Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Le Deuxième Jour

Yesterday we started our orientation at ESCP (École Supérieure Commerce de Paris) and got our syllabus for the week. We have a bunch of seminars geared toward us better understanding French business, so we have classes all this week (but not thereafter) in French-style management, French institutions, and business debates within the European Union.

In the evening, I just took care of some random errands like buying a go-phone from Orange Mobile. The saleswoman flat-out refused to speak to me in English when I asked “Est-ce que nous pouvons parler en Anglais s’il vous plaît?” so I had to conduct the entire conversation in French. My ability to listen to it has gotten pretty bad, so I hope that I didn’t overpay or get the totally wrong plan. I also found a BNP Paribas down on Rue Rivoli that I’ll use to get my cash from and went to the pharmacy for some sinus medicine. The air composition here is really weird and I haven’t been able to breathe through my nose since I landed.

We met a couple Swiss MBA students in our program and met them for beers at O’Sullivan’s irish pub right by our place and the Centre Pompidou. Happy hour was Kronenbourg pints for only 4€; halleluiah! I was told when I ordered that I had an excellent French accent, and one of the Swiss guys told me that my order in German was pretty good too. Now if I could just apply those accents and learn the actual languages…

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