September 30

I woke up early to help Swift move his stuff from Cité universitaire to Voltaire, in 11th arrondissement. Many people also came. His new a 18m² appartement is located at rez de chaussé (ground floor), equipped with a kitchen, a toilet, a bed and a desk.

Before meeting Daoul at 11h30. I bought a baguette, cut meticulously in 1 cm slices and a slice of Saint Agur cheese, with its strong flavor and strong smell and green. The Sacré Cœur is dazzling, but unfortunately I lost my umbrella at Montmartre.

I had a really intellectual conversation with Alexandre tonight at the cuisine in the dorm. We talked about courses, French history, French social class, Opera, music, instruments, European and so on. He is an eloquent and erudite typical French college student.

After dinner, I took my time at the Science po library with the new Imac. I have never thought of that my dream computer is in front of me at my disposal in my dream city. What a nice combination!

September 29

The sunshine finally shone on Paris once more. This morning I went to the new library in Science PO. On entrance, I was impressed by the bright and spacious information room, especially the 20 inch imac equipped. After printing all the documents I needed, I went back to the foyer to prepare my lunch. I was happy to receive the CAF in my mail box. With the allocation number and code provided, I accessed to the website. Hopefully the allocation can be reimbursed pretty soon.

I made the best use of my time during lunch break to review the documents for littérature et économie. For this course, I read the through documents provided by the professor and the notes a classmate gave me to be better prepared for the lecture. The lecture itself was as lulling as usual, with the professor's weak and fast French, and not clearly organised monologue. I made my best to get through the end of the class and took as much note as I could.

Without much understanding, I was assigned to do a oral presentation with an American classmate, who I thought to be French before talking to him. I also had the chance to talk to the Chinese girl in my class coming from Pekin University, for she needed someone to help her laptop with some set up problems.

After dinner I had a walk with Sebastien, and we talked a lot in French. Coming back, I spent a lot of time writing diary and cleaning up the room.

September 28

In the cold and gloomy morning conference starting from 8h, I made my first presentation at Science Po. With the title of Régionalisme ou régionalismes, the presentation includes a 10 minute oral presentation and 5 minute card showing related to the subject. The process flowed quite smoothly, to some extent, except for weak arguments and some blunders/hesitation due to lacking of preparation. If there were not for Sebastien, my neighbor in the foyer, I could not have done with the arguments and outline for my report. He is a the kind of good friends that you can always count on and confide in.

I felt so relieved after the presentation, and went the class of European social policies with a rather good mood. After lunch I took a nice nap, even the temperature at the room is so cold. Before my class starting from 17h, I went to BNP and got my credit card. Everything went incredibly smooth today.

After class I had a nice gathering and conversation with the seminars in the Séminaire des Carmes. To my surprise, they are easy to get along with and not as rigorous as they appear to be. After the embarassing breakfasts in the refectory every morning for nearly a month, I can finally feel at ease and talk with them. Then I had a sumptuous Hongkong dumpling dinner at Eva's place near Vaneau station, 10 minutes away from my dorm. Eva is a kind and easy going lady from Hongkong, and I met her through Her house is really beautiful and warm like those appearing in the Japanese television show. Also her dog nikita is so cute!

Indeed, there are bad times and good times in life, but all these good moments can always keep going on. I believe there will be even more good moments to come!

September 22

How time flies. It's been one year for mid-autumn barbecue at Yichun's house, where I met many interesting people and had a really good time even though it rained. This year I am in Paris, having a picnic with many new friends from Taiwan, China, and Hongkong. Even though we are not with our beloved ones in Taiwan, but because of this new connection here, I feel a warm current flowing from the bottom of my heart. Specially thanks for Alice and Catherine for organizing these picnics and all those who participated this. After all, what really matter for all these festivals is to unite people together.

Sep 11- 12

This weekend was marvelous. On Saturday I went shopping with my Taiwanese friends Otis and Sophie and had lunch at Sophie's place. She lives in a CROUS residence near Olympia metro station, a nice and bright 20m2 room equipped with a kitchen and a bathroom. We visited China town after a sumptuous spaghetti lunch. To my surprise, the food in China town is not cheap as I imagined, my favorite korean instant noodle cost 20 cent more here. Maybe it's have become a tourist spot. But stil it is interesting to see all these Chinese culture in Paris, which somehow lessen my homesickness. On Sunday morning I went to Hillsong Paris with Chanel, my Taiwanese friend from NYU. I was lucky to get a free hillsong Tshirt when the pastor asking if anyone would like to have it. Even with my hand raising immediate after that request I still didn't catch it, but the young lady behind me kindly gave it to me, which made me so grateful. The day was closed by a dinner gathering, organized by my French classmate Connie at her dormroom in ENS Cachan, near RER B Bagneux, along with three other Taiwanese students. After two weeks in Paris, smilingly she said, my cooking skill improved rapidly. Indeed, the boeuf bouillon du vin and the boeuf bouillon with potato were all really delicious. Taking her example, I should learn to cook from now on.

September 9

After all the initial obstacles, everything seemed to be in place right now. I moved into my dorm, got my SIM card, filled in the form of CAF and got to know some nice people. Tonight I went to a film at science po. Before the film they prepared the bread, cheese, and wine. I was glad that I could have a free meal when I was running out of cash, and the conversation with students from China, Italy, Finland, Korea, and so on. We watched a film called Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, starring Juliette Binoche. This film was totally different from my imagination. The story was about the romance of two vagrant taking place on the Pont-Neuf under renovation. The feature of the movie would be the scene of the bridge and also the Seine. What I like about this film is that no matter the situation may be, love conquers all.

Sep 2- Sep 5

Sep 2
I had my first breakfast in Seminaire des Carmes, crispy baguette, chocolate and hazelnut paste, milk, orange juice. It is simple but filling. According to the student here, the menu is almost the same every day, but since I really like baguette, this will not be a problem for me. We had a review of press in the afternoon. Obviously I was not well-prepared enough so I stammered and hesitated a lot.

Sep 3
The sunshine was nice, and I had a picnic with other international students at Jardin Luxembourg. Sitting on the grass, eating and talking was really nice. Then Patrick showed us around the Quatier Latin. During my way back I had kind of intellectual conversation with Lukas, a German classmate, about moral and education. I had Kehbad as dinner with other Taiwanese friends, which may be the best meal I had so far.

Sep 4
The last class for methodology and French class during welcome program. It is a little bit sad because I may not be in the same class with them during the semester, but some of us went together to the Quatier Latin for Kehbab after the boat-trip on Seine. The late dinner made a perfect ending for the day.

Sep 5
In the morning I met my netfriend Julien, a Chinese born in France at Renne station. We visted Musee d'Orsay and then had lunch at Hippotomus, a French chain restaurant. After lunch we looked around the Pombidou center and the street perfomers. At 15h30 I arrived at the Mande park. Featuring all the natural forest and meadows, with the beautiful sunshine, it made the best picnic destination. The only disavantage is there is no toilet around, only within the shrubs.

September 1

Finally this morning I moved into my new room in 21 rue d'assas, a 9 meter square room in a Catholic dormitory. The environment is much better than I imagined, even better than my room in Taipei. It is well-equipped and bright. There is a bed with the mattress and a table beside, a wardrobe, a desk with a shelf above fixed on the wall, a window. Even though it has only 9m2, I am still very grateful and satisfied. In the dorminitory there are also refectory for our breakfast, a coin laundary, gym, copy room, bar, TV room, and also music room equipped with a piano so that I can play when I want to. Hopefully I can have wonderful ten months here.