First impressions and expectations vs. reality…
My first week in Paris was definitely a lot more relaxed than my experiences in Amsterdam. I like how close our learning center is to where we are staying, and the consistency of where we are based; this has allowed me to take more time to not only rest, but also reflect deeply. Traveling to new places, meeting new people and even spending time with a group of 10 students from the US has led me to some pondering thoughts and interesting reflections. The travel experience has enabled me to learn a lot about myself, where I am now, where I would like to be, and being in a beautiful, more relaxed city, like Paris, has helped me to think about all this.
Having adored the Netflix show ‘Emily in Paris’, I had a lot of positive expectations for the city. Some of my take-aways so far are that:
- The food in Paris is the best food I have ever tried. Some of my favorite things are a cheese panini (location Presto Pizza – they use fresh pizza dough for it), fresh made noodles from Noodle Corner, sushi (somewhere nearby the Eiffel tower), and croissants (from anywhere, they’re all delicious!).
- The city feels safe, it is less ‘wild’ than Amsterdam, and has more of a slow-paced environment. I think the reason for this is that Amsterdam is smaller and more concentrated, and so all the young tourists go to the same place, whereas Paris is more spread out.
- The fruit stores are super plentiful and abundant around the city. I love fruit so this is an aspect of Paris that I relish to the fullest. I have tried nectarines, raspberries and blueberries. I am looking forward to trying more.
- Parisians are fashionable. I aspire to develop their sense of fashion, and there is lots of opportunity for this with all the thrift stores, countless shopping malls and lavish luxury brands around the city.
- The architecture is exclusive to that of other countries. In particular, I like how the apartments all have balconies and are situated above the businesses on the ground floor – Parisians have heavenly views for sure. Another aspect of the architecture I appreciate is the floral restaurants you can find all around the city. My favorite one so far that I look forward to trying out is the ‘La Favorite Saint-Paul’ Brasserie.
- Something I didn’t expect is the river that meanders through the whole city.
Memorable memories…
There are so many things going on in Paris right now, which I am grateful to be a part of. I will never forget last Wednesday – the music festival day. There were DJ stands all around the city, and in the front of restaurants and take-out stores. As a group we went to see several of these and had a great time listening to French music. There is also currently Paris fashion week; I was impressed by the Louis Vuitton displays nearby the river and the Louvre. My favorite experience was visiting the Eiffel Tower; I feel like I chose the perfect day – it was hot (35°c) and the sky was completely clear, which meant great views. I was surprised to see that most of the architecture in Paris is white/ cream; I thought it was more of a beige color. Also, I couldn’t find the elevator to go down after I had finished observing the view, and so I had to take the stairs. This was very tiring but worth it, because I discovered the restaurant and cafe on the 1st floor, and I got some pizza (with a view!).
Looking forward to…
- Check out the music concerts this week, in particular I am excited to see the DJ set by Ofenbach.
- See the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris (Sacré-Cœur Basilica).
- Walk around the Luxembourg Gardens.
- Visit the area of where ‘Emily in Paris’ was filmed.
- Take a trip to the Dôme des Invalides. Interestingly, I wouldn’t have known about this originally, but I actually saw the building from the Eiffel Tower – it really stood out with its unique golden dome amongst the white and cream structures.
- Shopping!!!
French Teamwork…
One of the class experiences I most enjoyed was shopping for prototype materials today. My group decided to go further and take the metro several stops. This gave us the chance to explore a new area of the city, and I found a unique shopping mall called ‘Passage du Havre’, which I hope to return to sometime. One of the questions my team still needs to answer is: ‘will purchasing and using the watch straps (as a means of holding the baguette in place) work effectively?’. We are unsure about whether the straps will be available, whether they will be the right size and also if two straps will be enough. These puzzling questions arose from our prototype test. We tried to cut a baguette with a knife and using just our non-dominant arm, and realized that the baguette was moving around too much. Possibly, our mitre box will be strong/ adjustable enough to hold the bread in place.
In terms of my personal contributions to the process, one of my strengths was sketching various prototypes for my team. I also generated a lot of the ideas, and added detailed, valuable information to our research document. I also participated very actively in the discussions that led to the formation of our chosen prototype. The part of the process I enjoyed most was generating ideas, as I am passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship. One of my struggles was ensuring that I didn’t jump straight to a chosen, final prototype. This class has helped me to learn that it is important to go through an iterative design process. I wanted to choose one idea straightaway because I thought it was the best, but after deliberations with my type and the sketching of multiple prototypes, I realized that the idea that seems the best at first probably isn’t the best final idea.
To future temporary Parisians…
The advice I would give to future students on the program is to not let the burn out get to you, keep going and make the most of your time in the city.
