came last semester we came with an air of uncertainty, the knowledge that we would be splitting our time between Reims and Paris; thus moving 6 months through.  There was also the uncertainty of staying for the second year: we asked ourselves, “would we stay?, would we pass?, would we want to?”. As exam results came in last week we  answered “would we pass?” and now are faced with the remaining two questions.

I want a bike, so does that indirectly mean I want to stay?  I like the idea of biking around Reims, just small enough to not be killed by traffic, and just small enough to not be a taxing endeavor .  Staying for the second year means things are going to heat up scholastically.  We will have a 80-100 page thesis due, a 20 page report on our internship, and a new battery of seemingly impossible exams.  But I also have our student council group to look forward to, the optimization of French skills, and also a chance to avoid a December graduation.

All in all it also comes back to: “Do I want to go back to Boston?”

Visitors

I love when people visit. It really makes me happy that people have come to see me this year.  My first visitor was my friend Laura who I met up with when I went to Lyon.  She is a school friend/old roommate/adored individual.  Followed closely by little Chelsey, who adventured around Paris and Barcelona with me with a great amount of flair and fun on bikes and on public transport.  Then Lana came who brought bagels and happiness and very importantly scrabble!  On her heels were Krista and then Vincent - two friends from my year in Lyon.

It’s nuts how many people you connect with in the various adventures in life.  When I was little my mom used to always get mad at me because I would have new “best friends” every other week. I was known for bringing a friend home a bunch of times and then finding someone else and doing the exact same thing.  But one thing is for sure, no matter where I have been I always have my close friend - my friend I can count on, can make any joke too and also have a good time with whatever the circumstances.  Luckily even though I’ve gone to a few different schools in my life and met a lot of new people I still keep in contact with my favorite people from each step of my life.

Because I believe you should hold onto the good things. I believe that you should keep in contact religiously with the people who matter most and who also have a good sense of humor and witty social commentary.  Whether it be dropping in a christmas card or shooting over an email nothing feels better than knowing that you are connected with a group of amazing people who like literary terms as much as you do.

I was video chatting with Lana tonight and I realized that I hadn’t uploaded our photos from her visit.  I was so glad to see her and it was a really awesome visit :).  Her photos made me think of how great my friends are.

The best hour I ever lost

Since Sunday  I feel like I have been living. Since Sunday I haven’t stopped smiling. Since Sunday there has been sunlight.  I got out of work today and there was still sunlight at 7 pm just till about 830 - there was wonderful light streaming through the windows.

I feel like things are so wonderful; that nothing can go wrong. It gives me perspective, hope and makes me feel glorious all at the same time.

I never realized that I was feeling down until I started feeling this good.

Another Northeastern News Article

This is another thing I wrote for the Northeastern News; it was published today. Enjoy!

Editor’s note: This letter was submitted before Easter and therefore discusses the holiday in the future tense.I’ve been a practicing vegetarian for nearly three years, but this year for Easter I will be, strangely enough, roasting a rack of lamb. Call it tolerance, call it bad luck or even call it homesickness. Somewhere between 11:30 p.m. and midnight Thursday my roommates and I decided we needed to have an Easter meal for our group of friends abroad here in Paris, and that of course included: a rack of lamb.
I’m not even religious, but I still get excited when I see splendorous holiday tchotchies lining the windows near each appropriate holiday. Oh yes, holiday delight is international, so there is never a worry about missing junk decorations (that, let’s be honest, make us all smile inside).

This isn’t the first dinner we’ve had in the sheer name of keeping things together and familiar. Last November, 35 of our collective friends gathered into my bedroom (cleared of all furniture and replaced with tables and chairs from various apartments) and gave thanks - some for the first time. That night we created something powerful, something a bit bigger than ourselves, as we gathered together on such a traditionally American holiday. One of the guys got to cut the turkey for the first time - a job typically reserved for the patriarch of his family.

A lot of times we’ve laughed at the idea of our expatriate community and the fact that we are pulling something together for the sake of normalcy you get only when you smell your mom’s best dish cooking in the oven. Yet holiday after holiday we are seen piecing together something our mothers and grandmothers would be proud of, searching for that same feeling we scoff at when we are feeling brave and a bit more removed.

No one wants to admit they are homesick. I haven’t been home for Easter in four years, so I am not new to slightly burnt entrees and less-than-traditional presentations at the novice dinner table, but even so, I still wish I could spend every single holiday with my family.I guess you could say I’ve been slightly homesick for almost four years at this point.

It’s a dull ache you deal with and sometimes you even roast a rack of lamb to numb it.

- Brittany Blackmon is an international business major on co-op in Paris. She is also the worst vegetarian ever.

Joyeuses Pâques

Petite Anglaise

I went to a book reading the other night to hear a British blogger that has written a book inspired by her blog. It was a really good time as we were given glasses of champagne and then the opportunity to have our books signed.

You can check out her blog here.

I also bought a lovely copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It has gilded pages.

I forgot to mention this

Back in February, I wrote a letter to the editor at Northeastern News and my friend being the editor ;) they published it.

All-Hail: Northeastern News

Classes, Co-op abroad: An education

I’m on day three of exams in France (that’s five tests down and three more to go this week). I’m pretty sure the aching nausea that I’ve been carrying around for the last three weeks is starting to go away, but at this point of sleep deprivation and European treaty overload, nothing is certain.

I came to Reims Management School about five months ago with two suitcases, an oversized backpack and no place to live. Fast-forward and you’ll see me getting ready to move again in 3 days to Paris.

I love France and I love my school here. I love that when I walk through the hallways about three or four languages can be heard and the school is small enough that things aren’t extremely overwhelming. But there’s something even bigger than that: it’s the camaraderie. It’s the fact that every student here is going through what I’m going through right now, or went through it two years ago. There’s a support system of students always ready to help out because they understand that things are difficult. I don’t know how many of you are totally familiar with the Northeastern international business program, but it’s one that gives students the opportunity to spend one to two years in a foreign partner school. We take the classes in the country’s language, the exams in the country’s language and to top it all off we do our co-op in the country’s language.

Today, with two weeks until I start my co-op, I can honestly say I’ve completed more interviews in French than I have in English; I’ve been asked more ridiculous marketing interview questions in French than I have been asked in English; and I even have a job to go to in two weeks. I can officially only do accounting in French and you would think French and English accounting are very similar, but I can promise you they are not. I’m pretty sure I can only explain the Neo-Classics to you in French, and if you asked me to tell you when the Louisiana Purchase happened I would mention that Europe had its largest expansion in 2004. English words come a little slower today and my mind mingles French and English freely, with me just turning French words into English, and half the time I’m unsure what language I’m speaking.

I’ve studied more these last two weeks than I ever did at Northeastern and I’ve honestly never been challenged this much in my life. There’s a joke here about some of the German students in our school who tend to know every answer to every question asked and walk around speaking in fluent French; if you know the date of an economic theory, you can bet that the German sitting next to you knows the date, the author and probably his date of birth and death. That’s how nuts school is here.

Today, I took a three-hour exam and managed to fill out just six pages with my large sprawling handwriting; the French kid next to me had nine and looked to be going at a steady pace. I’ve never been so chock full of economic theory and European theory in my life, but that’s pittance compared to what my European neighbors in class can spout out. They rattle off dates and places of treaties like it is second nature, they spout off economic theory like it is small talk and boy do they put my English to shame.

But I’m learning a lot and, hey, we get a chance to retake our exams in three months if we fail. Evidently, last year’s American average was four retakes. I’m hoping to only have to do two.

- Brittany Blackmon is a junior international business, French and marketing major and is studying abroad in France.

Wow, I’m back

It took us over a month for us to get Internet. We started the long process on February 12 and the little button on our livebox stopped blinking yesterday the 14th.

What a hassle.

But I’m here. In Paris. You’ve caught me at my pseudo one month anniversary and things have been happening at our little apartment.

First off, my apartment will be herein referred to as the Penthouse, because it takes me 7 flights of stairs to get there and it is wonderfully grand. I like it. My bed takes up my entire room so it is more like sleeping on the floor every night than anything. It is also incredibly low to the ground which makes it interesting. I like it though, and I fall asleep nestled between a garden of ikea flower. My room is cute.

The Penthouse is working out quite well. We are all interning at various parts in and out of Paris, and its been a whirlwind of commuting learning the ropes and settling in. I took a week off before I started my internship to grab so much needed rest. But I didn’t end up resting too much. It was more getting things done, being hassled with Penthouse necessities and dealing with our sexy landlord.

My internship is great. I get to do all my work on a Mac which is brilliant and exciting and fun. I’m in charge of a lot of stuff that I am interested in and this week I really started to feel like I was getting a feel for the numbers. I’m doing search engine marketing coupled with affiliate marketing and then whatever else I can get my hands on. It’s cool work and it’s for an even cooler company. I dig it.

We’ve been baking a lot. Since we’ve moved in, we’ve made:

• chocolate chip cookies
• scones
• 2 birthday cakes
• cookie cake

Pretty exciting stuff. We have a nice little oven and it is getting used all the time. Last night we had a little dinner party where we made a gorgeous lasagna and had some smashing salad.

Paris is different in a big way. When we were in Reims our little community was so close together and now were are spread out among the arrondissements of Paris. Its been interesting to see the effort we make to hang out and be together. Its inspiring in a community centric way and to be honest, I love it.

Paris: One week

I’m moving to Paris in a week.  But it isn’t going to be a week of lounging and having a splendid time with friends.  Well, it will most likely include that at some point as this morning started off with a pancake extravaganza and last night was a lasagna gathering, but tomorrow: exams begin.

I will be taking 8 exams this week.  One on Monday and Friday and Tuesday-Thursday it will be two exams a day.  I don’t know if I’m ready.  Honestly, I’ve been studying like mad and I’m not the type of person who studys like this.  I’m the type that will absorb throughout the semester and somehow do really well at the end of it all, but I do that in my first language: English.

I’ve been going over pages and pages of notes and classpacks. . . sifting through the European expansion, Trade finance interest rates, and company strategy.  But its all coming down to tomorrow: the beginning. But really its the beginning of the end as on Friday night I will be packing for Paris. Saturday, the van leaves at 10.  By 3pm we should be at Ikea purchasing the most exciting and delightful items ever as new bedding is needed for larger beds and other household items.

Next Sunday, I will be sleeping in my new Paris bed; falling asleep to the shadows of Paris lights.